Columbia defeats QCCA 13.5 - 12.5 !!

The Columbia Chess Club hosted the Queen City Chess Association as the clubs met across the board for the third time. This was a huge battle with QCCA sending an army of thirteen players and Columbia having a last minute scramble due to cancellations to match the invaders from the north. If you were unable to follow the match on Twitter, here is what happened:

When the battle lines were drawn the substitutions favored the Cola team in avg rating by almost 50 points instead of the less than 10 with the original lineup. Thanks to QCCA for allowing these last minute changes!

The match was very competitive with Cola leading at halftime 7-6. First round winners for Columbia were Keith Eubanks, Paul Farb, Bill Taylor, Adam Shaw, Dan Caiello and Mike Boone with draws from Ben Caiello and Richard Watts. First half winners from QCCA were Alexander Tong, Winfred Gatlin, Suhas Madiraju, Nathan Tong, David Blackwelder with draws from Mike Eberhardinger and Ishaan Maitra.

In the second half QCCA quickly evened the score when Blackwelder posted his second win.

Dan Caiello scored his second win to put Cola back ahead 8-7.

QCCA fought back with wins from Taefi and Blackwell to take the lead 9-8.

Ben Caiello scored a win for Columbia to level the score at 9-9.

Watts (Cola) and Maitra (QCCA) drew for the second time bringing the score to 9.5-9.5 as the tension built.

Patton wins to put Cola out front 10.5 - 9.5.

Gatlin (QCCA) and Robinson (Cola) draw bringing the score to 11 - 10 with five games in progress.

Morton scores a win for Cola to extend the good guys lead to 12-10. Two point lead for Columbia with only four games left.

QCCA fights back again as Gottiparthi and Taylor-Brill both score wins to tie the match at 12-12 with only two games still going.

In a very tense battle Daniel Smith held the advantage over Suhas Madiraju but with the clock ticking down it wasn't clear how to win and with one misstep the attack could fail. Living on delay at 7 seconds the position cleared and after a hesitation brought the clock down to 3 seconds Daniel was able to sack his Queen for Suhas's Knight leaving Daniel up with 3 pawns against a lone King creating a simple win. Suhas played it out to mate hoping for another hesitation to save the half point but Daniel was up to the task and put Columbia ahead 13-12 with only one game left going and it was on Board 1.

Gary Newsom was up a pawn against Keith Eubanks but now with Cola ahead by a point Keith only had to hold the draw while Gary had to win bring his team even. To the kibitzers gathered around it looked like Gary had found a win in a same colored Bishops endgame but Keith saved the half point when Gary was left with a wrong color rook pawn and he couldn't keep Keith's King from blockading the queening square. It looked to be a very instructive endgame since it appeared as if there was a win for Gary hiding somewhere within the 64 squares. Eubanks' ability to save the half point gave Columbia the win 13.5 - 12.5 over Queen City.

Edit: Gary Newsom has posted a report with his endgame in the final game HERE.

This was a very enjoyable afternoon and it was pleasure to have the QCCA visit us again. The QCCA hosts the very successful Reverse Angle series in Charlotte. RA25 will be Jan 14 and will be a great warm up to the Land of the Sky tournament in Asheville Jan 27-29.

A very nice photo album is HERE provided by the Tong family. The rated results are HERE.

The record is now Columbia 2 wins QCCA 0 wins and one draw. We will try to schedule the next match in the spring.

Columbia Downs Queen City

The Columbia Chess Club downed the Queen City Chess Club for the second straight match with a final score of Columbia: 13.5 - QCCA 12.5.

Dan Caiello was the only Columbia player to win both games. Keith Eubanks continues his brilliant play by outscoring expert Gary Newsome with a score of 1.5 - .5.

Here is the full crosstable of the results.

Cola Chess vs QCCA rematch (11-3)

Columbia Chess claims shocking 11-3 victory over QCCA!

Gimme a good hearty Viking Quest yell, VICCCCTORRRRY!!! (If you watch Entourage you will understand)

The Columbia Chess Club traveled to the Queen City Chess Association on Saturday, Sept 25th for a club rematch. The previous match ended in a tie.

