The 2008 Mass Open and MACA

The 2008 Mass Open and MACA

70 players attended this year's Mass Open in Boxborough, about 10 people less than last year.

The highlight was TD Ken Ballou
presenting a plaque to John Curdo commemorating John's first of 17 Mass Championships 60 years ago at the age of 16.

The most watched battle, was a game between Jim Rizzitano and Paul Mac Intyre that went the full 6 hours, both players having equal winning chances, with MacIntyre the victor in the time scramble of a complex ending where both sides queened pawns.

Denys Shmelov won the Open Section - becoming the 2008 Massachusetts Champion. John Elmore of NH the U2000, Avery Chen of CT the U1800, Larry Kleine the U1600.

In the one day (attendance 30) Howard Goldowsky and Darwin Ding won the U2000/Open, with David Todd and Chirantan Neogy winning the U1300 .

Bill Kelleher went undefeated with 10 wins in Blitz (attendance 10). Walter Champion funded a best game prize TBD.

There were also scholastic events this weekend as well: K-6 Under 1400 Alexander Sorets won and K-6 Under 800 Jenny R Qiu won by tiebreak over Sathwik Karnik. While K-3 U12K was won Arnav Ghosh in a tie break over Henry Li, and K3-U600 was tied by Afareen Jaleel and Bridget Fox (attendance 64).

MACA election results: President: Maryanne Reilly (88 votes); Vice President: Donna Alarie (84 votes); Treasurer: Robert Messenger (92 votes); Clerk: R. Kenneth Ballou (87 votes); DIRECTORS: (elected) George Mirijanian, 93 votes; Steve Frymer, 88 votes; Stephen Dann, 80 votes; Beebe Wiegand, 73 votes; Joseph Alfano, 71 votes; Brian Lafferty, 70 votes; Brian Mottershead, 69 votes; Robert King, 63 votes; Margaret King, 60 votes.

MACA VP Donna Alarie carried most of the reporting duties in the MACA annual meeting asking for volunteers to help with various tasks performed by Maca. Donna pointed out that the increased expenses of the magazine Chess Horizons created a deficit of several thousand dollars and the MACA executive and directors have to come up with a strategy to meet this budgetary drain, but keep the magazine. Discussions revolved around the possibility of an electronic version of Chess Horizons. This deficit was absorbed due to funds in investments. Donna asked for help in reviewing MACA's investment strategies that were previously managed by the late Gus Gosselin. Currently there about 250 adult MACA members as numbers keep falling.

How do you feel about Chess Horizons?

If you have something interesting to add please comment. Mike Griffin 05/28/2008