#239 PGN Archive For 2007

For your convenience, I have compiled all the games uploaded during 2007 into 2 zip files :

• French Defense Lectures contains the 44 games from Steve Stoyko's recent 5-part series
  
• The Chess Coroner 2007 has a total of 230 contests; including 95 from the year's Kenilworth Championship

Links to both have also been added to my sidebar.

#238 Checkmate Championship To Start 1/20

This year’s Checkmate CC Championship will start on January 20th, 2008 and be a round-robin with up to 8 players. There will be no games on February 17th to accommodate those participating in the USATE.

If you want to play, please register by January 15th. There are no entry fees or prizes and the tourney will not be rated. For complete details, visit the event page.

#237 KCC Championship To Start On 1/17

18th 17th Kenilworth Chess Club Championship

• January 17th, 2008 thru March 20th, 2008 (projected end date)
• USCF-rated!!
• Open & U1800 sections
• Round-Robin format b/entries... If need be, we will split the U1800 into 2 divisions &/or run the open as a double-RR.
• EF: $25 entry fee + $20 KCC dues (KCC and USCF membership required) + $10 anti-forfeit deposit (refundable upon completion of the event) = $55
• Trophies will be awarded to the section/division winners. Ties for 1st place will be broken by a playoff game (probably G/30).
• G/90 time control
• Rounds will commence at 8:30 p.m. every Thursday night for the duration of the event.
• Players may take 2 byes. A 3rd bye will cost you half of your deposit. A 4th will cost you the rest of your deposit and result in a forfeited game or expulsion from the tournament.
• To register, seek Tournament Director Geoff McAuliffe or (if the TD is not present) another club officer (John Moldovan, Greg Tomkovich, Joe Renna) during our 12/27/2007, 1/3/2008 and 1/10/2008 meetings @ Kenilworth Community Center, 575 Boulevard, Kenilworth, N.J.

P.S. - entries will be accepted up to 8:15 p.m. on 1/17

#236 Kenilworth Ratings

Here are the current (1/1/2008 list) USCF ratings of active Kenilworth CC members and select non-members :

2245 Steve Stoyko
2217 Scott Massey
2200 Mark Kernighan
2200 Ed Allen
2027 Michael Goeller
2004 Mark Bilenky
1912 Ari Minkov
1892 Tom Polese
1856 Howard Osterman
1809 Ziggy Bliznikas
1804 John Moldovan
1754 Geoff McAuliffe
1748 Richard Lewis
1729 Greg Tomkovich
1711 Justin Roach
1710 Ed Selling
1685 Don Carrelli
1621 Mike Wojcio
1600 Pete Cavaliere
1599 Joe Demetrick
1526 Mike Stallings
1497 Max Sherer
1470 Pat Mazzillo
1428 Ted Mann
1405 Leon Hrebinka
1369 Bert Shiffman
1330 Dmitriy Yampolskiy
1315 Michail Kruglyak
1195 Laukik Gadgil
1164 Joe Renna
1150 Gordon Agress
1128 Bill Sokolosky
1127 Jim Cole
812 Jevon O'Neal
---- Harry Smith
---- Andy Wolman

Hope I haven't missed anyone.

#235 Kenilworth U1200 Team Seeking Board 1

Jim Cole, Joe Renna and Gordon Agress are looking for someone rated between 1165 and 1357 to play first board on their team in the upcoming USATE. If you fall within that range and are willing to join the Kenilworth Chess Club, contact Jim via e-mail.

#234 Business Meeting

The business meeting originally scheduled for 12/13 and re-scheduled for 12/27, ended up being held before our annual holiday party this past Thursday (12/20) because some people could not attend on the 27th & most members were sure to be at the party.

As usual, the most hotly-debated item on the agenda was the Club Championship format. Surprisingly, for the first time in some 16 years (according to KCC President-emeritus Mike Wojcio), it will be USCF-rated!

That decision, which was made by the slimmest of margins (maybe a 2/3rds majority should've been required) may discourage several prominent Kenilworth players (I hope not) but folks from some other local clubs could join us.

With the disclosure of how much was spent on last year's awards and the need to set aside money for USCF-rating, we then voted to spend 60% of entry fees on trophies. This measure along with the $5 increase in dues (which will now be $20/year) should add some $250 to the club's coffers.

A slight change in the our USATE makeup & sponsorship was also made. Each player on the squads will have to be a KCC member (2 of the 13 players from last year were not) and a $12 per board reimbursement (I proposed $10) will be given whether we have 1, 2 or 3 teams entered. The bottom line is that if we only enter 2 teams (there will likely be 3), we'd be shelling out just $96 rather than $140.

As for the officer elections, Greg Tomkovich and Geoff McAuliffe retained their Vice-President and Treasurer roles... Joe Renna was named Secretary... Mark Kernighan earned Member-at-Large status (other MAL listed here) ... Michael Goeller was officially named Webmaster... and, despite there being several others worthy of the honor (including the aforementioned group), I was tabbed to fill the President's shoes.

#233 Business Meeting Postponed

From KCC president Joe Demetrick :

Due to the weather and the importance of some of the issues to be raised at the annual business meeting (Dues, Club Championship format, Officer Elections), I am going to re-schedule the annual business meeting to Thursday, December 27th so that we can get as many people as possible to attend. The annual Holiday party will continue to be held next Thursday, December 20th. The club will provide pizza and soda. Please feel free to bring other food (chips, cookies, etc.) to the party. As a reminder, alcohol is not permitted at the Kenilworth Community Center.

Tonight is designated as an open night, the Community Center should be open for people who would like to go. No scheduled events are planned.

#232 Business Meeting Reminder

The Kenilworth Chess Club's annual business meeting will be held tomorrow night (Thursday 12/13), starting around 8:30. We'll be discussing the club's financial state, electing officers, selecting our Club Championship format & choosing events for our 2008 schedule.

Non-members can play skittles or blitz in the TV room.

#231 Tarrasch French Example

I've annotated & uploaded a Tarrasch French that I played on Playchess Sunday night. It isn't perfect or special but it's a nice game and my best-ever in that variation. Here are the pre-tested (!) links : replay PGN.

#230 Renna vs. Moldovan, by request

Joe Renna has asked me to analyze & make a java-replay of the hard-fought Caro-Kann we played at Kenilworth late last night. Each side made a double-digit number of errors but the game is interesting, nonetheless. For those who prefer to go through it with your chess engine, here's the PGN.

Yet another foul-up fixed Tue 12/11 at 12:25 p.m. Both links now lead where they should.

#229 French Lecture - Part 5

Steve Stoyko's Tarrasch French lecture, scheduled for this week, actually took place this past Thursday (11/29)!

I planned to skip the Kenilworth meeting and would have missed out if not for Bert Shiffman; who gave me a ride from the Maplewood CC and an enlightening Escarole Soup idea (His wife adds slices of pepperoni!).

Anyway for those of you who missed the Tarrasch talk, here are 4 of the illustrated games in java-replay. Steve's wins over Alvarez, Grasso (Roselle-KCC, 2005) and Minkov (KCC Ch., 2006), which were previously posted by The Kenilworthian, are in the 7-game zipped PGN file I uploaded.