The Crosstable of the event is HERE.

More on this event to follow.

Road Warriors Needed!! - Rematch Sept 25

Time to settle this war between the states!

A rematch with the Queen City Chess Association has been scheduled for Saturday, Sept 25. Our first match ended in a very exciting tie!

The Border Battle which featured matches between the State Champs, the State High School Champs and matches between class players all ended with tie scores when the dust settled.

The first two battles were fought in South Carolina. This time we take the battle North to Charlotte at their home, Asian Herald Library. Two rounds starting at 10:00, Game 90.

We're looking to field a ten player team to bring back bragging rights not only in this North-South rivalry but also in the battle between each state's largest club!

Final Team Rosters:

Team Columbia:
Board 1 - Philipp Lamby
Board 2 - Paul Farb
Board 3 - Joerg Lohse
Board 4 - Daniel Smith
Board 5 - Shiva Balasubramanian

QCCA Team
Board 1 - Gary Newsom
Board 2 - Mark Sturman
Board 3 - Mike Eberhardinger
Board 4 - Windy Gatlin
Board 5 - Hassan Hashemloo

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 Quick XVI and other notes

Fourteen players compete in Ashland Quick XVI with Donny Gray (2036) and Keith Eubanks (1987) tying for first ahead of Philipp Lamby (2132) and Steve Boshears (1625) in the Championship Quad. Mike Mayfield (1499) continued his impressive play taking clear first in the Candidates Quad ahead of Adam Shaw (1417), George Morton (1471) and Erik Murrah (1389). The final section was a six player swiss with Ralph Buske (1063) taking clear first ahead of Paul Lowry (1162) and Richard Watts (1090) who tied for 2nd.


The final crosstable is HERE.


One of these is a win for White the other is a Draw. Find out this week on Casual Night. Come out for some "Stress Free" chess. Daniel Smith and Erik Murrah have a couple presentations. Check the previous post for details. Both will be very interesting to class players, and even to players that have no class!





The Club Championship begins on March 4. Here are the details:

Five round Swiss. One round a week for five weeks. Club members only, can join on site.

Entry fee $10 ($2/rd). One bye allowed, No last round byes, No free entries. Rounds start at 7:30.

Open Section only, Game 90. Accelerated Pairings will be used. Trophies to 1st, 2nd, Top U1600 and Top Jr. player. Trophy winners also receive 1yr club membership.

NO CASH PRIZES this tournament.

Based on first round attendance an Unrated trophy OR an U1200 trophy may be added to the awards.

The first Club Awards Standings have been posted. The rules for the Awards can be found HERE. Take note to how the Player of the Year is decided. The rules have changed so ANYONE regardless of rating can win POY with a consistent, solid performance.

The Club's Jr. players continue to roll through the SC Scholastic Grand Prix Series as Ben Caiello continued his domination with a 4-0 performance in the fifth round of the series today. Dan Caiello finished tied for 2nd with Tommy Leonardi from Spartanburg in what is fast becoming a three way battle for the top spot in the State. Hot on their heals is one of our youngest club members, Chris Aluri, who went a perfect 4-0 in the K-5 section of today's Grand Prix.

The final crosstable is HERE.

Keep an eye on these players at the State Scholastics coming up in a couple weeks.

The Club Match with Queen City Chess has been scheduled for May 15 here in Columbia. The site will be announced soon. Players that came out last Thursday were given first right of refusal to play, and no one refused! All ten spots have been filled! We'll try and expand to include some more players.

Here is Team Columbia:
Donny Gray (2129)
Keith Eubanks (2006)
George Morton (1654)
Erik Murrah (1643)
Steve Boshears (1634)
Adam Shaw (1515)
Richard Watts (1253)
Craig Patton (1136)
Paul Lowry (1133)
Daniel Smith (1121)

The Queen City team can be found HERE.

If you've read this far check out the Columbia Chess Shop . It's active and you can order from it. I'm still fiddling with it so items/colors may change.

Finally, if anyone knows who put this Shop up please let us know. I've checked with the Powers That Be at SC Chess and it's a mystery??!