U1800 Boylston Chess Club Championship
Mondays, June 3, 10, 17, 24
The Weaver Adams U1800
Championship begins the annual club championship cycle. It is followed
by the Reubens-Landey U2200 Championship, the winner of which is seeded
into the club championship - a round robin tournament of Boylston
masters
Weaver Adams U1800
When: Mon, June 3, 6:30pm – 11:00pm
Where: Boylston Chess Club ()
Description:
4SS.
40/90 G/20;
Open to BCF members rated Under 1800;
Entry fee: $20:
Winner becomes the Boylston U1800 Champion and receives free entry into the Reubens/Landey U2199 - 1800 BCF Championship beginning on 7/1.
Registration: 6:30 to 6:55; Rounds: 7:00
TD: Bernardo Iglesias
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Past winners of the Weaver Adams are:
2012 Brian Perez-Daple
2011 Ken Ho, Mike Griffin, Khikmet Sadykov
2010 Alexander Paphitis
2009 Frank Frazier
2008 Jonathan Lee, Adam Yedidia
2007 Alexander Paphitis
2006 Alexander Paphitis, Jonathan Lee, Lior Rozhansky
2005 Robert Oresick, Joshua Blanchfield
2004 Mike Griffin
2003 Robert Oresick
2002 William MacLellan
2001 Mike Griffin
2000 Stephen E. Smith
1999 Bryan Clark
1998 Bryan Clark, Charles G. Alex
1997 Walter A. Driscoll III
1996 Hector Perez, Jared Becker
1995 Miguel A. Santana
1994 Andrew L. Yerre
1993 Charles G. Alex
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Weaver Warren Adams
was born on April 28, 1901 in Dedham, Massachusetts. An American
chess master, he participated in the U.S. Championship in 1936, 1940,
1944, 1946 and 1948. He won the Massachusetts State Championship in
1937, 1938, 1941 and 1945. In 1939, he wrote a book entitled "White to
Play and Win." After publication he played in the U.S. Open at
Dallas. He did not win a single game as White (3 losses and 1 draw) and won all his games (4 games) as Black! Weaver
Adams won the 49th U.S. Open, held in Baltimore, in 1948. He also
wrote "Simple Chess", "How to Play Chess", and "Absolute Chess." He
passed away in Cedar Grove, New Jersey in 1963.
..............
Below
is a photograph taken in Hastings on 28 December 1950. Lord Dunsany
(standing on the right) is watching the first-round game between Alan
Phillips and Weaver Adams.
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WEAVER WARREN ADAMS (born Apr-28-1901, died Jan-06-1963) United States of America
.
Weaver Warren Adams
was born on April 28, 1901 in Dedham Massachusetts. He was an American
chess master. He participated in the U.S. Championship in 1936, 1940,
1944, 1946 and 1948. He won the Massachusetts State Championship in
1937, 1938, 1941 and 1945.
In 1939, he wrote a book entitled "White to Play and Win." After publication he played in the U.S. Open at Dallas. He did not win a single game as White (3 losses and 1 draw) and won all his games (4 games) as Black!
Weaver Adams won the 49th U.S. Open, held in Baltimore, in 1948. He also wrote "Simple Chess", "How to Play Chess", and "Absolute Chess."
.
In May, 1947, Weaver Adams, New England Champion, gave a 16-board simul in San Jose, winning all his games.
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Weaver W. Adams An Autobiography
Massachusetts State Chess Association, 1949, Robert W. Reddy (Ed.) p. 6-8
I
was born on April 28th, 1901 to Frank H. Adams, native of Dedham,
Mass., salesman for many years for Bellantine Breweries and later (after
prohibition) for Ceresota Flour, and Ethel Weaver Adams, native of
Newmarket, NH and graduate of Wellesley College. I am not directly
related to the Presidents, John and John Quincy Adams, although the
Adams's in and about Massachusetts are mostly of the same family,
deriving from a Henry Adams who landed in Braintree in 1644. The family
is quite famous and boasts of many statesmen, writers, historians,
judges, preachers, etc. Footing the list comes a national chess
champion. In the old days he would have surely been branded as a black
sheep for wasting his time at so idle a pastime, and perhaps by many
even today.
My schooling was conventional, Dedham
Public schools and Dedham High School, but then they tried to make an
engineer out of me by sending me to Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. The result was not too good. During the first year a half
dozen of us, after playing a few games at Walker Memorial in Cambridge,
would regularly trek across the bridge to Ye Olde Boston Chess Club on
Ashburton Place or to various dives in the West End, not the least
attractive of which was the Lighted Lamp operated by Boston's famous
Ambrose Gring.
