Archive for the ‘Tournaments’ Category

The 2011 Unofficial Club Champion

Posted: January 3, 2012 in chess, Tournaments
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At the beginning of each year, it is interesting to take a look back at the results from our tournaments to see who had the best performances at our Wednesday night events. There are some surprises to report this year. For the first time in a long while, the winner of the most events was not Arthur Feuerstein or Roger Pedersen.

Most Tournament Wins

In 2011, we held a total of eleven events – ten tournaments and one impromptu match-play night. To be fair, a “tournament winners” is defined as the person with the most points after playing five rounds (wins derived from extra matches by playing two boards were not counted). Based on this criteria, our new club champion is George Grasser, who won four of the ten events. Roger Pedersen was a close second, winning three events over the course of the year. Below is a tally of first and second place finishes for those who won at least one tournament (note there are more than 10 winners as there were a few ties for the most points):

  • George Grasser       4 wins, 2 seconds
  • Roger Pedersen      3 wins
  • George Mendez      2 wins
  • Lazar Vilotijevic     1 win, 3 seconds
  • Arthur Feuerstein  1 win, 1 second
  • Chris Zelenka          1 win, 1 second
  • Dan Zonenberg       1 win

Most Improved Players

Three players showed dramatic improvement in their ratings in 2001, improving by a full rating class over the course of the year. Lazar Vilotijevic had a rating of 1704 prior to our first event of the year. At the end of our last event, his rating improved to 1905, a 201 point improvement moving from a mid Class B player to the middle of the Class A range. Alexander Poste had a similar success story, moving from a rating of 1643 to a rating of 1829 at the end of our last event. Last but not least, Avrahom Lewinson started the year at 1587 and jumped 185 points to a rating of 1772 by the end of the Welcome Winter Swiss.

Best Attendence (2010 to 2011)

Two of our club members have consistently attended at least one round for the vast majority of our events over the past two calendar years. According to the Suffern Chess Club stats on the USCF site, Roger Pedersen and Louis Winokur have both participated in 21 events over this time period. Three players have attended 20 events – Fred Sauberman, Saul Cohen and Gerry Freel.

Most Active

Some of our players love to burn the candle at both ends and play in numerous tournaments each year. I was surprised to see that two of our members played a combined 390 games in 2011. Lazar Vilotijevic played an astounding 243 matches in the last 12 months! I’m not sure when he found time to eat or sleep, but there’s no doubt that he is battle-tested and ready to compete. Roger Pedersen was also very active, playing in 147 matches over the past 12 months.

Our first matches of the new year will take place this Wednesday, January 4th. It will be interesting to look back at the end of the next year to see how the above list changes by December 2012.

Chess Road Trips

Posted: September 17, 2011 in chess, Tournaments
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Hey dudes. If you’re looking for some more groovy locations to play chess, we have the skinny on where to take a road trip. So load up your VW Bus with your boards, pieces and clocks and follow the positive vibrations to the following locations:

Eastern Team Championship, Sheraton Hotel, Stamford, CT (11/4-11/6 or 11/5-11/6):

There’s $8,000 in the prize fund for this new team event.  Open to teams of 4 , match point scoring. Player ratings for the team must average under 2,000. The alternate must have the lowest rating on the team.

Here are the other details – 5 round Swiss, Game 40/2, SD/1. For the two day option, Rounds 1-2 will be Game 75. Entry fee is $300 per team if mailed by 10/27 or online by 11/1. Cost is $340 on site. For further details, go to our friends at the Continental Chess Association www.chesstour.com

International Chess Academy

Our friend Diana Tulman at the ICA recently sent us a list of dates for upcoming Open Tournaments. All tournaments are held on Sundays at the Bergen Academy located at 200 Hackensack Avenue, Hackensack, NJ. Tournaments are usually 4 Rounds with a Game 60 time limit. Contact Diana for specific details on entry fees and start times. She can be reached at the following email address: diana@icanj.net.

Upcoming dates are -

  • 10/16/2011
  • 12/11/2011
  • 1/29/2012

Garry Kasparov: “Would not it be Cool to Play in Suffern?”

Posted: April 1, 2011 in chess, Grandmasters, Tournaments
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Garry Kasparov the former world champion is close to agreeing to terms to play a simul in Suffern. The negotiations were a long and arduous process which occurred over many months.

How did this come to pass? Sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction. (Or fiction is a lot like truth).

One of the Suffern chess club’s long-time members has links to Russia. In fact, before his grandfather came over on the boat in 1909, he was part of his parent’s long time wine and cheese business. The Vinokur Vintners were partners with the Kasllerikov Brothers and had a monopoly on the market. During that time, young Michael would help deliver milk to Garry Kasparov’s parents in the old country.

