Caption Contest XXV

Post your caption in the comments.

Source

My nominations for next year's judges

While I'm more than happy to continue to stay on the sidelines and let others slog it out over the Kenyan election results, errr... I mean the USCL Blogger of the Year contest, there's no reason not to repost some of the complimentary comments others have made about our coverage here at BCC Weblog:

"I don't agree that BCC is any poorer simply for not having video. The written word is still the most supple medium of communication, and DG wields it well. His coverage and analyses were superb." - Tom Panelas

"I thought BCC was excellent too, and I may have picked them over Liz..." - Braden Bournival

"The BCC blog didn't make the final. I think it should have." - Matt Phelps

Thanks guys.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Vicary - USCL Blogger of the Year

I knew my own candidacy was in trouble when I rebuffed the commissioner's uncomfortable personal advances.

Sorting Pictures

Check out the newly restructured Boylston Chess Club Photo Gallery page.

How do we get him to the club more than once a year?

Takchess reports on his New Year's day at the Boylston Chess Club.

BCC Herb Healy Open House 2008

Since 1974 chess players have started the new year with a tournament and open house at the Boylston Chess Club. In 1980 the open house was dedicated to Herb Healy, who is described below by Bernardo Iglesias.

This year there were 41 players and many visitors. Former US Champion GM Larry Christiansen played again this year, along with IM David Vigorito, current BCC and Massachusetts Champion, and FM Paul MacIntyre, current BCC President and BCC Champion (2004, 2003, 2001, & 2000).

Other former BCC Champions playing included FM Bill Kelleher (1987, 1984, 1983, 1981, 1980, & 1979), FM Chris Chase (2006, 1998, 1994, 1990), NM Alex Cherniack (1995, 1989), and FM Jacob Rasin (just visiting; 1997,1995,1993,1992,1991, & 1990).

Bernardo Iglesias was again the able TD, assisted by Walter Driscoll and Scott Caplan. Mike Griffin catered the affair as Irving Yaffee was unable to attend. Tony Cortizas and Steve Stepak, two pre-eminent portrait photographers, documented the event, as they have so often done in the Boston chess world. Robert Oresick also snapped some shots in between getting clobbered by Seth Lieberman and Natasha Christiansen.

********************

Herbert E. Healy was born in 1885 and died on Wednesday, January 9, 1974 in Boston. He was 88 years old and one of the original Charter members of the Boylston Chess Club at its official organization in 1919. He was Secretary Emeritus at his death.

“The Club was saddened by the death of Herbert Healy, Charter Member and Secretary Emeritus, on Wednesday night, January 9, 1974. This occurred only days after the Herbert Healy Appreciation Tournament (the 30-30 New Year’s Event) and Testimony was held in his honor. Wednesday had a 10”-12” snowfall, but Mr. Healy showed up at the Union and peeked into the Chess Quarters. [ He went to his home in the South End on Brookline Ave.] He died in his sleep. (Only Dave Hudnut, in the Providence Rhode Island area, remains as a Charter Club Member.)”

In 1980, the New Year's 30/30 was permanently dedicated to him as Herbert E. Healy Open house. Herbert E. Healy along with Harry Lyman, Irving Yaffee, Myer Edelstein and others customarily provided food to the participants of this event.

This information was taken from minutes of the club from January 27, 1974 and talking with Mr. Harry Lyman and William Lukowiak in past years. There are more testimonies about Mr. Healy that I am omitting.

Bemardo Iglesias

December 2007

The sidekick reappears

Sancho Pawnza, one of the founding Knights Errant, has returned with his first new post in almost ten months.

...this may just be a one off deal or I may decide to post on a weekly, semi-weekly or even monthly basis.

The envelope, please

DK hands out his chess blogger awards for 2007

French Caffeine

The Streatham & Brixton Chess Club has started a series of posts on games where the Exchange Variation of the French Defense turns out not to be dry, dull, boring and sleep-inducing.

Here is my contribution -- a game with opposite side castling where White neglects to attack on the queenside, so Black has all the fun on the kingside.

Which USCL team is the most/least brilliant?

With the 20 best games (I mean, the 19 best, plus Bonin-Shmelov) from the 2007 US Chess League season lined up for the Game of the Year contest, I thought it might be interesting to see which teams are over and under-represented in the list. Here's what I found:

# of GOTY Candidate Games Won

4 - San Francisco
3 - Miami, New York
2 - Boston, Carolina, Dallas, New Jersey
1 - Philadelphia, Tennessee
0 - Baltimore, Queens, Seattle

# of GOTY Candidate Games Lost

3 - Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle
2 - New York
1 - Baltimore, Carolina, Miami, New Jersey, Queens, Tennessee
0 - Philadelphia

Of the 40 participants from the 20 games, 22 (or 55%) come from just four teams -- San Francisco, Boston, Dallas and New York. I wonder what the bias-conspiratorialists will make of that?

**********

By the way, Arun Sharma has added his two cents to the Bonin-Shmelov controversy:

I must say that I was shocked when this game was picked as a Wildcard. Why? Well because I frankly didn’t think it deserved to be in the GOTY contest. And if it doesn’t deserve to be in the contest then why should it do well in it? Simple answer: it shouldn’t.

**********

... and congratulations are in order for Chicago and Arizona, the two expansion teams for the 2008 season.

New Year's Day at the BCC

Start your new year right at the annual Herb Healy Open House on New Year's day.

This is our Boylston Chess Club annual party and fund raiser.

• If you will be up late celebrating on New Year's eve, not to worry - first round is 11:45.
• If you don't feel like rated games in the rated section, play in the unrated section.
• If game/30 is too quick for your taste, this year again the time control is changed to G/45.
• If you are not a member of the BCF, no problem -- you do not need to be a BCF member to enjoy the tournament and food and fellowship, though it is a traditional time for many to join or rejoin.
  

