Wednesday, December 24, 2008

#423 Checkmate Ch. Starts January 18th

The 2009 Checkmate CC Championship will start on January 18th. There will be no games on February 15th to accommodate those participating in the USATE.

5th Checkmate Chess Club Championship
  • starts Sunday, January 18th, 2009
  • non-rated
  • 5-SS
  • Rounds : January 18th & 25th, February 1st, 8th & 22nd... all starting at 9:00 p.m.
  • Time Control : G/45+0 or G40 + 4 second delay. Black gets to choose.
  • A player may request a half-point bye for any round but the request must reach the TD 4 hours before the round.
  • No entry fee or prizes
  • To register, send an e-mail to Tournament Director Bob Sherry by January 17th.
More details here.

12/27 - Time control option changed from 40+4 to 40+5.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

#422 Garden State League Founded! Season Starts March 3rd.

The Garden State Chess League will begin play on March 3rd, 2009 with at least 4 teams: West Orange, Kenilworth, Hamilton and Summit. The latter’s player-pool will include members of Springfield’s Checkmate CC.

Other possible clubs include Staten Island & Westfield. Both had representatives present at Thursday’s founding meeting but scheduling again kept Dumont & Newark Sleepless Knights away. Hopefully they are still interested.
Roselle is now unlikely to join. Union County College is a dark-horse.

The entry deadline for clubs/teams is
9 p.m., Friday, February 20th, 2009.
The $10 per team entry fee must be received by Saturday, February 28th, 2009.

Rules changes and additions since the preliminary, December 4th meeting :
  • The time control will be G/80 (rather than G/90).
  • There will be 4 boards per team.
  • The maximum 4-board average will be 1900.0
  • If an unrated player is used, the average of the other players on his/her team must be 1900.0 or less.
  • The 2008 USCF Annual Rating List will determine player ratings for the Winter-Spring 2009 season.
  • Matches will take place at the West Orange CC on the 1st Tuesday of each month & start at 8 p.m. The paired teams have the option of playing elsewhere (within the given-month, if I remember correctly).

For example, if Kenilworth was scheduled to be the road team vs. Summit in the 1st round, they could play at Summit on 3/9 or 3/16, instead of having both teams travel.

Elected officers on Thursday :
  • President - John Hagerty
  • Vice President - John Moldovan

(John H. will be the acting treasurer & John M. will be the acting secretary.)

The next GSCL meeting will be at the USATE tournament in mid-February. Fliers about the league will be distributed there.



P.S. - Pete Tamburro and Steve Doyle’s chess column in tomorrow’s Newark Star-Ledger will mention the new league. Pick up a copy!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

#419 Kenilworth Ch. Starts January 15th

19th 18th Kenilworth Chess Club Championship
  • starts January 15th, 2009
  • non-rated
  • G/90 time control
  • EF: $10 entry fee + $15 dues (KCC membership required) = $25. An anti-forfeit deposit may also be required.
  • format yet to be determined by the TD
  • Rounds will commence at 8:30 p.m. every Thursday night for the duration of the event.
  • To register, seek a club officer (Geoff McAuliffe, John Moldovan, Joe Renna or new KCC Vice-President Ian Mangion) during our 12/18/2008 & 1/8/2009 meetings @ Kenilworth Community Center, 575 Boulevard, Kenilworth, N.J.
Further details will be posted when they become available.

Update 12/27 - A $5.00 anti-forfeiture deposit will be required. That makes the overall EF $30, not $25.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

#417 Games Archive For 2008

I have uploaded my PGN Archive for 2008, which features 291 games but not the STC files from posts #s 372 & 416.

Also available for download is my ChessBase archive for 2006-2008*. 42 of its 609 games have color-graphics & 4 more have multimedia commentary.

* A replacement file with a correction to game 598 was uploaded at 10:45 p.m. on 12/13. If you don't want to re-download, delete the multimedia commentary to White 10th move & insert the comparison after Black's 8th. Sorry for the error.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

#416 Gauntlet Scandal & Zip

Two of the 4 semi-finalists from the 2008 STC Gauntlet's FICS 'A' section (Loucke & whitecharger) were forfeited from the tourney & had their scores set to zero.

I wasn't victimized in the event but a pair of my opponents (GMChessy & StrokerAce) were and I may have recently played one of the offenders (same id, same openings) on another site!


Here is the replay & PGN of that game plus a zipped file with all 188 games from the FICS sections.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

#415 Upcoming Posts & Hiatus

Here's my schedule for December 8th - January 14th :
  • 12/9 or 10 - Upload 2008 Games Archive.
  • 12/12 - Announce 2009 KCC Championship format & upload preliminary 2009 events calendar.
  • 12/19 - Report on the founding of the Garden State Chess League.
  • 12/20 to 1/14 - On hiatus.

#414 Moldovan-Sherry Match

In October, I played a 4-game match against Bob Sherry and was a very fortunate 3-1 winner. As you will see from the replays & PGN, my score could easily have been +0-3=1.

#413 Gauntlet Notes

I'm a day late but the annotated java-replay page and zipped PGN file with all 9 of my Gauntlet games are up.

Friday, December 05, 2008

#412 Gauntlet Finale

My last game was your typical tourney-ending, GM draw :

[Event "STC Gauntlet - FICS Wild Card"]
[Site "FICS"]
[Date "2008.12.05"]
[Round "5.2"]
[White "jmoldovan"]
[Black "StrokerAce"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D36"]
[WhiteElo "1816"]
[BlackElo "1893"]
[PlyCount "35"]
[EventDate "2008.11.04"]
[EventRounds "5"]
[Source "The Chess Coroner #412"]
[SourceDate "2008.12.05"]

{Queen's Gambit, Exchange Variation}
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 c6 3. c4 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 Nbd7 7. e3 Be7 8.

Qc2 O-O 9. Bd3 Re8 10. h3 Nf8 11. O-O-O Be6 12. Kb1 N6d7 13. Bf4 b5 14.
Ne5 $146 Rc8 15. Rc1 a6 16. Nxd7 Qxd7 17. Rhd1 Ng6 18. Bg3 $11 1/2-1/2

Here's the brief
replay.

With a
5.5-4.5 count, I'll likely land in 20th-place when the event ends. For the #14 seed, that's disappointing result but I'm relieved that the season is over and very pleased to have a scored 70.3% with White this year!

I'll post full notes to all of my Gauntlet games sometime tomorrow.

#411 League Meeting Rescheduled to 12/18

The founding meeting for the "Garden State Chess League" (not Essex; as erroneously reported in #408) has been re-scheduled to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 18th at the Kenilworth Chess Club.

Last night, John Hagerty of the West Orange CC and Charles Miller of the Hamilton CC stopped by the KCC for a fact-finding discussion and the following, initial league-framework was agreed to :


1. Play will commence in late February or early March 2009 (shortly after the U.S. Amateur Team tournament) and run thru June.

2. Teams will play 1 match per month unless the later starting date is used. In that instance, an additional match would have to be squeezed into one of the months.

3. The West Orange CC will be the host-site for league matches; as it was for the old North Jersey league.

4. Teams have the option of playing at another venue to reduce travel. For example, if Hamilton was slated to play Kenilworth, they could go there, instead of making the longer trip.

