GOING BACK IN TIME with Bob Cyr

GOING BACK IN TIME  by Bob Cyr

On a warm and gorgeous, sunny August 26, the club held its grandest event of 2012 - the annual New Britain Summer Open Chess Championship. This year’s tournament was held at Wickham Park in Manchester.

In the years following our move from the New Britain Quartette Club (our former weekly meeting place), the officers have been trying to find a new permanent location to hold our club’s blockbuster summer outing.

In 2011 and 2010, two different country clubs were the venues of this tournament. And even though their facilities were beautiful, our players were not afforded many opportunities to play their games outside at these locations, which was a major attraction when these events were held under the QC pavilion. 

This year, however, the vivid memories of those open-air events at the QC from 2007-2009, with a barbecue lunch and casual time during rounds to play frisbee or engage in social interaction, were brought back to life as sixty-one players (third-highest turnout for an event held by the club) throughout the Nutmeg State and beyond gathered under the pavilion at Wickham Park to be a part of one of the most successful tournaments in the club’s history.

The credit for finding such a gem of a venue goes to USCF NM Derek Meredith. Keeping with the tradition of this tournament, a BBQ lunch was included.

And who else better to cater the lunch for our hungry crew other than NBCC Chef Kevin Zimmerman, Marie Juergens, and Mitch Daniels. This professional food staff prepared all of the famous summertime culinary delights from cheeseburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, antipasto salad, fresh garden salad, and baked beans, and they provided plenty of soda and water throughout the afternoon.

After lunch, our players were treated to cake to celebrate the marriage of our members Mike Fries and Bethany Sonstrom on September 1. Thanks to member Laurent Lafosse for his fine job in selecting the cake and delivering it to the event.

One of main reasons the tournament was so successful this year was attributed to Gert Hilhorst. As a result of his efforts to recruit members from the Simsbury Library Chess Club, a historic twenty-four scholastic (under 18) players participated in our tournament, shattering the old record of sixteen established at the “Andy Strazdins Over/Under 15 Quick Chess Tournament” in 2010.

The youth alone represented an impressive forty percent of the total turnout. In addition, I want to extend appreciation to Rob Roy, former Connecticut State Chess Association president, for advertising our tournament on numerous social media websites, and for taking photos for his website.

Our tournament directors that day, Doug Fiske and Bob Kozlowski, also deserve credit for doing a superb job with the handling of on-site registrations, making the pairings, being available for questions, and awarding of the prizes. The following people also deserve recognition for making this tournament one for the NBCC record books: Andy Strazdins, Brian Kosnoff, and Jerry Aiyathurai.

It is obvious that an event of this magnitude requires many hours of planning, but our volunteer staff was up to the challenge. Because of their hard work and dedication, we had another fantastic Summer Open.

Before closing, I do want to mention that a significant milestone occurred for FM Nelson Castaneda at this event. For tying for first place with FM Richard Bauer, Nelson has earned an honorable place, with Arkadijs Strazdins and Rick, in NBCC history for attaining twenty ties or wins for first place (even if non-cash prizes were awarded) in our club’s major tournaments.

So, friends, if you have never been a part of this extraordinary chess experience, or played in this event in recent years and could not this year, I really hope that you can join us at this event in 2019. I guarantee you will not want to miss it!