Birthday Bash Open...Friday Night

Happy Birthday to The Chess Club...PARTY!!! Celebrating our 5th year. Come join us and share free pizza, cake, and drinks. The party begins at 6 PM and will continue until 7 PM. After the party we will be conducting our Birthday Bash Open. Remember...everyone is invited and there is no requirement to play in the Open. So come on and have a good time. The Open Prizes Fund of $225 is 100% Guaranteed. $75 1st Open U2000 1st$75 U1600 1st $75 Accelerated pairings will be used. The format is a 3 Round Swiss, Game/45 Affects both Quick and Regular rating. The first round starts just after 7 PM. No Byes Available. Entry Fees is $25 by June 27th or $30 on site. USCF and State Affiliate membership required (MCA dues $5). Other state memberships accepted. We hope to see you there!

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Blitz Grand Prix Thursday Nights

Just a reminder to all and sundry that Thursday night is Blitz Grand Prix night. This is a summer long Grand Prix and will last for a total of 13 weeks. It is USCF Quick rated G5. Cash prizes will be awarded to the 1st and 2nd place finishers. At present Tony Dutiel is leading on points, but there is eleven more weeks and anyone could win it! Last week was a real showdown with four players battling it out over 12 rounds. That is a good chess value! Blitz is an excellent place to try out a new line in your pet opening or gain experience in a new one. It also provides a way to increase your tactical vision while obtaining enough rated games to collect a "real" rating. So come out and join the fun.

Frank Smith Wins Club Championship

The sixth annual Chess Club Championship was held yesterday in the club's new tournament room. This room sports a new white paint job, ample lighting, and a wall to wall carpet. By all accounts, the participants liked the quiet, well lit, and clean playing area. Just one of the many features I liked about this new tournament room is that the toilet is close at hand. No more mad scrambles in time trouble, thankfully. The Chess Club events are always well organized and the 2007 Club Championship went smoothly. Attendance was good with 18 chess warriors, but down from last year total of 22 players.

In the Open section it was a chess battle royal. The action produce decisive wins in all games, with the exception of a third round game between Tony Dutiel and Tim Steiner that ended in a draw. This was fighting chess at it best and where most of the games went to the player commanding the ebony army. Frank Smith and Bob Spies shared 1st after round 2. When the smoke cleared after round 3 Smith was the sole leader. Frank went on to be crowned Open Champion with a score of 4/4. Well done! I am sure we will be hearing more of Frank in the future. Tony Dutiel became the club's Under 1900 Champion with a score of 2.5/4. Let's hear it for Tony...applause.

In the Reserve section it was a fighting finish between Joseph Conklin Jr. and Frank Whitsell. Both of these fine chess players had a score of 3/3 and the winner would have to be determined by series of tie breaking Blitz games. When the dust settled it was Frank Whitsell that claimed the title for the club's Under 1600 Champion. Todd Forbes grabbed the Under 1300 Champion plaque with a score of 2.5/4. Great games fellas!

All the tournament participants helped make this Championship a success. Thank you all for coming and we hope to see you at the club's Birthday Bash on June 29th.

Front row: Frank Smith Back row from left to right: Tony Dutiel, Frank Whitsell, Todd Forbes

Club Championship...Today!

The Chess Club's Championship is Today. Good Luck to all.

Play the Beaver

Take the challenge...the Rozerem chess challenge. You have to face the mighty chess playing spokes-beaver. He taunts you and insults you, just as he does with "Honest Abe". I find that if you deliver a nice tactical shot he claims: "I didn't see that coming". He plays like a patzer! Go one...take the challenge. Enjoy!!!

The 2007 Chess Club Championship Reminder

Our club championship will be held this coming Saturday, June 16th. Registration starts at 9 AM and will finish at 10AM. The on-site entry fee is $35. One ½ point bye available for any round. You must ask when registering. No byes once the tournament begins. This is a four round tournament at Game 60/Sudden Death. The 1st round begins at 10 AM with rounds to follow at: 12 noon/2:30PM/4:30PM. We have two sections: Open and U1600. Prizes: Open 1st $100 U1600 1st $100 Plaque for each Club Champion! Open/U1900/U1600/U1300. 30 Move Draw Rule. Club Champion Tiebreaks: The first tiebreak is based on wins. For example, if players A and B both have 4 points, the player with the most wins will be the club champion. The second tiebreak is wins with Black. The third tiebreak for players who are tied after four rounds will be 5 0 blitz games until one player wins two games and the club championship. Draws do not count. The player, who is ahead in tiebreak, will play the first game with white. Players will rotate colors each game. If three players or more are tied, a four-round Swiss game 5 0 blitz tournament will result and the winner will be the club champion. USCF and MCA memberships are required and available onsite. However, you don't have to be a Chess Club member to play in our championship...open to the public. Come one and all! We hope to see you at the championship!!!

