Our new meeting room

September Swiss Results

Congratulations to Nam for his clear 1st with a perfect 4-0!

Nam 4.0
Anthony 3.5
Patrick 3.0
Brad 2.0 (one game left)
Frank 2.0
John E. 2.0
Vince 2.0
Emily 2.0
Lee 2.0
Dale 1.5 (one game left)
John T. 1.0
Scott 1.0
Sally 1.0
Carl 0.0

Round 4 Results

Brad 0 Nam 1
Anthony 1 Vince 0
Dale 0 Patrick 1
Emily 0 Frank 1
John T. 0 John E. 1
Lee 1 Scott 0
Sally-bye
Carl-w/d

Friends Room

September 29th meeting

Member’s choice night—I will direct as per demand—Quads G/15, 4 player sections of G/30 Swiss (2 rounds), match play G/60 or blitz. To be determined based on demand.

Friends Room Balcony

No meeting next week due to the Library being closed the week of October 5-9th. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, October 14th in the Friends room of the Library. We will begin our October Quads tournament on the 14th. One round per night Oct. 14, 21, 28 with a G/60 time control with 5 second delay.

Chess al fresco (if desired)

4th Round Pairings, 3rd Round Results

Nam     1     Patrick   0
Brad            Dale           unplayed-make-up on 9/29 (paired as draw)
Frank    0    Anthony  1
Scott     0    Vince      1
John E.  0    Emily      1
Sally      0    John T.   1
Carl       0    Lee        1

Overall, looks like it was a good night to play Black!

4th Round Pairings (Tuesday, September 22nd)

White         Black

Brad           Nam
Anthony      Vince
Dale            Patrick
Emily           Frank
John T.        John E.
Lee             Scott
Sally            Carl

A few details remain to wrapped up, but it appears there will be a move of the club meeting night from Tuesday to Wednesday in order to gain a larger room space with more appropriately sized tables for chess.
I will post more information once everything is confirmed but as of now it looks as though we will meet on the 22nd and 29th on Tuesday and beginning in October will shift to Wednesdays as club nights.

As a reminder for those interested, the UT tourney is this Saturday the 19th . You can view all the details by clicking the link on the right of this blog for Austin Chess Tournaments.

2nd Round Fireworks

2nd Round Results
Patrick 1 Frank 0
Vince 0 Nam 1
Anthony 1/2 Dale 1/2
John T. 0 Brad 1
Lee 0 John E. 1
Carl 0 Scott 1
Emily 1 Sally 0

Front Table: Brad v. John T. and Scott v. Carl (barely visible behind Brad)

The top boards were tense battles with all the players using almost every available minute on their clocks. Dale and Anthony agreed to a draw near time control in an endgame position where it appeared it would be difficult for either side to make progress.

 

Patrick v. Frank

3rd Round Pairings

White              Black
Nam (2.0)        Patrick (2.0)
Brad (2.0)        Dale (1.5)
Frank (1.0)      Anthony (1.5)
Scott (1.0)       Vincent (1.0)
John E. (1.0)    Emily (1.0)
Sally (0.0)        John T. (0.0)
Carl (0.0)         Lee (0.0)

 

Anthony v. Dale

Vote tally re: possible switch from Tuesday to Wednesday night. 

The club has been offered the opportunity to switch to one of the larger classrooms which would accommodate club growth and allow us to play on narrower tables more conducive to chess. The results of the email I sent out to club members earlier this week has produced the following tally.

Available either night = 10

Not available Wednesday or prefer Tuesday = 3

I know some of our members either don't use email or don't access their email often. I will try to get input from those members at our next meeting on the 15th. We have a core group of 12-16 regulars and I don't wish to cost anyone the opportunity to play at the club strictly due to switching nights. The unknown is if the larger room with better facilities would allow us to attract new members who can't make it on Tuesdays.  

                              

 Boards: Blue, Red, Black, Green Club Sets: single weight, heavy weight

I had purchased some extra sets and boards when we started the club and recently found some bags, sets, and boards at very reasonable pricing. I know most of our members have their own sets but if anyone is interested in picking up a spare set or doing holiday shopping for a chess playing friend or relative early. I have the above set/bag/board combos available for club members as a package or separately. The forest green travel bag with board loop and carry handles, heavy weighted deluxe club set (4 queens) and your choice of  roll up board (first come, first served) is available for $15. Same package but with a single weight basic club set (4 Queens) is available for $12. See me for individual pricing if desired.

September Swiss

We have an excellent turnout for our September Swiss with 16 players including our newest USCF member and first time tournament player Carl Bamsch. It my understanding that Jim Mann is recovering nicely and will be back in the thick of things shortly.

There were no upsets in the 1st round but Dale and Emily went the distance in a bishops of opposite color endgame with Dale squeaking out the win. Looks like some very interesting matchups next week!

Results of 1st round and next week's pairings

Frank 1    John T. 0
John E. 0  Vincent 1
Dale 1     Emily 0
Scott 0    Patrick 1
Nam 1      Lee 0
Sally 0    Anthony 1
Brad 1     Carl 0

1/2 point byes--Herb, Jim

Round 2 Sept 8th

White    Black

Patrick  Frank
Vincent  Nam
Anthony  Dale
Herb     Brad
John T.  Jim
Lee      John E.
Carl     Scott
Emily    Sally

I used the demo version of Win TD (chess pairings software) for the first two rounds. I'm happy with what I've seen so far and will be upgrading to the full version shortly.

Since I didn't take any pictures at the meeting this week I'm throwing in a random shot of my "chess corner" at the office.

Quick Chess Quads, August Wrap Up

The chess action was up tempo this week with two QC (Game/15) quads wrapping up our August chess calendar. Anthony and Patrick tied for 1st with 2 points each while Herb managed a 3-0 score in his quad. Lee and Emily played an exciting game ending with time running down in a perpetual check draw. Nam and Herb entered the their third round game tied with 2-0 scores. Nam's opening d4 lead to Herb's favored Dutch Stonewall and Black's kingside attack dwindled down to a winning exchange up endgame.

 

Brad and John exchange a game ending good sportsmanlike handshake 

 Patrick v. Anthony and Lee v. Emily

Nam looks on as Anthony contemplates his next move. 

Sally and Kaitlyn played a few games and welcomed our new and returning visiting players. This is the 2nd week in a row we've had mother/son guests visiting the club.

Frank and Dale played a Game/60 match while Scott played his make-up game from the August Quads with John E. 

Remember, our September Tourney  starts next Tuesday the 1st. It's a 4-SS (four round swiss system) with a Game/60 time control. EF: $1 

We missed Jim at the meeting and hope he's feeling better and recovering nicely.

August Quad Results

Frank and Jim are ready to go!

Herb and Dale study their opening moves




Sally and Emily--the first move is the toughest one



Brad and Nam concentrate on the endgame while Gordon, Frank and Emily look on



John E. and Lee--hats off means serious business

Patrick and John T.--as in trouble with a capital T.

Congratulations to our August Quad winners--Frank Lacava, Herb Baumann, Patrick Clot and co-winners Duy Nguyen and Jim Mann. This is the 2nd month in a row we've managed to fill out four Quads for our monthly tournament.

Next week will be our "anything goes" last Tuesday. Suggestions so far include 3 round Game/15 Quick Chess Quads, Game/60 match play and 4 player sections game/30 2 round swiss. Entry fee $1. I will try to accomodate all these suggestions as interest dictates.

On September 1st we will start a 4 round, game/60 swiss system tournament with one round each week (1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd). Entry Fee $1 no prizes.