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| banner: Tony Cortizas, Jr. |
| Date | Saturday, August 11, 2018 |
| Event Format | 4SS |
| Time Control | G/60 d5 |
| Sections | Open, U2000, & U1500 |
| Entry Fee | $35, $20 for BCF members, $5 more if not registering online in advance |
| Prizes | $$360 GUARANTEED: Open 1st $150, 2nd $90 U2000 1st $70, U1500 1st $50 |
| Registration | 9:15am - 9:45am |
| Round Times | 10:00am, 1:00pm, 3:30pm, 6:00pm |
| Description | Sections with fewer than 10 players may be combined.
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. |
| Entry List | Current Pre-Registration List |
_____________________________________________
Walter Driscoll initiated this tournament about 20 years ago to remember and honor his friend Charlie Drafts.
You may not know
that Walter is a chess traveler [having competed in Hungry and visited
Fischer's home and grave in Iceland before he was exhumed], an actor,
and a stand-up comedian.
_____________________________________________
Charles Drafts
by David Glickman
[republishing of a previous post]
This Saturday the ... Annual Charles Drafts Open is
being held at the Boylston Chess Club. Charles died several years ago
and so for newer members of the club and the broader readership of
the weblog I thought it might be worthwhile to briefly review his
story.
Charles was a disabled, double-amputee living in the housing
projects in Mission Hill. He loved to play chess but his condition
made it difficult for him to come to a club or attend tournaments. At
some point in time he contacted the BCC to see if any players would be
willing to come to his apartment to play. Over the years several
heeded the call, but in particular club member Walter Driscoll was a
frequent visitor. I believe Walter was also the driving force behind
the Charles Drafts Open. At the beginning and for many years, the
tournament was held at Charles' building in Mission Hill so that at
least one time a year Charles would have an opportunity to play in a
"traditional" chess tournament. Since his death, the tournament has
continued at the club as a memorial event.
The introduction of internet chess was obviously a boon to Charles
and he was an active player on the ICC. It was, in fact, in the
middle of a chess game on the ICC in 1996 when the event occurred
which thrust Charles into momentary international prominence:
BOSTON
-- A disabled man who became ill while logged on to an Internet chess
site reached out to fellow players from around the world for
emergency assistance.
Charles Drafts, a double amputee who types using a stick in his
mouth, was playing chess in cyberspace Saturday on the multi-use World
Wide Web site where 159 others also were logged on.
Suddenly, he sent out this message: "i'm having physical illness problems and need help."
"He was starting to have some really bad feelings, shortness of
breath and dizziness, and he typed in a message to all our members,"
said Daniel Sleator, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon
University near Pittsburgh who founded the Internet Chess Club.
"It took a little while to know whether it was serious or not
because there's an awful lot of kidding and bantering that goes on,"
Mr. Sleator said. "At first, I think some people were thinking it was a
joke. But others realized it was a serious thing and started getting
the information right away."
Mr. Drafts managed to type in his address.... while several users
tried to find out what symptoms Drafts was suffering, Andy McFarland
of Owensboro, Kentucky, was calling Boston's emergency medical
services on his second phone line. "When he finally got through, he
told dispatchers where he was calling from and explained the
situation," Howland relates. 'I think I lost them for just a second,'
McFarland said. 'It's not something they get every day.'"
...firefighters rushed to Draft's home, but no one answered the
door. They called McFarland back to verify the address. McFarland told
the wire service, "The last thing I heard them say was, `We're going
in,' and they hung up." ...a short while later Boston firefighters
broke down his door to get inside. They rushed the 48-year-old man to
Beth Israel Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition ...,
suffering from an undisclosed ailment.
About 20 minutes later, a Boston dispatcher called to tell
McFarland that they had found Drafts inside and that he had needed
help.
[This text is a re-gifting of David Glickman's 2005 post.]
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