Some pairings have changed for the last round of the tournament. Please be sure to check them out (note, there are no byes, due to a withdrawal).
| Bd | White | Black |
| 1 | Bill Melvin | Robert Lubin |
| 2 | Ashish Acharya | Jonathan Rasberry |
| 3 | Miles Melvin | Tomasz Nielsen |
| 4 | Gabriel Tu Noland | John Daugherty |
| 5 | Abhinav Ayyadevara | Logan Alex Richey |
| 6 | Daniel Seewald | Patrick Thom Dowd |
| 7 | Michael Porter | Douglas Seewald |
| 8 | Larisa V Friedman | David Clark |
Looking forward to seeing everybody tomorrow!
The Huntsville Chess Club is pleased to announce that we will be hosting this year’s Quick and Blitz State Championship. Register below now as entries are limited to the first40 participants. You are able to register for just the Quick or just the Blitz tournament.
USCF and Alabama Chess Federation memberships are required for this event. Register for the USCF here and the ACF here.
Registration will also be permanently located here and accessible through the Events menu on our website.
Last week, Jonathan Rasberry separated himself from the pack of 8 2/3 players with a win over Bill Melvin with the Black pieces. This week, he’ll play White against Miles Melvin, while Joel Friedman will challenge Bill Melvin on Board 2.
Come on out and check out the tournament! As a reminder, it isn’t too late to sign up to play a couple of the remaining rounds. $10 is still a pretty great rate for 2 rated games of chess. Sign up here.
Watch the top 2 boards LIVE. The previous live link has expired, but we’ll post another on the day of the tournament on our Huntsville Chess Club Facebook page.
The standings after 3 rounds are below.
| # | Name | ID | Rtng | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Tot |
| 1 | Jonathan Rasberry | 14678910 | 2105 | W11 | W7 | W2 | 3 |
| 2 | Bill Melvin | 12406133 | 2200 | W5 | W3 | L1 | 2 |
| 3 | Miles Melvin | 12699798 | 2020 | W6 | L2 | W12 | 2 |
| 4 | Robert Lubin | 12504653 | 1849 | L7 | W12 | W10 | 2 |
| 5 | Ashish Acharya | 16980497 | 1836 | L2 | W8 | W14 | 2 |
| 6 | Joel Nic Friedman | 14466418 | 1646 | L3 | W9 | W15 | 2 |
| 7 | Logan Alex Richey | 16459168 | 1554 | W4 | L1 | W16 | 2 |
| 8 | Tomasz Nielsen | 12820023 | 1184 | W16 | L5 | W11 | 2 |
| 9 | Abhinav Ayyadevara | 17016512 | unr. | W13 | L6 | X17 | 2 |
| 10 | Michael Porter | 16765061 | 1042 | H— | W13 | L4 | 1.5 |
| 11 | John Daugherty | 11251510 | 1800 | L1 | W14 | L8 | 1 |
| 12 | Gabriel Tu Noland | 16763278 | 1511 | W15 | L4 | L3 | 1 |
| 13 | Daniel Seewald | 15989365 | 1044 | L9 | L10 | B— | 1 |
| 14 | Patrick Thom Dowd | 16240207 | 949 | W17 | L11 | L5 | 1 |
| 15 | Larisa V Friedman | 16068066 | 841 | L12 | B— | L6 | 1 |
| 16 | Douglas Seewald | 17016444 | unr. | L8 | D17 | L7 | 0.5 |
| 17 | David Justi Clark | 16723067 | unr. | L14 | D16 | F9 | 0.5 |
Rising HCC star, Tomasz Nielsen brought home the first place trophy and prize money with a perfect 4-0 score in the Montgomery Classic this past weekend. He, Michael Porter, Patrick Dowd, and son made the 3 hour trek down to the tournament. It was a strong field in both the Premiere and Reserve sections and good experience and fun was had by all. Click here for the tournament crosstable.
