Thursday, July 21, 2022

GAME OF THE WEEK by Alan Lasser

 
   Some club players have developed a bad habit from their internet play, they don’t play out bad endgames.   They don’t like endgames, they don’t study endgames;  why should they suffer some pawn-down drudgery when they can just click a button and start a new game?  However, especially at the faster time limits, fierce resistance is still worthwhile.
   In the starting position for this game I am about to go two pawns down, but I have the bishop against the knight, a path for a king invasion, and I even find a way to make a passed pawn.  The final winning idea for my opponent was counter-intuitive, unlikely to be found with the clock winding down. 
 
Mike Smith(1944)-Alan Lasser(1939)
6/9/22
Westerly Chess Club
game/15
½-½

 

 
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Wednesday, July 20, 2022

BRIDGEPORT CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS' NEW FORMAT - AUG 19-22

Hey Everyone,
 
I wanted to make sure that all of you know that you can get a full refund if you do not want to play in the Bridgeport Open after we lowered the cash prizes. All you have to do is email me and I'll get you the full refund.
 
To explain what happened, there was a miscommunication between MVL's agent and DIG about how many simul spots we could have per section. We thought we could do 50 players per section. We checked in again with MVL's agent because we started talking about how that's a lot of players for a simul and it turns out that the better number is 20 players per section. This will make it a better experience for everyone.
 
50 to 20 is a 40% decrease. Therefore, we decided to decrease the prize fund by 40% to $10,000 because we dont know if people will sign up beyond the simul spots. The new prize money is $10,000 based on a minimum of 100 entrants in the top four sections. We are guaranteeing $5,000 regardless of how many players show up. 
 
If I were in your shoes, I would get suspicious that we are trying to bait and switch you with the decreased prize fund. I'm big on ethics so I will be transparent on everything. 
 
We are going to use 100% of the profit from the tournament to host more free chess classes in Bridgeport. There is a high chance that we will lose money on this event. I will explain the finances later in this email. This is our first large cash prize chess tournament and from what I've heard, most tournaments like this lose money. We are doing this for two reasons:
 
1. We want Bridgeport to be a chess city like St Louis.
2. We are fans of MVL.
 
Regarding the finances, our costs to bring MVL here, cash prizes, tournament directors facility operating costs and other stuff like that will be around:
 
1. With a $10k prize fund if we get a minimum of 100 players in the top four sections: $28,000
2. With $5k prize fund minimum: $23,000
 
Now, let's take a look at our revenue. If we fill all of our simul spots we will make $20,000. That means that we will need to get more players in addition to the simul spots just to break even. We have zero money from sponsors. The city of Bridgeport is providing the school, security and janitors for free. 
 
I hope that this cleared up any concerns for anyone out there. If you know me, you know I care about integrity. I can understand any confusion before this email. Please contact me with any questions.

Respectfully,
 
Coach Dan
 
502-468-6930
 
 
 
 
 
 

Rob Roy
12:51 PM (0 minutes ago)
 
  
to Dan,
Dear Dan,

 
Sorry for the disappointment.  Your event had the potential of being one of the best chess events ever held in Connecticut.
 
I will post your update verbatim at ConnecticutChess.blogspot.com
 
Rob Roy
 
 
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Saturday, July 16, 2022

July 23 - Summer Lecture

UPCOMING CSCA COMMUNITY EVENT
July 23 - Summer Lecture & Simul, featuring: GM Sergey Kudrin, hosted by the Sacred Heart University Chess and co-sponsored by Connecticut State Chess Association and Chess Club of Fairfield County. FREE GM lecture. The simultaneous exhibition also features NM Mikhail Koganov. See details and registration.
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Thursday, June 30, 2022

Summer Chess News Wire

Conn State Chess Assoc.

  • World Championship Candidates Tournament is in progress from Madrid
  • CSCA to meet online via Zoom and Lichess.org in July and August
  • CSCA and Sacred Heart Univ. to feature Conn. GM Sergey Kudrin, on July 23
  • GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to appear at Bridgeport Open, Aug 19-22
  • GM Hans Niemann is one of five to win the 2022 Samford Fellowship
  • FM Max Lu, NM Zach Tanenbaum, and NM Nate Moor place at Northeast Open 
  • FM Nelson Castaneda wins 2022 Arkadijs Strazdins Cup

http://www.chessct.org/csca/cscamain.php

View CSCA website for details.

 

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Saturday, June 11, 2022

RESULTS FROM PLANET EARTH

 
 
As many of you know, FM Nelson Castaneda won the 2022 Arkadijs Strazdins Cup. Winning the 2022 Andris Strazdins Stein was one of our newest members, Vijay Shirtan.
 
One of the highlights of the tournament was the first-ever live broadcast of the NBCC game (round 5 - FM Nelson Castaneda and FM Richard Bauer). 
 
Next Tuesday, June 14, after Nelson's lecture on the knight, the club will host its annual business meeting, where the club operations and financial condition over the last year will be discussed.
 
Lastly, we will have officer elections for positions of president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer for the upcoming fiscal year in September. It is important that all members attend this meeting.
 
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202205213932.0-14671518
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Thursday, June 9, 2022

HOW THEY FIND CONNECTICUT CHESS MAGAZINE

https://connecticutchess.blogspot.com/

1.Direct                  6,731(34.75%)

2.Social                  6,074(31.36%)

3.Organic Search   3,977(20.53%)

4.Referral              2,310(11.93%)

5.Email                   179(0.92%)

6.(Other)                  97(0.50%)

 
 
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Wednesday, June 1, 2022

JUNE 4 TOURNAMENT IN NORWALK


UPCOMING CSCA TOURNAMENT
Jun 4 - 26th Annual Robert Musicant/Donald Yazgoor Memorial Tournament, an open scholastic (pK-12) tournament hosted by the Norwalk Public Library (Main) and co-sponsored by the library and RedBandit Chess. FREE entry for Norwalk residents. See details.

Final Scholastic of 2021-22! Events ends by 2PM or sooner!

 
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Connecticut State Chess Association   ---   ChessCT.org   ---   chess.CSCA@gmail.com
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