Thursday, July 21, 2022

GAME OF THE WEEK by Alan Lasser

   This opening is the specialty of a longtime reader who is known in his chess club as “the Milford Morphy”, so I guess that counts as the last time I saw the Latvian Gambit used by a player with any kind of a title.  Then last week an IM tried it against a fourteen year old.  White managed to avoid the crazier lines, allowing Black to equalize, so it was another good day for the Gambit.  Back at the 1955 US Junior Championships, twelve year old Bobby Fischer lost to the Latvian Gambit of Victor Pupols.
 
Liran Zhou(2393)-IM Michael Song(2409)
New York Summer A
7/9/22
1.e4 e5 
 
½-½

Robert James Fischer-Victor Pupols
US Junior Championships
6/11/55
 
4.d4 d6 
0-1
 
Alan Lasser
Hi Alan,
I'm glad to see you're still pushing wood and that you've forgiven me for hitting on your apple cider when we lived together at 33 Summer Hill Apartments in Middletown CT and I worked with the mental patients from '74 to '78 and finally realized that I didn't know which side of the keys I belonged on and my ADHD was even worse than it is now. I guess I stood up a good buddy there (and I don't mean Buddy Guy or Buddy Rich, or Bud Wiser I guess I didn't treat Mark Denihan right. Well, I'm trying to do better and lately, I've been inspired to do better by Playing for Change and especially by my main man, Buddy Guy performing on PFC. (Skin Deep)
He'll be performing live in Paso Robles on September 25, 2022, down the road a piece from SB (130 miles away from here)
God willin' and the creek don't rise I'll be there too.
Tony (Anthony Allen) Miller AKA Tony no Baloney
Namaste, Alan
ps. Is Mark Weeks living in the States now?
Is Alan Morril still alive and kicking? I see Timbersnake is still alive.
Is Bob Milardo still pissing off CT chess folks?
Fred Townsend?
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Rick Bauer starting to write for CCM again

Hi Rob, I have been doing a lot of chess analysis on LiChess.  Most of the games come from the NBCC, but I also "cover" World Championship cycle games and general chess theory.  They are all posted under my LiChess handle, Connman.

I have also been hosting a "Saturday Study Group" from 5-7 pm each Saturday, where we combine Zoom and LiChess.  I just added your name to the invite list.  "Many are called, but few appear."

The latest game, Jithya Sajeevan - Nelson Castaneda was an extraordinary effort by the young sister of DIG's Jithu.  I have posted it along with the other games from Tuesday night in the following LiChess study: https://lichess.org/study/3em7x2O3

I am thinking about doing a "game of the Week" ala Alan Lasser. What do you think? Rick

Dear Rick, You have made many contributions to CCM, Welcome back.  Rob

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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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