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.
We approach the holiday season and new year with hopes that the next will be better than the last. We’re really hoping that over the board chess will return by the Spring/Summer of 2021!
In spite of our lack of physical meetings, we’ve still managed to grow our membership base, so we thought it would be a good thing to reach out to everyone to remind them about the weekly Friday Zoom meetings run by Willie Sandifer at 5:30PM.
Currently, this is the only meeting that is being conducted by the HCC to keep things going, so a big thank you goes out to Willie for this! He’s been there weekly, since the beginning of the pandemic – like a rock!
The meetings are fun and there is usually something discussed for every skill level, so we hope you’ll join us there. The details are below:
Zoom Meeting ID: 823 3836 3987
Password: 028824
If you have any trouble connecting, please email huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com and we’ll get it worked out.
Lastly, we’re considering a Huntsville Chess Club online tournament after the start of the new year (time control to be determined). Please vote below if you’d like to participate.
Keep working on your chess, in whatever format best suits you. It will be exciting to see how much everyone’s game has changed throughout this period of isolation!
Be sure to join us on Zoom on Friday at 5:30PM. It’s a lot of fun! This week, we’re going to be sharing our favorite GM Game.
Use the credentials to join:
Meeting ID – 823 3836 2987
Password – 028824
Please join us for round 6 of the clubs league this Saturday. Last Saturday, we only had 3 of 4 boards and ended in a draw that would have been a win with someone playing on every board. Note, the match is on the 4th of July.
Calling all chess players… We need your help tomorrow (Saturday 6/27) at 2pm to pull in the W vs the LHS Chess Club. To join, click here. Registration will be from 1-1:59PM and the games will begin at 2. G/15 + 2 inc. One game with each color against a player from the opposing team.
If you haven’t taken part in the weekly group study/lectures led by Willie Sandifer, you’re missing out! The next meeting will be held on Friday, July 10th at 5:30PM, so please mark your calendars. The topic will be, “Your favorite GM game.” Please attend and bring along your favorite GM game to share with the group. If you don’t have a good example to bring, just bring yourself. Before you join, you’ll need a Zoom account. To create one, click here.
The Zoom meeting info is always:
Zoom ID: 823 3836 3987
PW: 028824
Today marks the 4th of the 5 round chess.com team tournament. We hope that you can join us. The challengers have been pretty strong. We’ll battle The Villages Chess Club from Florida. They’ve pledged to bring 11 people to the match. We really hope that we can count on your support.
To join:
Please email us here if you have any questions.
Today at 12pm CST, we have a match vs. the Columbia, SC Chess Club. They are expecting to be able to bring 10 players. It’s 2 games of G15 + 2 second increment. Last week, the team we played had some very strong players, so we could really use your support!
Click here to join the match. You can register starting at 11am. Please note, you must be a member of the chess.com Huntsville Chess Club to participate. Join here for free. Please email us at huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com with any questions.
Good Morning!
The HCC is set to battle the Jacksonville Chess Club today at 12pm CST, which is a little over 4 hours away. Anyone is welcome to join, but only the top 4 boards will be counted. As of right now, that’s Om Badhe, Paul Mulqueen, Joel Friedman, and Tyler Wessling.
If you’re still interested in joining, you’ll need to be a member of the Huntsville Chess Club on chess.com. Just send an email to huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com and we’ll get you set up.
If you’re interested in watching the 15+2 match and showing your support, you can do that here.
Come on out this afternoon and show your support for the weekly meetings Willie Sandifer and crew have been leading! Please email us if you have any technical difficulties or questions. Hope to see you there! This is the info for our meeting every week.
Topic: Huntsville Chess Club Zoom Meeting
Day: Fridays
Time: 5:30pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82338363987?pwd=MjJ4UkFFWkNkd1RMdC84ZmFwczVxdz09
Meeting ID: 823 3836 3987
Password: 028824
Alabama has formed a team to battle other clubs and states Monday nights from 7pm-8:30.
Click here to join!
The Huntsville Chess Club has joined a chess league on chess.com. The rules are included at the bottom of this blog, but the BLUF is it is a 4-person team that plays each Saturday from 12pm CST until complete starting Saturday, May 23rd through Saturday, July 11th.
Please email huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com to join the team and the admin will handle the rest. We’ll plan to take the top 4 highest USCF rated players, but we’ll also rotate in alternates. You must have a chess.com account created to participate (free). Please let us know if you have any questions.
Hosted by the Alabama Online Chess Club
When: Saturday, May 16. 1:00-3:30 PM Registration open at 12:00 PM
Where: https://www.chess.com/club/alabama-uscf-group
Games: G/10+5; 5 Rounds. SS.