Mark your calendars – If you’re interested in carpooling to Anniston for a tournament next weekend 4/6*, please let us know. I (Pat) won’t be able to make it this time, but wouldn’t mind coordinating the trip if someone is willing to make the 2 hour drive with our members. New chess organizer Aladdin Lateef is working with Caesar Lawrence to try his hand at directing a tournament in a new(ish) AL location.
Also, the Huntsville Challenge* will be on 4/13. Don’t miss the chance to play in a tough tournament crowd with competition from all over the state. Your attendance will help ensure that weekend tournament organizers, like Caesar Lawrence always feel that a trip to Huntsville to put on a tournament is worth the effort.
*As a reminder, both USCF and ACF memberships are required for these events.
The pairings and standings for round 3 of the G60, 5 week tournament. Click here for details. Also, if you haven’t registered, but still want to get some G60 USCF rated games in, register here and we can give you 1/2 point byes for the first 2 rounds.
To watch board 1 live on Monday 4/1 at 6pm, click here.
Since the beginning of the year, we’ve had over 30 brand new players attend the club and the past 3 weeks, we’ve averaged 22 participants. This growth is great, we appreciate you, and we wanted to make sure that we pause give anyone new the same information that all of our more tenured club members should already know.
The Huntsville Chess Club strives to be able to offer great value to all of its members. Casual chess at the club is always free, without a membership requirement. By becoming an official member, you become eligible to compete in team matches, the yearly Huntsville City Championship, the extensive online video library, and receive a significant discount on events and chess equipment. It helps us to offer some of the great things we’ve been doing lately, like the trip to the Amateur Team South Championship tournament.
Click here to join!
The Huntsville Chess Club is organized by a board of 6 HCC members. We meet quarterly to discuss anything and everything involving our club. Please email us if you have any suggestions about anything you might like to see at one of our meetings, or if you would like to get more involved in volunteer chess work (coaching, helping out at meetings or tournaments, etc.). We’ll bring it up at our next board meeting and let you know the status. Check out our list of Officers here.
We may provide equipment for new folks to use, but most tournaments will not. We don’t want the initial cost of getting into chess to be a deterrent for new players. We’re pleased to offer a limited selection of quality chess equipment at a discounted rate for our official members, to include, clocks, sets, boards, and bags. Buy online and pick it up at the next Monday meeting.
Click here to check it out.
From time to time, we offer USCF rated tournaments. We will still have plenty of players not participating to offer everyone a game, so don’t let that stop you from attending on one of these nights. We have a tournament starting 3/18 and end on 4/15. Byes are available for all rounds but the last. Even if you can only attend 1 week, please register here!
As always, drop us a line at huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com or talk to Pat at the club if you have any questions about how to get involved in rated tournament play or have questions about anything else that happens at the club.
We sent this information out via email last week, but it appears that some did not receive it. Sending again as a reminder and in case those who didn’t receive it are interested.
Birmingham Classic 3/16/19 – Tournament Details
If you are considering attending the Birmingham Classic tournament on 3/16, you may want to join us as we carpool down on Saturday morning and back immediately following the tournament.
We can take 5 additional people in my vehicle (7 total). First-come, first served. If you’re interested, please reply to this email directly. Also, please indicate if you’re willing to drive your vehicle as well (in the event that we have more than 5 folks interested in attending). Gas money contributions are appreciated, but not required.
For new members (and a refresher for our more seasoned membership) –
Recently, we’ve had a lot of new folks come out to play chess with us at the library, which we think is AWESOME! The tournament population is similar to that of our meetings. There are plenty of people at all skill levels to compete against. So, don’t think that just because you’re new, you won’t stand a chance. There are even prizes designed for the different levels and sections!
In contrast to our weekly meetings, most tournaments require you to provide your own equipment. If you don’t have a tournament set, we can lend you one or sell you a complete board, set, clock, and bag for $35 so you’ll be able to participate in any tournament you would like to in the future. The club makes a few bucks on this discounted deal, but it’s still a better deal than you’ll be able to find anywhere else. We don’t want equipment costs to stand in the way of tournament chess!
