Saturday, August 27, 2011

B Caiello wins Ashland Quick XXVI!!

Fourteen players battled in Ashland Quick XXVI with Ben Caiello (1611) winning his second straight club tournament defeating Paul Farb (1732), Adam Shaw (1613) and Lendel Robinson (1463) in the Top Quad.

Darell Hunt (1132) won the Amateur Quad with a perfect 3-0 scoring wins over Dan Caiello (1403), Mike Mayfield (1379) & David Boyd (1236). This is Darell's third straight section win since joining the club!

Daniel Smith (1122) took the Swiss Section with a perfect 3-0 ahead of Ralph Buske (1085) & Mike Meekings (829) who tied for second with 2 points.

Next week, Thursday, Sept 1, Ashland XXIII begins. This will be the same format as A22:

Five round Swiss. Two Sections. One round a week for five weeks. You do not have to play every round.

Entry fee $2 for club members, $5 non-members. One bye allowed. Rounds start at 7:30. Game 90 +5s delay.

Two Sections: Open Section & Amateur Section (U1505). No Prizes.

The Southeast's biggest tournament is Labor Day weekend in Charlotte. The North Carolina Open is headlined this year with six Grand Masters competing and three time U.S. Women's Champion Irina Krush. Check their site for full details.

GM Ftacnik Lecture and IM Matros Exhibition

If you missed the FM Lubomir Ftacnik lecture and IM Matros vs GM Ftacnik exhibition last week you missed a great night of chess learning and camaraderie. As one club regular said "Tonight was Awesome, like sitting at the feet of prophets."

The lecture featured two games where white underestimated the time factor in the opening and paid the price.
Game 1 featured a 19 move Nimzo Indian Defense from the 2006 Turin Olympiad between GM Ivan Sokolov and GM Levon Aronian.

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The second game is from 1999 with Ivanchuk getting the better of Topolov's English opening in 25 moves. Annotations from GM Ftacnik.

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After the battle lines were drawn and we split into two groups and parted ways. IM Matros had the white pieces and his Phalanx of experts marched to their camp and GM Ftacnik's Death Dealers of Destruction hunkered down and made preparations for the oncoming attack. The following battle ensued:

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Friday, August 19, 2011

Columbia Open Underway!

The Columbia Open is underway with 66 players entered as of Friday evening and 34 playing in the 3 day schedule. Live games are being broadcast via DGT and Monroi. The Open Section is the strongest we've had in SC in quite some time.

Crosstable

If you'd like to compete in this year's event you can still register Sat morning from 8:00am - 9:00am, round starts at 9:30.

Check back for updates over the weekend.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

B Caiello wins Ashland XXII!!! Hunt takes the Amateur Section!

Twenty three players competed in Ashland XXII as Ben Caiello (1630) upsets Erik Murrah (1734) to win the Open Section with 4 points. Paul Farb (1912) took the point from Dan Caiello (1469) and Adam Shaw (1807) won over George Morton (1651).

In the Amateur Section, Nathan Huffaker (1002) upset Richard Watts (1139), Max Witherell (1169) defeated Mike Meekins (1055), Cody Kyzer (1211) scored the win over Julie Sheil (UNR) and Craig Patton (1386) outlasted Jaime Sanyer (1163).

The rated results are HERE.

Next week, Thursday Aug 18, is Casual Night. GM Lubomir Ftacnik will give a lecture beginning at 7:00. After the lecture he will play an exhibition game with IM Alexander Matros. They will be in separate rooms with demo boards and those in attendance will split into two groups. Each Master will explain his moves as the game progresses and interact with their group. Anyone interested is welcome to come out! You do not have to be a club member to attend.


Monday, August 8, 2011

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Ashland XXII - Round 4

Fourteen players competed in Round 4 of Ashland XXII with Keith Eubanks (2076) winning over Adam Shaw (1820) to hold the lead by .5 point over Ben Caiello (1630) who upset Paul Farb (1910). Erik Murrah (1734) defeated Ralph Buske (1497) as George Morton (1663) mated Gil Holmes (1783) with just 7 seconds left on his clock.

In the Amateur Section, Darell Hunt (1308) settled peacefully with Richard Watts (1080) to stay in first, a .5 point ahead of Richard. Mike Mayfield (1281) won over Birney Blind (1208) and Mike Meekins (1055) returned to the board and defeated Julie Sheil (UNR).

The Final Round will be Thurs, Aug 11.

The deadline for early entry discount for the Columbia Open is Friday, August 12. You can register Online and take advantage of the $16 discount of $59. After August 12 the entry fee will be $75.

Early Entries are coming in and are headlined by Grandmaster Lubomir Ftacnik. Check the Columbia Open site for full details.