Suffern Chess Club

Strange Chess Sets

suffernchessclub — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:00:06 +0000

Shortly after the holiday season, our email inbox become flooded with post-holiday sales specials. While taking a tour around the internet chess stores, we came across some strange chess sets. So without further ado, here’s a short description of the sets and where to find them:

French Staunton Pieces

These wooden pieces are listed in the clearance section on www.chessusa.com It only takes a quick look to understand why – they are hideous (and cheap) looking. The bigger mystery is why they cost $34.95. It must be because of the fine craftmanship that went into the knight. Look at the intricate detail of the carving. An where else can you find such a nice dull finish?

Texas Chess Set

Not to be outdone, the folks at www.chesshouse.com have a wide selection of novelty sets. To be fair, we all know that these types of sets are more for show. Oftentimes it’s nearly impossible to play a game with a novelty set, since it’s hard to distinguish between the different pieces. That being said, take a gander at the Texas Chess Set. Hey, it’s no French Staunton set, it’s priced to sell. For only $29.95 you can have one of your very own. Try and explain to your friends why the state flag is the rook and the steer is the knight (at least that’s what we think they are). It’s certainly obvious that the oil derrick is the bishop!

LED Chess Set

Here’s an item that really does look cool. The pieces are equipped with LED lights which are illuminated by the custom board. Of course, we cannot vouch for the quality of the set without seeing an actual model.

Looking at the photography and the accompanying YouTube video, it seems that the set looks the best when the room is dark. That’s great for the pieces, but could cause some issues if you need to get a good look at the board. On the other hand, it glows!

If you would like one of your very own, visit www.uncommongoods.com. It can be yours for $55.00.

Chess Drinking Game

Here’s another unique item from the folks at www.chessusa.com. On the positive side, the images of the pieces are clearly marked, so you won’t get the pieces mixed up. The negative is that the rules say, you have to do a shot for every piece that you capture! Unless you’re playing an old Russian who can hold his vodka, the best play may be to sacrifice material until your opponent gets plastered. By that time, nobody will care (or remember) who won or lost the game!

Believe it or not, this is the biggest value of the bunch. It only costs $29.95 for the set and board. However the board is only 9 5/8″ x 9 5/8″, so you won’t have to reach too far to find the next shot.

King Arthur and Chess Life

suffernchessclub — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:10:17 +0000

Congratulations to Arthur Feuerstein on the great article in this month’s Chess Life magazine. The story, which can be found on page 20 – 25 contains an excellent biography which covers his early days as a young up-and-coming tactician, the challenge to recover from a horrific car accident, to his present day status as a senior master.

There are also great anecdotes about his 50 year romance with his wife Alice, battles with Bobby Fischer, life in Germany and France, and highlights of key matches in his career.

We’re proud to claim Arthur as a regular member of our club. Anybody who has had a chance to commiserate with him knows that he’s a nice guy with a good sense of humor. He still loves to play wild games and dance on the razor’s edge. It a wonder to walk by his matches on Wednesday nights to see an uncastled king with pieces and pawns in various positions on the board while Arthur calmly dispatches another opponent!

To see the full article, click on our link to the USCF site and login to the members area to view this months magazine.

Three Years with Dvorestsky

suffernchessclub — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:48:00 +0000

Not sure where to file this post, it’s probably most fitting to call it a completed 2011 new year’s resolution. In any case, the quest to finish the Dvoretsky endgame manual has finally come to a close. After close to 1,200 days I finally read the final page and reviewed the last exercise on December 30th.

Without a doubt, I’m sure that many a stronger player has read the book and digested the material much more quickly than I. The issue was that somewhere between 2008 and 2011, I lost the initial head of steam that propelled me through the early chapters.

At some point it became a test of my resolve to finish things that I have started. Since there was no way I was going to carry this into 2012, I brought the book with me on our family vacation to Aruba this year and finished just in time.

As noted in previous reviews of the book, the material is very good and thoroughly covers almost everything a person should know about endgames. That said, now that I have completed it, I would only recommend the book for players with ratings of 1650 and above.

: Image via Wikipedia

Funnily enough, over the summer I received a gift of Silman’s Complete Endgame Course from a close relative! Though I haven’t the strength to start a new endgame book just yet, I can say that this work takes a different approach and organizes material based on player strength in order to help students get the most out of the material.

The 2011 Unofficial Club Champion

suffernchessclub — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:00:57 +0000

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.

2011 Blog Stats Review

suffernchessclub — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:36:53 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for our blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,300 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

What Do Russian Schoolboys Know?

suffernchessclub — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:21:48 +0000

Members of the Internet Chess Club (ICC) are entitled to play chess online against a wide variety of opponents. Quality games can be played any time of the day or night.

The thing many members forget is that the ICC also provides training materials to help improve your game. The materials that I have found most useful are the wide variety of training videos.

One of the best training tools is the humorously titled “Every Russian Schoolboy Knows” video series hosted by Alex Yermolinsky. Click the links below to go directly to the videos. Episode 1 Episode 2

But where did the title of the video series come from?

As detailed in Steve Giddins WordPress blog, this quote is attributed to Botnovik who observed that the positional error by his opponent in the early stages of the KIA was a silly mistake. “Every Russian Schoolboy knows the proper response in that situation is gxf5″. You can read the full story here.

I plan to review as many episodes as I can because you never know – I might have to play a Russian schoolboy in my next tournament match!

