Connecticut Chess Magazine: CONNECTICUT CHESS MAGAZINE

3/30
The National Nominations Candidates Tournament took place at the Raymond Library in East Hartford. The Denker/High School section was won by Zachary Tanenbaum of Greenwich, his third win in four years. Peter Wolfe of North Milford was victorious in the Barber/K-8 and Beatrice Low of Westport won the Girls' for the fifth (!) consecutive time. They all scored 3-0 and will be this year's official representatives for Connecticut to the Denker Tournament of High School Champions, the Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions and the National Girls Tournament of Champions to be held August 1-6 in Orlando, FL.

3/30
The first Connecticut State Scholastic Speed Championship was attended by 64 players and took place at the Raymond Library in East Hartford. Alongside an open event, many scholastic state titles were at stake. The winners:
Elementary Quick Champion: Jack Clayton & Roaring Brook School (Avon)
Elementary Blitz Champion: Vedanta Bhargava & Roaring Brook School (Avon)
Elementary Bullet Champion: Vedanta Bhargava & West Woods School (Hamden)
Elementary Overall Speed Champion: Vedanta Bhargava & West Woods Brook School (Hamden)
Middle Quick Champion: Carter Clayton & King Philip Middle School (West Hartford)
Middle Blitz Champion: Carter Clayton & King Philip Middle School (West Hartford)
Middle Bullet Champion: Carter Clayton & King Philip Middle School (West Hartford)
Middle Overall Speed Champion: Carter Clayton & King Philip Middle School (West Hartford)
High Quick Champion: Christoper Beaulieu & Manchester High School
High Blitz Champion: Christoper Beaulieu & Manchester High School
High Bullet Champion: Mitchell Bouchard & Manchester High School
High Overall Speed Champion: Christoper Beaulieu & Manchester High School
The Overall Open Speed Champion was UConn student Roman Rychkov of New Jersey.

3/24
Crosstable of the 47th NECA in Stamford.

3/23
Crosstable of the Spring Fatima 2019 in Wilton.

3/17

Several players from Connecticut participated and two players placed in the 2019 National High School Championship in Schaumburg, Illinois. Kim Yoon-Young finished in 13th place after losing a critical game in the penultimate round. 2019 State High School Champion Zachary Tanenbaum finished in 25th place started with 4-0 including a spectacular win over a higher rated opponent.

3/16
Peter Wolfe of North Milford wins Leg 3 of the National Nominations Grand Prix and clinches the top qualifying spot to the Barber NNCT to be held on March 30 in East Hartford. Unrated Gabriel Raffa of Massachusetts scores 5-0 to win the K-12 U1200. Daniel Zhou wins top qualifying spot for the Denker NNCT and Beatrice Low for the Girls' NNCT. Final results of the K-12 Open and K-12 U1000; rating report and Final Standings of the 2018-19 NNGP.

3/16

Joe Bihlmeyer wins the 2019 Greater Hartford Open in Coventry.

3/10
Following a tie for first in the CT State Senior Open a week earlier, on Sunday March 10, Mikhail Koganov and Derek Meredith were hosted by the Chess Club of Fairfield County in Norwalk for a G/75 playoff to decide the winner and state representative to the 2019 National Senior Tournament of Champions August 1-6 in Orlando, FL. After both players each won one game, Derek could not continue the playoff with blitz games due to personal reasons. It was decided that Mikhail and Derek are the 2019 CT State Senior Open Co-Champions and that Mikhail will be the representative to the Nationals and Derek will be the alternate.

3/2
The New Britain Chess Club hosted the 1st CT Senior Open Championship. The 3-SS G/75;d5 tournament was open to players age 50 and older. Thirteen players plus a house player competed for the title. Derek Meredith and Mikhail Koganov tied for 1st with 3 points each. They will have at least a 2-game (G/75;d5) playoff next weekend to determine the champion. Norman Burtness won the U2000 prize. The complete crosstable of results can be found here, USCF Crosstable - 2019 CT Senior Open. The tournament was directed by NBCC President and CSCA director Norman Burtness.

3/2
160 players compete at State K-12 Scholastic Championships
The CSCA and Manchester High School were the hosts of the 2019 CT State High, Middle, Elementary and Primary School Championships. Due to the early morning snow storm the tournament was delayed by two hours. The High School section was won with a perfect 5-0 by Zachary Tanenbaum from Greenwich High School. This was Zachary's third H.S. state title and with his victory he qualified for the National Nominations Candidates' Tournament Denker section on March 30 in East Hartford. Simsbury High School won their third state title.
The Middle School section was won with a perfect 5-0 by Nakul Ramaswamy from Henry James Middle School in Simsbury. Henry James also won the state title, their fifth! With his win Nakul qualified for the NNCT Barber.

Erik Nebylovich of Westover Magnet Elementary School in Stamford, 2018 Primary State Champion, edged out Jack Clayton on tiebreaks to clinch the Elementary title. Westwoods Upper Elementary from Farmington won the state title. Erik also qualified to the NNCT Barber on March 30.
The Primary section was with a perfect 5-0 by Ethan Shemo, leading his team Roaring Brook from Avon to the state title.

GAME OF THE WEEK by Alan Lasser

Over the years, the computer has been very busy analyzing my games and telling me how stupid I am, so the results shouldn't surprise me any more. In this game, the computer says I actually resigned a game I was winning. It wasn’t the kind of continuation I usually spot at game/15, so after my sacrifice appeared to fail, I was a bit too eager to set up the pieces and start the next game.

Alan Lasser-Nimrod Hajaj

3/28/19

UMass Chess Club

game/15

1.e4 e5

2.f4 exf4

3.Qf3 d5

4.exd5 Nf6

5.Nc3 Bd6

6.Bb5+ Nbd7

7.Nge2 O-O

8.d4 Nb6