GOING BACK IN TIME with Bob Cyr
Judge Kirkham, who was also a prominent chess master and Connecticut chess champion, worked closely with other newly formed chess organizations in our state, such as Waterbury, Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport, to hold inter-club matches. These events drew a respectable amount of interest and ultimately helped promote our organization and Connecticut chess. In addition to these matches, the NBCC held smaller and more informal tournaments during its regular meetings. Membership levels remained fairly constant during the 1900s and early 1910s, but most chess activities came to a crashing halt as the nation entered WWI. Based on a lack of records, it appears that WWI caused the disbandment of many Connecticut chess clubs.
The NBCC began to re-emerge sometime in the late 1920s. Two of our club’s presidents over the next two decades worked zealously to re-energize our organization: Boleslaw Gryboski in the 1930s and Edmund Roman in the 1940s. These leaders were instrumental in rebuilding a membership base and creating a more structured schedule of activities, including organizing annual club and city championship events to boost membership. Our club also continued to hold joint events with the Hartford Chess Club to attract interest throughout our chess community. However, our leaders’ efforts to keep our club active proved to be quite challenging during these times. First, tragedy struck our club in the mid-1930s when a fire occurred at our meeting place at the United Building on Main Street, destroying many club records and forcing us to relocate. We soon moved to Nathan Hale Junior High School and then to Falcon Crest Hall in New Britain. Then, in 1941, the NBCC lost some of its members because of the draft during WWII. If there was any silver lining for our club during this war, it was that meetings were still held despite a decline in membership. After 1945, membership slowly rose, and it was the task of President Roman and others to ensure that our club would sustain in the second half of the twentieth century.
In 1951, Arkadijs Strazdins, who would eventually become the NBCC’s greatest advocate and contributor and the most influential member in our club’s history, joined our organization. Our club saw many changes in leadership in the mid-to-late 1950s, and membership was still low. However, by the early 1960s, our club started exploring ways to get more involved in the state-wide scene in hopes of sparking more interest in our chess community. Mr. Strazdins, who began his life-long service to the NBCC, often worked with its officers throughout the 1950s and 1960s to arrange and host a variety of matches, simultaneous chess exhibitions, and tournaments, including the annual New Britain Summer Open Chess Championship, which started in 1966 and which would eventually become Connecticut’s grandest summer chess event.
As our club continued to fulfill its most important mission of providing a facility and a social environment for chess, the level of membership rebounded. When the Bobby Fischer boom occurred in the early 1970s, membership soared to unprecedented levels. By 1973, the NBCC had 119 members - a record that would not be challenged until 2010, 2019, and 2017, when membership reached 101, 101, and 104, respectively. Mr. Strazdins, who took the helm as president in 1970, led our club during one of its most prosperous periods.
For nearly twenty years, between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s, our club held its meetings at the General Holler Post in New Britain. Our club was grateful to Jan Cendrowski, a commander of the post and our club president in the 1960s, for securing that venue for so long. Unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances, our club was forced to relocate from that site in 1975. The move came at a time when our club attained peak membership. Thankfully, Mr. Strazdins was able to find and secure a hall at the New Britain Quartette Club, where our club would stay for the next thirty-five years.
With the relocation behind us, our club focused on playing a more pivotal role in the development of Connecticut chess. By 1980, the NBCC was the third-largest chess club in Connecticut behind Hartford and New Haven. Mr. Strazdins, who had won over fifty major club tournaments by then, worked tirelessly to promote our organization in his many capacities as an officer, tournament director, and team captain. He worked countless hours to ensure that our club would remain vibrant in the coming decades. Due to Mr. Strazdins’ steadfast efforts, our club emerged as Connecticut’s largest chess organization by the mid-to-late 1980s.
Mr. Strazdins continued pursuing his passion for and devotion to our club well into the 1990s by keeping its image alive and well. Around the turn of the century, Mr. Strazdins regrettably had to take a step back from club operations because of declining health. His son, Andris, who was our club’s treasurer since 1973, worked passionately with the other officers and tournament directors to ensure that his father’s vision for our club was fulfilled.
