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.