Ashland Quick XVIII and Other Notes

Eighteen players turned out for our Ashland Quick XVII tournament. Phillipp Lamby(2111) won the Champions quad with a perfect 3-0 score, Paul King(1849) claimed second. In the Amateur Quad, Erik Murrah(1389) and Ben Caiello(1451) split first. In the Reserve Quad, Richard Watts(1114) and Ralph Buske(1063) split first. In the remaining Swiss sextette, Cody Kyzer(805) won first with a perfect score, with Mike Meekins(844) and Andrew Villeneue(387) splitting second.

The final crosstable is HERE.

Join us on June 3rd for Casual Night, A few brief presentations have been planned.


There are a few upcoming weekend tournaments in the area.

The NC Class Championship is June 4-6 in Charlotte, NC.

The SC Open is June 11-13 in Greenville, SC.

These weekend tourneys are a great way to improve your game, improve your rating, play different opponents, and have a great time. If you love chess, you will have a great time even if you lose every game.

Ashland XIV Round 5

31 players competed in Ashland XIV with Robert Folts(1691) clinching 1st place in the Open section by defeating George Morton(1633). Folts had an impressive 1991 performance rating for the tournament. Paul Farb(1930) defeated Adam Shaw(1545) to claim second in the section.

In the Amatuer, Daniel Caiello(1135) defeated Birney Blind(1307) to jump to 1st place. Ben Caiello(1360), claimed second, despite losing to Mike Mayfield(1440) in the last round. Pani Wickramasinghe(1381) defeated Jaime Sanyer(1032) and Shiva Balasubramanian(1076) defeated Mike Meekins(1131). Richard Watts(1234) took down Mark Acklie(972) and Ralph Buske(1425) slugged it out with a determined Christian Dunlap(771), in the end Buske climed the point. Paul Lowry(1051) returned to the board to defeat Jon Bundy.

The final results can be seen here


May 28th is Ashland Quick XVIII. 3 games of Game/20 will be played. Rumor is we will have some top level competition visiting.

Lee Hyder Memorial - Aiken May 21 - 23

The Lee Hyder Memorial is this weekend in Aiken. It's less than an hour down the road! Byes are available so if you miss the first round you can jump in starting in the second round with a .5 point! The second round begins at 1:00 on Saturday.

Full details are HERE.

Hosted by the Aiken County Chess Club.

QCCA vs. Cola Chess - TIE!!!

The Queen City Chess Association visited the Columbia Chess Club for a friendly club match today. The QCCA Team consisted of Patrick McCartney (1978), Mark Sturman (1807), Mike Eberhardinger (1773), Charles Carerros (1650), Copeland Blackwell (1332) and Anthony Cato (1132). The Cola Team was made up of Keith Eubanks (2024), Kyle Oody (1901), George Morton (1634), Steve Boshears (1613), Richard Watts (1230) and Daniel Smith (1154).

With the close ratings on each board we expected a tough match from the boys from Charlotte and we got it! In the first round, Cato took down Smith, Blackwell defeated Watts, Carerros threw caution to the wind in the most exciting game of the day as Boshears was unable to find the win and ultimately lost the game, Morton pulled a Houdini to defeat Eberhardinger as Mike literally snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, Oody defeated Sturman and McCartney took down Eubanks to give the Bad Guys a 4-2 lead after the first round.

Cola Chess has a lot of fight to bitter enders and it showed in the second round as the match teetered back and forth from promising to hopeless to we might survive!

Smith missed the win against Cato but kept his cool and drew the game so we still trail by 2 points with 5 boards to go. Watts showed the never say die attitude as he continued to put up maximum resistance in a lost position to salvage the draw and save the half point keeping our slim hopes alive. If there was a Goody's headache award in this match Boshears would have won it as he saw a second promising position slip through his fingers and was defeated, now we trail by 3 points with only three boards left. Morton's position didn't look good, but for the second time Caissa smiled upon him and he was victorious! Our slim hopes are still alive. Oody wins again to pull us to within 1 point of drawing this match! This means the result on the Board 1, the last board playing will decide the match. Our club's pride is riding on Eubanks, who has been with the club from the beginning, was our first player of the year and our first club champion. Naturally, he comes thru in the clutch to defeat McCartney tying the match score at 6-6!!

