beginning July7
U2200 Championship
The 2014 Reubens Landey begins Monday, July 7. It is the second component of the club championship cycle. The winner becomes the BCC U2200 champion and moves into the club championship to compete against club masters.
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Last year's Reubens Landey winner and U2200 Champion was Professor Timothy Sage, Physics Department, Northeastern University.
This is a very special tournament - it is traditionally a very competitive, prestigious, yet friendly tournament. Only club members can enter, but if you aren't a member, this is the perfect excuse to join or renew.
You may request a 1/2 point, 1st round bye.
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Below is some context for this tournament: two biographical articles by Bernardo Iglesias and a listing of past winners.
"....Chess appeals to our emotions and brings us joys and sorrows."
Emil Reubens was
born in a beautiful land very far away, in Yelisavetpol (Kirovabad)
Russia, in 1886, on September 23 and, died in Massachusetts in Norwood
Hospital in 1973, on August 29 after a brief illness. Emil Reubens was
86 years old when he died, an extraordinary man who believed that
mankind could become rehabilitated through Chess. Chess is more than
life and can change a person to benefit Society.
He was a chess
master emeritus and one of the founding member of the United States
Chess Federation, a member of the Boylston Chess Club, the Brockton
Chess Club and his dear Sharon Chess Club.
Reubens received
his formal education at the University of Prague. In 1906 he immigrated
to the United States and worked for a time in steel mills in Detroit.
Eventually he moved to Boston and graduated from Boston University in
1922 with a degree in business administration. Much later, in June of
1973 he received his Master's degree in business administration, he was
the oldest person in the university's history to obtain such a degree at
86.
He lived in
Sharon, Mass. for many years. Emil Reubens was a U.S.C.F. life director
and authored a wonderful book on chess play, entitled Chess - Trick and Treat in
1965. This book is a treasure, a precious jewel for any novice player.
At the end of the book he recommends that every young player should
“Join a chess club. Meet chess players of differing skill and style.
Subscribe to a periodical that will keep you abreast of the important
events in Chess world."
In 1964, he
helped to bring the U.S. Open to Boston. He was an honorary Chairman of
the Committee, along with a lot of the great chess organizers of the
time: Robert Goodspeed (Brockton C.C), Harold Dondis (Johnson C.C.), Eleanor Goodspeed, Eleanor Terry, Frank Ferdinand (Harvard C.C.), James Burgess (Boylston C.C. ),Harry Goober (Clarendon C.C.), Beverly Jarnigan and Joseph Hurvitz (Boylston
C.C.). That year, the U.S.C.F. was celebrating the silver anniversary
of its foundation, in which Emil Reubens had been a strong force in
promoting chess in this country.
Emil had a long
time interest in prison reform and was instrumental in assisting many
prisoners get back into society. In his book, mentioned above, he
thought that “When I was drafted into becoming a "leader" in youth
clubs, I employed chess and chocolate bars to lead the youth into the
paths of righteousness. There are no available data to estimate the
effect of chess on juvenile delinquency, nor are there statistics to
gauge the collateral effects of chocolate bars freely rewarded for chess
merits."
Reubens combined
a lifelong interest in better prisons, rehabilitation and parole
systems with chess activities. He organized many teams of players who
visited several penal institutions to play against teams of inmates, or
just to play simultaneous exhibitions against the inmates. On one
occasion, he took Steve Frymer, John Curdo, and R. Gleason
to Norfolk Prison, delighting one inmate in particular so much that he
became an active player and organizer in Norfolk area.
Emil Reubens
loved the youth, kids of all ages, -- they are our future joys and
sorrows in life. The second Brockton Open, on September 25 & 26,
1971 in Brockton, Mass.William Lombardy, former World Junior
Champion, had agreed to participate in the selection and awarding of a
special Lombardy - Reubens “best played game” trophy to some player
under the age of 21 (Harry Lyman was present in this ceremony). The winner of the award trophy was won by the young John Peters. The third Brockton Open, on September 23 & 24,1972, the Lombardy-Reubens award trophy was won byJohn Stopa. For the Boylston C.C. member’s information, at this event Alex Slive andAndrew Anisimov,
two new youngsters showed up in the chess arena. After this event, it
seems that such award stopped being awarded by the Brockton Chess Club,
since he became sick and died shortly.
The "MASS STATE
JUNIOR CHESS CHALLENGE TROPHY PRESENTED BY EMIL M. REUBENS " is a silver
trophy cup at the Boylston Chess Club to preserve his memory for future
generations. In 1988, William Lukowiak, treasurer of the
Boylston Chess Club and long time an officer on the board of MACA,
introduced a motion to the Executive Board of MACA that the winner’s
name of the Junior Scholastic Champion from Massachusetts be inscribed
in this trophy and that MACA will help to pay for traveling expenses to
the National Championship whenever it was to be held. The MACA board
turned down this motion, and denied youngsters of this State such an
honor.