5. Once a player competes for a team, he is bound to them for the season. One could not, for example, play for the West Orange's B team in March & get promoted to the West Orange A team.

6. Games will not be USCF-rated.

7. The time control will be G/90.

8. A club may field more than 1 team.


Items to be finalized on 12/18 include :


- The official name of the league. "New Jersey Chess League" was suggested but while preparing this article I discovered that there is a high-school association using the moniker.

- Admitting charter clubs. West Orange, Kenilworth, Hamilton, Dumont and the Newark Sleepless Knights have expressed serious interest. Roselle is also a candidate. Others will be actively sought in the next 2 weeks.

- Number of boards per match. It will be 4 or 6.

- A per-board rating average for the teams. Perhaps U2000.


Additional topics to address are :


- Choosing league officials & drafting a constitution.

- Entry fees for trophies and/or administrative costs.

- Pairing format. For example if there are 8 teams, would there be a 5-round swiss or two 4-team divisions?

- Roster Size/Protected Lists. Would we have teams designate the 4-6 boards plus 4-6 substitutes and let all others in a club sign elsewhere as free agents?

- Setting deadlines for submitting rosters & making schedules.

- Deciding if the team entry-window should be extended to Presidents' Day 2008.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

#410 STC Gauntlet - Round 5, Game 1

Last night I got a good opening with the ...Qd7 Winawer, dropped a pawn at move 17 and should've lost but my opponent made mistakes at turns 25 & 26 to let me escape with a draw.

Here's the lightly annotated PGN...

[Event "STC Gauntlet - FICS Wild Card"]
[Site "FICS"]
[Date "2008.12.03"]
[Round "5.1"]
[White "strokerace"]
[Black "jmoldovan"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C16"]
[WhiteElo "1897"]
[BlackElo "1806"]
[Annotator "Moldovan,John"]
[PlyCount "56"]
[EventDate "2008.11.04"]
[EventRounds "5"]
[Source "The Chess Coroner #410"]
[SourceDate "2008.12.04"]

{French Defense, Winawer Variation} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 Qd7 5.

Bd2 Ne7 6. Nf3 b6 7. a3 Bxc3 8. bxc3 Qa4 $146 9. Bd3 Ba6 10. Qe2 h6 11. O-O O-O 12. h3 c5 13. Qd1 Nbc6 14. dxc5 Bxd3 $6 (14... bxc5 $15) 15. cxd3 Qxd1 16.
Rfxd1 bxc5 17. Be3 d4 $2 (17... c4 18. dxc4 dxc4 $11) 18. cxd4 cxd4 19. Bxd4
Nxd4 20. Nxd4 Ng6 $2 (20... Rfd8 21. Nf3 Nd5 $14) 21. Nc6 $1 $16 Rfc8 22. Rac1
Rc7 23. Rc4 Rac8 $6 24. Rdc1 Kf8 25. Nxa7 $2 (25. Ne7 $1 Rxc4 26. Nxg6+ fxg6
27. Rxc4 $18) (25. g3 $18) 25... Rxc4 26. Rxc4 $2 (26. dxc4 Rc5 27. Rb1 $16)
26... Rxc4 27. dxc4 Nxe5 28. c5 Ke7 $44 1/2-1/2

...&
java-replay.

The rematch/final game is Friday at 8:15 p.m. EST.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

#409 Meeting Postponed


Due to the ridiculously short notice, resignations at 2 clubs, a lack of communication and some apparent dis-information, there will be no official meeting for the proposed chess league this Thursday.

Presidents of the interested clubs are still welcome to visit the KCC this week (for an unofficial discussion) and attend our Dec. 18th holiday party.

#408 League-Founding Meeting At KCC

There will be a founding meeting for the "Essex Chess League" at the Kenilworth Chess Club this Thursday night, starting at 8:15 or 8:30 p.m.

Despite the very short notice, I hope the presidents of all interested clubs can attend.

Friday, November 28, 2008

#407 STC Gauntlet - Round 4, Game 2

Tonight I had Black, played a Nimzo-Indian & won in 17 moves :

[Event "STC Gauntlet - FICS Wild Card"]
[Site "FICS"]
[Date "2008.11.28"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "estepona"]
[Black "jmoldovan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E30"]
[WhiteElo "1597"]
[BlackElo "1783"]
[TimeControl "3600+15"]
[PlyCount "35"]
[EventDate "2008.11.04"]
[EventRounds "5"]
[Source "The Chess Coroner #407"]
[SourceDate "2008.11.28"]

{Nimzo-Indian, Leningrad Variation}
1.d4 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 c5 5.Bg5 Qa5 6.Qc2 cxd4 7.Bxf6 gxf6 8.Nxd4 Nc6 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.e4 $146 Ba6 11.a3 d5 12.exd5 cxd5 13.cxd5 Bxc3+ 14.bxc3 Bxf1 15.dxe6 $4 Bxg2 16.exf7+ Kxf7 17.Qb3+ Bd5 0–1

replay

There's 1 week to go.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

#406 STC Gauntlet - Round 4, Game 1

I won the opener against my Spanish opponent but had to come from behind in time-pressure.

Here is the lightly-annotated PGN :

[Event "STC Gauntlet - FICS Wild Card"]
[Site "FICS"]
[Date "2008.11.26"]
[Round "4.1"]
[White "jmoldovan"]
[Black "estepona"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A04"]
[WhiteElo "1756"]
[BlackElo "1581"]
[PlyCount "83"]
[EventDate "2008.11.04"]
[EventRounds "5"]
[Source "The Chess Coroner #406"]
[SourceDate "2008.11.27"]


{A04 Reti Opening, Dutch Defense}

1. Nf3 f5 2. d3 Nf6 3. Nc3 e6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e4 fxe4 6. dxe4 d6 $146 7. Bc4
(7. e5 $142) Nc6 8. Qe2 Na5 9. Bd3 (9. e5 $142) e5 10. Rd1 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12.
Qxf3 O-O 13. b4 $2 (13. Bd2 $14) Nd5 $2 (13... Nc6 14. a3 Nd4 15. Qe3 c6
$11) 14. Bxe7 (14. Nxd5 $142 Bxg5 15. Qg4 Nc6 16. c3 $14) Nxe7 15. Qg4
Nac6 16. Bc4+ $2 (16. b5 Nd4 17. Ne2 $11) Kh8 17. a3 (17. O-O $142 Nxb4
18. Rb1 $44 a5 19. Rb2) Nd4 18. O-O $5 Nxc2 19. Rd3 $6 (19. b5 $142) Rf4 $6
(19... Nxa3 $17) 20. Qd1 Nxa3 $6 (20... Nd4 $142 $15) 21. Ba2 a6
22. Ne2 Rxe4 23. Rxa3 Rxb4 24. Qd2 a5 25. Rg3 Ng6 26. Bb1 Nf4 27. Nxf4 Rxf4 28. Qc2 g6 29. Rc1 c6 30. Re3 (30. Rb3 $142 $44) Qf6 31. f3 d5 32. Qb2 d4 $4
(32... Rb4 33. Qxe5 Qxe5 34. Rxe5 $15) 33. Qxb7 Rd8 34. Rxc6 Qg5 35. Rc7 Rh4
36. Re2 Rxh3 $2 37. Rxe5 $4 (37. Rc8 $18) Qxe5 38. gxh3 Qg3+ 39. Kf1
Qxh3+ $44 40. Kg1 Re8 $2 41. Be4 $16 {White offers a draw.} d3 $4 42. Qb2+ 1-0

... and plain
java-replay.

