Don’t forget, Monday is our April Blitz tournament kicking off at 6pm! Hope to see you there. Casual games are always an option as well, and spectators are encouraged to come out and cheer and jeer for your favorite participants… just make sure it’s after the round ends.
We are now able to take cash or card for on-site registration. If you want to use this option, please be certain to arrive no later than 5:30pm. We definitely prefer you to register and pay beforehand using the links below:
We will be conducting a club board meeting on 4/2 at 4pm. All who are interested are welcome to attend. Topics of discussion will be varied, but centered upon events the club will be participating in in the coming months. If you are interested in helping out, please do join us. We have a multitude of volunteer positions available and need all the help we can get. You can make a difference in our community with the Huntsville Chess Club!
Last but not least, we’ll be hosting the Chattanooga chess club at the Hampton Inn in Hampton Cove for a team vs. team match on Saturday, March 31st from 8am – 4pm and we’ll have a table set up at Math-a-Palooza2018 at Bob Jones High School in Madison from 8am-12pm. We hope you’ll drop by one of these locations and say hello!
We will be conducting our quarterly board meeting on March 19th, 2018 at 4pm at the Sunny Street Cafe. All club members are welcome to attend. If you aren’t a club member and want to have an opportunity to have your voice and ideas heard, sign up here.
If you just want to come out and play chess a little earlier, please feel free to stop by at 4. We’ll conduct our meeting outside of the main playing room.
See below for agenda topics:
Huntsville Chess Club Executive Board Meeting Agenda
Scheduled: 1600 19 March
Location: Sunny Street Cafe
Call to order and introduction: President
Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer
State Championship Bid Opportunities: Secretary
Quick: G/20 to G/29, in June, bid due now
Standard: G/90+, Labor Day weekend, bid due now
Proposed HCC/ACF website synergy: HCC Webmaster
Membership database
Other?
Chess in a Cave: David
First Saturday in November (3 Nov), same place.
Proposed changes in format and conduct
Volunteer Spirit of the Club: Pat
Tournament Salary Discussion
Club duties
Duty roster for opening/closing the club
New member encouragement
Mission of the club: Pat
Chess Philanthropy
New Membership – Encouragement, nurturing, and treatment of those unfamiliar to tournament play.
Vision of the club: Pat
What are our short-term and long-term goals?
Conflicts of Interest
Fundraising goal ideas
Non-Profit Status: Pat
Review of Decisions and Assigned Actions: Secretary
Don’t forget, tonight is our March Blitz tournament kicking off at 6pm! Hope to see you there. Casual games are always an option as well, and spectators are encouraged to come out and cheer and jeer for your favorite participants… just make sure it’s after the round ends.
We are now able to take cash or card for on-site registration. If you want to use this option, please be certain to arrive no later than 5:30pm. We definitely prefer you to register and pay beforehand using the links below:
We will be conducting a club board meeting on 3/19 at 4pm. All who are interested are welcome to attend. Topics of discussion will be varied, but centered upon events the club will be participating in in the coming months. If you are interested in helping out, please do join us. We have a multitude of volunteer positions available and need all the help we can get. You can make a difference in our community with the Huntsville Chess Club!
Lastly, the details for the Huntsville vs. Chattanooga Chess Club Tournament have been posted below. We only have 2 slots left for our 8-person team, so be sure to sign up using the form below. As always, direct any questions to huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com.
On Monday 2/19 at 6pm, we’ll be hosting a 3 round Swiss or Round Robin Quick tournament at the Sunny Street Cafe. This tournament will only affect your Quick rating (not your Standard or Blitz rating). Boards, sets, and clocks will be provided.
The time control will be G/15 d/5 and 80% of the entry fees (minus PayPal processing fees) will be given away as a prize fund.
Register below! Must be a current USCF member to compete. HCC members have a reduced entry fee of $5. Non-members will pay $8.
On Monday 2/5 at 6pm, we’ll be hosting a 5 round Double-Swiss or Round Robin Blitz tournament at the Sunny Street Cafe. This tournament will only affect your Blitz rating (not your Standard or Quick rating). Sets/Clocks will be provided, but feel free to bring your own if you have a preference.
