GOING BACK IN TIME BY BOB CYR
GOING BACK IN TIME by Bob Cyr
Greetings, chess friends:
Here is another time travel experience. Here is what about I about the first "odds" tournament held at the club when Mike Pascetta and Derek Meredith took over as president and vice president, respectively, in 2010. This is mentioned in the 2010 NBCC newsletter. Listed below are the 18 prior winners of this series of tournament, which are part of the club archives.
Tonight, the club is hosting its 19th in this series of tournaments.
On September 7, the new club administration held its first tournament, an eight round Swiss-system time odds event, the first in club history. According to Mike Pascetta, the 1st “What Are the Odds Blitz Chess Tournament” allowed the players to “receive more time than their higher-rated opponents in order to level the playing field.” Everyone enjoyed the event. And, after three hours of spirited play, FM Richard Bauer captured first place.
XVIII: Nelson Castaneda and Suhas Kodali
XVII: Raghav Arun and Daniel Pascetta
XVI: Max Krall and Mark Rovensky
XV: Manav Ramprasad and Nelson Castaneda
XIV: Mark Bourque
XIII: Joseph Bihlmeyer
XII: Alexander Ruth
XI: Joseph Bihlmeyer, David Herscovici, Allen Mo, James Wilkin.
X: James Wilkin
IX: Daniel Pascetta
VIII: Alexander Ruth
VII: Dennis Prawira
VI: Nelson Castaneda
V: Nelson Castaneda
IV: Nelson Castaneda
III: Richard Bauer
II: Richard Bauer
I: Richard Bauer
On September 7, the new club administration held its
first tournament, an eight round Swiss-system time odds event, the first in
club history. According to Mike Pascetta, the 1st “What Are the Odds
Blitz Chess Tournament” allowed the players to “receive more time than their
higher-rated opponents in order to level the playing field.” Everyone enjoyed
the event. And, after three hours of spirited play, FM Richard Bauer captured
first place.
Yours in chess and time,
Robert Cyr
NBCC Historian
Lifetime NBCC Member
USCF Local Tournament Director
WELCOME OUR NEWEST CHESS CLUB
HAMDEN CHESS CLUB (USCF ID A6054128)
ROD GROFF
PLAY MORE CHESS ACADEMY
1890 DIXWELL AVE SUITE 101, HAMDEN, CT, 06514.
email: HamdenChessClub@PlayMoreChess.com
Web Site: https://PlayMoreChess.com
Casual Play, USCF Rated Events, Unrated Events, Blitz Events, Bughouse, Sets Available, Clocks Available, Chess Items for Sale, Classes Offered, Chess Camps, Private Lessons Offered, Under Age 18 Welcome, Beginners Welcome, Refreshments.
Norman Burtness, President
New Britain Chess Club
newbritainchessclub@gmail.com
www.newbritainchessclub.com
NBCC Weekly News Sept. 6, 2019
This Week’s News Items:
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Oktoberfest Tournament starts September 10, 2019
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What are the Odds? Results
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Time to Renew Your NBCC Membership before Oktoberfest starts
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Training Class 6:15-7:00 - Suhas Kodali
Oktoberfest Winners
2018 Open: Nelson Castaneda and Joseph Bihlmeyer, U1800: Laxma Dendi
2017 Open: Dennis Prawira, U1800: Harold Blanchard
2016 Open: Nelson Castaneda, U1800: Bill Campbell
2015 Open: Nelson Castaneda and Mark Bourque, U1600: Ybelka Granger
2014 Open: Nelson Castaneda and David Herscovici, U1700: Swastik Chaki
2013 Open: Derek Meredith, Douglas Fiske, and Allen Mo, U1700: John Twombley and Kevin Zimmerman
2012 Open: Derek Meredith, U1700: Brian Kosnoff and Jason Homiak
2011 Open: Nelson Castaneda, Derek Meredith, and Yogesh Raghunathan, U1700: Jonathan Aiythurai
2010 Open: Nelson Castaneda, U1600: Andris Strazdins
2009 Open: Nelson Castaneda, U1600: George Himes
2008 Open: James Nitz, U1600: Kevin Berry
2007: Dennis Prawira
2006: James Nitz and Daniel Rozovsky
What are the Odds? Tournament Results
CONGRATULATIONS TO Shaina Mezheritzsky, perhaps the youngest tournament winner ever at NBCC for tying for 1st place with Phiron Hin, Nelson Castaneda and Arijit Chakraborty. Each winner won 5 of their 6 matches.
In the “What are the Odds?” tournament, players are given a time handicap based on rating. The total time for the game is 10 minutes, with no delay. For every 100pts difference in rating, the stronger player loses 1 minute and gives it to the weaker player, up until a 400 pt ratings difference where the time is 9 min vs. 1 minute.
Please Renew your membership:
The success of the NBCC depends on the contributions and support of our chess community. Membership dues are needed to pay for the use of the facilities, to purchase equipment and to run the club.