Tuesday, January 1st: BCF Herb Healy Open House 4SS; G/45; 2 sections: Rated and Non-Rated; Entry fee: $25, $20 BCF members if received by 12/30, $5 extra on site. Registration: 10:45 to 11:40. Rounds: 11:45, 1:20, 3:00, 4:40. Free food and drink served all day long to tournament players. Send advance entries to: Herb Healy Open House, 240B Elm St. Suite B9 Somerville, MA 02144

Adapted from Bob Oresick's e-mail

In search of permalinks

In a post discussing a recent Chess Cafe article by Mark Dvoretsky, The Chessmill registers the following complaint:

I’d provide a link to it, but Hanon Russell doesn’t appear to believe in permalinks, so any link I’d provide here would break in short order, hence there’s no point in doing so...

While it is in fact a bit challenging to find the permanent links on The Chess Cafe site, they are there. Look in the archives section (there's a link at the bottom right on the front page). For example, a permalink to the Dvoretsky article in question can be found here.

Lithium calls it quits

It just got to a point where my enthusiasm was shot to hell and I just couldn't be bothered with it anymore....

I know some people can take a positive from their losses, but for me, well it just pisses me off. There's a dozen other pastimes out there I can excel in in only a few months of practise and I'd rather spend my rather limited time, patience and enjoyment on those than constantly bang my head against a brick wall that is the Australian chess scene.

Do I love Chess? my oath. On design and principle it's strategic gaming at the absolute pinnacle with a rich and fascinating history.

But if you want to learn to play to win, you better start before you grow pubic hair because it's one hell of a bloody competitive game and for a late bloomer like me, I'm way way too late to the game to hold my own against the top dogs.

So with regret and sadness I am withdrawing from the Knights. I was foolish to think that it would help me get a leg up on the competition but really, I was just fooling myself.

Read his complete post, "It's not cricket...".

Separated at Birth? caption contest XXIV

schach und kunst - Stasys Eidrigevicius 1991

Caption Contest XXIV

Post your caption in the comments.

Source - Hat Tip: Echecs & Fab

IM David Vigorito - Lecture and Simul at the BCC

IM David Vigorito, currently the Champion of Massachusetts and of the Boylston Chess Club, discussed two interesting recent games.

The audience of 17 - mostly BCC members who had free admission - enjoyed David's sophisticated and witty comments about a King's Indian game and a Sicilian he played with Paul MacIntyre in the BCC Championship. There were ample refreshments and a smaller than expected simul (6 intrepid souls.) All in all a delightful chess evening.

I thought it might be even higher

72%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Kids, Christmas and the BCC

We'll let them spend the holiday with their families, but beyond that the Boylston Chess Club has a week's worth of activities to keep the scholastic set out of trouble.

Sunday, December 23: Sunday Scholastic

4SS; Game/30. Sections: Under 8 years old, Under 11 years old, Under 14 years old; Entry fee: $15; $10 for BCF members; join at the tournament and get the member rate. Prizes: Trophies to top two in each section. Registration: 9:00-9:50 AM; Rounds: 10:00 – 11:00 – 12:30 – 1:30
Boylston School Break Chess Camp Series
December recess: 26th , 27th, 28th 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each day

This chess camp is for young chess players who already have a complete understanding of the rules of chess and desire to develop their abilities. With a combination of lecture, question & answer, and hands-on techniques, the instructors will cover:

• Tactics
  
• Strategy
  
• Openings
  
• Middlegames
  
• Endgames
  
• Problems

Students will develop their memory, critical thinking skills, sense of fairness, attention span, and have fun in the process.

The head instructor is Chess Master Jacob Rasin, an experienced coach who has been the coach of many of New England's best young players and has inspired them to many championships.

Who can join?: School-age children, K to 12, interested in getting better at chess from motivated beginner to intermediate.

How much does it cost?: Each camp is $60 for Boylston Chess Club members.

Reserve your place in the December Break camp by contacting Paul MacIntyre, President of the Boylston Chess Foundation at (781) 322-7936 or boylstonchess@aol.com.

Can a game that didn't count be Game of the Year?

In a rather surprising decision, New York Knights IM Jay Bonin's win over NM Denys Shmelov of the Boston Blitz in the US Chess League Eastern Division Finals was selected as the 4th Wildcard entry into the Game of the Year selection process. The choice was made by Jonathan Hilton whose Game of the Week selections were often met with confusion during the regular season.

While I don't wish to diminish Bonin's effort, it is worth recalling that much of the game transpired after the Blitz had already clinched the match victory and Shmelov was forced to play out the ending with the rest of team and its fans celebrating around him. In addition, the original Rook and 3 pawns vs. Knight and Bishop ending was probably better for Denys. Kudos to Jay for outplaying his opponent, but hardly Game of the Year material in this observer's opinion.

Play chess under a watchful eye

The city of Deland, Florida has hired a contractor to begin development of Chess Park.

In keeping with its name, Chess Park will feature 10 tables with chessboard designs. There will also be a giant chessboard for playing giant chess, explained Alan Cajacob, the DeLand architect who designed the park.

"I understand that some of these giant chess parks have tournaments going on till the wee hours of the morning," Cajacob said.

There will be super-size game pieces — pawns, knights, rooks, bishops, queens and kings — that players may move about on the park's checkerboard surface....

Players will need to be careful not to wager on games, make illegal moves or knock the pieces off the board when they are about to lose, since all the action will be monitored.

...Chess Park will be equipped to record any lawlessness that occurs within its walls.

"I'll have security cameras in it," [Volusia County director of facilities services, Fred] Schwenck said.