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.

Okie Chess Festival...The Results!!

The 3rd annual Okie Chess Festival was held over the Memorial Day weekend. The 2007 OCFest featured three 8-player round robins and a 48-player Open Swiss. Players from 13 states participated. The Open was directed by Frank K. Berry. Steve Wharry directed the round robins. The cross tables are below. Movsisyan and Chua (score 5.5/8) came away with top places in the 2007 Master Invitational. Smith (score 6.5/8) and Gossell (score 5/8) occupied first and second in the 2007 Challengers "A". Finally, Bob Holliman, a.k.a. Chessmaster Bob (score 6/8) secured the number one in the 2007 Challengers "B". Each of the above won qualification spots in next year’s round robins. The Open was won by IM Ron Burnett, who stayed after participating in the U.S. Championship. The Club Club was represented by NM Ronald Luther in the Master's section. Ken Fee (score 4/7) held his own in the Open: "losing to a 2420 IM is nothing to hang your head about, Kenneth!" I am told the other club members did well and will edit this post when that information is made available.

Memorial Day Weekend Chess

Good luck to all the going to Tulsa, Oklahoma, this weekend. Please drive safely!

End Game Play

White to move. How can White win? Can Black save this position? How would you proceed? No computers please.

The Chess Club Championship

Time is getting short. The area's high school finals are underway and soon the summer recess will be in full swing. The same goes for colleges and universities. Everyone will have at least some free time this summer. Why not come to the Chess Club before boredom overtakes your life? I find a good game of chess will get the creative juices flowing and the hours will just fly by! You say: "I'm not a member". No problem! You can play for $5 a visit in off hand games or an extra charge of $5 for tournaments. It's that easy...so no need to delay! Why not begin with the 2007 Chess Club Championship? It starts June 16, 2007. We thoughtfully placed it on a Saturday for your convenience. Registration starts at 9 a.m. and will close at 10 a.m. Cost will be $35 dollars on site, but if you pre-register by June 12th there is a $10 savings. The championship will consist of 4 rounds at G60 sudden death. The round times are 10/12/2:30/4:30. Here at the Chess Club we have a 30 move draw rule. You ask: "What does that mean?". It means that each player has to play 30 legal moves before a draw offer can be made and accepted. Of course you can always try to draw by force on any move, but I would be sure it is really there before embarking on such adventures! The tournament will be played in two sections: Open and U1600. There will be a ca$h prize for the top finisher (Champion) in the Open and U1600. Plaques will be given to the top finisher (Champion) in the Open, U1900, U1600, and U1300. Those are very nice and on display at the club. Byes are available for any round, but you must ask and declare which round upon registration. A valid USCF membership is required for all players. Missouri residence will need a Missouri Chess Association membership. Both of these can be purchased at the club.

So dust off those old chess books and fire up that new chess program. Prepare now! I know I will be!! See you at the club.

Chess Club for Kids...Coming June 2nd!

Starting on June 2, 2007, The Chess Club will be kicking off The Chess Club for Kids. Only KIDS, Parents, and Coaches may attend! This will be every Saturday 1PM -5PM (Except second Saturday of Month). The fun activities include: Group Chess Lessons from 1-2PM by Ken Fee, One USCF Rated Chess Game G30 each week, Bughouse, Blitz tournaments, and Simultaneous Exhibitions!! Medals and Chess Book Prizes!!!!

Cost: $7 ($3 Club Members) Scholastic Membership is $60 a year!

Location: The Chess Club 2314 NW Vivion Rd. (North Kansas City) Riverside,MO 64150.

Lesson Topics: Openings, Tactics, Strategy, Endgame, Chess Psychology, and Tournament Preparation.

About the Instructor: Ken Fee teaches high school English at Oak Park High School in North Kansas City, and is the president of the Kansas City Scholastic ChessAssociation (www.kcchess.org) . He started playing chess when he was five and played scholastic chess for both his Junior High and High School in Birch Run, Michigan. Ken teaches chess and has worked with school teams since 1997. He is the coach of the Oak Park High School Chess Team which won the 2001Missouri Team State Championship. Among his coaching chess accomplishments are ten individual state champions and one individual National Champion, Caleb Brown. Ken is married to Yvonne Fee and has two young daughters, Mallory (3) and Kendra (1). For Information about individual lessons e-mail Ken Fee at: http://chessclub@powerpawn.net or call The Chess Club: (816)-587-1912 or call Ken at: (816)-835-7529.

Hello...how may I be of service?

