A variation on an Arabian mate

  

Maximus Lu wins his first Friday Night Blitz

Max took first in the most recent Friday Night Blitz with 9.5 out of 12 With the victory the promising junior passed 2000 in blitz and my money is on his classical rating following suit. The hosts Andrew ans Charles finished second and third respectively.

Difficult tactics

 

A hard tactic is just two or more simple tactics combined.  I am not sure who originally said this pearl of wisdom but I heard it from Neil Bruce. This mate in 5 puzzle is an attraction combined with either a back rank mate or a smothered mate tactic. The back rank or smothered mate tactics on their own could be found by most players. Add in the attraction to set them up and the degree of difficulty is dramatically higher.

David McCabe advances in the club championship

David McCabe won entry into next months club championship with a score of +3 -0 =2. David was able to secure the draw necessary in the last round to clinch sole first. The event pushed David over 2000 for the first time. Good luck to David in the upcoming club championship. 

Justin Guerra had a notable performance finishing with 3 out of 4. Justin earned the right to play in this event by finishing tied for first in the Weaver Adams (the U1800 leg of the club championship). 

Hoy wins Alto event

Andrew won the ALTO event but more importantly food and fun was had by all. The ALTO event is an attempt to rebrand our Milestones event. ALTO (at least 21) aims for a more relaxed event with food and drink through the three round event. It’s a nice chance to mix chess with some social activity. 

Maximus Lu takes Friday Night Blitz

 Max finished with 9.5 out of 12 which was enough to win first in the 8/16 edition of Friday Night Blitz. 

Anton takes the first Friday Night Blitz of August

 Anton took first by a half point over Andrew Hoy. With the two facing off in the final round the victory was on the balance until the end. Something your author will never have to worry about, life is tough at the top end of the rating ladder. Anton dropped rating points despite finishing with 9 out of a potential 12 points. 

Shroff has upset win at Tornado 142

Aryan Shroff started the 23 participant event as the 12th highest rated player in the field. Despite what might have seemed like long odds Aryan went 4 for 4 taking clear first. With all 4 wins coming against higher rated players Aryan earned his win.  In the process Aryan picked up 131 rating points and is now a good tournament away from 2000!  Congrats!

Boylston Chess - Late Summer Six-Week Swiss Online

 

 

 

Late Summer Six-Week Swiss Online  

 

 

Register Online Now

 

 

Date	Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Event Format	6SS, 1 lichess game per Tuesday night set up by individual challenge
Time Control	Open: G/60 + 10 sec, U1900: G/45 + 5 sec
Sections	Open & U1900 (Unrated); accelerated pairings may be used
Entry Fee	$40, $25 for BCF members
Prizes	Open: $120-$80 based on 10 players; U1900: Trophy to 1st Place
Registration	Deadline September 10, 2024 @ 6 PM
Round Times	6:30pm
Description	Contact info: TD Nick Sterling. E-mail: td@boylstonchess.org. Text/cell: 781-733-0849. If I do not have your e-mail and cell phone # already, please send those to me in case we have to contact each other. If I do not have your lichess Username, please send that to me or include it in the comments in your Registration. For Round 1, Pairings will be posted on Tuesday just after 6 PM on the Boylston CC website. The cutoff time for registration in time to play a Round is Tuesday at 6 PM. Any players who register subsequent to 6 PM will be skipped until the following week's Round. Each Round begins at 6:30 PM except for games whose start times were agreed in advance to be changed. Players must join Zoom and Share their Screens or show their play areas in their camera views. The link will be sent to players by e-mail. Players with scores of at least +2, or in contention for a prize, may, at the TD's discretion, be required to provide at least two separate camera views on Zoom. Players must be current Members of USCF for the OPEN SECTION ONLY, not the U1900. However, if the Sections need to be combined due to insufficient registration, then players who joined the U1900 Section will need USCF Memberships to play in the Open. Forfeit of a Round for any reason may result in forfeit of any prize $$$ that would otherwise have been won, at the TD's discretion. Rating with USCF will be delayed by 72 hours after the completion of the tournament to give lichess time to ensure Fair Play was observed in all games.
Entry List	Current Pre-Registration List

Mate in 3 puzzle

 

August quads brings some big performances

Siddharth Arun won the top quad. 

