The Chess Blog of the Boylston Chess Club... The Boylston Chess Club (BCC) is a part of the Boylston Chess Foundation (BCF).
Each year, the USCL's popularity grows. This year's highlights include an explosive USCL blogosphere, (way too many to list here...Well, I'm up for the challenge!
Let's start with some taxonomy -- I've broken USCL blogs down into two major categories:
Unaffiliated - Dedicated USCL Blogs
Most are listed under "US Chess League Coverage" -- (w) indicates a website and (u) denotes that the site covers topics other than the USCL. I left long-time residents of the sidebar like BlueEyedRook and The Kenilworthian where they were and in this case used (u) to indicate that they were general chess blogs that also cover the USCL.Every week, I spend a lot of time working on the lineups...
...though it's hard to know how much he relies on statistical analysis and competitive strategy.
I will be there to represent Texas Tech University, the Susan Polgar Foundation as well as the USCF.Is the new Chairman saying that the USCF is third on her priority list of chess institutions to promote? Maybe I'm just reading too much into sentence structure.
GM Alexander Ivanov will be holding a simultaneous exhibition on October 7th at the S.M.ART School in Newton to raise funds for the care of his son. Andrew Ivanov has Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type III and needs special home accommodations to help him move independently around the house.Wamala organized chess tournaments called the NorthEast Getaway, which drew ranked players from across the region.
Two of those chess players, Robert Feldstein and his wife, Debbie Rothman, traveled from New York City to watch the trial and support their friend Wamala.
The couple said even after the conviction that they do not believe the charges against their friend.
Rothman said she hopes the victim will eventually "come forward" and admit the allegations are not true.
After the verdict, prosecutor Roger "Rusty" Chadwick said the verdict rewarded the victim for her courage in coming forward.
Prosecutors had suggested that Wamala had attempted to tamper with some of the witnesses to get them to change their testimony, but the youngest victim stood firm. And the jury, Chadwick said, was able to see the truth.
"Wamala, the so-called chess champion, just checkmated himself," Chadwick said.
White seeks to undermine Black's control of d5.
A move that must have taken nerves of steel to unleash
Here White moved 33.Rf1,
Denys played 27...Qb7 and suddenly
Former Lowell High School Math Department Chairman Severine Wamala was convicted this afternoon of 11 counts of felonious sexual assault against a then 15-year-old girl.
A Hillsborough County Superior Court cleared Wamala, 46, of Nashua, of one count of incest involving a 19-year-old girl.
Wamala showed little emotion as the verdict was read....
Wamala faces a maximum sentence of 10-20 years in state prison for each rape conviction, prosecutors said.
The sentencing was postponed for 30 to 45 days so the Probation Department can do a presentencing report.
No sentencing date was set.
His main accuser was a 16-year-old girl. Several other charges involving two other women were dropped after the women recanted statements they made to police.
The teenager stood by her original statement, and prosecutors were allowed to introduce a "time capsule" she had made which showed the abuse had been going on for years.
"This girl showed remarkable poise and bravery in testifying against Wamala, who had been abusing her for years," said Patricia LaFrance, assistant county attorney.
Riordan-Wang
Williams-MacIntyre
After declaring he was certain she had just committed perjury, a judge allowed prosecutors to call a witness who testified Severine Wamala never sexually assaulted her in any way.
Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Robert Lynn expressed frustration with the situation, saying he wished New Hampshire's rules of evidence allowed prosecutors to fully question a witness whom they believe is lying.
"I'm trying to follow the rules of evidence, but it is abundantly clear – there isn't the slightest doubt in my mind – that the witness's testimony we just heard is not candid," Lynn remarked after a hearing outside the presence of the jury.
Photo by The Associated PressThe judge in the trial of a former Lowell, Mass., high school teacher accused of sexually assaulting three young women dismissed many of the charges in the case Tuesday, ruling that prosecutors hadn’t produced enough evidence for the jury to even consider them....
Two of the three women later recanted ... and testified during Wamala’s trial that police pressured them into making false accusations. The third, a 16-year-old, testified that Wamala had sex with her at least once a month during an 11-month span in 2005 and 2006.
Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Robert Lynn dismissed many of the charges against Wamala after prosecutors finished presenting evidence Tuesday. Jurors still must consider aggravated felonious sexual assault charges involving the 16-year-old, and one lesser felony sexual assault charge involving a 19-year-old woman, Lynn ruled....
Lawyers for both sides expect to make their closing arguments after prosecutors finish questioning Wamala on Wednesday morning, and jurors may begin deliberating soon afterward...
It's a real shame that Krasik didn't either win or draw this, because if he did I'm pretty sure it would have gotten my vote for game of the week.At least Greg had the decency to recognize that Teddy was a participant in the game. The two other voters didn't even bother to mention his name at all.