Those were really the balmy days of chess in Boston. Well I remember listening to tales told many times over by John Barry, Will Miller, George Babbitt,
and a host of others most of whom are no longer living. I seemed to
have been a favorite with John Barry because I would talk chess and
analyze with him until 4 A. M. in the morning after everybody else had
either gone home or turned to a bridge game. At any rate I believe I
learned most of my chess from Mr. Barry, and in 1922 attained to the
club championship.
An autobiography is supposed to
contain a statement as to when one learned chess, although it's not
clear as to why this is so important. However, for the sake of the
record, I began playing at the age of about twelve. An older brother of a
friend next door taught the two of us to play, and would play us both
simultaneously blindfold at Queen odds.
What
I do think is important, however, is the time when he took us to Boston
once to visit the Boston Chess Club which at that time was located in
an alley off Boylston Street. I shall never forget the thrill it was to
me to see for the first time the large club size pieces in action.
Instinctively I seemed to feel that that was me. A friend of mine tells
me that he had a similar experience on first visiting a stock exchange
and seeing the ticker tapes in action. Curiously, all the rest of his
life has .been spent in the stock market.
My
chess activities , of course, did not have a good effect on my marks at
M.I.T., and, due redness of my report card at the half year, I was
politely asked to take a vacation. This I was quite agreeable too, since
it afforded me additional time for chess playing. A year went by before
my parents inveigled me into attending a military school in northern
Vermont, and, six months later, re-entering my class at M.I.T. All
knowledge is useful, and it is always futile to look back and say if we
had done so and so, life would have been better. It is completely
impossible to foresee the over all plan. We can live but a day at a
time.
To continue my story, about 1924 Harold Morton
had just won the championship of the Providence, R. I., chess club, and
a purse was gotten up for a match to take place between Mr. Morton and
myself for the championship of New England. Up to that time John Barry
had been unofficially recognized as the strongest player in N. E., so,
with his consent and approval it was logical that the winner of the
match should hold that title. Thus, in 1924 I became the NE Champion and
held the title until 1929 when Morton beat me in a succeeding match.
Another match between us did not take place until about 1938 which
Morton again won.
After his death in 1939
the title came under the control of the N. E. Chess Association and has
been decided by an annual tournament (usually held over Labor Day
weekend) ever since, which is all to the good, since I am strongly
opposed to the awarding of titles through private matches. The
tournament method is pre-eminently fair and much more attractive to both
the players and the public.
Thereby closes the local
chapter in my chess career. At this time – say 1936 - I think that both
Morton and myself - I know I did - thought that we were pretty good
chess players. We were in for a rude awakening. In that year (1936) was
held the first tournament for the Chess Championship of the United
States, due to the retirement of Frank J. Marshall.
I
recall that after the first few rounds I kept figuring that I might
still win the tournament, provided I won all of the remainder of my
games. In fact, this went on for several rounds, before I finally gave
up hope of first prize. After nine rounds I was relatively proud of my
score, since I had three wins and six losses, while Morton had nine
goose eggs in a row. However, we finished in a tie for last place, since
in the remaining six rounds Morton got six draws, and it was my turn
for goose eggs. I mention this experience in order to caution the reader
that unless he happens to play regularly in the chess clubs of New York
City, he shouldn't put too much store by his showing in the chess clubs
of other cities. There is really a difference.
In a
considerable sense I feel that my serious chess playing did not begin
until after 1936. Hundreds of hours I spent on opening analysis, with
the result that there began forming in my mind the idea that by means of
precise play White could perhaps emerge from the opening with just
enough edge to win. Thus developed a small volume published in 1959 by
the David McKay Co. of Philadelphia entitled "White to Play and Win",
by Weaver W. Adams. Forthwith, in a tournament at Dallas, Texas in 1940
I proceeded to lose all of my games playing white and win all of my
games playing black!
However, I still
stick to my theory, and even under the handicap of bucking my own
analysis (most writers sedulously avoid playing a move which they have
recommended as best, because of fear of having to play against a line
which their opponent has prepared against it) and despite the hours
which I am advised that many of my opponents spend in trying to discover
mistakes in my published variations in "Simple Chess,"
I nevertheless lost but a single half point with the white pieces in
the Open Tournament at Baltimore in 1948. And it wasn't because the boys
didn't try. There were my moves open for all to see in "Simple Chess."
They could select any one of a hundred different opening variations and
I would play the exact moves as published. Is this not just a little
significant that white can win? And, if so, why is my favorite opening
the Vienna, so damned by faint praise, and so shunned by all the
celebrities? You answer that one. I can’t.