Cheating at Chess...are you guilty?

I want to make one thing very clear straight away. My views are my own. Nobody has ordered me to write about cheating nor is it in response to any one event. I write this to make the chess player think about this topic and generate discussion. So we shall begin.

Cheating at chess is as old as the game itself. There are many ways to cheat. The most subtle of these comes in the from of intimidation. This may come by way of outside forces. I shall call it the "God Father" tactic, where well muscled men in suits have a friendly chat with the future losing player. Better to lose the game than get the pawns kicked out of you! It could even come from within the a club's atmosphere. The point can be made by making a new member feel unwelcome just because he beat a long time member and now feels he must lose games to be in good graces. That is shameful and it is cheating.

Another subtle method is claiming adjustment of the chessmen. We are all familiar with the touch rule. If you touch...you must move...if it has a legal move. So say you're in an important game and it is for all the marbles. After thinking carefully for 10 minutes or so, you finally reach out and put your fingers around that Knight. However, at that precise moment you see that move will hang your Queen. What to do? You smoothly say "I adjust". It seems almost seamless, but it is cheating. While I am on this motif; let us discuss quiting a piece and noticing it is a blunder at the same time...a la Garry Kasparov in his game against Judit Polgar. In that game, he blundered but quickly retracted the move by claiming that he had not let go of the piece. Cheating.

Still we find cheating in other forms. Many creative ways of distracting your opponent have been devised and practiced. One could constantly tap a captured pawn lightly on the table. We all know players who will clear his throat excessively, particularly when it is our turn to move. Some hum softly or sip a beverage loudly. Perhaps a player may dress to distract his or her opponent. Whatever works, right? Still a form of cheating.

How about collusion? If two or more players get together and prearrange an outcome of a game or games, it is collusion. We have all seen where the top players in a tournament will have to play each other and the games always seem to end in a draw. I ask you: "Why?" My own opinion is that they both know that a draw is the best way to keep in the money. I suspect that these players instinctively know what is required and just do it. They might think if they don't actively talk about it before the game then there is no foul. Okay, I will give you that...draws happen and they are part of the game. Then let me ask this: "Why then do these players only play 11 moves or so before accepting the draw offer?" This is collusion and it is the most difficult form of cheating to prove.

I think everyone knows that getting outside help during the game is cheating. It could be as easy as getting coffee and somebody talking to you about your position. How about a trip to the bathroom and opening a pocket chess set? Yes, that is cheating too! So is that new pocket fritz or the chess playing cell phone. Any tool other than our own head is cheating! You can not make notes...even on the toilet paper. Maybe a friend of yours has rigged up a way for you to receive messages through your legitimate hearing aid. Cool, but still cheating. No outside help of any kind...period.

Who is harmed by cheating? The short answer is chess as a whole. The game is supposed to be the royal game and the opponents honest. Anything less harms the image and reputation of the game. I say every chess player suffers from the above practices. If this is allowed to exist...we will have less sponsorship for tournaments. Also, the average players will quit the game because they will believe that it is fixed in favor of the higher rated players. The higher rated players that lose to lesser opponents will scream that there must have been outside assistance...and they will back it up with recent media coverage of a suspected cheating scandal involving a radio receiver built into a hat. In my humble opinion, all of this is bad and should stop for the sake of our game. The sooner...the better!

A Knight to Remember

Last night's Summer Blitz Grand Prix was F.U.N. Fun is the only word to describe these wild 5 minute games. No chess masterpieces to be found in the 24 games played...no sir! Even if there was one with a brilliancy nobody remembers it. Nope, just the fun they had playing chess. To be honest, I got kind of roped into it last night. I had only stopped by the club to return an item to Ken and have a look at the games and have a bite to eat at the Italian restaurant near the club. Rodney Crites was going that way and offered to take me over to introduce me to the lovely ladies who work there, but wanted to know if I would join the blitz grand prix. Why not? So I handed over my money to Ken ($5 for the grand prix and $25 for the club championship) and off with Rodney to the land of spaghetti and meatballs, which turned out to be good and filling. Upon my return to the club the games started. Wow! I never realised how difficult it is to fight the clock and your opponent during a blitz game. This was my first time playing this way. I can see why the younger crowd enjoys it. Like I said, it is fun! The results? Tony Dutiel (score 5/6) finished on top, Ken Fee (score 4/6) second, Todd Forbes (score 2/6) third, and Rodney Crites (score 1/6) brought up the rear of the field. The positon below was from my game with Tony. What started out as good for white (Forbes) soon turn to excellent for black (Tony).