The early years of the twenty-first century saw significant changes in leadership in our club, with the stepping down of Mr. Strazdins as president after serving thirty-one years. The new officers then and today were and have been inspired by Mr. Strazdins’ work for our club, and they have kept alive the traditions that he established during his five decades of service to our organization. Moreover, our administrators from 2001 to the present have created their own interesting and unique ideas to benefit our club’s growth, many of which have resulted in the biggest expansion of our club’s social network and have attracted many scholastic chess players.
In 2010, our club left the New Britain Quartette Club and relocated to the New Britain Assyrian Community Center, where we stayed for four years. In 2014, our club moved to our current venue at the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection in New Britain. During both relocations, our organization lost some members but remained a leading voice for chess in Connecticut.
The NBCC is extremely proud of its heritage and its positive impact on our chess community. Despite the challenges that our club has faced (membership declines, relocations, and the stepping down of a leader of thirty-plus years), we endured every time. Because of this and because of our rich and diverse history, “The Heart of Connecticut Chess” will no doubt continue to thrive and flourish in the coming decades. The NBCC is very excited about its future, and we anticipate that future generations of chess players will continue to play an integral role in the advancement of our wonderful institution and Connecticut chess.
If your travels ever bring you to Connecticut, please pay a visit to the NBCC. Meetings are held every Tuesday at the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection. For directions to and more information about our club, please visit www.newbritainchessclub.com.
Yours in chess,
Bob Cyr
NBCC and CT Chess Historian
December 31, 2019
Photo caption
1) 1935 - William Burling wins New Britain City Chess Championship - Photo courtesy of the Hartford Courant
2) 1968 - Jan Cendrowski presents Andris Strazdins with a chess book for his prize in the New Britain City Chess Championship
3) 1979 - Arkadijs Strazdins plays Kurt Holyst in the NBCC Action Quads - Photo courtesy of the New Britain Herald
4) 1996 - Edward McHugh hosts simultaneous chess exhibition at the NBCC - Photo courtesy of the Hartford Courant
5) 2015 - NBCC family photo at the 50th New Britain Summer Open at Wickham Park in Manchester, CT
Here are Bob's latest writings...
New Britain Chess Club Hall of Fame
Chess Biography of Will Torres
Biography of Bob Cyr, Chess Historian
Fun Facts of the New Britain Chess Club
"What are the Odds" annual NBCC tournament, 19th year
Remembering Arkadijs and Andris Strazdins
2020 CONSTITUTION STATE OPEN MARCH 21
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:
It was Y versus Z at the UMass Chess Club the other night when two of the best players sat down without a clock. I was unable to start recording the game until many moves had been played, but the moves I was able to record were tension-filled.
Stockfish 17...Rd7 18.a3 a5 19.Re1 Rdc7 20.Ra1 Re4 21.Rd2 Ra4 22.Re1 b4 23.cxb4 axb4 24.Re4 Rb7 25.Kf1 Ra5 26.axb4 Rab5
15.Kh1 Re8?! +0.74/25
15...Rf4 +0.21/27 16.Rxf4 exf4 17.Rd4 Re8 18.h4 f3 19.gxf3 Qd7 20.h5 20. Kg2 Re2+ 21. Kh3 h5 22. Rf4 Qe8 23. gxh5 Rh2+ 24. Kxh2 Qe2+ 25. Kg1 Qd1+ 26. Kf2 Qd2+ 27. Kf1 Qd1+ 28. Kf2 = Stockfish 20...gxh5 21.Rd2 21. Kg2 Qe7 22. Qxe7 Rxe7 23. Kg3 hxg4 24. Kxg4 Re5 25. a4 Kg7 26. f4 h5+ 27. Kh4 Re2 28. axb5 axb5 = Stockfish 21...Qe7 22.Qxe7 Rxe7 23.gxh5 Re5 24.f4 Re4
16.Qxd6 e4
16...Rf4 17.Rdd1 Rxf1+ 18.Rxf1 e4 19.Qc6 Re7 20.d6 Qd7 21.Qxa6 Re6 22.h3 e3 23.Re1 Rxd6 24.Qa8+ Kg7 25.Qf3 Rd2 26.b4 Rxa2 27.Qxe3 +0.95 Stockfish
17.Rh3 e3
18.Rxh6?! 0.00/29
18.Qf6 +0.77/29 18...Qe7 19.Qxe7 Rxe7 20.d6 Re6 21.d7 Rd6 22.Rxe3 Rxd7 23.h3 Kg7 24.Rfe1 24. Re5 b4 25. Rf3 bxc3 26. Rxc3 Rxc3 27. bxc3 Rc7 28. Ra5 Rc6 29. c4 +1.03 Stockfish 24...a5 25.Kh2 b4 26.Re4 Rxe4 27.Rxe4 bxc3 28.bxc3 Rd2 29.Ra4 Rd5 30.Rc4
18…e2
19.Rxg6+ Kh7
20.Rh6+ Kg8
½-½
Cut and paste the text below for input to a PGN viewer.
