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The Herb Healy annual Open House had a good turnout this year, with 39 in the rated section, 13 in the unrated section, and many visitors who came to watch the games and greet the new year with friends.
FM Chris Chase won the rated section with 4.0.
IM Justin Sarkar,
NM Carey Theil, and Benedict Smail
split 2nd place with 3.5.In the unrated section, NM Alex Cherniack won with perfect 4.0.)
Chris, of course, is the 2010 Boylston Champion.
Justin came up from New York to play in the tournament and found his first opponent was Natasha.
Louis Sturniolo (left, Seyhmus Yuksekkaya, center and Eduardo Valadares, right), who lives in New Jersey and was visiting his sister in Boston, decided to play
on New Year's day again -- the last time was in 1970 at the old YMCU on Boylston, when the new year's day event was known as the 30/30, before it was renamed in honor of Herb Healy.As usual, Bernardo Iglesias organized the open house and served as the able TD.
Mike Griffin continued as master caterer. Mike also wanted to be sure to thank volunteers Seth Lieberman, Bill MacClellan, and Eric Godin who helped in various ways. Thanks to them all for a lot of hard work -- it is much appreciated.
And thanks to all who came to start off the new year in a fine chess tradition. Happy New Year! May you all find good moves in 2011.
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4 comments:
Who won the unrated section?
Alex Cherniack won the unrated section with 4.0.
I spectated for a bit, and had a fine time saying hello to new and old friends. Chat touched on Bobby Orr, Keith Richards, John Lennon, an unknown magician (from Mike Griffin's amusing tale -- Mike, do you think that guy's trick might work to win a piece over the board? ;-) ), and I also caught a glimpse of the fabled Billy the Magician.
However, the most entertaining moment occurred while I was watching a time scramble, wherein one player had a won position with 3 connected passed pawns heading rapidly toward promotion. The other player had but a bishop (or maybe they had a totally immobilized pawn, too, I can't remember). The winning player was pretty intent on pushing those pawns toward The Win That Would Not Be Denied, and didn't notice the other player moving the bishop in a most Un-bishop like way, all the better to attack those pesky pawns. (The losing player may not have noticed what they'd done, given the time scramble.)
I smiled, knowing that the illegal move wouldn't change the result, and it was also amusing to see Bernardo's eyebrows rise, perhaps expressing "Interesting move...."
TD's are like the Watchers in Highlander - they observe but can't intervene.
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