We hope to visit QCCA and play them on their turf in the future.

The match crosstable is HERE.

All in all it was a fun day and exciting day! We had the US Champs broadcast playing in the skittles room and a three round side tournament was won by Adam Shaw who posted a perfect 3-0 score. About thirty players came out to either compete or support the home team.

The side tournament crosstable is HERE.

Another side note, congratulations to Holly and Erik "The Weak Square" Murrah whose second child arrived this week!!

Ashland XIV Round 4

18 chess-aletes competed in Round 4 on Ashland XIV.

In the Open section, Robert Folts(1691) and Paul Farb(1930) settled peacefully with a draw, as did George Morton(1633) and Joerg Lohse(1799). Steve Boshears(1616) defeated Ralph Buske(1425) to round out the section.

In the Amatuer section, Ben(1360) andDaniel Caiello(1135) ended peacefully in a draw, in a well played game. Birney Blind(1307) defeated Daniel Smith(1171) with the white pieces and Thomas Sylvia(unr) defeated Mike Meekins(1131) for his second rated win. Shiva Balasubramanian(1076) and Richard Watts(1234) ended in a draw. Jaime Sanyer(1032) claimed the point vs Jonathan Bundy(unr) and Mark Acklie(972) won vs Christian Dunlap(771).


Final Round of Ashland XIV is on May 20th at 7:30 pm.

U.S. Championship May 14 - 25

Be sure to check out the U.S. Championship being held from May 14 - 25 with Round 1 beginning today at 3:00. Live coverage is available at the main site, USChessChamps.com .

This year's field of 24 features 21 Grandmasters led by Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky. The new format has a seven round swiss with the top four advancing to a round robin while the rest of the field continues with two more swiss rounds.

There's a good article on ChessBase.com covering the field from the youngest, Ray Robson 15 to the only female, Irina Krush.

Also, you have until 3:00pm today to sign up for Fantasy Chess 2010 at the USCF site. Daily prizes are up for grabs and there's prizes for the Top 5 finishers.

Ashland XIV Round 3

22 lovers of chess and competition competed in round 3 of Ashland XIV on Thursday May 6th. In the Open section, Robert Folts(1691) won on the black side of board 1 against Erik Murrah(1663). Paul Farb(1930) claimed the point over Steve Boshears(1616). George Morton(1633) won as white vs Ralph Buske(1425) and Joerg Lohse(1799) returned to the club table and won vs a higher rated Paul King(1846).

In the Amatuer, we saw some new faces compete with Thomas Sylvia claiming the point in his first rated game against Mark Acklie(972). Pani Wickramasinghe(1381) returned to the club after a long hiaits and won vs Mike Meekins(1131). Ben Caiello(1360) took a clear lead of the section, winning against co-leader Birney Blind(1307). Daniel Caiello(1135) returned to the board and claimed the point against Craig Patton(1191). Shiva Balasubramanian(1076) won with the black pieces against Jaime Sanyer(1032) and Daniel Smith(1171) pulled one out vs a fine fine player, Mike Mayfield(1440). Christian Dunlap continued his winning ways claiming the point against Jon Bundy, in the reserve section's only game.

Round 4 commences on May 13th at 7:15pm.

"I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of chess" - Tarrasch

"The stuff's chess, it ain't checkers." Alonzo – Denzel Washington, Training Day

Ashland XIV Round 2

Round 2 of Ashland XIV consisted of 18 warriors each trying to convey their will. On board 1, Erik Murrah (1663) defeated Gorge Morton(1633) in a hard fought Caro-Kann game. Paul Farb(1930) won with the black pieces against Paul King(1846). Ben Caiello(1360), played a fine game, emerging as victor vs Daniel Smith(1171). With the black pieces, Birney Blind(1307) defeated Ralph Buske(1425), Craig Patton(1191) defeated Richard Watts(1234). To round out the Amateur Section, both Mike Mayfield(1440) and Mike Meekins(1131) won with the white pieces against Shiva Balasubramanian(1076) and Mark Ackie(972) respectively. In the Reserve, Christian Dunlap defeated Andrew Villeneuve and Gavyn Kopcho won with the black pieces against Jonathan Bundy.

Be there for Round 3 on May 6th.


Our club match vs Queen City Chess Club is just around the corner on May 15th.