Vassar-Chadwick Chess Club

Ten players participated in our holiday Round Robin tournament, a good turnout and a night filled with inexpensive chess action (with 9 rounds, that’s a little over 50 cents a game per person!). This was a ‘real’ blitz, no increment or delay, which led to more than one loss on time. Forfeit on illegal move (a variation listed in the USCF rulebook) was announced ahead of time and that also led to some unfortunate results. But that is life on the edge – blitz is to regular chess as a Bugatti Veyron is to a school bus. They serve completely different functions, and just because you can drive one doesn’t mean you can handle the other.

But enough of bad analogies, who won? Glad you asked! Finishing in sole first place, and soon to be proud recipient of a chess medal, is Matthew Brown, with 8 points out of 9. In second place, also alone, but without any medal to show for it, is Leonid Freyvert (7). Dr. Craig Fisher and Scott Strattner shared 3rd place (6), and Brandon Wang took claim of fifth place (5.5). The full results can be found on the USCF site.

I would like to give kudos to the USCF staff. I had an issue submitting the tournament online, due to the membership status of a participant (which I could also not renew online). After some emails and a call, it was all straightened out.

Before the 3rd round of the Dutchess County Championship (standings to be posted tonight, stay tuned!), we held our annual club meeting. Some of the topics discussed:

Having a night dedicated to analysis. Instead of playing a game, we go over one or more games played by club members, where we can get deep into the position, look for missed opportunities, and have a cooperative environment where we can all hopefully improve our understanding of chess. To do this, without impacting our normal tournament schedule, requires us obtaining a room at Vassar on another night, possibly a weekend. We will announce this if/when this occurs.

Obtaining some inexpensive digital clocks. Not everyone who comes to the club brings a clock. While we have extra sets (although we could update those as well), we do not have any spare clocks. And with some form of delay being ubiquitous, an analog clock is no longer ideal. We will be working with the treasurer to find the best deal. This does not mean you should come to a tournament assuming a clock will be provided!

Changing delay to 10 seconds. This is being done by a major organizer (Continental Chess), and we should take a look at running some our tournaments with the increased delay time. We will need to look at what to set the main time for, to avoid situations where games bleed into other rounds (or too late at night).

Bringing in another GM/IM for analysis/simul. The IM Bonin simul was a big hit, and we will look at bringing in more titled players from NYC (or elsewhere) to our region. The biggest concern is funding the appearance; our club runs very low cost tournaments and does not take in membership fees. It’s a lean, frugal ship. But we will look at our options in this area, given the interest level.

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In addition, we went through the election of the club officers. By unanimous decision (primarily due to no one else wanting to run), all positions will remain with their current holders.

The annual club meeting will now take place prior to the start of the 3rd round (March 10th). Arrive by 7pm to hear about the state of the club as well as participate in the election of officers, and to voice your opinions on what direction the club should take.

The USCF has posted the crosstable for the US Amateur Team East; I’ve done the hard work for you and picked out those who are Vassar-Chadwick members. As a reminder, there were two teams this year:

Vassar-Chadwick A

Robert Sulman

Ernie Johnson

Peter Barkman

David Antonucci

Dr. Michael Raphael (alternate)

Vassar-Chadwick BBBBB

Ken Evans

Dr. Craig Fisher

Darius Jafary

Dan Rosa

Sulman had an incredible result on board 1 for team A, with 5 points (two draws, no losses).

But USATE is a team event, how did the teams do? You can find all those details on the NJ Chess Federation site, but for our teams they had a good showing, 3.5 points each.

Let’s ignore that they spelled one of the team’s names wrong. Next year, we are coming up with better names!

A total of 20 players participated in the Year of the Horse Swiss. Although a short affair with only three rounds, there was plenty of action. The leader after 2 rounds, Colin, was unfortunately not able to play in the last round, and so the top board featured Chris Brooks and Ernie Johnson.

Ernie triumphed, and in doing so captured sole first place (2.5 points). Robert Simmons (2/3) took 2nd on tiebreaks.

I have the Johnson – Brooks game, and will post it along with some others shortly. If you have any other games from this tournament you’d like to share, please send them to me.

Special congrats to Colin for making 1900, I’d like to welcome newcomer Adrien Cadwallader, who beat a class C player in his very first USCF game!

See the USCF for the full crosstable.