Garry Kasparov

Image via Wikipedia

Fast forward 70 years. In 1979, Michael ran into Garry Kasparov’s parents in midtown Manhattan. They were in town accompanying Garry as he was publicizing his upcoming world championship match. They had such a good time reminiscing that they agreed to come up to his house in Westchester and meet the family.

At the time our club member was only 13 years old, but he thoroughly impressed Kasparov and they have stayed in touch ever since. After meeting up with Kasparov, young Louis agreed that Garry’s manager Sidd Finch said it best:

“He’s a player, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, deciding about yoga — and furthering it boldly.”

Now, in 2011, Garry has agreed to fly out to the US on the Russian version of the Concorde SST to spend a few hours in Suffern. Like all grandmasters, Kasparov has his quirks and to satisfy his requirements, the simul will be run under the following conditions:

  1. A maximum of 75 players will be allowed to compete in the simul.
  2. Entrants must have a minimum USCF rating of 1600 or be able to prove that they have had at least 20 hours of instruction from a chess teacher with a rating of 2200 or higher.
  3. All clocks must be placed on Garry’s left-hand side and tilted at a 4 degree angle towards the champion.
  4. Time controls will be Game 21, with a 12 second increment.
  5. To avoid any fouls, all players must agree to move their pieces and touch the clock with their left hand only.
  6. To reinforce the above rule, players will be required to sit on their right hand and will incur a 5 minute penalty if they violate this stipulation.
  7. Only 1 bathroom break will be allowed for each player. When leaving for their break, players will be accompanied to the bathroom by a tournament director.
  8. Entrants to the tournament must pay a $10 entry fee, and agree to purchase a copy of his book My Great Predecessors for $45 on Amazon.com or $25 for a Kindle friendly version
  9. All people present at the event must sign an affidavit that they will never become a member of the Communist Party or aid and abet in any fundraising for party candidates.
  10. The Towns of Suffern, Montebello, and Airmont must agree to rename their main streets “Garry Kasparov Way”

Most of the above conditions have already been met. The last sticking point is getting the towns to agree to add a real estate tax surcharge of $100 per resident to satisfy his appearance fee of $25,000. Though some fear a taxpayer revolt, it is our opinion that the documentary film will help offset the costs and will have great potential to win a prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

We will add a new post once the final negotiations are complete. Be sure to circle your calendars and save the date. With luck, Garry will visit Suffern to compete in the simul on 4/31/11.

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No Chess Next Week – 4/6/11

Posted: March 31, 2011 in Tournaments
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Thanks for coming out tonight for Round 3 of the Almost Summer Swiss. Per my announcement tonight, Gerry and I will not be available next week, so we’ll take a week off.

Round 4 will be played on 4/13/11.

(For those of you too young to remember life before 24 hour TV – channels used to sign off the air late at night and they would put up these annoying color bars until they started up again in the morning!)

No Matches Tonight 1/26/11

Posted: January 26, 2011 in chess, Tournaments
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Due to the impending snow storm tonight, the chess club will be closed. A new tournament will start next week on February 2.

The last tournament – “Suffern Snowflake Swiss” has been rated and can be viewed on the USCF website.

For your convenience, we’ve added a link here - Suffern Snowflake Link

Louis XVIII Open and Other Tournaments

Posted: November 19, 2010 in chess, Tournaments, Trivia
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The last Suffern Tournament of 2010 is underway. As I was looking for a unique name for the tournament, I thought it would be interesting to look up famous birthdays for 11/17 and with apologies to Danny DeVito, I decided to honor Louis XVIII who was the last French monarch to die while reigning.

Since our last blog, my “email box” has been flooded with notices about various tournaments that will be held in the month of December. If you’re looking to play in a large event, you might want to pick from one of the following:

Atlantic City International

This event will have a $50,000 prize fund (based on 500 entries) and will be held in Atlantic City, NJ from 12/17 to 12/19. This is a 10 round tournament with an entry fee is $149. The big news for this tournament is that Gata Kamsky will be one of the players. He is also going to play a simul on the Thursday before the tournament starts. For more information visit www.chessweekend.com.

Empire City Open

If you’d prefer to stay a little closer to home, the Empire City Open will be held at The New Yorker Hotel from 12/26 to 12/28. This tournament has $10,000 in guaranteed prizes and a $98 entry fee for a 6 Round Swiss. To learn more, visit www.chesstour.com

Eastern Open

If you have plans to be in our nation’s capitol after the Christmas holiday, you can participate in the Eastern Open, which is being held from 12/27 to 12/30. This tournament will be an 8 Round Swiss with an entry fee of $100 to $125 depending on what section you play in. The prize fund will be $17,500 and GM Alex Lenderman will be giving a free lecture on 12/27 at 10:30 a.m. Additional information is available at www.easternopenchess.com

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Chess Analogies

Posted: July 10, 2010 in Tournaments
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My family and I recently closed on a new house and though the process took a number of months, in the end it was worthwhile. Over the past few weeks, as we drew nearer to the final closing date, I naturally didn’t have time to devote to chess study, tournament matches, or site updates.