The time control will be G/5 d/0 and 80% of the entry fees (minus PayPal processing fees) will be given away as a prize fund.
Register below! Must be a current USCF member to compete. HCC members have a reduced entry fee of $5. Non-members will pay $8.
If you would prefer to watch the tournament or just play some casual games, there should be plenty of folks around to do just that. See you there!
We’ll be back to casual chess this week, so for those who opted to abstain from last week’s Quick tournament, please come on out. We had 19 folks at the Café last Monday, so there’s ALWAYS a friendly game to be had by all.
To tide you over until the meeting tonight at 5:30pm (Monday 1/29), here’s a contribution from David Hayes:
Mullinax vs Hayes
2018
This is a position from the first round of the 3rd Annual Smokey Mountain Open Amateur Section. Here I (black) have a comfortable position and am a pawn up. In this position, black played 33. … Rxd3 34. cxd3 Ra4 35. Qxc6 Qxc6 36. Rxc6 Rxb4 and eventually won the endgame. However, black can win faster and more decisively from this position.
Please help black find a better move in this position.
Solution: Hint: Who is afraid of the double attack on my d4 Rook?
Solution: Hint: One must be willing to sacrifice and risk everything for mate.
We didn’t meet this week, but you can still check out Gerald Larson’s lecture at Brahan Springs tonight (Friday 1/19)!
On Monday 1/22 at 6pm, we’ll be hosting a 3 round Swiss or Round Robin Quick tournament at the Sunny Street Cafe. This tournament will only affect your Quick rating (not your Standard or Blitz rating). Please bring your sets/clocks if you have them, but if you don’t please join us anyway. We should have plenty to go around.
The time control will be G/10 d/5 and 80% of the entry fees (minus PayPal processing fees) will be given away as a prize fund.
Register below! Must be a current USCF member to compete. HCC members have a reduced entry fee of $5. Non-members will pay $8.
Straight to Ale this week. No Christmas meeting planned.
Greetings,
As a reminder, we’ll be at Straight to Ale this week, and we will not be hosting a meeting on Christmas day. Our next meeting will be after the first of the year.
New Blog Topic – Chess Tech
We are adding a new blog topic and category to our site, called Chess Tech. In it, we’ll be bringing you news of the technical innovations in the chess community that don’t get nearly as much attention as they deserve.
As of now, you’ve all been added to the email list to be notified of blogs of this nature. If you wish to unsubscribe from one or both types of emails we send, please just click the unsubscribe link in that particular email (unless you’re part of the Meetup distribution list. You all will have to leave the Meetup group to be unsubscribed). This will be the first official Chess Tech blog.
Video Library Available with your Paid Membership to the Huntsville Chess Club (and valid Gmail address).
For the low, low price of your $10 annual dues, we’re going to be making a comprehensive video chess library of instruction available to our members for viewing. This library will have 100gb of videos (over 200 hours), featuring opening theory, tactics, strategy, endgames, and GM games. There is something for everyone to improve their chess game.
Important Note* – in order to take advantage of the video library, you must be a paid member, have a valid Gmail email address on file with us, and be able to access a Google Drive. Email huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com if you need to change your email address to take advantage of this great opportunity!
With regard to memberships, we’ve added the capability to register/renew through the website and moving forward will require that you use this method to renew. It keeps the management of the roster much easier. As of right now, we have records of the following paid members registered.
Stephen O’Shea
Michael Key
Bill Melvin
Ed Mullin
Steven Pan
Patrick Dowd
That’s all we’re currently tracking. We acknowledge that the membership record-keeping we (I) have done was not as accurate as we would have liked. If you’ve registered with cash in past meetings this year, please email huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com, and include the approximate renewal date, and we’ll track your membership outside of our somewhat automated process until it expires.
Remember, if you enter a few tournaments per year, the dues will pay for themselves. If you even watch one of the videos, it’s like you’re being paid to be a member!
Don’t miss out! Renew your membership using the conveniently placed form below:
This site belongs to the members of the Huntsville Chess Club. It will contain puzzles, upcoming events, photos, and videos of the comings and goings of the club. Please feel free to comment on anything you would like to see posted here. If you would prefer, you can also send an email to info@huntsvillecc.com or huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com with your suggestions. You can also contact us on through the website itself.
