The thrill of competition is in the air and we wanted to let you know about a few locally available events. We also hope to see you tonight (Tuesday) at Mario’s Five Points!
Please note that a USCF membership will be required for all of these events and an ACF membership will be required for the Halloween Classic.
2021 Murfreesboro Tal Celebration
First Cumberland Presbyterian ChurchSaturday, November 6, 2021
EVENT OVERVIEW
Site: First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 907 E. Main St., Murfreesboro, TN 37130. 5SS; Rd. 1, G/25 d5; Rds. 2-5, G/45 d5. Wearing masks is mandatory inside the building at all times.
Open section: $575 in Prizes based on 30 entries, $150 1st, $75 2nd, Class Prizes X, A, B, C, D, E/below, Unr., each $50, *Above 30 players, additional prizes will be added and/or increased, Bonus prizes $50 + Mikhail Tal book is awarded to the player best exhibiting the “Spirit of Tal” in a submitted game from this event, A brand new chess clock prize is awarded for the top points by an under 12 age scholastic player.
Rounds: 9, 10, 12:30, 2:15, 4.
Registration: 7:30am – 8:45am.
EF: $25 by check if received by 11/03, $30 cash at site.
**Titled Players: The first 3 pre-registered and confirmed Titled Players (NM +) will play for free, with $25 being deducted from any awarded prize(s) equaling over $75 total. To be eligible the players must send in an early entry fee, which will be reimbursed provided that the aforementioned requirements are met. Early entries sent to: Chris Prosser (TD), 733 Long Hunter Ct., Nashville, TN 37217
Bye: A one half point bye is available for any round if requested before Rd. 1.
More Info: murfreesborochess@gmail.com, murfreesborochess.weebly.com/Address:
907 E. Main St. Murfreesboro, TN 37130 United StatesSections: 1Grand Prix Points:Prize Fund: $575 based on 30FIDE Rated: NoHandicap Accessible: YesResidency Restriction: NoOnline Event: No
Kristian Jordan has started an online chess league in Birmingham, and he wants to do the same for our players in Huntsville! Additional information will be distributed via Facebook and this blog soon.
Huntsville City Championship
We’re still finalizing the location, dates, and details surrounding the 2021 Huntsville city championship. We’ll notify everyone as soon as everything has been determined.
In a stroke of good fortune, the main room of Mario’s Five Points was rented out this week, so the participants of the free unrated tournament were forced to brave the fresh air and beautiful weather in their journey for the 2nd clock prize offered this year for the winner of our free unrated tournament.
Tomasz Nielsen tried his hand at Tournament Director duties for the first time and there were no casualties! He also graciously provided a chess clock to the victor of the event and sent photos for this blog. Chess Organizers are difficult to come by, but events like these would not happen with out them, so please make sure to thank him for his efforts in keeping our Tuesday night events going strong the next time you see him.
As with other events occurring all throughout the country, there has been a large number of unrated (but very strong) participants, and this tournament was no different. Of the 15 players, only 3 have established USCF ratings. This indicates not only that the growth of our US chess population is very healthy, but that the new players are eager to get in the ring for some competition!
Results
Sarah May was the winner of the 2nd clock prize for 2021.
When the smoke cleared after Round 4, the top seed, Sarah May, had earned the victory and highly coveted chess clock. Finishing strong and proving that rating is “nothing but a number,” were Ryan Cobb, Thomas Gilbreath, and Patrick Farnham.
We learned that this week is Thomas Gilbreath’s last week in Huntsville, as he’s moving out of town for a new gig. We’ve really enjoyed having him around since he relocated to the area just prior to the pandemic and wish him the best of luck in the future. Thomas is easily one of Alabama’s most dedicated tournament participants, so we know we’ll see him around.
The participants in the Huntsville Chess Club’s first over the board tournament in over a year were in good spirits as they kicked things off at Mario’s Five Points.
Given the isolation of the pandemic, coupled with the success of the Netflix series, “The Queens Gambit,” quite a few strong players participated who had never played in an over the board chess tournament.
The start of Round 1 on 4/20/21.
#
Place
Name
Rtng
Rd 1
Rd 2
Rd 3
Rd 4
Tot
1
1
JOEL NIC FRIEDMAN
1842
W11
W6
W2
W7
4
2
2-3
TOMASZ NIELSEN
1537
W10
W7
L1
W8
3
3
Sam Dalton
unr.
L4
W9
W12
W6
3
4
4-5
THOMAS GILBREATH
1330
W3
D5
L7
W9
2.5
5
TIMOTHY T EUM
1822
W9
D4
L6
W11
2.5
6
6-8
Travis Stewart
1500
W8
L1
W5
L3
2
7
MICHAEL PORTER
1143
W12
L2
W4
L1
2
8
Mostafa Mostafa
unr.