Who: USCF membership required – This is an online rapid USCF rated event!
Entry Fee: None!
How to Register: Create an account on chess.com. Then, join the group in the link above.
REGISTER EARLY AS YOU HAVE TO BE APPROVED TO JOIN THE
GROUP.
The group description will contain the link directly to the chess.com page where the tournament will be held.
WHY??: Glad you asked! The Alabama Chess Federation understands that there are still risks gathering a large group of people breathing the same air for a whole day. In order to bring chess back, we would like to offer these online rapid/blitz
tournaments over the course of the summer. You can be assured that any suspicions of cheating will be thoroughly investigated and chess.com also runs dozens of algorithms using “cheat logic” to help identify any sneaky cheaters.
A. Schedule
A1. Chess.com’s Clubs League 2020 season will be Saturday, May 23 (first match) through Saturday, July 11 (final match).
A2. The league will have weekly matches on eight (8) consecutive Saturdays – May 23, May 30, June 6, June 13, June 20, June 27, July 4, and July 11.
A3. The suggested default match time is Saturday 10:00am Pacific / 1:00pm EDT / 19:00 CEST. See E6 and E7 for rescheduling matches.
A4. The Leagues Administrator will post the club vs club pairings each Tuesday (see D2).
A5. Club admins must report weekly results by Sunday (see E4).
A6. The estimated match time is 1 hour.
B. Divisions
B1. There will be two divisions – Division A and Division B. There is no difference in the divisions besides the minimum number of players per match.
B2. The Leagues Administrator will divide clubs into Division A or B based on size and strength. Clubs may request to go to the other division, which may or may not be granted.
B3. Division A (large and medium-sized clubs) will have a minimum of 10 boards per match – 10 players per club. Division B (smaller clubs) will have a minimum of 4 boards per match. See F8 and Section G for “extra” players.
C. Club and Player Eligibility
C1. To be eligible for the Chess.com Clubs League, a club must have an in-person (face-to-face) component, i.e. a physical chess club or academy. Clubs which only operate in an online presence are not permitted. Clubs must also have a Chess.com club. League management (see H3) will determine whether each club is eligible or not. Clubs which are found to be ineligible during the season will be removed.
C2. Clubs must apply to enter the league by Monday, May 11.
C3. Chess.com admins may require club admins to change their Chess.com club name and/or description at any time.
C4. Clubs may recruit any players to play each specific match. Clubs do not have to use the same players for each match.
C5. There is no requirement for being a member of the physical club to represent the club in the Clubs League. However, in the spirit of the “clubs” league, clubs which extensively recruit players who have no physical, social, or online connections to the club may be deemed ineligible.
C6. Players may only compete for one club in a season. No exceptions.
D. Pairings, Standings, Scoring, Tiebreaks
D1. For team pairings, the Clubs League will use Swiss pairings, with some clarifications:
D1a. Clubs will not have any team seeding or rating.
D1b. In general, clubs will play other clubs with similar match points.
D1c. When possible, the Leagues Administrator will try to pair clubs in similar time zones.
D2. The Leagues Administrator will post the club vs club pairings each Tuesday. These pairings are tentative (may be changed) until finalized on Wednesday.
D3. In case a club anticipates not being able to participate in a given week, they may request to skip a match, in which they will receive a half-point bye (0.5 match points). Only one half-point bye may be requested, any future byes are worth zero points. The bye request deadline is the Monday before each match.
D4. League standings are first based on match points, then the tiebreaks in D5.
D5. Tiebreak 1: Solkoff. Tiebreak 2: Sonneborn-Berger. Tiebreak 3: Cumulative.
E. Club Admin Responsibilities
E1. Club admins must be a Super Admin or Club Admin of their Chess.com club. They should also request to join the Chess.com Clubs League club, which is only for club admins – this is where pairings, announcements, and information will be posted.
E2. It is recommended to have multiple admins who may share the club’s responsibilities; however one admin should be ultimately responsible for their club.
E3. Club admins are responsible for recruiting the appropriate number of players for each match and avoiding forfeits.
E4. All club admins must report weekly results, forfeits, and other issues to the League Administrator by end of day Sunday.
E5. Club admins from both teams are responsible for setting up each Live Chess match with the opposing club. The Leagues Administrator will post the club vs club pairings each Tuesday, but the club admins are responsible for creating the match with each other. The title format for each live chess match should be: “Club League: Club A vs Club B – Week 1”
E6. Matches should be played on Saturdays whenever possible, preferable at the suggested match time mentioned in A3. Matches may be played on Friday and Sunday also, however the reporting submission in E4 applies to all matches. Playing a league match on any other day requires the advance permission of the Leagues Administrator.