The re-match is Friday at 8:15 p.m. EST


P.S. - Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers!

Friday, November 21, 2008

#405 Gauntlet Grief

I missed an obvious win at move 16, lost again and am so disgusted, depressed :

[Event "STC Gauntlet - FICS Wild Card"]

[Site "FICS"]
[Date "2008.11.21"]
[Round "3.2"]
[White "jmoldovan"]
[Black "Acho"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E24"]
[WhiteElo "1812"]
[BlackElo "1796"]
[PlyCount "74"]
[EventDate "2008.11.04"]
[EventRounds "5"]
[Source "The Chess Coroner #405"]
[SourceDate "2008.11.21"]

{Nimzo-Indian Defense Saemisch Variation}
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 Be7 $6 5. e4 d5 $6 6. e5 Ne4 7. Qg4 $146 $1 O-O (9 ...g6 $142) 8. Bh6 $1 Bg5 $1 9. Bxg7 $2 (9. Bxg5 $16) 9... h5 $1 10. Qxh5 $44 Kxg7 11. Nxe4 (11. Nf3 $142) 11... dxe4 12. h4 Rh8 13. Qg4 Nc6 (13... Kf8 $142) 14. Rd1 (14. f4 $142 $1
$14) 14... f5 $4 (14... Kf8) 15. exf6+ Qxf6 16. Nh3 $4 (16.
hxg5 $18) 16... Rxh4 17. Qg3 e5 $4 (17... Kh8 $19) 18. dxe5 Qxe5 19. Rd5 Qxg3 20. fxg3 Rxh3 $8 21.
gxh3 Bf6 22. b3 $4 (22. Bg2 $8 $17) 22... Be6 $19 23. Rd1
Nd4 24. b4 $2 Nc2+
25. Kf2 $2 Bd4+ 26. Kg2 $2 Ne3+ 27. Kh2 Nxd1 28. Be2 Nc3 29.
Bd1 Rf8 30. Re1
Rf2+ 31. Kh1 Bxh3 32. Bb3 Rf1+ 33. Rxf1 Bxf1 34. c5 e3 35. Be6
e2 36. Bc4
e1=Q 37. Bxf1 Qxg3 0-1

replay

#404 Three Tie in Kenilworth FR

Mark Kernighan, Ian Mangion & Don Carrelli tied for 1st place at the KCC's Fischer Random tourney. Mangion beat Kernighan in round 3 to take the lead but lost to Carrelli in the final round. Ziggy Bliznikas finished 4th.

A crosstable will follow at some point.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

#403 STC Game Tonight

Tonight, in the STC Gauntlet's 3rd round, I have Black against a 1751-rated Argentinean. The game is scheduled for 7:00 EST on FICS.

Hope it goes better than my last 5 STC blacks (+0-3=2).


Update 11:11 p.m.

I was 2 pawns up, blundered twice, got a 2nd chance, missed that win and lost :

[Event "Gauntlet 2008"]
[Site "FICS"]
[Date "2008.11.18"]
[Round "3.1"]
[White "Acho"]
[Black "jmoldovan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1778"]
[BlackElo "1895"]
[TimeControl "3600+15"]
[ECO "C02"]
[PlyCount "57"]

{French Defense, Advance Variation}
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. Be2 cxd4 7. cxd4 Nh6 8. Bxh6
Qxb2 9. Bxg7 Bxg7 10. Nbd2 Nxd4 11. Nxd4 $1 Qxd4 12. Bb5+ Bd7 $6 $146 (12...
Ke7 $142 $1) 13. Bxd7+ Kxd7 14. O-O Bxe5 15. Rb1 b6 16. Qe2 Bd6 17. Nf3 Qg7
18. Rfc1 Rhc8 19. Qa6 Qg8 $4 (19... Bc5 $19) 20. Qb7+ Rc7 $4 (20... Kd8 $11)
21. Rxc7+ Bxc7 22. Ne5+ Kd6 23. f4 $4 (23. Nxf7+ $18) 23... Rc8 $4 (23... Qc8
$8 24. Qc6+ Ke7 25. Rc1 Bxe5 $1 26. Qxc8 Rxc8 27. Rxc8 Bxf4 $19) 24. Rc1 $18
Qe8 25. Qxa7 Qb5 26. Qa3+ Qc5+ 27. Rxc5 bxc5 28. Qa6+ Ke7 29. Qxc8 1-0

replay

The next game will be Friday or Saturday, probably at the same time.


#402 Philidor CG

Geoff McAuliffe was kind enough to annotate his recent loss vs. Lev Zilbermints for my blog and Philidor Counter-Gambit detractors.

Replay it here and re-download the Roselle-Kenilworth PGN to update your files.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

#401 Fischer Random Tourney

On Thursday, November 2oth, the Kenilworth Chess Club will host its first Fischer Random Tournament. Here are the details :

Event : Kenilworth FR #1
Site : Kenilworth Community Center
Date : Thursday 11/20/2008
Time : 8:30 p.m.
Format : 4-SS
Rounds : 8:30, 9:05, 9:40 & 10:15
Time Control : G/10 + 5 second increment
Director : Don Carrelli
Entry Fee : none
Prizes : none

At 8:15, Don will explain the rules and, IMO, most importantly, show how to castle in this variant. So, arrive early.

Positions will be generated on-site (with Fritz, I presume) before each round and posted on a demo board.

Friday, November 14, 2008

#400 Last Night's Consultation Game

In last night's consultation game at Kenilworth, the White team led by experts David Grasso & Mark Bilenky defeated a Black squad headed by KCC Champion NM Mark Kernighan & U1800 titleist Ian Mangion. 27 players participated.

It was an exciting contest with both sides in deep time-trouble over the last 16 moves and a terrific tactical conclusion where the victorious side sacked 2 Exchanges!

Here is the raw score :

B81 Sicilian Defense
Keres Attack
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.g4 h6 7.h4 Nc6 8.Rg1 g6 9.Be3 a6 10.Qf3 Ne5 11.Qe2 Qc7 12.0–0–0 b5 13.f4 Ned7 14.g5 b4 15.gxf6 bxc3 16.h5 cxb2+ 17.Kb1 Nxf6 18.hxg6 Nxe4 19.Bd2 f5 20.Bg2 d5 21.Bxe4 dxe4 22.g7! Bxg7 23.Ba5! Qf7 24.Nc6 Bd7 25.Rxg7!! Qxg7 26.Qh5+ Kf8 27.Bb4+ Kg8



28.Rxd7!! Qxd7 29.Qg6+ Qg7 30.Ne7+ Kf8 31.Nxf5+ 1–0


... fully annotated java-replay page & zipped PGN.