L6
W11
W10
L2
2
9
9-10
Christopher Sweeny
unr.
L5
L3
W11
L4
1
10
Robert Crouch
unr.
L2
W12
L8
—
1
11
11-12
Jimmy McHugh
515
L1
L8
L9
L5
0
12
Trey Crouch
unr.
L7
L10
L3
—
0
When the smoke had cleared, the #1 seeded player, Joel Friedman emerged victoriously.
Joel took home first prize of the clock, generously donated over a year ago by Charles Meidinger. Charles received the clock by winning the top board 1 honors at the U.S. Amateur Team South tournament.
The tournament was a lot of fun. We hope to return to a monthly tournament schedule very soon. Please email us and let us know what type of event is of most interest to you!
On Tuesday 4/20, we will be holding a free unrated Quick chess tournament at Mario’s Five Points. The tournament will begin promptly at 5:00PM and will be 4 rounds. The time control is G/10; d5. Please register using the form below this blog.
There will be a prize of a chess clock to the tournament winner!
Register now using the form below! Please email us if you have any questions.
On Tuesday 4/20, we will be holding a free unrated Quick chess tournament at Mario’s Five Points. The tournament will begin promptly at 5:00PM and will be 4 rounds. The time control is G/10; d5. Please register using the form below this blog.
There will be a prize of a chess clock to the tournament winner!
Register now using the form below! Please email us if you have any questions.
Starting with round 2 of our G60 tournament, we’ll be broadcasting Board 1 live from of all our standard rated events! The pairings are subject to change, but right now it looks like the first game will be between Miles and Bill Melvin on Monday 3/25 at 6pm. If you can’t make it out to the club, you can still watch their game live from anywhere in the world!
Click here to check it out on the evening of 3/25. The remaining rounds will be broadcast using the same link on the following dates and times:
Round 3 – 4/1 @ 6pm
Round 4 – 4/8 @ 6pm
Round 5 (Final Round) – 4/15 @ 6pm
For ease of locating the link, we’ll also add it under the main menu: Events->G60 D5 03/18-4/15 2019 PAIRINGS, STANDINGS, AND LIVE GAMES LINK and on the home page.
In appreciation for our membership who have patiently waited for a tournament of G60 or higher, we plan to hold one spreading across 5 weeks starting Monday, 3/18. Please sign up using the links below. You will need to be both a USCF and HCC member to play. You can register for these groups if you need to using the links below.
If you haven’t yet played in a standard rated USCF tournament, what are you waiting for? We will help you through it in a much lower pressure environment than typical tournaments. As always, if you don’t want to play in the tournament, there will still be an opportunity to play other folks who aren’t participating.
As a reminder, the HCC will be driving down to Birmingham this weekend to play in the Caesar tournament there. We still have one spot available if you would like to join us! Just email huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com and let us know if you do or if you have any questions.
One Open Section – Conference room registration is down, so these games will be played in the typical club playing area or off to the side of it.
5 Rounds Swiss System G60; d5 – Games will begin as promptly by 6pm as possible. Please let us know if you are going to be late on a given week. Otherwise, we’ll try to wait for you to arrive before starting.
Entry Fee: $10
Prize: Antique WWII era heirloom chess set.
Byes: 1/2 point bye available for all but the final round.
Depending upon whether we will have access to the equipment, Board 1 games may be broadcast live!
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.
The K-12 Club team – Joel, Logan, Jonathan, and Varash.
The K-6 Club team – Patrick, Joseph, Clate, and Connor
Joel Friedman placed 4th in the K-12 (Open) Individual Championship on Saturday.
Stuart Rachels (USCF 2605) vs Joel Friedman
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!
John Morash ponders his next move against a talented Raytheon crew of engineers.
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!
Our typical library meeting crowd is growing.
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.
On Thursday, February 21st, NM John Morash emerged from a tournament Chess retirement of nearly 22 years to represent the HCC as part of National Engineering Week’s Simultaneous Exhibition at Raytheon in Huntsville. He faced-off against talented Engineers/chess players playing on 10 boards at a time and completed the event without losing or drawing a single game! The HCC is extremely grateful for his participation. We may even see some future members recruited from the event (hint hint: Tomasz, tell your buddies they’re welcome anytime)!
On Saturday, February 23rd, an HCC contingent of 6 players consisting of David Hayes, Pat Dowd and son, Ashish Acharya, and Larisa and Joel Friedman traveled the 100+ miles to Murfreesboro, TN to compete in the Murfreesboro Winter Congress tournament. In addition to the opposition, they battled fatigue and threats of severe weather, but emerged unscathed. When the scores were tallied, the HCC brought home every prize awarded.
Ashish Acharya, playing in his first ever rated, USCF tournament, took clear first with a perfect score and initial rating of 1843! Congratulations to all. Look for more road trip tournament carpool opportunities in the future. It was a lot of fun!