A 24-year-old Lowell, Mass., woman swore to tell the truth, and then testified Friday that Severine Wamala never touched her....
"It never happened," she said.
Later Friday afternoon, however, jurors watched a videotape in which the same woman told Nashua Police Detective Michael Moushegian that Wamala had sexually assaulted her on the very first day she arrived in the United States from her native Uganda, and repeatedly afterward in Lowell and later in Nashua....
She testified that Wamala never did anything more than hug her to show affection, and she falsely accused him of rape because Moushegian badgered and intimidated her into saying so....
When Assistant County Attorney Patricia LaFrance asked the woman to recount what she had told Moushegian during an interview last year, the woman said repeatedly that she couldn’t remember details of what she said about the alleged abuse....
At one point, however, when LaFrance asked the woman where Wamala had assaulted her, she answered, "in the bathroom."
Wamala’s lawyers immediately interrupted with an objection and LaFrance was unable to immediately follow up.
Judge Robert Lynn later mentioned the incident while discussing with lawyers what other evidence ought to be allowed and made clear (while the jury was out of the room) that he thought the woman was lying.
“It would be obvious to anyone that not only was her credibility severely impeached,” Lynn said, then added, the woman’s answer to the question suggested something did happen between her and Wamala in a bathroom.
It is getting late. I am sitting across the table from a guy, our knees not quite touching. Around us, the room has gradually emptied and now we are alone. Our eyes meet for half a second; he looks away. I continue to study his face, searching for clues. He seems composed; my hands are shaking. I watch intently as he meets my eyes again and reaches slowly towards me.Imagine being able to write like this at the tender age of 16.
Then he moves his rook two squares to the right and taps the clock, starting my timer counting down. I cup my chin in my hands, trying to overcome my exhaustion. We have been playing for four hours, and I have not eaten dinner; my headache has faded to a mental numbness. As my energy has ebbed, however, my antipathy has grown; at this point, my need for food is compensated for by my desire to destroy my opponent. I contemplate hideous chessboard revenges–first, I'll skewer him, then I'll fork his rooks; I'll finish him off with a vicious zugzwang. He resigns half an hour later, to my relief, and I feel my anger fading. No longer my opponent, he now seems likeable once more. As we pick up the pieces, I remember what it's so easy to forget–it's only a game.
It's Boylston Chess Foundation Board Member Natasha Christiansen all decked out in Boston Blitz attire. I'm not sure what her connection to the team is, but she must be a very big fan.Wamala was a strict disciplinarian, the girl testified, who demanded obedience and put signs up in his bathroom warning that defiance won't be tolerated.Here is more coverage of the first day of the trial from the Nashua Telegraph:
"This is a case about a man who must be obeyed," prosecutor Roger "Rusty" Chadwick said.
The girl testified that once a month, after her chess tournaments, Wamala only needed to give her "a look" with his eyes and she knew to go to his room either later that night or early the next morning.
In their opening arguments, the two attorneys touched on Wamala’s Ugandan heritage and his success in New England. [Wamala's public defender, Anthony] Sculimbrene started his argument with a slow recounting of why Wamala wanted to flee violent Uganda, including having to walk by a dead body left to rot on the ground.
Wamala, who wore a suit and sat at a table taking notes and listening, stood to shake Sculimbrene’s hand after his opening statement.
Prosecutors called the youngest of the three women, now 16, as their first witness. The girl testified matter-of-factly that Wamala raped her at least once a month during an 11-month span in 2005 and 2006, often around the time of chess tournaments in which they were both involved....
Sculimbrene began to question the girl before the trial broke off for the day, and focused on her academic achievement and chess skills, apparently trying to lay the ground for an argument that she is clever enough to orchestrate a campaign of false allegations.
...he's pretty inconsistent so basically are we seeing a Krasik that can play on Wednesday or normal Krasik? I'll give it a 50/50...No less of an inside source than the official Boston Blitz website claims that Ilya is likely to be one of the key story lines of the night:
The other big story tonight is the USCL debut of top players on both teams -- SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun on Board 2 for the Blitz and GM Ildar Ibragimov on Board 1 for the Pioneers. Further, three quarters of the Queens lineup will be playing in their first league match this evening.Ilya has been a permanent fixture in the Blitz lineup for the last couple of years, being a big part of the Eastern Conference Championship winning team, although this year his time may be limited due to the arrival of Chris Williams.... This week though will be about him and his game, and it's time for him to show that should things start going wrong at the bottom of the board order, that he can step in and still do a job.
7:20 pm : Sorry, blogger managed to crash right after 7 p.m., but we're back now.
