Next Stop: Paparazzi

The Dean of New England chess journalism, Harold Dondis, was kind enough to make BCC Weblog the topic of his Chess Notes column in Monday's edition of The Boston Globe. Here is the article (hyperlinks and notes in italics are mine):

Monday, October 3, 2005

Chess Notes
By Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff
Globe Correspondents

Readers who connect with the Boylston weblog (Boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com) are in for a treat. The blogmaster for the Boylston Club is DG, a regular player there. He has developed a sensible reportage of goings-on in the local chess arenas and also keeps tabs on national developments. The blog spot so far is thankfully free of much of the rancor that exists in many partisan blogs on the Internet.

A recent rundown of the blog shows a number of subjects. For example, the Boylston Championship has commenced with the following participants: Paul MacIntyre, Charles Riordan, Alex Cherniack, Vadim Martirosov, and Kyle Clayton. Matt Klegon withdrew after entry. Missing this year is one of the past year [champions], Chris Chase. [Click here for an updated list of participants.] Withdrawal, if it occurs during the tournament, is one of the problems with these long-term championships, as it prevents an accurate score. After Round 1 MacIntyre, Riordan, and Martirosov had one point apiece. DG's coverage includes games and chess positions.

Another event going on is the US Chess League in which major cities are having a go at one another with chess teams of equivalent ratings. The Boston Blitzes, waging a parallel competition to the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, faced a nemesis in the New York Knights and drew their match. A similar draw followed against the Philadelphia Masterminds. The team players for the Blitzes include Larry Christiansen, Bill Kelleher, Josh Friedel and Ilya Krasik. At last reporting, the Blitzes came up with a 2.5-1.5 victory over the Carolina Cobras, thus upstaging the New England Patriots in their game against the Carolina Panthers. But, as the Red Sox struggled with the Baltimore Orioles, the Blitzes bowed to the Baltimore Kingfishers 3.5-.5.

An unusual occurrence arose in the game between Friedel and International Master Shroer of the Cobras. Friedel had the better position and moved his Queen en prise, which was happily taken by a pawn. It turns out that the move was a slip of the mouse, in short, an unintended move. After negotiation, the position was restored and the proper Queen move was made. Friedel went on to win.

One of the services of the Boylston blog is to bring readers up to speed on other blogs. Apparently the most popular chess blog is the Daily Dirt Chess Blog, which receives about 5,000 postings a day [actually, Mig reports ~5,000 unique visitors a day]. Chess players [who are members of the Boylston Chess Foundation] can apply for the right to post on the Boylston blog. One report covers an AOL lawsuit that nailed chess spammers who hijacked an AOL address and used it for unsolicited e-mail.

Chess players often play in a vacuum, not knowing what is going on in their chess world. All in all, the Boylston chess blog is a welcome local addition to the local chess tradition.

As I'm sure you noticed, Harold referred to the Boston Blitz as the Blitzes throughout the article. When my mother-in-law, who unsurprisingly is not a frequent reader of The Boston Globe chess column, finished the article she asked, "Why is the team from Boston named the Blintzes?"