I don't
wish to take up space by tournament records. All in all, they could be a
lot better, except perhaps locally, inasmuch as I have won every City of Boston, Massachusetts State, end New England tournament in which I have taken part since 1956
- some dozen or more altogether. I will merely say that having played
in eighteen national tournaments, including U. S. National, U. S. Open,
Ventnor City, and the Pan American in Los Angeles in 1945, I feel that
this experience should mean something, and I hope eventually to
demonstrate that it is possible to play chess with consistent scientific
accuracy.
The following is an example of such a game.
It is one of five which I have thus far played with similar accuracy
for the Log Cabin Chess Team of West Orange, New Jersey, of which I have
recently become a member. It was played at Elizabethtown, New York, vs.
a Montreal Team, and was part of the coast to coast 1949 match between
Canada and the U. S.
Adams,W - Guze [B72]
US v Canada, 1940
1.e4
c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.h3 Bg7 7.Be3 Nc6 8.Qd2 a6
9.g4 Nxd4 10.Bxd4 0-0 11.0-0-0 b5 12.Bg2 Bb7 13.f4 Qc7 14.Rhe1 Rfd8
15.Qf2 Nd7 16.Bxg7 Kxg7 17.Nd5 Bxd5 18.exd5 Nb6 19.f5 Nc4 20.g5 gxf5
21.Qxf5 Qd7 22.Qf4 Rac8 23.Be4 Rc5 24.b4 Rc7 25.Bf5 Qe8 26.Qd4+ Kg8
27.Qh4 e5 28.Qxh7+ Kf8 29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qf6+ Kf8 31.Re4 1-0
Alex Cherniack
has posted 8 games between Weaver Adams and Harry Lyman, where you can
see Harry Lyman 's opinion of the forced win for white theory.
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Please read this profile by
Stephan Dann
Chess Journalist, Historian, and Organizer.
Weaver Adams "started" writing "White to Play &
Win" in 1935, and, an early edition of this "informal" publication was with
Harlow Daly's papers, ledgers and scrapbooks that Harry Lyman & I obtained
in 1975...
Adams continued "publishing" revisions to his
"dogged" theories for some 25 years, the last editions of what he termed
"Simple" and "Absolute" chess being "issued" about 1960, though the last year
his health enabled him to "carry on" might have been 1959...
The greatest collection of Adams' material
published was "edited" by Sam Sloan in 2007, but few know of the existence of
this "limited" edition, published on demand book that would have had Harry Lyman
"giggling" with delight, as it was about chess, and not about the tragic life of
one of its players.
I posted copies of some crosstables from 1905 to
1939 at the Mass. Open in Leominster yesterday, including games from the 1964
U.S. Open. It was an effort to "complete" the weekday/weeknight chess
events in Massachusetts before 1940, but most of this would have been lost were
it no for the dogged efforts of Harlow Daly to document them for his own
records, to "index" his games...and you can view this & more today & on
Monday in Leominster...
My work with John Donaldson and Andy Ansel (who
attended yesterday in Leominster, driving up from Long Island with his
daughter), focus on games as the real history, not the politics and
"entertainment" that sometimes accompanies chess gatherings.
Collecting games played by Weaver Adams, Harry
Lyman and other past chess legends (you will see the many names in Daly's
ledgers and scrapbooks from Abe Moses Sussmann--New England Champion at the dawn
of the 20th century--to Putzman, Cabot, Gring, Morton, Sturgis, Welch, etc.)
right at the Boylston CC in the box of 2,000 game cards, history that you can
hold right in your hand.
The time has come to scan these cards, and, use
them as the basis of the history of the club, history of Boston and
Massachusetts chess, and as basis to do new promotional efforts for the game
without borders on the Internet.
E-books on Weaver Adams, Harlow Daly and the 1964
U.S. Open (as well as the 1964 Fischer Tour--also by John Donaldson) are not
only possible, but are the next logical step in preserving the legacy of past
chess giants and encouraging future educational and historical endeavors at the
Boylston Chess Club, and the work of the Boylston Chess Foundation.
Weaver Adams' family is still alive and well in
Dedham, and is confident that the chess community will continue to preserve his
memory in the hearts and minds of future generations. Like Pillsbury, we will
never forget his contributions to the Royal Game.
E-books may not in themselves help finance
efforts to finance clubs or run tournaments, but these may validate
the efforts of .org chess foundations to raise funds to carry out their
missions.
It's time for sharing the "wealth" of the 1975
donation from Harlow Daly beyond "75 years of affection for chess" and just 150
games. Just the typos in the hastily prepared 1975 volume would fill a page or
two...and we owe it to the memory of Harry Lyman to do a much better job the
second time around.
You have my continued support in preserving the
Boylston Chess Club as one of America's premier chess shrines.
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