Queen to Play is o.k.

suffernchessclub — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:15:15 +0000

In a recent post about chess in movies, we pointed out that many writers identify with the romanticism of the game, but have no idea how to express it properly on film. Other writers use chess as a device to show that a character is intelligent, but don’t know how to set up the pieces properly and don’t bother to take a cursory interest in the rules.

The good news is that the foreign film Queen to Play (or Joyeuse – “The Player” in French) does a wonderful job of incorporating chess into a story. Luckily, Netflix recently added the film to its list of streaming titles, so I was able to watch the film at home with my wife.

The story of the file revolves around the life of a woman who works as a maid at a local hotel and who also cleans houses to make ends meet. She happens to see a couple enjoying a game of chess on the balcony while she is cleaning their room and is intrigued by the seeming complexity of the game and the couples playful interaction.

I was impressed that in this case, the filmmaker has accurately depicted how chess is played. I could pick out a couple of inaccuracies here and there, but they are very minor.

The best part of the film is not the chess, but the wonderful way in which it captures the joy of discovery of something new and how the search for knowledge can open doors and enrich our lives.

All I can say is that my wife also enjoyed it and she finds chess to be nerdy and boring!

If you’ve seen the movie, let’s hear your thoughts on the film – feel free to add comments below.

DVD Review: Queen to Play (blogcritics.org)

Chess Road Trips

suffernchessclub — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 04:28:53 +0000

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

Einstein, Chess and Space-Time

suffernchessclub — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:39:45 +0000

If you are interested in physics and the study of the universe, you will undoubtedly come across the theories of Albert Einstein. One of the most intriguing concepts is the idea of “space-time” or the combination of two parameters that we think of as distinct entities.

As I was mulling over ideas for new blog posts while trying to fall asleep last night, I was thinking about Albert Einstein, space-time, and Chess (a rather odd combination to say the least).

It occurred to me that it would be fun to write a short piece about the importance of managing both of these elements on the chessboard during your matches. In the illustration at right, I had some fun with the idea that in chess ”Victory = Space x Time (squared)”.

As a positional player, I am usually preoccupied with putting my pieces in the right places and gaining space when I can. However, in many games, there is a point where the importance of time overwhelms all other considerations on the board. When those situations arise, you have to ignore everything else and react quickly, otherwise you will be quickly overwhelmed.

A great example occurred in a tournament game played earlier this year. My opponent is one of the more aggressive players in our club. He loves to attack and put other players on the defensive whenever he can. In the diagram at left, he has just played 19. f4 with the idea of chasing my bishop. As you can see in the diagram, he has gained a ton of space over the first 18 moves and it appears that I don’t have a lot of room to work with.

A closer look at the position shows that I have some tactical threats. The black queen is standing in front of the knight, presenting the opportunity for a revealed attack from the rook. When f4 was played, I evaluated that idea and also came up with another one. The next move, Qd3! takes advantage of the overextended pawns (too much space) and sets up a new threat, Qg3, after which the king will be running around and the knight can enter the game while simultaneously threatening the black queen. Going back to our equation, black has lots of space, but with the new threat, there is no time to take the bishop.

Black chose the reply 20. … e5 to stop the queen threat, but that invited 21. d5 gaining even more time for white. The next few moves were:

21. … Qf6 22. Qb5+ Kf8 23. Ne4 Qf7 and 24. Bc5 Kg7 25. Qc6

At this point there are too many threats to count and both space and time are clearly on my side. Black continued on for a few more moves and eventually resigned.

The moral of the story is that chess is truly a multi-dimensional game. There are many ways to win and over the course of a game, a good player must incorporate their knowledge of opening theory with sound judgement and constant evaluation of each position. Knowing when to gain space, grab material, attack or play defence is the formula for victory. Hmm, maybe the formula is V = S x M x A x D.

I’ll leave that for you at home to decide.

In the meantime, feel free to add comments and share your own spacetime stories below.

Chess in a Hurricane

suffernchessclub — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:27:57 +0000

The last week of August was a hectic one for anybody on the east coast. Here in the New York metro area, we spent the past few days preparing for the arrival of hurricane Irene. After purchasing food, batteries, and quick-drying cement to patch a crack in our foundation, the only thing left to do was wait.

As we sat watching the news last night, we were told the storm would hit hardest overnight into the late morning hours on Sunday. But, what can you do on a lazy Sunday, especially if the power goes out?

Play chess of course! The great thing about chess is that no electricity is required. Only two people are needed. And you can even play in low light situations since no reading is involved. Playing friends and family is the only game in town for those in Manhattan as even the storied Marshall Chess club cancelled its events this weekend.

For me personally, it was a chance to get back to things on my chess “to do” list that I haven’t gotten around to lately. Fortunately, we haven’t lost power, so I decided it was time to do some research to create some new posts on our blog.

Another task was to sit down with chess book and board, roll up my sleeves, and review more of the endgame material in Dvoretsky’s endgame manual. As anybody who has read this blog before knows, I’ve been studying this book for quite some time now. I know my situation isn’t typical, but as I close in on the third anniversary of my purchase, I think it’s time to buckle down and finish it already!

My experience in the world of sports and competition has taught me that I may not be the most graceful athlete or master of chess technique, but I am one of the most tenacious competitors. For that reason, I won’t give up on Dvoretsky’s book and I will always give my best effort whenever and wherever I compete. The results speak for themselves, I can honestly say that even though I’m not in my 20′s anymore, I see improvements in my abilities on many fronts – from basketball to skiing to chess.

So hang in there, weather the storm, and go out there and keep competing!

That’s what life is all about.