John Archibald won the second quad continuing his hot streak. 

Simon Payne took quad 3 with a perfect score crossing 1900 for the first time in the process  

Nathan Page took quad 4  

And Elliott Harris won quad 5  Elliott cane into the event a 1400 player beating 2 1700s in the process. The performance helped Elliott gain 123 points and a personal best rating  

GM Ivanov wins Big Money Swiss

GM Ivanov finished clear first with 10.5/12.0 at the August edition of the Big Money Swiss event. IM Shmelov finished second with Anton Barash taking third. While neither GM Ivanov and IM Shmelov lost a game Ivanov had more wins 

Hoy wins July Thursday Night Swiss

Andrew took first with a perfect score. With the groups combined, we saw Mike a Bernier finish second with Hallie Martin and Daniel Paley finished tied for third. 

Mate in 2

After the first move there are three different ways to deliver mate depending on how black responds  

July Tuesday Night Swiss results

In his last event John Archibald suffered a cruel blow. He had a good tournament but his rating stopped at 1999. Just 1 point short of the magical 2000 level. John didn’t let this bother him though and came through the event tied for 1st in the Open section with Camden Wagner. John’s performance raised his rating to 2018 well over the 2000 level. He did it the hard way beating two 2000+ rated players in the event. 

Peter Marston won the under section with 4 wins and a half point bye. The strong performance gained him 185 rating points and pushed him over 1500 for the first time. 

The bishop pair

 

Carlson takes Summer Open

Joaquin Carlson took first in Saturday’s Summer Open. He has clearly shaken the rust off from being away at college. Jeremy Berman finished tied for second with Maximus Lu and Rem Yang who both significantly outperformed their expected results. Max picked up 50 rating points and Rem picked up 125. An interesting occurrence happened in the open section with 4 unrated players participating. They all exited with provisional ratings over 1700!  The days when unrated meant 400-600 and they fell for basic opening traps are gone forever. 

Daniel Pineda won the under section with a perfect score. 

Another tactic

White is down a piece but has an advanced pawn on d7. Can white utilize the pawn to get into a winning position?

 

July Big Money Swiss

In its second itteraion we saw another strong crowd for the clubs newest event. We say 59 people sign up for the event which at least in my opinion is the perfect amount for the size of the club.

 The event ended with three players GM Nagi, Mikayel, and Andrew all on 3.5 out of 4 in the open section. GM Nagi ans Mikayel drew each other in the final round while Andrew won his final round game. Of note Jericho Carlson scored 2.5/4.0 to cross 1900 for his first time. 

 Another weekend and another proze for the Zhang sisters as Ella took first in the U1900 section with a perect score. Her strong performance increased her rating 68 points to 1692.

 Zachary Tower took first in the U1500 section. It’s good to see the Thursday Night crew doing well.

Mikayel takes another Friday Night Swiss

Mikayel took the Friday Night Blitz event on July 19th with a score of 11/12. A pair of draws against Zachary Pan is all that stood in his way of a perfect event.

Jianchao takes Big Money Blitz with a perfect score

 Jianchao scored 12/12 in July’s Big Money Blitz event. Mikayel finished 2nd with Andrew and Felix Wu tied for 3rd. The big question now is whether someone can stop Jianchao from doing the double and taking 1st in the Big Money Swiss event on July 20th. 

Interesting website for evaluation

 I have been sharing tactics that I have found interesting. While I will continue to do that I wanted to share a website I came across that might be of interest to lower rated players like myself. 

https://chessevaluationtraining.com/

The website gives you a position, tells you whose move it is and asks the simple question which color is better. It gives you links to the position in lichess and chess.com so you can see the computers take. I thought it was a unique way to practice evaluation skills in positions where material is close. I say it’s for lower rated players as at least in my limited experience one side is always at least 1.5 ahead. So it’s a pretty clear evaluation.  