For easy reference, here are links to all of our previous consultation games :

Nov. 2006 - blog posts #29, 33, 34; replay; PGN
May 2007 - posts
#142, 143, 146, 147; replay; PGN
May 2008 - posts #317, 321, 322; replay; PGN

P.S. - Next time we'll have a time control every 10 moves to avoid the time scrambles.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

#399 Gauntlet Game Tonight

My first game in the STC Gauntlet's 2nd round is tonight at 8:15 p.m on FICS. I'll be playing a late-joining, 1739-rated from Utah.

If you aren't a Free Internet Chess Server member & want to watch, just download, install & run an interface (BabasChess & Thief are good. More choices here), logon as a guest (or first register) and "follow jmoldovan".

When the game is over, I'll insert the replay link & paste the PGN.


Update 9:25 p.m. - I won with a Q sac ! :



Moldovan-"Papadakis"
after 25...Rg8??

White to mate in 3

replay


[Event "STC Gauntlet, FICS Wild Card"]
[Site "FICS, San Jose, California USA"]

[Date "2008.11.11"]

[Time "20:16:37"]

[Round "2.1"]

[White "jmoldovan"]

[Black "Papadakis"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "1841"]

[BlackElo "1739"]

[TimeControl "3600+15"]

[ECO "A06"]

[PlyCount "55"]


{Reti Opening : Queen's Indian Attack}

1. Nf3 c5 2. e3 e6 3. b3 d5 4. Bb2 Nf6 5. Bb5+ Bd7 6. a4 a6 7. Bxd7+ Nbxd7
8. O-O Bd6 9. d3 O-O 10. Nbd2 Rc8 $146 11. Qe2 Qc7 12. c4 Rfe8 13. Rac1 Ne5 14. Nxe5 Bxe5 15. Bxe5 Qxe5 16. f4 Qd6 17. Nf3 h6 18. Ne5 Nd7 19. Qh5 Nxe5 20. fxe5 Qe7 21. Rf3 Rc7 22. Rcf1 $11 Rb8 $2 23. Rg3 $2 Kh8 24. Rf4 dxc4 25. Rfg4 $14 Rg8 $4 26. Qxh6+ $1 $18 gxh6 27. Rxg8+ Kh7 28. R3g7# {Black checkmated} 1-0

On Friday night at 8:15 p.m., I have Black against the same opponent.


Further Update - Fri. 11/14 at 9:00 p.m.

My opponent didn't show. So, I claimed a forfeit win.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

#398 Consultation Game At KCC This Week

The Kenilworth Chess Club will be having another Consultation Game this Thursday night (Nov. 13th). We'll start at 8:30 p.m. Hope you can be there. It's a great exercise.

#397 Some Thoughts On The Proposed NJ League

In the past few weeks, the idea of a NJ club-based chess league has been tossed around. The West Orange, Dumont, Kenilworth and Newark Sleepless Knights clubs have all expressed interest in joining and I believe it is time for the above and other potential parties to meet, fully discuss the details (such as team size, rating limits & venues) and open a schedule-window for 2009.

This pow-wow could take place at the KCC on Thursday, December 4th at 8 p.m., Springfield's Checkmate Club, the WOCC or some place else but, IMO, it should be before the end of the year. Waiting until the USATE in February would be too late as most clubs would have already formed a slate of events.

Comments on this post would be very welcome.

#396 Roselle Wrap

To round-out my coverage of Kenilworth's lopsided loss to Roselle, here are ...

- 4 of the games in java-replay & zipped PGN...

- The board by board results with Roselle's players listed first :

    1. Estevez 1-0 Stoyko
    2. Daftani 1/2-1/2 Kernighan
    3. Grasso 1-0 Norowitz
    4. Chieu 1/2-1/2 Mark Bilenky (2004)
    5. Camejo 1-0 Mangion
    6. Zilbermints 1-0 McAuliffe
    7. Sorto 1-0 Lewis
    8. Singh 1-0 Carrelli
    9. Garcia 1-0 Tomkovich
    10. Bolden 0-1 Demetrick
    11. Warrick 0-1 Sherer
    12. Roldan 0-1 Wojcio
    13. Guzman 1-0 Hart
    14. Henderson 1/2-1/2 Shapiro
    15. ■ Jess Ragazza (unr) 1-0 □ McCorkell

Friday, November 07, 2008

#395 Gauntlet Loss

In this afternoon's Gauntlet game I played the middlegame badly, lost & was relegated to the WildCard pool :

[Event "STC Gauntlet - FICS Section A"]
[Site "FICS"]
[Date "2008.11.07"]
[Time "13:06:01"]
[Round "1.2"]
[White "GMChessy"]
[Black "jmoldovan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2101"]
[BlackElo "1883"]
[TimeControl "3600+15"]
[PlyCount "77"]

{A04 Kings's Indian Attack}
1. e4 e6 2. d3 c5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. c3 Nge7 7. O-O O-O 8. Re1
e5 9. Be3 d6 10. a4 h6 11. Qd2 $146 Kh7 12. Na3 a6 13. b4 cxb4 14. cxb4 Be6 15. Nc4 d5 16. Bb6 Qb8 17. exd5 Bxd5 $2 18. Rac1 f5 $2 19. b5 $18 axb5 20. axb5 Bxc4 21. dxc4 Nd8 22. Qb4 Rf7 23. Rcd1 Ne6 24. Rd7 Qe8 25. Rxb7 e4 26. Qd6 Nc8 27. Qc6 Re7 28. Nd2 Qxc6 29. bxc6 Nd4 30. Bc5 Re8 31. Rxg7+ Kxg7 32. Bxd4+ Kf7 33. Rb1 Ra2 34. Be3 Nd6 35. c5 Nc8 36. Bf1 Ke7 37. Bc4 Rc2 38. Rb7+ Kd8 39. Rd7# {Black checkmated} 1-0

#394 Roselle Romps Over Kenilworth 10.5-4.5

In their biggest & final match of 2008, the KCC lost to a very strong Roselle team last night, 10.5-4.5.

Joe Demetrick, Max Sherer & Mike Wojcio scored full points for Kenilworth while Mark Kernighan, Mark Bilenky & Eugene Shapiro notched draws.

The board-by-board results & a few games will be posted Saturday.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

#393 Gauntlet Opener Drawn

My first game in the 2008 STC Gauntlet was drawn in 26 moves :

[Event "STC Gauntlet, FICS section A"]
[Site "FICS"]
[Date "2008.11.05"]
[Round "1"]
[White "jmoldovan"]
[Black "GMChessy"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "1804"]
[BlackElo "2106"]
[TimeControl "3600+15"]
[PlyCount "52"]

{A16 Anglo-Gruenfeld}
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Qa4+ Bd7 6. Qh4 Nxc3 7. bxc3
c5 8. g3 Bg7 9. Bg2 Bc6 10. O-O Nd7 11. d4 Qa5 $146 12. Bd2 Bxf3 13. Bxf3 cxd4
14. Bxb7 Rd8 15. Bg5 $1 {after a 23:38 think} f6 16. Bh6 Bxh6 17. Qxh6 dxc3 18. Qg7 Rf8 19. Qxh7 Ne5 20. Be4 f5 21. Bd3 $4 Rf7 $4 22. Qh8+ Rf8 23. Qg7 Rf7 24. Qh8+ Rf8 25. Qg7 Rf7 26. Qh8+ Rf8 {Game drawn by repetition} 1/2-1/2

Replay

On Friday (1 p.m. EST on FICS), I'll have Black against the same opponent.