Hi, my name is Todd. Some of you will undoubtedly recognize me from seeing me at the club. Maybe we have played a game or two together? Today I became the Chess Club Blog Administrator. Yeah, a fancy title for thinking up chess related stuff to write about and typing into the blog editor. A little about me. I am a 45 year old military retiree with over 26 years in the U.S. Navy. I learned to play chess when I became a member of my high school chess club. My favorite chess players are Mikhail Tal and Judit Polgar. I currently I live in Leavenworth, KS. To learn even more about me visit: The Retired Pawn

2007 Kansas City Masters Report

Loal Davis Wins

The 2007 Kansas City Masters

From left to right: Ron Luther; Thomas Gossell; Loal Davis; Tim Steiner; Ken Jones; Bill Orton.

Games Online

The 2007 Kansas City Masters was held on the cold and icy weekend of January 12^th-14^th

in Kansas City. On Friday night, the first round was held at 7PM. The icy roads were very dangerous, and players were concerned about traveling. As a consequence, Daniel Goffstein withdrew. Loal Davis, who was traveling from St. Louis, called me a few hours before the tournament and mentioned that he was an hour away from KC, and that numerous cars and trucks were in the ditch as he traveled thirty miles an hour on I-70.

Luckily, the chess gods must have been watching over the Kansas City Masters. Loal arrived safely and Master William Orton from Arkansas drove on slippery roads looking to play some chess. Bill replaced Daniel and the 2007 event began.

The 2007 KC Masters was FIDE rated and players were required to play thirty moves before offering a draw. The following games are lightly annotated for publication, and I welcome full annotations from the participants.

Round One on Friday Night – All three games were decisive battles.

Loal Davis

Round Two - Saturday Morning - More blood was spilt as Black won all three games!

Round Three - Saturday Night - Three hard fought draws.

Round Four -Sunday Morning - Three More Wins!

Round Five - Loal wins the KC Masters!

The 2007 version of the KC Masters was a success with eleven wins and only four draws!

I would like to thank TD Wayne Bartlett for helping me direct and the players for braving their way through the harsh driving conditions. See you next year!

Loal receiving the First Place Plaque and $300.00 from TD Ken Fee

The Final Standings

2007 KC Masters - FIDE Rated!

	NAME	Rating	FIDE	State	1	2	3	4	5	6	Score
1	Kenneth Jones	2304	2232	MO	X	0	½	0	1	0	1.5
2	Ron Luther	2243	2173	MO	1	X	0	0	1	½	2.5
3	Loal Davis	2200	2190	MO	½	1	X	1	1	½	4.0
4	Thomas Gossell	2190	2246	MO	1	1	0	X	½	1	3.5
5	William Orton	2201	2158	AR	0	0	0	½	X	1	1.5
6	Tim Steiner	2006	2188	KS	1	½	½	0	0	X	2.0

The Travels of Conrado

Conrado at the Mechanics Instiute Chess Club in San Francisco August 2006

Conrado Salazar has been a Chess Club member for the last five years.

Once a year, he travels to Mexico City, Mexico for five or six months. Conrado also went to California for his daughter's wedding and drove to the San Francisco's Mechanics Institute Chess Club. While traveling, Conrado visits chess clubs and sends pictures to me.

Front Entrance

Inside the club

Inside the club

Outside the club Visit the club website at www.chessclub.org

Here are some pictures from the Mexico City Chess Club.

Rafael Baltazar, IM, México - Rafael on the ICC - We play him on Friday night at the club between rounds on the Internet.

Tournament in Mexico City

I would like to thank Conrado for the pictures!

Ken Fee

New MCA President

I was voted in as the new Missouri Chess Association President on Sunday in Columbia at the MCA Board of Directors meeting.

General News:

1. Charlie Ward has resigned from Region Two.
2. The Missouri Chess Bulletin is online and free for everyone.
3. I may be running the Missouri Class in Columbia in June.
4. The MCA website is going to be updated soon with the help of Tony Rich and the MCA website committee.

Ken F

2006 Missouri Open

After spending 34 hours as a TD for the Missouri Chess Festival, I am finally recovering. We had a record 162 players attend the festival.

Ron Luther won the 2006 Missouri State Championship, and I am proud to say The Chess Club is home to the last two state champions: Ron Luther and Bob Holliman.

Ron offered an early draw in his last round because he was winning on the second tie-break, wins with Black, over IM Michael Brooks. Ron won the $500 first prize and a plaque.

	NAME	Rating	State	1	2	3	4	5	6	Score
1	Michael Brooks	2447	MO		½	½	1	1	1	4.0
2	Kenneth Jones	2320	MO	½		0	½	½	1	2.5
3	Ron Luther	2215	MO	½	1		1	1	½	4.0
4	Bob Holliman	2151	MO	0	½	0		1	1	2.5
5	Tony Dutiel	1807	MO	0	½	0	0		0	0.5
6	Nick Karlow	1756	MO	0	0	½	0	1		1.5

Here is the win which sealed the state championship for Luther.