To attend this tournament with us, you’ll need to be a HCC, USCF, and ACF member (USCF and ACF are all that’s required for the tournament, itself, but HCC membership is required to catch a free ride with us). That might sound like a lot if you’re thinking about playing in your first tournament, but there are unique benefits to holding membership in each organization. If you aspire to become (or think you might) an active tournament participant, it’s an investment that easily pays for itself.
If you’re still reading this post, why not give it a shot?
Birmingham Classic 3/16/19 – Tournament Details – send an email to CaesarChess@gmail.com and include name, USCF ID, and what section you would like to be entered into.
HCC Membership
USCF Membership
ACF Membership
If you have never played in a USCF rated tournament, it’s an intense and rewarding experience, but it can be overwhelming for first-time participants. Attending with a group of friends can take a lot of the stress out of it. Please let us know if you have any questions. We are happy to walk you through each step of the process.
The Huntsville Chess Club has been formally challenged to a team match by the Murfreesboro Chess Club! Ideally, we will have 2 representatives for each rating class F(800) -Master (2200+).
Please let us know by completing the form below if you’re interested and what date(s) you’d be able to attend. Depending upon the amount of interest, transportation should be able to be provided by the HCC. Also, feel free to ask any questions via email or in the comments below.
Each matched player will play his/her opponent 2 games, alternating colors.
Pre-Pair: By email the Wednesday before the event.
Time Control: G/70;d5
Rounds: 10am, Lunch 1:35pm
Site: First Cumberland Presbyterian Church 907 E. Main St. Murfreesboro, TN 37130
Coffee and filtered water will be provided. Lunch will be provided via the MCC and HCC on-site between rounds.
HCC and USCF membership will be required for this event.
HCC Registration:
USCF Registration:
The HCC has been busy! Our Chess in a Cave event made National News! Thanks to David Hayes for publicizing what’s become our flagship scholastic annual event. USCF Online Magazine
We fielded 2 teams for the Alabama State Scholastic Chess Championship. We had 3 organic HCC members and were thankfully able to “borrow” a player from the MCCL for our K-6 Club team, who played board 2, and a board 4 from the Chess Kids Nation for the High School club team. We were very happy to join forces to allow some kids to play on Sunday of the tournament, who otherwise would not have been able to. They all played their games as though they were playing for their original clubs.
It was kind of a spur of the moment thing to put a team together, so we went in looking to have fun without a lot of expectations, but both teams performed really well for their first 4 vs 4 team tournament. Noteworthy achievements were a draw against Expert Om Badhe, and a win over an 1800+ player, on Board 1 by Joel Friedman and a near perfect score 3.5/4 by Patrick Dowd on Board 1 in the K-6 Club section.
Joel Friedman placed 4th in the K-12 (Open) Individual Championship on Saturday.
No chess player is too good for a pick-up game on the hallway floor of a tournament!
Both Patrick Dowd and Larisa Friedman from the HCC served as TDs for the K-3 and K-6 sections of the tournament on both days. It was hard work, but a lot of fun!
In our last post, we detailed the Raytheon Engineering Week Simul led by John Morash, but we failed to include a photo. Here it is!
Last week we attended our normally scheduled chess meeting at the Huntsville Public Library and 22+ people showed up to play! There was a great mix of all ages and skill levels. We held a free, unrated G10; d0 tournament, won by Tomasz Nielsen.
All,
Just a reminder that there will be no chess on Monday the 18th, due to the library’s observance of Presidents Day. We’ll see you next week!
The Huntsville Chess Club
The Huntsville Chess Club emerged battered but unbeaten from the Southern Team Championship Feb 9th and 10th in Kissimmee, Florida. HCC’s Team of David Hayes, Pat Dowd, Joel and Larisa Friedman earned the 3rd Place Team trophy and Amazon gift cards in the U1500 Section.
Joel also won the top-performance prize for the 3rd board. HCC’s Team went undefeated in all rounds, but was unable to shake a string of 4 straight draws after winning their first round with wins on all 4 boards. In the last round, HCC played what could have been the winning team. However, Pat’s opponent on the second board accepted a draw offer in a complex position insuring our 4th team draw and their second place finish.
Here is David’s commented game from the last round.