Sunday Morning Action

After a busy period I am back to blogging about BCC events. 

On Sunday the action came back to BCC with Sunday Morning Action.  Four rapid games to start the day. Nikhil Kalaghatgi took first in the Open section with a perfect score.  Congrats to Carter Z who based on a strong performance finished third and crossed 1900 for the first time in the process.  Daniel Pineda and Dinh Nguyen tied for first in the under section with 3 out of 4  

June Quads

With the AC finally fixed the club combatants could focus on chess without the challenge of the heat. Thomas Rees took the top quad. Holden Chalfant took the top spot in the second quad.  His strong performance resulted in him passing 2000 for the first time. Big time congrats. Jerry Chen won the small Swiss. It’s a tough crown when an 1800 gets relegated to the small Swiss. It needs to be mentioned that Marcus Farzaneh-Far continues his ascent from the scholastic level with a 2 out of 3 performance increasing his rating by 144 points. Marcus is a junior to watch, having picked up over 500 points in the last two months. 

Removing the escape square

White has one move which wins, all the other options are equal games.  The rest of the action isn’t forced but the computer assures me that it’s mate in a lot if black wants to draw things out.  I picked the illustrative move for black rather than a series of spite checks and sacrifices.  

Club Championship Cycle kicks off

The club championship cycle kicked off on Monday with the Weaver Adams. Club members with a rating of under 1800 can compete for a spot in the Rueben Landy. The battle will surely be fierce. Round 1 began with the two top rated players being held to draws ensuring a wide open tournamanet. Michael Brown ground out a win in the last game of the night to finish outting him in pole position for the tournament. With Justin Guerra taking a bye in round 2 and the two first round draws, Michael will play Patrick Colleran for a chance to be the only player on 2 points after two rounds. Interestingly they both ended the May Tuesday Night Swiss tied for first, so anything can happen.

Hoy wins Open Section on May Tuesday Night Swiss

Andrew took first in the Open section. The Under section was hotly competed with four players tied for first Congrats to Michael Brown, Michael Barry, Ed Astrachan, and Patrick Colleran for finihsing tied for first.

Boylston Chess: Early Summer Six-Week Swiss Online

 

 

Early Summer Six-Week Swiss Online

 

Register Online Now

 

 

Date

beginning Tuesday, May 28, 2024

 

Event Format

6SS, 1 lichess game per Tuesday night set up by individual challenge

 

Time Control

Open: G/60 + 10 sec, U1900: G/45 + 5 sec

 

Sections

Open & U1900 (Unrated); accelerated pairings may be used

 

Entry Fee

$40, $25 for BCF members

 

Prizes

Open: $120-$80 based on 10 players; U1900: Trophy to 1st Place

 

Registration

Deadline June 18, 2024 @ 6 PM

 

Round Times

6:30pm

 

Description

Contact info: TD Nick Sterling. E-mail: td@boylstonchess.org. Text/cell: 781-733-0849.

If I do not have your e-mail and cell phone # already, please send those to me in case we have to contact each other.

If I do not have your lichess Username, please send that to me or include it in the comments in your Registration.

For Round 1, Pairings will be posted on Tuesday just after 6 PM on the Boylston CC website. The cutoff time for registration in time to play a Round is Tuesday at 6 PM. Any players who register subsequent to 6 PM will be skipped until the following week's Round. Each Round begins at 6:30 PM except for games whose start times were agreed in advance to be changed.

Players must join Zoom and Share their Screens or show their play areas in their camera views. The link will be sent to players by e-mail. Players with scores of at least +2, or in contention for a prize, may, at the TD's discretion, be required to provide at least two separate camera views on Zoom.

Players must be current Members of USCF for the OPEN SECTION ONLY, not the U1900. However, if the Sections need to be combined due to insufficient registration, then players who joined the U1900 Section will need USCF Memberships to play in the Open.

Forfeit of a Round for any reason may result in forfeit of any prize $$$ that would otherwise have been won, at the TD's discretion.

Rating with USCF will be delayed by 72 hours after the completion of the tournament to give lichess time to ensure Fair Play was observed in all games.