Of course that didn’t stop me from reflecting on how lessons learned in the home search might provide some analogies to successful chess strategy. (You know you’re talking to a chess player when everything reminds them of chess!)

Ultimately, it all comes down to patience. Purchasing a home is a process. You could decide to buy the first home you see, but the prudent course is to see lots of homes, understand their relative values, evaluate the potential future value of each location and decide on an appropriate offer price.

The same process is useful for evaluating positions on the chess board. The most obvious move may be the right one, but before you touch that piece, be sure you evaluate the immediate and future consequences of that move. While you’re at it, take a step back and evaluate a number of candidate moves and decide on their relative values.

I was thinking about all of these things as I was driving to this week’s match at the club. I never go into a match expecting to win all of the time, but I do expect to do my very best to evaluate every position and play the best moves. When I take the time to do that, the results are usually positive. Fortunately for me, this week’s match was one of the rare occasions where I was able to establish an advantage and quietly improve my position through the middle game into the endgame.

That said, if you would like to join in on the action, the Suffern Sparkling Summer Swiss is currently underway. Round 3 is scheduled for July 14. Since I’m not the TD on this one and I missed Round 1, I am not able to post the official standings. However, I did take some notes before I left and the leaders after two rounds are listed below:

  • 2 Points – Grasser, Kushner
  • 1 1/2 Points – Winokur, Zeman
  • 1 Point – Collins, Freel, Mendez, Pedersen, Vilotijevic, Zelenka

Odds & Ends

Posted: May 26, 2010 in chess, Tournaments
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ICA Summer Open

Our friends at the International Chess Academy are hosting their “2010 Open Championship” this Sunday, June 6.  The tournament is a 4 Round Swiss event.  The only requirement to enter is a rating over 1400. Entry fee is $40 in advance and $45 at the door.  If you’re interested, click the local club link for the ICA on the right side of this website.

New Suffern Chess Club Tournament Starts Tomorrow

The 90 Minute Mayhem tournament is in the books. We had a strong turnout for all of the rounds and finished with 23 players in the tournament. Gerry is running our next tournament, which starts tomorrow, April 26th at 8 p.m.  Be sure to stop by at 7:45 to ensure that you are in time to be paired.

Chess Networking

I’m not sure if “Chessworking” is a real term, but if you’re a member of the site LinkedIn, you should take advantage of the various networking groups they have. There are a couple of chess oriented groups that are worth investigating.

The largest group with over 1,500 members is called “Chessmasters” and is oriented to the larger Chess community. Another group called “Managers Who Play Chess” is more focused on discussing the benefits that chess brings to people in managerial roles.

While I’m not an active member of Facebook, I’m sure there are many chess groups and fan pages to join in that arena as well.  Let us know if you have any suggestions for other ways to interact with fellow chess players.

International Chess Academy Tournament

Posted: April 17, 2010 in chess, Tournaments
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If you’re looking for local tournament to participate in, the ICA (International Chess Academy) is having a four round tournament on April 25.  A few members of our club have participated in past tournaments and tell me that it’s a great place to play.

I’m tempted to go myself, except the date coincides with my wife’s birthday!  Since I’d like to stay married, I’ll have to take a pass this time around.

If you’d like to participate, click the following link for more information:

http://www.icanj.net/chess_class_in_nj/ica_chess_tournaments/486/index.html

World Championship

Posted: April 17, 2010 in chess, Grandmasters, Tournaments
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The world championship match between Anand and Topalov starts next Friday in Sofia Bulgeria.  The highly anticipated match will be played in a two and a half week timespan in late April to mid May.  A prize fund of 2 million Euros is at stake.  The winner will receive 1.8 million Euros and the loser will receive 800,000 Euros.

A total of 12 games will be played at traditional time controls of 120 minutes for 40 moves, then 60 minutes for an additional 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes + a 30 second increment for the remainder of the match.  If the match is not decided over the course of standard play, then a series of tiebreaks will be held.  First, four games of Game 25 with a 10 second increment will be played.  If they are still tied, a series of Five 2 game blitz matches will be held under a time control of Game 5 with a 3 second increment.

If they are still tied, then a final odds match will be played with 5 minutes for White vs. 4 minutes for Black.  White must obtain a victory, while Black wins with a victory or a draw.

Tune into the following website to review the results – http://www.anand-topalov.com/en/information.html

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