Saturday, April 24, 2010

Ashland XIV Round 1

Twenty two players competed in the initial round of Ashland XIV. In the Open section, George Morton (1633) pulled an upset against Paul Farb (1930). Robert Folts (1691) defeated Adam Shaw (1545) and Erik Murrah(1663) swiped the point from Ralph Buske(1425). Steve Boshears(1616) and Paul King(1846) agreed to disagree and ended in a draw.

Our Amateur Section saw Daniel Caiello (1135) defeat Mike Mayfield(1440) and Ben Caiello (1360) win vs Mike Meekins(1131). Ron Tims(1353) slugged it out in the end, claiming victory over Shiva Balasubramanian(1076). Birney Blind (1307) captured the point over Jaime Sanyer(1032) in a king and pawn endgame. Daniel Smith(1171) escaped with the point vs Mark Acklie(972) in a well played game.

In the Reserve, Christian Dunlap (770) and Andrew Villeneuve (387) claimed points over Gavin Kopcho, and Jonathan Bundy respectively, our youngest competitors.



Prepare your minds, Round 2 awaits on April 29th.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Ashland XIV

Rd 1 April 22
Five round Swiss. One round a week for five weeks. Entry fee $3 a round for club members,
$5 a round for non-members. One bye allowed, No last round byes. Rounds start at 7:30.
Three Sections, Game 90.
Open Section, First Place $35, Second Place $20, U1805 $15.
Amateur Section (U1605), First Place $35, Second Place $20, U1405 $15.
Reserve Section (U1205), First Place $35, Second Place $20, U1000 $15. Perfect score (5-0, byes
do not count) wins free entry into a Cola Club tournament. Club members with a floor of 1800
receive free entry, $10 will be deducted from any prize won.

Even if you are registered you must confirm you are playing by 7:15 EACH WEEK or you WILL NOT be paired!!! Call, text or email anytime before 7:15


The next Reverse Angle is scheduled for May 1st.

Our match with Queen City Chess is scheduled for May 15th at Ashland United Methodist Church.



You can only get good at Chess if you love the game. - Bobby Fischer

By playing at Chess then, we may learn:
First Foresight... Second: Circumspection... Third: Caution...
And lastly, we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by present bad appearances in the state of our affairs,the habit of hoping for a favorable chance, and that of persevering in the secrets of resources. - Benjamin Franklin

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Border Battle Updates

The Border Battle between North Carolina and South Carolina is in the final round.

The broadcast of Board 1 is working today and Round 1 and 2 are now available for viewing.

The games can be viewed on the live links at the SCCA site .

Round 1 saw draws on both Board 1 between State Champs Aliyev-Mabe and on Board 2 between High School Champs Lauria-Mu.

Round 2, Mabe-Aliyev Draw again, tied at 1-1, Mu defeats Lauria and leads 1.5-.5 .

Round 3, Aliyev wins and leads 2-1, Mu-Lauria Draw, Mu leads 2-1.

Round 4, Lauria wins to tie the match with Mu 2-2.

The Crosstable for the Class Battle can be found HERE.

After Round 1 NC leads the Class Battle 8-5.

After Round 2 the Class Battle is tied 13-13.

After Round 3 still tied! One round for bragging rights!

Round 4 results:
Gaskins wins - SC leads by 1
Hayes wins - Tied
Meekins wins - SC leads by 1
McIntosh wins - Tied
Poppante wins - NC leads by 1
Musulin-Moore draw - NC leads by 1
Haigler-Sarasua draw - NC leads by 1
Templeton-Chin draw -NC leads by 1 Four boards still playing
Plyler wins! - Match tied with three boards still playing
Kane wins! - SC leads by 1 with two boards still playing
Hight wins for the bad guys - Match tied with one game left!
Nix-Shemesh draw! - It's a tie!


Updates will be posted here as they become available.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Ashalnd Quick XVII and other notes

Eighteen players compete in Ashland Quick XVII with Philipp Lamby(2111) claiming first and James MacDougall(1946) taking second in the Championship Quad. Ron Tims(1369) took first with a perfect score and Bob Halliday(1475) took a break from directing to claim second in the Candidates Quad. In the Amateur Quad, Richard Watts(1114) and Ralph Buske(1063) finished in first and second place respectively. The final section was a six player swiss with Craig Patton(882) and Cody Kyzer(805) splitting first place with Mike Meekins(844) and Christian Dunlap(686) sharing the third place prize.

The final crosstable is HERE.

The Saturday Knights tournament has been canceled.

April 15th is Casual Night, with presentations of Fritz and Chessbase Light planned. Who knows, a blitz tournament may break out afterward?


Did you know? Time Controls

There are five main types of Time Controls: (1) Fischer (invented by Bobby Fischer, (2) Bronstein (invented by David Bronstein), (3) Simple Delay, (4) Game Word and (5) Hour Glass. The first three time controls implement some sort of delay clock, a small amount of time that is added for each move. The reason is that with a sudden-death time limit, all moves must be completed in the specified time, or the player loses. With a small delay added at each move, the player always has at least that much time to make a move. The two types of delay clocks differ in how the delay is implemented. The last two time controls are somewhat different, as they do not rely on time delay, and will be explained below.