P.S. - To enhance my chances, notes will not be posted during the event.

#392 Roselle-Kenilworth Pairings

Roselle CC at Kenilworth CC
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
8:15 p.m.

Roselle’s players are listed on the left.
Kenilworth will have white ■ on the even-mumbered boards.
  1. IM Guillermo Estevez 2203 - FM S. Stoyko 2251
  2. Marajudin Daftani 2195 - NM M. Kernighan 2233
  3. David Grasso 2179 - NM Y. Norowitz 2209
  4. Ken Chieu 2117 - Dr. I. Mangion 1847
  5. Mauricio Camejo 2044 - J. Moldovan 1800
  6. Lev Zilbermints 2010 - Dr. G. McAuliffe 1736
  7. Cesar Sorto 1936 - Dr. R. Lewis 1719
  8. Errol Singh 1927 - Cpl. D. Carrelli 1715
  9. Ramon Garcia 1919 - G. Tomkovich 1677
  10. Neil Bolden 1721 - J. Demetrick 1660
  11. Ralph Warrick 1570 - M. Sherer 1653
  12. Diego Roldan 1568 - M. Wojcio 1626
  13. Alex Henderson 1523p - G. Hart 1623
  14. Alejandro Guzman 1277p - E. Shapiro 1570
  15. Victor Gomez - J. McCorkell 1542 **
** - If Gomez can play, he & McCorkell will choose for color on #15. Otherwise, it’ll be a 14-board match.

Monday, November 03, 2008

#391 Exchanging Pieces Lecture

23 people attended Scott Massey's "Exchanging Pieces" lecture on October 23rd. Of the 8 games illustrated, the speaker's 1984 Gurgenidze/CK Exchange win over fellow NM Edgar McCormick was most enjoyable. IMO, it alone was worth the price of admission!


McCormick-Massey
after 17.Reb1?

Black to play

Here's an annotated replay page & PGN file with that contest & all the others. A supplemental posting or file will likely follow.

links repaired 6/24/2013.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

#390 STC Gauntlet Starts Monday

The entry-deadline for the 2008 STC Gauntlet, a 60+15 match-tourney on ICC, FICS & WCL, is tomorrow (Sun. 11/2) at 4 p.m. EST (21:00 GMT). Late-joins will be accepted until the start of round 2.

Full details here.

Friday, October 31, 2008

#389 UCC Wrap

To conclude my coverage of Kenilworth's 7-5 win vs. Union County College, here are ...

- 3 of the games in java-replay & zipped PGN

- The board by board results with UCC's players listed first :

  1. Jorge Ruiz 1-0 Ian Mangion 1847
  2. Camilo Builes 1-0 Greg Tomkovich 1677
  3. Keon Blake 0-1 Max Sherer 1653
  4. Wiaderson 0-1 Mike Wojcio 1626
  5. Andre Vidal 0-1 Eugene Shapiro 1570
  6. Michael Jacome 1-0 Lou Sturniolo 1399
  7. Daniel Guttierrez 0-1 Joe Renna 1304
  8. Mumtaz 1-0 Robert Vinson 1179
  9. Joseph Evlo 0-1 Daniel Zhu 1246
  10. Michael Bahler 1-0 Bill Sokolosky 1128
  11. Davin Sanchez 0-1 Ted Mann 1574
  12. Joseph Mattiace 0-1 Michail Kruglyak 1301
Board 1 featured a G/60 control. The others used G/90.

#388 KCC Beats Union County College 7-5

The Kenilworth Chess Club stormed to a 7-1 lead last night and held on for a 2-point victory over visiting Union County College.

Max Sherer, Mike Wojcio, Ted Mann, Eugene Shapiro, Joe Renna, Michail Kruglyak & Daniel Zhu won for the home team.

Jorge Ruiz, Camilo Builes, Michael Jacome, M. Mumtaz & Michael Bahler took full points for UCC.

The board by board rundown & a few games will follow.

#387 Lunna, Radomskyj Westfield Co-Champs

NMs Todd Lunna & Peter Radomskyj tied for 1st at the recent, forfeit-plagued Westfield CC Championship. 3rd-placed Arthur Shen took the U2100 prize. Greg Nolan & Tim Hall tied for 4th. Bill Cohen was equal 6th-7th & the top U1850 scorer.

Monday, October 27, 2008

#386 Fish Tourney Rated

The Sy Fish Memorial has been rated. Daniel Zhu, who jumped from 1125 to 1246 (+121), had the biggest gain. Eugene Shapiro (+35), Ted Mann (+18), Ian Mangion (+15), Don Carrelli (+5) & Mark Kernighan (+4) also added points in the event.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

#385 Correction

The replay & PGN for the board 2 game from last week's W.Orange match have been corrected to Kernighan 1-0 Chieu. My apologies to the KCC Champ.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

#384 Massey Lecture This Thursday

NM Scott Massey will be giving a lecture at the Kenilworth Chess Club this Thursday night (10/23). The subject is "Exchanging Pieces" and the admission fee is $5.00.

Just wondering... Will the fatal pawn-grab + trade-down from yesterday's Kramnik-Anand game, where White played 29.Nxd4?? Qxd4 30.Rd1 Nf6 31.Rxd4 Nxg4 32.Rd7+ Kf6 33.Rxb7 Rc1+ 34.Bf1 & lost to 34...Ne3!, be used as an example?

Kramnik-Anand
5th match game

Friday, October 17, 2008

#383 W. Orange Wrap

To conclude my coverage of Kenilworth's narrow 6-4 win, I present...

The board by board results & openings. West Orange's players are listed first :

  1. Radomskyj (2222) 1/2 Stoyko (2251) A56 Czech Benoni
  2. Chieu (2115) 0-1 Kernighan (2221) E34 Nimzo-Indian
  3. Fernandez (2109) 0-1 Norowitz (2209) A45 Accelerated London
  4. Daniels (2008) 0-1 Goeller (2034) B01 Scandinavian Defense
  5. Cohen (1879) 0-1 Mangion (1832) B85? Scheveningen Sicilian
  6. West (1695) 1-0 Bliznikas (1819) D02 London System
  7. Rodriguez (1683) 1-0 McAuliffe (1736) B01 Scandinavian
  8. Fortunato (1594) 1-0 Carrelli (1710) A03 Bird's Opening
  9. Hagerty (1593) 1/2 M. Sherer (1692) B40 Sicilian 2...e6 3.c4
  10. Elsman (1469) 0-1 Demetrick (1660) B17 Caro-Kann

... and games 2, 3,4 & 8 in java-replay + zipped PGN. The Bird is annotated.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

#382 West Orange-Kenilworth Match

8:14 p.m. We are underway!

West Orange has Peter Radomskyj on board 1 followed by Ken Chieu, Jose Fernandez, Crawford Daniels, Bryan Cohen, Robert West, Guido Rodriguez, Joseph Fortunato, John Hagerty and Mark Elsman.

Playing for Kenilworth are Steve Stoyko, Mark Kernighan, Yaacov Norowitz, Michael Goeller, Ian Mangion, Ziggy Bliznikas, Geoff McAuliffe, Don Carrelli, Max Sherer & Joe Demetrick.