[Event "skittles"]
[Site "UMass Chess Club"]
[Date "2019.10.28"]
[White "Yixin Li"]
[Black "Zubin Baliga"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[BlackElo "2055"]
[FEN "r2qk2r/1pp1bpp1/p2p1n1p/3Pp3/4P1bB/2N2N2/PPP1QPPP/R4RK1 b kq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[WhiteElo "2461"]
1...Nxd5 2.Nxd5 Bxh4 3.Qc4 $6 { -1.18/25 } ( 3.a4 { -0.33/24 } 3...Bg5
{ 3... Be7 4. Rfd1 a5 5. Ra3 Bd7 6. Rc3 Bc6 7. Nd2 O-O 8. Nc4 Bg5 9. Na3
Qd7 10. Nb5 Rfc8 -1.06 Stockfish } 4.a5 Qd7 5.Qd3 Bd8 6.h3 Be6 7.c4 f5
8.Ne3 f4 9.Nd5 Bf6 10.Rfd1 O-O-O 11.Kh2 ) ( 3.h3 Bxf3 4.Qxf3 g6 5.Rad1 c6
6.Ne3 Qc7 7.Rd3 O-O 8.Qe2 Be7 9.c4 Qc8 10.Rfd1 Qe6 11.Qc2 h5
{ -0.87 Stockfish } ) 3...c6 4.Nxh4 cxd5 5.exd5 Qxh4 6.f3 Rc8 7.Qb4 (
7.Qa4+ b5 8.Qxg4 Qxg4 9.fxg4 Rxc2 10.a4 b4 11.Rac1 Rxc1 12.Rxc1 Kd7
{ -1.49 Stockfish } ) 7...O-O ( 7...a5 8.Qe4 f5 9.Qa4+ Ke7 10.g3 Qg5
11.fxg4 Qxg4 12.Qxg4 fxg4 13.c3 Rhf8 14.a4 Rxf1+ 15.Kxf1 Rc5 16.Rd1
{ -2.51 Stockfish } ) 8.c3 b5 ( 8...a5 9.Qxg4 Qxg4 10.fxg4 Rc5 11.a4 Rb8
12.h3 f6 13.b4 Rxd5 14.Rfb1 axb4 15.Rxb4 Ra5 16.c4 Rc8 17.Kf2 Rc7
{ -1.31 Stockfish } ) 9.fxg4 Rc5 ( 9...Qe7 10.a4 Rc4 11.Qa5 Qb7 12.axb5
axb5 13.h3 Qxd5 14.Kh2 Re4 15.Rfd1 Qc4 16.Rxd6 Re2 17.Qb4 Qxb4 18.cxb4 Rxb2
{ -1.15 Stockfish } ) 10.Rad1 ( 10.h3 Qe7 11.Qe4 a5 12.a3 Qb7 13.Kh2 Rfc8
14.Rad1 b4 15.cxb4 axb4 16.axb4 Rc4 17.Qf5 Rf8 18.b5 Rb4
{ -0.82 Stockfish } ) 10...Ra8 ( 10...a5 11.Qxa5 Qxg4 12.Qa7 f5 13.Qd7 Qg6
14.a4 bxa4 15.Qxa4 f4 16.Rf2 Rb8 17.Qa7 Rb3 18.Qd7 Kh7 19.Qe6 Rcb5 20.Rdd2
{ -1.56 Stockfish } ) 11.Rd3 ( 11.h3 Qd8 12.Qe4 a5 13.Kh2 Rc4 14.Qf5 Ra7
15.a3 Re7 16.Qd3 Qc7 { -0.72 Stockfish } ) 11...Qe7 ( 11...Qg5 12.h3 Qg6