E7. Admins of both clubs should contact each other to first determine if they would like to play at the suggested match time in A3. If one club does not agree, club admins should negotiate potential match times by offering a few time slots which may be acceptable. Club admins are expected to be able to compromise regarding match time negotiation, as the highest priority is to have the match played.
E8. There is no prior lineup submission required. Admins are responsible to ensure their club members are logged into Live Chess at the match time.
F. Match format / Player recruitment
F1. Each match is a club vs club (team vs team) match. Players must be in their Chess.com club to represent their club in league matches.
F2. Each player will play 2 games against the same opponent (white/black).
F3. The time control is 15 minutes plus 2 second increment. All league games and matches are to be Chess.com rapid rated.
F4. In each match, the club with the most game points wins the match. Each player plays 2 games, so in a 10 vs 10 match, the maximum game point score for a club is 20 points.
F5. Clubs may recruit any players for a match. There is no rating minimum or maximum. See C6.
F6. Matches will be played based on Chess.com Rapid Ratings at the time of the match – Board 1 vs Board 1, Board 2 vs Board 2, etc.
F7. It is not permitted for clubs or players to alter the match format of a specific match, even if both players/admins/clubs agree. All games and matches should be played with the same conditions.
F8. See the division board capacities in B3. However, clubs may bring more than the minimum number of players.
G. Forfeits, Withdrawals, Disqualifications
G1. Forfeits only occur when a club does not bring the required number of players to a match. The forfeits will automatically occur on the bottom boards.
G2. Example: in a Division A match (10 vs 10), if only 8 players show up for Club C and 10 players show up for Club D, then Club D receives 4 game points by forfeit (2 games * 2 missing players = 4 points)
G3. Example: in a Division A match (10 vs 10), if 14 players show up for Club E and 12 players show up for Club F, the match will automatically be played 12 vs 12, but there will not be any forfeit points awarded, since both clubs brought more players than the minimum required. In this case, the lowest 2 rated players, by Chess.com rapid rating for Club E would not be paired.
G4. Clubs with many forfeits may be moved to Division B or removed from the League for future rounds.
G5. Any club may withdraw from the league at any time. The Leagues Administrator, in cooperation with the Board of Directors, may remove any club from the league at any time.
G6. If it is found that a player has played for multiple clubs (see C6), the player will be disqualified from the League for the current season. The results of the player’s most recent matches will almost certainly be changed for forfeits for the purposes of scoring. If a player, after playing for one team, then plays multiple games for another team, then the scores will be adjusted as if the multi team player lost all games, for all teams he has played for.
G7. If two teams are not able to schedule a match, the Leagues Administrator may declare the match an unplayed draw, or a forfeit loss for one or both teams if either or both teams have not made a fair effort to schedule the match.
H. League Management / Appeals
H1. Leagues Administrator: Grant Oen, grant@chess.com, @GrantOen
H3. “League management” refers to the Leagues Administrator, in cooperation with the Board of Directors.
H4. The official language of communication to and from League management is English.
H5. League management may give the following penalties to any player or club: warning, match score adjustment, game point adjustment, match result adjustment, disqualification.
H6. A club wishing to appeal a game, result, ruling, or other league issue should have a club admin submit the appeal via email to the Leagues Administrator, who will distribute it to the board. No appeals should be submitted directly to board members. Any game/match-related appeals must be submitted within 24 hours of the match.
H7. League management has full discretion regarding issues which are not clearly defined by the rules and may make an exception to the rules or edit these rules at any time.
H8. Appeals decisions made by League Management are final.
I. Fair Play
I1. Chess.com will monitor and review Clubs League games and matches for fair play.
I2. If an account is closed for Fair Play, the result of those games will generally be amended as if the closed account had lost 0-2. This may be the case even if the Fair Play Violations did not occur in a league match.
I3. Even after their conclusion, game and match results are subject to being overturned based on findings from the Chess.com Fair Play team.
I4. Players and clubs may face penalties for fair play violations, including match point/game point adjustment and disqualification from the league.
I5. Club admins may submit specific fair play complaints, which will be reviewed by the Chess.com Fair Play team.
J. Prizes
J1. Prizes will be based on standings/scoring/tiebreaks in section D.
J2. The prizes will be several Chess.com premium memberships. Details coming later…
Good Afternoon!
If you’re interested, please check out our Zoom lesson on “Chess Imbalances” today at 5:30pm. The meetings are always at 5:30pm and always using the same meeting info.
Use the credentials to join:
Meeting ID – 823 3836 2987
Password – 028824
Check out a chess murder mystery by David Hayes here! It’s pretty fun and will challenge both your deductive reasoning skills, as well as your chess visualization abilities.
