#295 Kenilworth Championship - Final Round

Open Section

NM Mark Kernighan defeated Ari Minkov to become Club Champion. I lost to Don Carrelli, who recently tied for 8th place in the Foxwoods Open U1700 section.


U1800 Playoff

Dr. Ian Mangion beat Joe Demetrick to win the U1800 crown. Hart-Wojcio was postponed but, since 1st place has been decided, it & the other remaining contest, Demetrick-Hart, will likely be cancelled.


U1400 Tiebreaker

Joe Renna won his 2nd straight U1400 title with a victory against Bert Shiffman, who, for the 3rd week in a row, could not convert a huge advantage.


Here are all of last night's matches in java-replay & PGN.


update : fully annotated version of Carrelli-Moldovan uploaded 3/29 @ 5:25 p.m.

#294 Kenilworth Blitz Postponed

The Kenilworth Blitz tournament scheduled for April 24th has been postponed to make room for the Irving Ellner & Sy Fish Memorial event(s). The dates & formats of the latter two will be announced in the near future.

#293 Notes to Mangion-Hart

Notes to last week's Mangion-Hart game have been uploaded. Thanks to TD Geoff McAuliffe for "fritzing" it. Please refer to post #289 for the game-links.

#292 Six Free Months of World Chess Live!!

Free six-month memberships to World Chess Live are now available to all members of the U.S. Chess Federation, whether or not they are currently members of WCL. For new WCL members, simply enter your USCF membership number and PIN (they're on your Chess Life mailing label) at the bottom of the WCL registration page in the Group ID and Group PIN boxes. If you're already registered with WCL, go to your account page and use the link in the Memberships/Affiliations section at the bottom.

Sign-up for this offer ends on September 30, 2008.

#291 Sherer-Kernighan Notes

Notes to last night's draw between Max Sherer & NM Mark Kernighan have been uploaded. Please refer to post #289 for the game-links.

#290 Java & Zip For Post #282 Uploaded

Sorry, folks. I just realized that the Java & zip for Post #282, Good 15+0 ICC Game, weren't uploaded back on 3/9.

Well... better late than never. Here are the replay, PGN, and critical position, where Black threatens mate in 3 :

Moldovan-romansap94
after 30...Kg7??

White to win

#289 Kenilworth Championship - Week 10

I tried to provide live coverage of the games in this space but the wi-fi signal at the club was weak & it faded-out just before I could post. So a typical report will have to do.

Open Section

Max Sherer held Mark Kernighan to a draw and missed a chance for an even bigger upset :

Sherer-Kernighan
after 22...Rae8??

White to win

With one head to head meeting to go Mark & Ari Minkov are tied with 6.0.

crosstable
next week's pairings : Kernighan-Minkov; Carrelli-Moldovan


U1800 Playoffs

Ian Mangion beat Glen Hart to take the lead.

crosstable
next week's pairings : Demetrick (1.0/1)-Mangion (2.0/2);
Hart (0.0/1)-Wojcio (0.0/2)


U1400 Playoffs

Bert Shiffman won via forfeit against Chris Lim and drew the tie-breaker against Joe Renna. So, Bert & Joe will have to go at it again... for a 4th time!

crosstable
next week's pairings : Renna-Shiffman [G/60 tiebreaker]


Here are all of last night's matches in java-replay & PGN.

#288 KCCC - Round 9 Update

I've annotated my win over Max Sherer & added some thoughts on Glen Hart's victory versus Justin Roach. Here are the updated 9th-round java-replay & PGN.

Further Update : Notes to Minkov-Carrelli uploaded 3/18 @ 12:06 a.m.

#287 Checkmate Championship - Wrap-Up

I have uploaded notes to my last-round game vs. Mark Kernighan and updated the associated replay page + zipped PGN.

#286 Kenilworth Championship - Week 9

Open Section

With leader Mark Kernighan getting the week off, Ari Minkov took over the top spot by beating Don Carrelli. I overcame an inferior position against Max Sherer and moved into 3rd place.

The remaining schedule should be as follows :

• 3/20 Sherer (2.0)-Kernighan (5.5)
• 3/27 Kernighan-Minkov (6.0) & Carrelli (0.5)-Moldovan (3.0)
  

U1800 Sections

Play in the B group ended with Glen Hart defeating Justin Roach and earning a berth in the U1800 playoffs. In those playoffs, last night, Joe Demetrick handed Mike Wojcio his 2nd-straight defeat.

Joe Renna, meanwhile, clinched at least a tie for 1st in the U1400 playoffs when Bert Shiffman allowed him to draw by repetition. Bert needs a win vs. Chris Lim to force a re-match with Joe.