9:20 West Orange is the first to strike with Rodriguez defeating McAuliffe & the Center-Counter on board 7.

9:29 Kernighan & Demetrick have extra pawns for Kenilworth but Bliznikas has sacked a piece for what looks like insufficient compensation on board 6. Goeller, Norowitz & Carrelli are better in their games.

9:45 Stoyko's surprise Czech Benoni drew & Goeller won - another Scandinavian setback! The match is tied 1.5-1.5.

Goeller-Daniels : 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Nge2 c6 6.0–0 Bf5 7.d3 e6 8.Ng3 Bg6 9.f4 Bb4 10.f5 exf5 11.Qe2+ Kd8 12.Bf4 Nbd7 13.Qf3 h5 14.Bd2 h4 15.Nxf5 Bxf5 16.Qxf5 Qxf5 17.Rxf5 Ke8 18.d4 h3 19.Re1+ Kf8 20.g4 g6 21.Rf3 Bxc3 22.Bxc3 Rh7 23.Bb4+ Kg8 24.g5 Nd5 25.Bxd5 cxd5 26.Re7 Rd8 27.Bd6 Nf8 28.Be5 Rd7 29.Re8 a6 30.Bf6 Rh5 31.Rc3 1–0

10:07 Demetrick no longer a pawn up but he's in an ending & has a passed a-pawn. Norowitz also has a passer on the a-file but the opposite B's may be a problem in the R+B finale. Bliznikas is looking okay now but Carrelli has lost an Exchange & is down to 16 minutes - way behind on the clock. Kernighan still a chip ahead vs. Chieu. Mangion is equal & has asked what the score is. With Hagerty & Sherer drawing on board 9, it is now 2-2.

10:18 Norowitz wins with R,B & P vs. R&P to give Kenilworth a 3-2 lead.
10:22 Bliznikas falls & the match is knotted for a 3rd time.
10:23 Demetrick puts the home squad back on top, 4-3.
10:29 Carrelli capitulates and we're all-square, again but Kernighan converts to restore the lead at 5-4. Mangion is now a pawn ahead.

11:?? - The hosts clinch when Dr. Ian wins via time forfeit after sacking (?) his Rook for 2-3 additional chips.

FINAL SCORE : KENILWORTH 6 WEST ORANGE 4!

More scores, a zipped PGN file & replays will follow tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

#381 Kramnik-Anand : Another Draw

Anand surprised with 1.d4 and Kramnik, thankfully, chose a Nimzo-Indian over a Slav. Here is the PGN with a few notes :

[Event "World Championship"]

[Site "Bonn"]
[Date "2008.10.15"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Black "Kramnik, Vladimir"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E25"]
[PlyCount "64"]
[EventDate "2008.10.14"]
[EventType "match"]
[EventRounds "12"]
[EventCountry "GER"]
[SourceDate "2008.10.15"]

{E25 Nimzo-Indian Defense Saemisch Variation} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.
f3 d5 (4... c5 {is the main alternative.}) 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. cxd5 Nxd5
8. dxc5 f5 9. Qc2 Nd7 10. e4 fxe4 11. fxe4 N5f6 12. c6 bxc6 13. Nf3 Qa5 {Black
may be a little better because of his more active Q & lead in K-side
development.} 14. Bd2 {Otherwise there would be a trade of light-squared Bs.}
Ba6 $146 ({This varies from the} 14... O-O 15. Bd3 Ba6 16. c4 Qc7 17. Bc3 Ng4
18. e5 Ndxe5 19. Bxh7+ Kh8 $11 {of Gilman - Lepsenyi : correspondence 1966})
15. c4 Qc5 16. Bd3 Ng4 17. Bb4 Qe3+ 18. Qe2 O-O-O 19. Qxe3 Nxe3 20. Kf2 Ng4+ ({Not} 20... Nxc4 $2 21. Bxc4 Bxc4 22. Rhc1 Nb6 23. Ne5 Bb5 24. Nxc6 $1 $16) 21.Kg3 Ndf6 (21... Nge5 $142 $11) 22. Bb1 $14 h5 23. h3 h4+ 24. Nxh4 Ne5 25. Nf3 Nh5+ 26. Kf2 Nxf3 27. Kxf3 e5 28. Rc1 Nf4 29. Ra2 Nd3 30. Rc3 Nf4 31. Bc2 Ne6 32. Kg3 Rd4 1/2-1/2

For more see The Chess Mind & ChessOk's coverage.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

#380 Kramnik-Anand - Game 1 Drawn

[Event "World Championship"]
[Site "Bonn"]
[Date "2008.10.14"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Kramnik"]
[Black "Anand"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D14"]
[PlyCount "64"]
[EventDate "2008.10.14"]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Bf4 Nc6 6.e3 Bf5 7.Nf3 e6 8.Qb3 Bb4 9.Bb5 0-0 10.Bxc6 Bxc3+ 11.Qxc3 Rc8 12.Ne5 Ng4 13.Nxg4 Bxg4 14.Qb4 Rxc6 15.Qxb7 Qc8 16.Qxc8 Rfxc8 17.0-0 a5 18.f3 Bf5 19.Rfe1 Bg6 20.b3 f6 21.e4 dxe4 22.fxe4 Rd8 23.Rad1 Rc2 24.e5 fxe5 25.Bxe5 Rxa2 26.Ra1 Rxa1 27.Rxa1 Rd5 28.Rc1 Rd7 29.Rc5 Ra7 30.Rc7 Rxc7 31.Bxc7 Bb3 32.Bxa5 Bxb3 1/2-1/2

PGN repaired 10/15 @ 11:22 a.m.

Friday, October 10, 2008

#379 Kernighan Wins Fish Memorial

NM Mark Kernighan (2221) won all 4 of his games and took 1st place at the Kenilworth CC’s Sy Fish Memorial. Ian Mangion (1832) was 2nd at 3.0. Eugene Shapiro (1535) & Ted Mann (1474), who both had 2.5, received the U1800 & U1500 prizes.

There were several upsets and scares in the event. Mann defeated Greg Tomkovich (1705). Daniel Zhu (1125) beat Lou Sturniolo (1443) & Pat Mazzillo (1392). Don Carrelli (1710) had a totally winning position vs. Kernighan and a tie for 1st at hand but badly blundered twice and lost a last-round heartbreaker. Shapiro & Sturniolo had clear plusses vs. the top 2 seeds/finishers before falling.


Here are 8 the 19 games played in Java-replay & zipped PGN. Hope the players who withheld scores are saving secrets for our upcoming matches against West Orange (Oct. 16th), Union County College (Oct. 30th) & Roselle (Nov. 6th) :-)

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

#378 Fish Memorial - 3rd Round Pairings

Here are the board by board pairings for round 3 of the KCC's Sy Fish Memorial Tournament, courtesy of TD Geoff McAuliffe :
  1. Mangion (2.0) - Kernighan (2.0)
  2. M. Sherer (2.0) - Carrelli (1.0)
  3. Tomkovich (1.0) - Shapiro (1.0)
  4. Mann (0.5) - D. Zhu (1.0)
  5. Sturniolo (0.0) - Mazzillo (0.0)
Games from last week and this Thursday will be uploaded Friday or Saturday.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

#377 Zilbermints Beats GM In 7 Moves!!