Jones,Kenneth (2320) - Luther,Ron (2230) [B01] 2006 Missouri Invitational (4^th Round), 9-17,2006

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.dxe6 Bxe6 5.Nf3 Qe7 6.Qe2 Nc6 7.d4 Bg4 8.Be3 0-0-0 9.d5 Qb4+ 10.Nc3 Na5 11.0-0-0 Bh5 12.h3 Re8 13.g4 Bg6 14.Nh4 Ne4 15.Nxe4 Bxe4 16.f3 Bg6 17.Nxg6 hxg6 18.Qd3 Nxc4 19.Bd4 Ne5 20.Qb5 Jones offered Luther a draw. 20...Bd6 21.Qxb4 Bxb4 22.Bb5 Re7 23.f4 Nd7 24.Bxg7 Rh7 25.Bxd7+ Kxd7 26.Be5 Re8 27.Rd3 Bd6 28.Bxd6 Kxd6 29.Kd2 Re4 30.Rf1

Luther fights for a win being a pawn down!

30...Ra4 31.a3 Ra5 32.f5 g5 33.f6 Rxd5 34.Rxd5+ Kxd5 35.Rf5+ Ke6 36.Rxg5 Rxh3 37.Rc5 c6 38.Ra5 a6 39.Ra4 Kxf6 40.Rb4 b5 41.a4 Ke5 42.axb5 axb5 43.Ke2 f6 44.Kf2 Rd3 0-1

Ron receiveing the wrong plaque but the right check from me!

Okie Chess Festival

The 2006 Okie Master Invitational

After three days of chess in Tulsa at the Okie Chess Festival, I am home and ready for another week of chess at The Chess Club.

Luther playing e4 against Movsisyan in round five.

Ron Luther was finally allowed to play in the Invitational Section if he promised to annotate two games for the Oklahoma Chess Foundation's bulletin. After only scoring 1.5 in 2005, Ron had a much better tournament, scoring 3.5 with keys wins over Thomas Gossell, Movses Movsisyan, and Trevor Jackson. Here is one of Ron's impressive wins.

Luther,Ron (2150) - Movsisyan,Movses (2287) [C18]
2006 Okie Masters Tulsa, OK (5), 03.09.2006

1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Nc6 7.a4 Qa5 8.Bd2 Nge7 9.f4 Bd7 10.Nf3 f6 11.Be2 c4 12.0-0 0-0-0 13.Qc1 Be8 14.Qb2 Bg6 15.Rfb1 Qc7 16.a5 Be4 17.Bc1 h6 18.Nd2 f5 19.Ra4 Kd7 20.Nxe4 fxe4 21.Bg4 Rb8 22.Qa2 b5 23.axb6 Rxb6 24.Ra1 a5 25.Ba3 Rb5 26.Rf1 g6 27.Bd6 Qb6 28.h3 Nf5 29.Bxf5 gxf5 30.Qa3 Rb1 31.Rxb1 Qxb1+ 32.Kh2 Qb5 33.Be7 Rc8 34.Qd6+ Ke8 35.Bh4 Ra8 36.Qxe6+ Kf8 37.Qxf5+ Kg8 38.Qg6+ Kf8 39.Qxh6+ Kg8 40.e6 Qb7 41.Qg5+ Qg7 42.Qxd5 Rc8

Bob Holliman also know as chessmasterbob.com did well finishing tied for 1st in the challenger section with 4.5 points.

I finished in 8th place with 4.5 points. The tournament was uneventful except for one issue. In round six, I had 4 points and was paired down with a player who had 3 points even though there were 6-7 players with 4 points and a few even with 3.5.

Tim Steiner had told me the night before that the tournament director, Alex Relyea was in an argument with the Berry's who finance the event. Evidently, the Berry brothers wanted the pairings to be fixed in order to create FIDE norms while Alex did not.

Consequently, I was not happy with my pairings and thought it was unfair to fix the pairings late in the tournament. I wanted a chance to play against one of the tournament leaders and was denied that opportunity.

Anyway, who has the gold makes the rules! And the Berry brothers are doing some wonderful work for Oklahoma chess!

I would like to thank the Berry brothers, Alex and his wife, and Tom Braunlich for running a great event. The playing area was well lit, and the prize fund was beyond expectation for a tournament of this size.

Maybe we can take a van to next year's event and bring more players from the club.

Ken Fee