After his death,
the Mass State Chess Association, organized a one time "the Emil
Reubens Memorial" at the Massachusetts Open at the new Brockton High
School in 1974. The winner of this event was John Peters.
Emil founded the
Steinberg-Reubens Educational Foundation. The Boylston Chess Club Board
of Directors decided that in 1986 to pay tribute to Emil Reubens and
Ben Landey by naming a qualifier cycle of the B.C.C. championship
qualifier in their honor, for players rated 1800 to 2199. The winners of
the Reubens/Landy move on to play against the club’s masters for the
club championship.
__________
BENJAMIN LANDEY
by Bernardo Iglesias
Benjamin Landey was
born in 1912 and died on January 20, 1981 in Quincy. From his high
school days he worked for the Sharon Bolt and Screw Company founded by Emil Reubens, reaching the position of board chairman, which he held at his death. According to Harry Lyman, Benjamin married Reubens’ daughter.
For many years,
he was the ceremonial chess leader of New England: Landey was President
of the MSCA, the Boylston Chess Club, the Boston Metropolitan Chess
League, the New England Chess Association, and the USCF Regional
Vice-President.
He was a truly
regional chess entrepreneur, a notable chess organizer, a man of
remarkable poise and intelligence, a master of parliamentary procedure
and a skillful politician, that is, a leader among leaders in the
region. He worked for long hours at his job and then spend evenings and
weekends on numerous chess projects and clubs.
While Ben Landey was
a tournament director for M.S.C.A., he brought to Boston the U.S. Open
in 1970 and the U.S. Junior Open in 1965 and 1969, held at Northeastern
University. Ben Landey's most active years were from 1965 to 1970; after
this year his health impeded more time in his passion for the royal
game of chess. Despite his failing health, he was an extremely
successful teacher of chess for beginners, though he himself was rated
only about 1500 during most of his over the board career; he also,
worked with the Massachusetts Association for Retarded Citizens and
several local groups.
Along with Emil
Reubens, Landey was a major sponsor of prison chess programs, and the
two of them sought the parole of a number of inmates who were avid chess
players. In addition to being a regular tournament player, Ben Landey
was very active in postal chess with the Nights of the Square Table
(NOST).
Landey was the first person to compete with a computer in chess at a U.S. Chess Federation rated tournament. He lost.
Landey’s most
glorious moment in the spotlight as an organizer was winning the bid for
the 1970 US Open for Boston. It was Ben Landey’s rhetoric that easily
won the bid at the 1969 U.S.C.F. meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was
unfortunate that the then M.S.C.A. was not ready to host such a major
event. The host site, Boston's Parker House, was a less than welcoming
host, and a great number of participants complained about the space
designated for the playing room, that the light was not good enough for
many, etc. Also, Ben Landey got sick a few months before the event along
with his co-organizer Lewis Icenogle. It was not Landey's shining hour. `
Ben was
treasurer of the Greater Boston Committee of the U.S. Peace Council,
past President of the South Shore Assn. for Retarded Citizens. He was
the President of the Boylston Chess Club at the time of his death.
After his death
in 1981, M.A.C.A. organized a memorial tournament at the Mass. Open in
April; the winner of this tournament was the young James Rizzitano in North Darmouth.
The Boylston Chess Club has honored Ben Landey since
1986, when the Board of Directors dedicated a qualifier tournament to
those members of the club rated 1800 to 2199 plus the winners of the
Weaver Adam's; the winner to participate in the fall championship. His
memory will endure for ever at the Boylston Chess Club along with that
of Emil Reubens.
__________
| year | Reubens-Landey (U2200 Champion) |
| 2014 | |
| 2013 | J. Timothy Sage |
| 2012 | Simon Warfield, Carey Theil |
| 2011 | Simon Warfield |
| 2010 | Jeffrey Hall, Sean Ingham, David Glickman |
| 2009 | NM Greg Kaden |
| 2008 | Simon Warfield |
| 2007 | Gregory Kaden |
| 2006 | Brian Salomon |
| 2005 | Kenneth Newman, Carey Theil |
| 2004 | Simon Warfield |
| 2003 | Edward Astrachan |
| 2002 | Simon Warfield |
| 2001 | Edward Astrachan, Kimani Stancil |
| 2000 | Simon Warfield |
| 1999 | Daniel J. Woods |
| 1998 | Paul Mishkin |
| 1997 | Robert Armes |
| 1996 | Larry Schmitt |
| 1995 | Miguel Angel Santana |
| 1994 | Alex Slive |
| 1993 | Timur Feinstein |
| 1992 | Daniel J. Woods |
| 1991 | Larry Schmitt |
| 1990 | Alex Slive |
| 1989 | Thomas Durnan |
| 1988 | Thomas Durnan |
| 1987 | Harold Dean Lawton |
| 1986 | Charlie Mays 1st U2200 champion |