Earlier this year, Lev Zilbermints' used his original Grob/Scandanavian Gambit (1.g4 d5 2.e4?!) to score a micro-mini blitz-win over GM Dibyendu Barua on ICC.

The Indian GM, who is best-known for his 1982 Lloyds Bank victory over Viktor Kortschnoi, could've gone into a weird Caro-Kann with 2...c6 but he took the I'm from Missouri approach and blundered 3 turns later.

Here is the game, with light notes, in Java-replay and PGN

#376 Kernighan Wins Springfield Swiss

NM Mark Kernighan won the 2008 Checkmate Fall Swiss. Ari Minkov finished a half-point back. Ted Mann was 3rd in the field of 6. Here are 9 of the 12 games played in java-replay and zipped PGN. I was supposed to be on annotation hiatus but couldn't resist doing a few for you :)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

#375 Sy Fish Memorial Starts 10/2

Next month, the Kenilworth CC will honor Seymour (Sy) Fish with a memorial tournament. Here are the details :

Sy Fish Memorial

Dates
: October 2nd & 9th, 2008
Site
: Kenilworth Chess Club

Format
: USCF-rated, 4 round swiss
Time Control
: G/30

Rounds
: 8:30 & 9:40 p.m. on 10/2; 8:15 & 9:30 p.m. on 10/9

Entry Fee
: $6.00

Prizes
: Cash; based on the number of entries... Minimum 83.33% of entry fees returned

If there are 8 players, for example,
1st place would get $20, 2nd place would receive $10.
The highest-scoring U1800 & U1500 would get $5 each.
(The KCC would reserve $8 for rating fees)

Register
: 9/25 from 8:15-10:00 p.m. & 10/2 from 8:00-8:25 p.m.

USCF membership required... Late entries accepted until the 2nd round is paired (0 pt. bye awarded)

Byes
: ½ point byes available for rounds 1, 2 or 3 (1 per person)

TD
: TBA

Update 10/1 @ 10:55 p.m. - 4 entries so far... Geoff McAuliffe will direct.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

#374 Westfield Championship Starts 9/28

Westfield Chess Club Championship
September 28th-October 19th, 2008


Westfield CC Membership require
d
(1 year : $50 adults; $40 juniors)


Format : USCF-rated, 4 round swiss
Time Control : 40/100 then SD/60
Entry Fee : $25 + dues

Registration :
2:00-2:30 p.m. on 9/28
Rounds start at 2:30 p.m. each week.
No byes or late-entries.

Prize Fund : $550 Guaranteed
  • 1st place : $150
  • 2nd place : $100
  • Top U2100, U1850, U1600, U1850 : $75 each
Directions

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

#373 USCF Quick-Rated in Newark, 10/4

The Newark Sleepless Knights Chess Club (USCF affiliate ID : A6031152) will run its first USCF-sanctioned tournament on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at the Boylan Recreation Center on 916 South Orange Avenue.

Time control : G/10
Format : RR, 7 or more rounds (b/entries)
Entry Fee : none!

The original announcement I received from TD Ken Chieu said there would be no prizes and no monies will be collected/given inside of the Boylan Recreation facility.

But, later correspondence from new NSK President Lev Zilbermints indicated cash prizes (courtesy of a benefactor) will be awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places.

If you have any questions about the event, contact Ken
or Lev.

P.S. - T
he tournament will start at 2 p.m.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

#372 STC Wrap-Up

As promised, here is a ChessBase archive with the 55 games & 36 blanks (forfeits/byes) from the WCL section.

The next STC event, The Gauntlet, starts October 27th.

Links fixed 9/17 @ 4:23 a.m.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

#371 STC Championship - Round 9

In my best game of the tourney, I won with the Q's Gambit (again!!) to finish at 5.5-3.5 and move up in the standings.

If jps7 (1785) draws or beats ChristopherP (2083) in the final game, I'll tie for 4th.

Here are the replays & PGN of my 8 games, with full annotations. A ChessBase file with all the WCL contests/results will follow.

update 9/16 @ 10:12 p.m. - jps7 won by forfeit.

#370 KST Wrap-Up

To conclude my coverage of the 2008 Kenilworth Summer Tournament, here are :
  • The links to round by round
reports - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
crosstables - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
replays - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10* 11 12 13
PGN - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10* 11 12 13


* updated with notes to my 17-move loss vs. Mangion

#369 Summer Tourney Stats

Most Points Scored
  • total - John Moldovan 14.0 (+11-1=6)
  • with White - Ian Mangion 6.0 (+5-0=2)
  • with Black - Moldovan 10.0 (+8-1=4)
Highest scoring of possible points (minimum 5 games)
  • total - .875 NM Mark Kernighan (+10-1=1)
  • with White - .857 Mangion
  • with Black - .850 Kernighan (+8-1=1)
Highest Plus Score (wins vs. losses)
  • total - Moldovan & Mangion +10
  • with White - Mangion +5
  • with Black - Moldovan & Kernighan +7
Longest Unbeaten Streaks
  • overall - Mangion 16 (+10-0=6 in rounds 1-13)
  • with White - Mangion 7
  • with Black - Moldovan 9 (+6-0=3 in rounds 1-9) & Mangion 9 (+5-0=4 in rounds 1-13)
Longest Winning Streaks
  • overall - Mangion 6 (rounds 2-6)
  • with White - Mangion 3 (rounds 10-12)
  • with Black - Kernighan 5 (rounds 1-5)
Most Games Played
  • total - Moldovan 18
  • with White - Bert Shiffman 8
  • with Black - Moldovan 13
Most Wins
  • total - Moldovan 11
  • with White - Mangion 5
  • with Black - Kernighan & Moldovan 8
Most Losses
  • total- Shiffman 11
  • with White - Shiffman 7
  • with Black - Shiffman 4
Most Draws
  • total - Moldovan & Mangion 6
  • with White - Pat Mazzillo 3
  • with Black - Moldovan & Mangion 4
Biggest Upsets
  • draw with White : Bill Sokolosky -472 vs. Cavaliere in round 3
  • win with White : Joe Renna -401 over Tomkovich in round 8
  • with Black : Sokolosky -216 over Shiffman in round 7
honorable mention :
  • Mangion (-436) 1/2 vs. Kernighan in round 7
  • Mazzillo (-387) over Don Carrelli in round 11
  • Lou Sturniolo (-370) 1/2 vs. Geoff McAuliffe in round 9
  • Mazzillo (-340) 1/2 vs. Mike Wojcio in round 2
Game Length
  • fastest win by White : Mangion... 17 moves vs. Moldovan in round 10
  • fastest win by Black : Michael Goeller... 16 moves vs. McAuliffe in round 3
  • shortest draw : Cavaliere-Moldovan... a 17-mover in round 7
  • longest game : Sokolosky 0-1 Sturniolo... 60 moves in round 4
Results Breakdown
  • total number of games - 81 (same as last year!)
  • White wins - 25 (30.9%)
  • Black wins - 38 (46.9%)
  • Draws - 18 (22.2%)
  • pct. of points scored by White - .420
  • pct. of points scored by Black - .580
  • decisive games - 63 (77.8%)
  • scores collected - 65 (80.2%)
miscellaneous (minimum 5 games)
  • highest pct. of games won - Kernighan .833
  • highest pct. of games won or drawn - Mangion 1.000
  • highest pct. of decisive games - Renna 1.000 (+3-5=0)
  • highest pct. of draws - Mangion .375
  • most popular opening : Queen's Gambit (10 games of the 65 collected)
  • most popular e4 defense : Sicilian (8 games; including transpositions)

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

#368 Springfield Swiss Correction

The entry deadline for the non-rated Springfield Fall Swiss is Saturday, September 20th (not 9/13).

