Vassar-Chadwick Chess Club

In lighter news, political polling website FiveThirtyEight has presented a chess puzzle: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/can-you-solve-the-chess-mystery/

Thanks to Mark Courtney for alerting me to this puzzle.

You need to provide a legal game score whereby the white knight has moved exactly 8 times to reach the diagrammed position.

I could find many ways for the knight to make an odd number of moves (7, 9, etc), but so far the solution is eluding me. If you think you have one, submit it and you may get recognized.

With everyone (except essential workers) asked to self-quarantine and stay at home as much as possible, our weekly club meeting has been suspended. But one of the benefits of chess (compared to other social activities) is the ability to enjoy the game online. From playing, tactics training, learning openings and viewing the games of the masters, there is a whole world of chess to experience from the comfort of your home.

Our resident NM, Matan Prilleltensky, has graciously offered to provide club members with their own virtual chess class. He recently competed in an IM norm tournament at the Marshall club and would like to go over these games – this promises to have high instructional value, to get into the thought process of a Master level player.

The plan is to offer this virtual class on Monday April 6th at 7pm (same time that our club would meet). He will use Zoom, a web-based video meeting tool that has free access to join (so it will not cost anything for you). Because he would like to have a manageable audience (at least for this first class), it will be limited to current Vassar-Chadwick members. If you are interested, please send a message to the club page on Facebook, providing your email address. When the time approaches, Matan will send the Zoom meeting link to your email. Then all you need to do is make some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy a Master class – and don’t be afraid to ask questions!

If this is successful and well-received, we might have more of these sessions in the future. So if you can make it, I think it would be well worth your time.

UPDATE! I got my hands on the Courtney – Johnson game, see below…

Remember long ago when we felt safe to leave our homes? Let’s take a journey back to that time, oh about 5 days ago, when the 3 round (G/75) Swiss acting as the warm-up to the now suspended Dutchess County Championship, was just wrapping up.

The top board in that final round featured two Experts, the current DCC Champ Mark Courtney, and the perennial DCC Champion Ernie Johnson. I would pay good money to get the score-sheet for that game (hint, hint), but all I know is the end result…

Here is the game in PGN format:

[Event "DCC Warm Up"]
 [Site "Poughkeepsie NY"]
 [Date "03.09.2020"]
 [Round "3"]
 [White "Courtney,Mark"]
 [Black "Johnson,Ernie "]
 [Result "0-1"]
 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6
 5. Nf3 Bf5 6. Bc4 c6 7. Qe2 e6 8. Bd2 Bb4
 9. O-O-O O-O 10. Bb3 Nbd7 11. h3 Nd5 12. Nxd5 cxd5
 13. Nh4 Bxd2+ 14. Rxd2 Bg6 15. Nxg6 hxg6 16. h4 Qd8
 17. c3 Re8 18. f4 f5 19. h5 g5 20. g4 Nf6
 21. gxf5 exf5 22. Qd3 Ne4 23. Rg2 g4 24. Kb1 Kh7
 25. Qb5 Qd6 26. Qxb7 Rab8 27. Qxd5 Qxd5 28. Bxd5 Nxc3+
 29. Ka1 Nxd5 30. Rc2 Re4 31. Rc6 Rbe8 32. a3 Re1+
 33. Rxe1 Rxe1+ 

The final moves are missing, but at that point Black has a large advantage. Interesting game. I encourage you to copy/paste the PGN into an online tool, such as lichess and turn on Stockfish to analyze it as you work through the moves.

Ernie captured first place, with 3 wins and a perfect score. Congrats, and hopefully the club will be able to resume tournaments (including DCC) before too long.

Click HERE for the full crosstable results.

V-C Grand Prix	Wins	Draws	Losses	TOTAL
Courtney, Mark	19	2	4	65
Johnson, Ernie	13	2	10	53
Jafary, Darius	6	4	8	34
Reap, James	5	1	15	32
Fisher, Craig	6	1	7	27
Marvullo, Thomas	5	2	6	25
Evans, Ken	6	2	2	24
Simmons, Robert A	6	0	5	23
Mendez, Mike	4	3	3	21
Barkman, Peter	6	0	2	20
Brooks, Trevor	5	1	1	18
Prilleltensky, Matt	5	1	0	17
Haoula, Ayman	3	0	3	12
Topaloglu, Rasit	1	1	5	10
Ray, Barbara	2	0	4	10
Oracz, J.J.	2	1	1	9
Guse, Mike	0	1	6	8
Colleluori, Keith	1	1	3	8
Wright, David	0	1	5	7
Eschel, Adam	1	0	4	7
VanDommele	2	0	0	6
Landsman, Tyler	1	0	3	6
O’Connor, Mike	0	1	4	6
Stenger, Harold	1	0	2	5
Hussey, Ed	0	0	3	3

Why is Valentine’s Day the most important holiday for a chess player? Because it means it is USATE time again!

This year our club fielded two teams (members listed in board order):

Vassar-Chadwick AAAA, consisting of Robert Sulman, Mark Courtney, Al Lawrence, and Dr. Craig Fisher

Vassar-Chadwick Earth Wind and Skewer (this wins the unofficial best Vassar-Chadwick themed name), consisting of Ernie Johnson, Peter Barkman, Bob Simmons, and Darius Jafary

Team AAAA had an average rating of 2023 and finished with 3 points, while EWaS had an average rating of 1838 and finished with 4 points. It appears AAAA did not play the last round; anyone who has played in USATE well understands the pull of home after 5 long and stressful rounds packed into 3 long days.

At the individual level, team AAAA: Sulman and Fisher ended with 3.5 points, Courtney had 3 and Lawrence ended with 2.5.

Team EWaS: Johnson, Barkman and Jafary all had 3 points, while the star of the team, Simmons, ended with 5 points! If only the Vikings were as good as their biggest fan…

Final Wall Chart HERE

USCF Rating Crosstable HERE

Those who were there, please share your games. So far I have one game from Ernie, but what a game it is – a last round draw against IM Eugene Meyer!

[Event “USATE 2020”]
[Date “2020.2.17”]
[Round “6”]
[White “Johnson, Ernest”]
[Black “Meyer, Eugene”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.g3 O-O 5.Bg2 d6 6.e4 Nbd7 7.Nge2 a6 8.O-O Rb8 9.a4 c6 10.b4 a5 11.b5 c5 12.dxc5 Nxc5 13.Be3 Nfd7 14.Qc2 Ne5 15.Rad1 Qe8 16.Nd5 f5 17.f4 Ng4 18.Bxc5 dxc5 19.h3 Nf6 20.Nc7 Qf7 21.e5 Ne4 22.Kh2