Here are the updated Open & final U1800-B standings, the U1800 playoff & U1400 playoff tables, plus 3 of yesterday's games in java-replay & PGN. Notes to my battle will follow at some point.

#285 USATE Games

A ChessBase file with 428 games from last month’s U.S. Amateur Team East Tournament in Parsippany is available at the NJSCF web site!

Here’s a small zip & java-replay page with 25 played by Kenilworth CC & team members. 19 of those games, including 4 of mine, made it into The Week In Chess 696.

#284 Elizabeth Chess Club

The Elizabeth Chess Club meets Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Elmora Racquet Club, 23 Ferwood Terrace.

At present, it mostly consists of youths but Dr. Richard Lewis (President), Yaacov Norowitz & Mikhail Kruglyak are members and encourage all to stop by.

#283 Checkmate Championship - Round 7

With Ari Minkov electing not to play, second place in the Checkmate Championship was up for grabs. Bob Sherry took it with a win over Ted Mann while I turned victory into loss against NM Mark Kernighan. Don Carrelli beat Joe Azzarello to finish fifth.

Here are the final standings :

1. Kernighan 7.0
2. Sherry 5.0
3. Minkov 4.5
4. Moldovan 4.0
5. Carrelli 3.0
6. Renna 2.5
7-8. Mann 1.0
7-8. Azzarello 1.0

... and crosstable; plus the replays & PGN of last night's games.

Since I'm rather "chessed-out" at the moment (Wish the KCCC was done, too.), I'll post my final-game notes later this week.

#282 Good 15+0 ICC Game

I played a good game against a 2232-rated on ICC yesterday but lost on time. Here's the replay & PGN, if you want to check it out.

#281 KCCC - Two More From Round 7

Roach-Mann & Shiffman-Mangion have been added to the Kenilworth Championship 7th round java-replays & PGN file.

#280 Kenilworth Championship - Week 8

Open Section

Mark Kernighan beat me in 18 moves again while Ari Minkov defeated Max Sherer. With 2 games to go Mark leads Ari by a half-point.

U1800 Sections

TD Geoff McAuliffe decided to change the format to a single RR plus U1800 & U1400 playoffs.

The U1800 qualifiers, so far, are :

• Ian Mangion (= 1st in the 'A' group)
  
• Mike Wojcio (= 1st in the 'A' group)
  
• Joe Demetrick (clinched a share of the 'B' group crown).

Glen Hart can knot Joe D. by beating Justin Roach next week.


The U1400 participants are :

• Bert Shiffman (= 3rd in the 'A' group)
• Joe Renna (= 3rd in the 'A' group)
• Chris Lim (5th in the 'B' group)
  

Last night there was one regular U1800 game :

• Demetrick 1-0 Roach

... and two playoff games :

• Mangion 1-0 Wojcio
• Lim 0-1 Renna

Also, due to the U1800 event being shortened :

• last week's Agress-Wojcio & Shiffman-Mangion will not count in the RR standings but will be USCF-rated as extra games
• Jim Cole's results stand & his remaining opponents (Yampolskiy, Lim, Roach) get full points.

Finally, here are the updated, standings for the Open, U1800-A, U1800-B sections and... 4 of the 8th-round games in replay & PGN. 3 are annotated.

Demetrick-Roach amended 3/9 @ 12:23 p.m.

#279 Kernighan Wins Checkmate Championship

NM Mark Kernighan clinched his 2nd Checkmate Championship crown by defeating Ari Minkov last night. Minkov, who has also won the event twice, still has a beat on 2nd place but Bob Sherry & I closed the gap to a half-point with wins over Don Carrelli & Ted Mann. Joe Renna escaped from the cellar with a victory over Joe Azzarello.

Here are the full standings, last night's games, in java-replay & zipped PGN and ...

the match-ups for next Sunday's 7th & final round :

• Kernighan (6.0) - Moldovan (4.0)
• Renna (1.5) - Minkov (4.5)
• Mann (1.0) - Sherry (4.0)
• Carrelli (2.0)- Azzarello (1.0)

revised notes to Moldovan-Mann posted 3/4 @ 7:48 a.m.

#278 Kenilworth Championship - Updates

Now that I've received most of the 7th round results (only missing Lim-Yampolskiy), here are the week's replay page & PGN plus updated standings for the Open, U1800-A & U1800-B sections.

Special thanks to Don, Joe D., Gordon, Mike & Ted for sending in games & responding to my e-mails.

P.S. - Mark Kernighan gave me a copy of his Round 5 draw vs. Ari Minkov. Please refer to post #271 or #275 for the game-links.