See post #366 for tourney details.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

#367 STC Championship - Round 8

I had Black against the tournament leader hahahaum in a must-win game, played a Modern Defense, was equal or slightly better most of the way (through move 36) but burned too much time trying to create chances, lost a drawn ending and was officially eliminated :

[Event "STC Championship"]
[Site "World Chess Live"]
[Date "2008.09.03"]
[Round "8"]
[White "hahahaum"]
[Black "jpmoldovan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1923"]
[BlackElo "1900"]
[Opening "Modern Defense"]
[ECO "B06"]
[NIC "KF.06"]
[Time "20:20:24"]
[TimeControl "3600+30"]
1. e4 {1:00:23} g6 {1:00:13} 2. c3 {0:59:38} d5 {1:00:15} 3. exd5 {0:59:43} Qxd5 {1:00:30} 4. d4 {0:59:42} Bg7 {1:00:11} 5. h3 {0:59:29} Nf6 {0:58:23} 6. Nf3 {0:59:55} O-O {0:58:05} 7. Be2 {1:00:10} c5 {0:53:42} 8. dxc5 {0:59:58} Qxc5 {0:50:23} 9. Be3 {0:59:46} Qc7 {0:50:32} 10. O-O {0:59:49} Rd8 {0:50:46} 11. Qc1 {1:00:08} Nc6 {0:50:54} 12. Nbd2 {1:00:27} Nd5 {0:50:20} 13. Nb3 {1:00:43} Nxe3 {0:50:13} 14. Qxe3 {1:01:08} b6 {0:44:58} 15. Rad1 {1:01:06} Bb7 {0:45:19} 16. Nbd4 {1:01:07} a6 {0:43:38} 17. Nxc6 {1:00:43} Bxc6 {0:42:51} 18. Rxd8+ {0:59:34} Qxd8 {0:37:37} 19. Rd1 {0:59:54} Qc7 {0:37:45} 20. Nd4 {0:59:43} Bb7 {0:37:44} 21. Bf3 {0:59:58} Bxf3 {0:37:22} 22. Qxf3 {0:59:21} Rd8 {0:37:06} 23. Nc2 {0:57:26} Rxd1+ {0:32:36} 24. Qxd1 {0:57:53} Bf6 {0:31:29} 25. Nb4 {0:58:09} Qc4 {0:29:24} 26. Qd8+ {0:57:26} Kg7 {0:29:38} 27. Qxb6 {0:57:47} a5 {0:14:49} 28. Qxa5 {0:58:05} Qe2 {0:14:34} 29. Qc5 {0:55:24} Qxb2 {0:12:04} 30. Nd5 {0:55:41} Qc1+ {0:10:10} 31. Kh2 {0:56:08} Be5+ {0:09:58} 32. g3 {0:56:29} e6 {0:09:11} 33. Nc7 {0:51:14} Qxc3 {0:08:31} 34. Qxc3 {0:51:32} Bxc3 {0:08:58} 35. Kg2 {0:51:55} Kf6 {0:09:06} 36. f4 {0:52:13} Kf5 {0:09:23} 37. Kf3 {0:52:39} Ba5 {0:09:26} 38. Nb5 {0:52:26} h5 {0:09:21} 39. Nd6+ {0:52:45} Kf6 {0:09:47} 40. Nc4 {0:53:13} Bc7 {0:10:04} 41. a4 {0:52:10} g5 {0:10:02} 42. a5 {0:52:23} gxf4 {0:09:36} 43. a6 {0:52:42} Bb8 {0:10:01} 44. Nb6 {0:52:08} Ba7 {0:09:56} 45. Nc8 {0:52:33} Bc5 {0:08:42} 46. gxf4 {0:52:56} e5 {0:08:45} 47. a7 {0:53:19} Bxa7 {0:09:10} 48. Nxa7 {0:53:49} Kf5 {0:09:17} 49. fxe5 {0:54:12} Kxe5 {0:09:44} 50. Nc6+ {0:54:40} Kf5 {0:10:09} 51. Nd4+ {0:55:05} Kg5 {0:10:34} 52. Kg3 {0:55:31} h4+ {0:10:17} 53. Kf3 {0:55:57} f5 {0:08:54} 54. Ne2 {0:56:20} Kf6 {0:08:57} 55. Kf4 {0:56:15} Kg6 {0:09:20} 56. Nd4 {0:56:21} Kh6 {0:09:14} 57. Kxf5 {0:56:42} Kh5 {0:09:40} 58. Kf4 {0:57:10} Kg6 {0:09:59} 59. Kg4 {0:57:40} {Black resigns} 1-0


You can view the replay here.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

#366 Springfield Fall Swiss Starts 9/21

There will be a non-rated four-round Swiss at the Springfield Barnes & Noble on September 21st and 28th, 2008.

You will play two games per night, starting at 8:45 p.m.

The time control will be Game/30.

USCF rules will govern play except as follows:

  • Digital clocks are to be set at G/27 + 3 second delay.
  • A player can stop keeping score if his clock goes under 10 minutes.
  • His opponent must continue writing the moves down until he also goes under 10 minutes.

There is no entry fee and there are no prizes.

To register, send an email to rsherry8@comcast.net no later than Saturday, September 13th.

P.S. - This would be a good warm-up for the KCC's Sy Fish Memorial, a USCF-rated G/30 that begins October 2nd!

Friday, August 29, 2008

#365 KST 2008 - Round 13

In the battle for 1st place, I overcame a lost position against undefeated (+10-0=6) rival Ian Mangion to finish one-point ahead (14.0 to 13.0).

Luck and volume played huge parts in the wire-to-wire success (my first at the KCC); as I collected 4 points from 7 possible defeats and played most games (18).


Rounding out the top 5 were : 2005 KST-winner NM Mark Kernighan (10.5), 2006 KST-victor Greg Tomkovich (7.0) and Pat Mazzillo (6.0).

Here are the final standings plus 3 of the final-round games (1 annotated) in Java-replay and PGN. A ChessBase file with all the available games will follow and perhaps some other goodies, too.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

#364 STC Championship - Round 7

My opponent resigned after just 13 moves. He had a bad position & said I was taking too much time but STC is short for Slow Time Control.

With 2 games to go, I'm at 4.5-2.5. +4 was enough to win in 2005 (the runner-up had 6.0) but won't be this year.

Even if
Cli2 (currently =3rd) beats hahahaum (he leads with 5.5) this week, I win-out against them & no other contender emerges, the tiebreaks are against me.

Anyway, here are the replays & PGN of all my games from the event.