Benefits of a NBCC Membership include:
Casual play every week
Reduced tournament entry fee
Support of chess in CT
Participation in member only events, such as our Club Championship
and Christmas Party
Membership dues for the 9/1 - 8/31 club year are:
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Regular $65
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Children and full time students: $50
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2nd family member: $35
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65+ yrs old or out of state college student: $35
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Special $35 in case of a Financial Hardship
You can also pay with check or cash at the club or renew by PayPal on our website.
NBCC membership page and PayPal link
Training Class 6:15-7:00
On Tuesday, Sept 10, Expert Suhas Kodali will be training on the features of lichess, a free online chess website that many club members have been using to improve their game. We will look at how you can submit your games on lichess for analysis. We will also look at how you can use lichess to analyze your own games.teach.
GAME OF THE WEEK by Alan Lasser
This is a chess 960 game from the recent Champions Showdown. The starting position here is actually move eight. My Hiarcs software program can handle an artificially created position, but it doesn’t understand the chess960 castling rules.
In order to create a pgn I have to start the game on move eight, after both sides have castled. On move eight the pawns look like a regular opening, with a piece or two on a funny square. Fischer Random works pretty much every time, you get a real chess position to play and no extensive opening preparation seems possible.
A switch to Fischer Random would make chess more fun for the titled players, all that time they spend on the computer doing opening research must be a drag for them. Most players don’t have as much memory for opening preparation; a master on this mailing list writes that his opponents usually don't play more than five moves of book main lines.
So if we don’t know the openings all that well anyway, why couldn’t millions of chess players make the switch to this new game to help keep a few thousand grandmasters from driving themselves crazy?
The cynics might say that it’s just a plot to sell us the new chess equipment that generates random starting positions, but that’s the same thing they said when digital chess clocks came out, and in the long run, the switch to digital clearly improved the game.
Another obstacle is those 30,000 chess books in the Cleveland Public Library. Our game probably has the greatest literature of any game, of any sport, of any human competition; a switch would turn the opening books into so much Latin. On the other hand, each of the new 960 openings would require several books written about them, so let a thousand authors bloom.
We don’t get much chance to see Kasparov play chess anymore. I wanted to show you Kasparov’s win from this day, but the last castle in that game is on move nineteen, which didn’t leave much game to analyze. So this is all of the former World Champion’s play I will show you, the remaining moves from a five minute game of 960.
The starting position with Black to move is:
White-Kg1, Qc1, Rb1, Rf1, Ba1, Bg2, Nd3, Nf3
p-a2, b4, c5, d2, e2, f2, g3, h2
Black-Kg8, Qc8, Rb8, Rf8, Ba8, Be7, Nf6, Nh6
p-a7, b5, c7, d7, e6, f5, g7, h7
GM Gary Kasparov-GM Fabiano Caruana
960 Champions Showdown, Blitz round, 9/5/19
1...Bd5
24...Bf6
29...Rxe6
Carissa Yip
America’s top-ranked female chess player
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COVENTRY CHESS CLUB by Rob Roy
NOV. 16 2019 YANKEE PEDDLER OPEN
3SS, G/60 d5. Mill Brook Place, 1267 Main St. (Rt 31), Coventry, CT 06238. EF: $35 Cash Only Onsite Only. $$GTD: $160-80. Reg.: 9:45 am - 10:10 am. Rds.: 10:30, 1:30, 3:45. INFO: ConnecticutChess@Gmail.com Dir: One Section. Accel.Pairings. https://ConnecticutChess.blogspot.com W. USCF TLA
DEC. 14 2019 HOLIDAY PARTY OPEN
3SS, G/60 d5. Mill Brook Place, 1267 Main St. (Rt 31), Coventry, CT 06238. EF: $35 Cash Only Onsite Only. $$GTD: $160-80. Reg.: 9:45 am - 10:10 am. Rds.: 10:30, 1:30, 3:45. INFO: ConnecticutChess@Gmail.com Dir: One Section. Accel.Pairings. https://ConnecticutChess.blogspot.com W. USCF TLA
COVENTRY CHESS CLUB 2020 CALENDAR
Mill Brook Place, 1267 Main St. (Rt 31)
JAN 18 2020 GREATER HARTFORD OPEN
FEB 22 2020 EASTERN CONNECTICUT OPEN
MAR 21 2020 CONSTITUTION STATE OPEN
APR 18 2020 MILL BROOK PARK OPEN
May thru August - No Tournaments
SEP 26 2020 CONNECTICUT HARVEST OPEN
OCT 17 2020 CHARTER OAK OPEN
NOV 14 2020 CONNECTICUT YANKEE OPEN
DEC 12 2020 NUTMEG STATE OPEN
PAST ISSUES OF CONNECTICUT CHESS MAGAZINE
CHESS COLUMNS FROM THE PAST by Rob Roy
1977 - 2000, Rob Roy wrote 1,300 Waterbury Sunday Republican chess columns. The column helped his Waterbury Chess Club to become very successful.
Clerks at the newspaper office were the ones who re-typed hard-copy into the newspaper system, they made many typos with chess notation. All future editions of Connecticut Chess Magazine will feature a different column.
