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This week, we’ll be taking a break from tournaments, but the Huntsville City Championship will start next week on August 13th. We’ll conduct one game per week of G/60;d5 and will be both Quick and Standard rated.
Both USCF and HCC memberships are required. Online registration only. Information above / Register below.
Register or Renew Your USCF Membership Here
The Huntsville Chess Club hosted a double round-robin blitz event this week at the main branch of the Huntsville Library. The tournament showcased the unique time control of G/3;inc 7, which is the same as the Chess in a Cave tournament scheduled for November.
The participants quickly learned that, with a 7 second increment, the games can last much, much longer than 3 minutes. Bullet chess moves are not advised!
After the smoke cleared, Bill and new Huntsville Chess Club Member, Miles Melvin, were tied with 7.5 points out of 10 and declared the winners. Joel Friedman was a close second with 6.
Over the past couple of years, there has been a distinct lack of rated (non-scholastic) tournaments in the Huntsville area. That is something that the Huntsville Chess Club would like to change. Traveling great distances to attend chess tournaments can be fun and a good way to break up the possibility of playing the same few chess players over and over again, but it should not be a requirement.
In an effort to change that, we plan to host a City Championship tournament at some point in the next 30-60 days. The most likely venue will be at the Hampton Inn in Hampton Cove on a Saturday and Sunday. Please pay close attention to the club blogs in the coming weeks as more details will be announced as we gather information.
Over the past year, we’ve focused almost exclusively on hosting Monday Night tournaments with Quick and Blitz rated only time controls. This has been well-received by our membership, who enjoy tournament chess, but may not want to put their standard rating on the line after a long day of work. However, we realize that our membership is also composed of players who don’t necessarily enjoy playing games that make it difficult to notate and learn from after the tournament is completed.
An alternative time control of G/60;d5 has been suggested to spread across multiple weeks (the first attempt would most likely be 4 weeks in a row). This idea has been considered in the past, but abandoned due to the sometimes sporadic nature of chess player attendance. Now that we’ve begun to establish a baseline of consistent attendance with quite a few strong players, we would like to revisit this topic.
It would be unreasonable to expect all attendees to be able to attend every single week (though we’d love it if that’s what happened), so half-point byes would be available for all but the final round with at least 24 hour notice.
Please use the poll below to let us know if you would be interested in attending a tournament like this. If you would, we’ll do our best to give it a trial run ASAP! As always, please post questions or comments below. We’ll do our best to respond in a timely manner.
The Huntsville Chess Club
The impromptu unrated tournament at this week’s meeting, with a free clock to the victor, was a great success. We had 12 participants and nearly 20 chess in total players attend. One of the folks who stopped by was in town from Cleveland! It’s always fun to give out of town chess players a place to keep their skills fresh.
The Quest for the Clock themed event was won by Life Master, Bill Melvin, but not without a fight from a strong pool of players.
Going into Round 4, Joel Friedman was a clear frontrunner with 3 points after (Bill Melvin and Paul Mulqueen had drawn each other in round 3), while Bill and Paul were tied for 2nd with 2.5. After the round, both Bill and Paul emerged victorious, resulting in a two-way tie for first place.
It was determined beforehand that any tie for the clock would result in a playoff. This took place in the form of 2 consecutive, G5;0 delay games where each person would have the opportunity to play both colors. They were tense games that were made even more tense by the gathering of spectators interested in the final outcome that surrounded the players. Bill solidified his results with a win with each color.
The unsung hero of the evening was Chris Hayes, our newest Board Member at Large and Tournament Director in Training. What started out as a plan to train-up on the tournament pairing software with a mini tournament of 4-6 participants ended in a 4 round, fast-paced 12 player tournament with a playoff! She did a great job and we are extremely grateful for her continued support.
Below are the official results (click to view):
Next week’s meeting is planned to be a rated blitz tournament with a unique time control. Stay tuned for the registration announcement that will be sent out this Wednesday (7/25) or Thursday (7/26)!
The Huntsville Chess Club
The past couple of weeks, we’ve had 10 people come out for chess, to play or just to observe. It seems as though the time and location change has had a positive effect! See you Mondays at 5:30pm at the Huntsville library! We’re on the 2nd floor towards the Information Desk in the back. If you have trouble finding us, just ask at the desk and I’m sure they’ll point you in the right direction.
The Huntsville Chess Club has an immediate need to fill multiple board positions:
Secretary
Board Member at Large
In a little less than 2 weeks, we’ll be conducting a membership appreciation get-together and executive board election, simultaneously. We hope that you can join us at David Hayes’s house for a fun evening of finger-foods, chess, and discussions of our plans for the upcoming year on Friday, 7/6/2018 at 6pm. A couple of doors prizes will be awarded as well!
The address for the event is:
413 Dell Ave SE
Huntsville, AL
35802
Please RSVP by 6/29/18 to the huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com email address with the number of people you will bring or by commenting below so we can confirm the head-count.
Paid membership to the HCC IS required prior to attendance and to be eligible to become nominated/vote. If you’re unsure of your membership status, please email huntsvillechessclub@gmail.com.
The Huntsville Chess Club
On Monday 4/9 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.
Register or Renew Your USCF Membership Here
Last weekend, the Huntsville Chess club and the Chattanooga Chess club battled it out in a blitz and standard tournament in Hampton Cove. Results will be published in a newsletter soon.
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.
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