Fischer—before a player has made his move, a specified time increment is added to his clock. Time can be accumulated, so if the player moves within the delay period, his remaining time actually increases. For example, if the delay time is five seconds, and a player has four seconds left on his clock, as soon as his opponent moves, he will receive the increment and have nine seconds to make a move. If he takes two seconds to move, then on the start of his next move he will have seven seconds. There is also a variant of this time control which the delay is added after a player has made his move (Fischer after), so that the delay is added to the player's remaining time, and will be available for his next move. If however time runs out during his move, the game ends without the delay time being added. This variant prevents the player who is in time-trouble to take advantage of the extra-time.

Simple delay—when it becomes a player's turn to move, the clock waits for the delay period before starting to subtract from the player's remaining time. For example, if the delay is five seconds, the clock waits for five seconds before counting down. The time is not accumulated. If the player moves within the delay period, no time is subtracted from his remaining time. This time control is similar to a Bronstein with time added before the move.

Bronstein delay—with the Bronstein timing method, the increment is always added after the move. But unlike Fischer, not always the maximum increment is added. If a player expends more than the specified increment, then the entire increment is added to the player's clock. But if a player has moved faster than the time increment, only the exact amount of time expended by the player is added. For example, if the delay is five seconds, the player has ten seconds left in his clock before his turn and during his turn he spends three seconds, after he presses the clock button to indicate the end of his turn, his clock will increase by only three seconds (not five).

Word—it is a sudden death time control, without any increment nor delay. The difference here is that when the time expires by dropping to zero, a flag is set, and the clock immediately starts counting up without limit. This time control applies to games where the amount of time used after the allowed time can be subtracted from the player's score as a penalty.

Hour Glass—a player loses in this time control when he allows the difference between both clocks to reach the specified total amount. For example, if the total is defined as one minute, both players start their clocks at thirty seconds. Every second the first player uses to think in his moves is subtracted from his clock and added to his opponent's clock. If he uses thirty seconds to move, the difference between the clocks will reach one minute, and the time flag fall to indicate that he loses by time. If he has used twenty nine seconds and then pushes the clock's button, he will have one second left on his clock, and his opponent will have fifty-nine seconds.
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_clock

At the Columbia Chess Club we use the simple delay or Bronstein Delay,which the USCF deems as equivalent, in our long or quick games and sudden-death(no delay) in our blitz games. In FIDE games the Fischer Delay is commonly used.


“Many have become Chess Masters, no one has become the Master of Chess”
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

Sunday, April 4, 2010

2nd Annual Merriwether Scholastic Open - North Augusta


Jr players be sure to check out the Second Annual Merriwether Scholastic Open in North Augusta, SC.

Three US Chess Federation rated sections:
Elementary Grades K-5 * Middle School - Grades 6-8 * High School Grades 9-12

4 Rounds G/30 (30 minutes per player per game) each tournament. (Sections may be combined for pairing purposes, if necessary.) US Chess membership required for these sections. (Available on site.)

Special Non-Rated Beginners Section!

4 Rounds G/30 (30 minutes per player per game)
Open to beginning players * No U.S. Chess membership necessary
Any player new to USCF tournament play is eligible for this section.
Does not count toward Grand Prix.
SPECIAL ENTRY FEE for this section $15 onsite or $10 if you pre-register on or before April 8th. All money collected onsite.
U.S. Chess Federation membership to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

Try your skills against a Master!

First 20 players to pre-register for the tournament are automatically entered in the simul to be given by Donny Gray. All others (parents too) can challenge this accomplished Master for just $5. Mr. Gray is also a chess instructor who gives lessons in person or online. See his website; chessthinker.com

Full details can be found HERE.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Lamby wins second straight Club Championship!!

Thirty three players competed in the 2010 Club Championship with Philipp Lamby (2209) sucessfully defending his title by defeating Keith Eubanks (2022) in the longest game of the night to finish in clear first by a half point.

James MacDougall (1940) secured the Second Place Trophy with a win over Steve Boshears (1616). Ralph Buske (1425) claimed the Top U1600 Trophy on a final round draw with Erik Murrah (1663).
Paul King (1859) defeated Mike Meekins (1147) but Mike still held on to the Top U1200 Trophy.
Christian Dunlap (778) scored a last round victory over Andrew Villeneuve (387) to win the Top Jr Trophy.

Paul Farb (1928) defeated Ron Tims (1353) as Adam Shaw (1545) bounced back from his upset last week to defeat Mark Acklie (972). Richard Watts (1234) defeated Micah Goss (UNR), Mike Mayfield (1440) took the point from Marty Anderson (751) and Erik Anderson (440) scored the win over Jonathan Bundy (UNR).

The Final Crosstable is HERE.

Next week is Ashland Quick XVII on Thursday, April 8.

There's a Quick Tournament hosted by the Aiken County Chess Club on April 17. Check their website for details.