 

Event Dates

Tuesday, May 28 

Tuesday, June 4 

Tuesday, June 11 

Tuesday, June 18 

Tuesday, June 25 

Tuesday, July 2

Register Online Now

Entry List

 _________________

Need to withdraw or take a bye? 

Email td@boylstonchess.org at least 30 minutes before the round.

For parking and transportation info, 

please visit Parking and Public Transit.

If the metal gate to the building is closed, 

please press the doorbell marked #1

 

 

 

IM Shmelov wins Friday Night Blitz as Mikayel hot streak comes to an end

IM Shmelov took first with 9.5 a full point and a half ahead of Andrew Hoy and Jay Yalamanchili in second. As a reminder there will be no Friday Night Blitz on Memorial Day weekend.

An endgame tactic

 Does black have a chance here?

19 battle it out at the $15 Open

 Maximus Lu took first in the open section with a 3.5 out of 4 score. The performance took him over 1800 for the first time. Congratulations are also in order for Ben Palmer who recently graduated up from winning the under section regularly who took down Kelsey Liu in round 4. A nearly 400 point upset. 

Ella Zhang took first in the 76er section with a perfect score. The performance improved her rating and she is back to within a couple points of her sister who struggled with the increased competition in the Open section. Peter Marston may be one to watch out for. The adult improver got 2 wins in his first OTB tournament and should have had three wins as your author won on time from a clearly losing position.

Friday Night Blitz Round Robin edition

 On May 10th, 9 people signed up for Friday Night Blitz so we moved from a 7 round Swiss to a round robin event. 9 rounds 16 grueling blitz games were had. When the dust settled Mikayel took first with 13.5, 1.5 points clear of Andrew in second. Mikayel has been dominating the non-Danya blitz events recently. Will the streak continue next week?

Boylston Chess: Sunday Morning Action

 

 

Sunday Morning Action

 

Register Online Now

Date

Sunday, May 12, 2024

 

Event Format

4SS

 

Time Control

G/25 + 5

 

Sections

Open & U1800

 

Entry Fee

$20, $35 for non-BCF members

 

Prizes

$360 based on 30 paid entries: Open 1st $150, 2nd $90; U1800 1st $70, 2nd $50

 

Registration

8:45m - 8:55am

 

Round Times

First round promptly at 9:00am, rest ASAP

 

Description

In accordance with BCF policy, unrated players may play in any section. Rated players rated within 200 points of the lower section maximum may play up one section. Sections may be merged if there are few players in one section.

A current USCF membership is required. Please visit the US Chess Membership site to join or renew.

Metered street parking is free on Sundays!

First round is at 9:00am, second round will be no earlier than 10:00am, but rds 2-4 will be played as soon as possible.

Register Online Now

Entry List

 _____________________

 Need to withdraw or take a bye? 

Email td@boylstonchess.org at least 30 minutes before the round.

For parking and transportation info, 

please visit Parking and Public Transit.

If the metal gate to the building is closed, 

please press the doorbell marked #1

 

 

Boylston Chess: $15 Open

 

 

$15 Open  

 

Register Online Now

 

 

 

Date

Saturday, May 11, 2024

 

Event Format

4SS

 

Time Control

G/60 d5

 

Sections

Open & U1800

 

Entry Fee

$15

 

Prizes

$225 based on 25 paid entries: Open: $110-$55, U1800: $60

 

Registration

9:00am - 9:15am

 

Round Times

9:30am, 12:30pm, 3:00pm, 5:30pm

 

Description

Sections with few players may be merged.

In accordance with BCF policy, unrated players may play in any section. Players rated within 200 points of the lower section maximum may play up one section.

A current USCF membership is required. Please visit the US Chess Membership site to join or renew.

Register Online Now

Entry List

 _____________________

Need to withdraw or take a bye? 

Email td@boylstonchess.org at least 30 minutes before the round.

For parking and transportation info, 

please visit Parking and Public Transit.

If the metal gate to the building is closed, 

please press the doorbell marked #1