#145 Roach Wins Kenilworth U1800 Crown

The 17th 16th Kenilworth Championship has finally finished. Justin Roach is the U1800 champ after a forfeit victory over Gordon Agress. Greg Tomkovich will apparently get the 2nd-place U1800 trophy since Mike Wojcio (who had the better tie-breaks) has eschewed the scheduled G/30 playoff.

In addition to deciding the top prize, Gordon's default clinched the 2nd-place U1400 award for Harry Smith. Joe Renna won the U1400 title.

Sokolosky-Cole, which was to determine 10th place, has not been played, either. I don't expect that it will be.

Here are the final...

U1800 crosstable (in standings order)
U1800 crosstable (with color assignments)
& Round by Round results

Over the summer, I plan to "Fritz" any KCCC games that haven't been covered & revise whatever files need to be.

#144 ICC Acquires WCN & Chess Live

The Internet Chess Club recently announced that it has acquired the World Chess Network and U.S. Chess Live and merged them into a new server. Details here, here, here and here.

USCL Basic & WCN Silver members will lose half of their remaining subscription time when those accounts are transferred. ICC members won't have access to the new entity.

I'm sorry to see USCL go, because it was the site of my greatest tournament victory (table ... standings), and will miss playing on WCN; where, unlike other servers, I could easily get a rational G/20 match. Hopefully, World Chess Live will allow guests to play, as its parents did. If so, you'll likely find me there sometime. :-)

How do you folks feel about the demise of the 2 ICC rivals?? Please leave a comment.

#143 Consoltation Notes

The Kenilworthian, Michael Goeller, has posted in-depth, theoretical notes on our adjourned consultation game. I've used the same tact as last year & uploaded a behind-the scenes report with basic opening commentary.

Here's my updated Java-Replay & PGN

#142 Consultation Game - Part I

Last night's consultation game started late & was adjourned early. Here's the list of participants & moves played :

WHITE - FM Steve Stoyko, FM Tom Bartell, Michael Goeller, Greg Tomkovich, Ed Selling, Bert Shiffman, Pat Mazzillo & Joe Azzarello.

BLACK - NM Mark Kernighan, NM Ed Allen, Mark Bilenky, Brian Meinders, John Moldovan, Mike Wojcio, Joe Renna & Max Sherer.

D12 Queen's Gambit
Slav Defense

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Bd3 Bxd3 7.Qxd3 Nbd7 8.0–0 Bd6 9.e4 dxe4 10.Nxe4 Nxe4 11.Qxe4 Qf6 12.Bd2 (N) Qg6 13.Qe2 0–0 14.Bc3 Rfd8 15.Rfe1 Rab8



& the White team sealed their 16th move.

Is Black vastly inferior with no prospects or is he solid?? Join us next week for the conclusion & find out which side is right.

Java-Replay
PGN

#141 Blitz Tournament in Springfield

There will be a 5-Minute tournament at the Checkmate Chess Club on June 3rd. Details here.

broken details link repaired Mon. 5/28 @ 12:03 a.m.

#140 Consultation Game Reminder

I want to remind everyone that there will be a consultation game at the Kenilworth Chess Club tonight. Around 8:30 p.m., we will form 2 teams & begin play. I'm looking forward to it & hope you are too.

#139 Taking A Break!

I've annotated a lot of games since the new year (at least 80 for this blog!!) & need a break. So, for the next 4 weeks or so, I'll be making few posts.

See you all at next week's consultation game!

#138 Checkmate Ch. Annotations

I've annotated Sunday's Checkmate Championship games & finalized the event's Java-Relay page & zipped PGN file. This update also includes a revision of last week's Moldovan-Sherry.

#137 KCCC's Final Games Postponed

All 3 remaining games from the 17th 16th Kenilworth Championship were postponed last Thursday (5/3). With the club calendar full, they will now have to be played in the skittles room or at another site.

#136 Checkmate Championship Concludes

The Checkmate Championship wrapped up last night with Bob Sherry beating Bert Shiffman (see diagram below) & Ted Mann winning against Juan Huaman.

Sherry-Shiffman
After 18...e5

White to win

Notes to the aforementioned will follow sometime this week. For now, here are the...

Final standings :

1. Minkov 4.5
2. Human 3.0
2. Moldovan 3.0
4. Sherry 2.5
5. Mann 2.0
6. Shiffman 0.0

...tournament crosstable; plus all the games in Java-Relay & zipped PGN.

#135 Thematic Ideas

I'd like to invite members of the Kenilworth Chess Club to suggest starting positions for our upcoming theme tournament. You may leave the move orders as comments, e-mail them to me or bring them to tonight's or next week's meeting.

Michael Goeller has suggested one of his favorites, the Urasov Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4). I'll offer 4 lines that I've never seen anyone play at Kenilworth :

• Lenningrad Dutch (A86-A89) : 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6
• Open Ruy Lopez (C80-C83) : 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6
• Latvian Attack Semi-Slav (D46) : 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 c6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.g4
• Blumenfeld Gambit (E10) : 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5

... & another that I've witnessed just once (last summer's Cole-Shiffman) :

• Nimzowitsch Caro-Kann (B16) : 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gxf6

post corrected 5/9 at 12:28 a.m.

#134 Updates

Annotations to the Checkmate Championship's Shiffman-Minkov & a revision of the Kenilworth Championship's Renna-Roach have been uploaded

Checkmate Ch. : Java-Relay & PGN
KCCC Round 15 : Java-replay & PGN