White to play. What are the best candidate moves? Why? Which one would you play and why?

Summer Blitz Grand Prix...Tonight

The Chess Club's summer program has begun. On tonight's agenda is Blitz G5 and will be the start of the summer Blitz Grand Prix. This event will be played every Thursday in June, July, and August...a total of 13 weeks. Every Thursday in June, July, and August (13 Thursdays). Registration starts at 6:30PM and the rounds start at 7 PM. The rounds will be double round robin...so the player's will play each opponent twice. Entry Fee will be $5.00 for club members. $10.00 for everyone else. Grand Prix Prizes: 1st $100 2nd $50 USCF membership required and USCF Quick Chess Ratings will be used! As always, Chess Equipment, Books, and Videos for sale on site! Go to www.powerpawn.net for all your chess needs!

Chess Club for Kids and Cash Quad Successful

I don't know where to begin? I started last Saturday just like every other before it. I fired up my notebook and did my log-in thing on playchess. Wow, Judit polgar was playing against Evgeny Bareev and this was their last game of the FIDE Candidates Match. If Judit wins we get to see some blitz games. Anything less she goes home. She draw and I was off to see how the summer program at The Chess Club was coming along.

When I arrived I was greeted by Ken Fee. He was excited about some recent improvements he had made to the club's playing areas and he explained that he had some really nice changes in the works. He had moved the main tournament playing area from the upstairs level and placed it into a large downstairs room. This room can hold 24 players, plus there are two more rooms that can be used for overflow. He has painted this room white and it will have wall to wall carpeting. Nice. Of course, he will decorate the walls in the usual way...lots of chess posters! I for one like that. Some of his plans include the Grandmaster room. This will be for the top boards in tournaments and will be appointed accordingly. Nice chessmen, wood board, upgraded chairs, etc. I think it is a great idea.

The Summer Cash Quad was underway too. Ken explained that he had only six people that showed. However, he was cheerful and stated that flexibility was an asset. So he ran a swiss instead and increased the cash prizes for 1st and 2nd. I don't know about you, but it seems tempting to enter and line my pockets with some extra cash. This would be particularly true if enough people enter for a quad. Please come and join the fun. The prize winners were Frank H. Smith (score 3/3) $60 and Dan Holmes (score 1.5/3) $30. Ashley Fulkerson (score 1.5/3) finished 3rd, Matthew Conway (score 1/3) finished 4th, Alan Neal (score 1/3) finished 5th, David Parker (score 1/3) finished 6th, and Rodney Crites (score 0/3) finished last. I am waiting on the games, as I am told that Frank Smith had a nice win.

The Chess Club for Kids program kicked off with a bang. I don't know if this great of a turn out was expected, but there was a full house. All the kids arrived eager to learn more about chess. They sat quietly during the instruction phase and they were attentive. The lecture was expertly given and the kids asked and answered many questions. This finished with an USCF rated game. These students of the game concentrated very hard and gave it their all. I believe everyone was a winner in some way. Finally, the excitement grew. It was announced that Bug House would be played for the last 30 minutes. Wow! The kids enjoyed that most of all. I heard many giggles and much laughter. I spied Ken Fee taking part and he seemed more of kid than the kids. One of the coaches, Tim Stiener, joined in the fun and this was agreeable to the kids because they could challenge the coach. Finally, a parent joined in and I must say that everyone present enjoyed their day at The Chess Club.

Summer Cash Quad One...This Saturday

It is that time of year...summer time. That means the Chess Club will start it's summer program and it begins this Saturday, June 2nd, 2007, with the Summer Cash Quad One. It is open to all USCF players and you DO NOT have to be a Chess Club member to participate. There is a $35 entry fee. Registration commences at 10:30 AM and the first of the 3 rounds of Game 90 Sudden Death starts at 11:00AM. The other rounds begin at 2PM and 5 PM. The quads will be selected by rating (4 players of similar strength). The prizes: 1st $50 2nd $25 for each quad! Yes, you can earn your cheese back! As always, 30 move draw rule is in effect and there will be no byes! USCF and MCA memberships are required and available on-site!!! See you there.