13.Rd2 a5 14.Qb3 Rb8 15.a3 Qe4 16.Rff2 Qc4 17.Qd1 b4 18.axb4 axb4 19.Qf3 Rf8
20.cxb4 Qxb4 { -0.91 Stockfish } ) 12.Qe4 Rc4 13.Qf5 ( 13.Qe2 Rac8 14.h3 a5
15.a3 b4 16.cxb4 axb4 17.Rdf3 f6 18.Rb3 bxa3 19.bxa3 e4 { -0.97 Stockfish }
) 13...g6 ( 13...Qa7+ 14.Kh1 e4 15.Rd2 Re8 16.Re2 Re5 17.Qf4 e3 18.Qg3 Rce4
19.Rf5 Rxf5 20.gxf5 Qc5 21.h3 Qxd5 { -1.40 Stockfish } ) 14.Qf6 Qa7+ $6
{ +0.14/30 } ( 14...Qxf6 { -0.75/30 } 15.Rxf6 Rd8 16.h3 Kg7 17.Rf1
{ 17. Rf2 a5 18. a3 Rc5 19. Kf1 Rb8 20. Rdf3 Rb7 21. Rd2 b4 22. cxb4 axb4
23. axb4 Rc4 24. Ra3 Rcxb4 -1.30 Stockfish } 17...Rd7 18.a3 a5 19.Re1 Rdc7
20.Ra1 Re4 21.Rd2 Ra4 22.Re1 b4 23.cxb4 axb4 24.Re4 Rb7 25.Kf1 Ra5 26.axb4
Rab5 ) 15.Kh1 Re8 $6 { +0.74/25 } ( 15...Rf4 { +0.21/27 } 16.Rxf4 exf4 17.Rd4
Re8 18.h4 f3 19.gxf3 Qd7 20.h5
{ 20. Kg2 Re2+ 21. Kh3 h5 22. Rf4 Qe8 23. gxh5 Rh2+ 24. Kxh2 Qe2+ 25. Kg1
Qd1+ 26. Kf2 Qd2+ 27. Kf1 Qd1+ 28. Kf2 = Stockfish } 20...gxh5 21.Rd2
{ 21. Kg2 Qe7 22. Qxe7 Rxe7 23. Kg3 hxg4 24. Kxg4 Re5 25. a4 Kg7 26. f4 h5+
27. Kh4 Re2 28. axb5 axb5 = Stockfish } 21...Qe7 22.Qxe7 Rxe7 23.gxh5 Re5
24.f4 Re4 ) 16.Qxd6 e4 ( 16...Rf4 17.Rdd1 Rxf1+ 18.Rxf1 e4 19.Qc6 Re7 20.d6
Qd7 21.Qxa6 Re6 22.h3 e3 23.Re1 Rxd6 24.Qa8+ Kg7 25.Qf3 Rd2 26.b4 Rxa2
27.Qxe3 { +0.95 Stockfish } ) 17.Rh3 e3 18.Rxh6 $6 { 0.00/29 } ( 18.Qf6
{ +0.77/29 } 18...Qe7 19.Qxe7 Rxe7 20.d6 Re6 21.d7 Rd6 22.Rxe3 Rxd7 23.h3 Kg7
24.Rfe1
{ 24. Re5 b4 25. Rf3 bxc3 26. Rxc3 Rxc3 27. bxc3 Rc7 28. Ra5 Rc6 29. c4
+1.03 Stockfish } 24...a5 25.Kh2 b4 26.Re4 Rxe4 27.Rxe4 bxc3 28.bxc3 Rd2
29.Ra4 Rd5 30.Rc4 ) 18...e2 19.Rxg6+ Kh7 20.Rh6+ Kg8 1/2-1/2
Alan Lasser
blacklightmazes@icloud.com
website: blacklightmazes.com
