For those of you who were unable to take part in our City Championship, you missed a lot of fun!  It was a great opportunity for all participants to take part in some rated chess close to home and for some to prepare for the North Alabama Championship that closely followed.  The field was very strong, but that didn’t discourage a couple of players from participating in their first rated tournament.  Newcomer Gabriel Noland finished up with a provisional rating of 1952!

As part of the weekly news, we wanted to include a couple of games from the last round of the Huntsville City Championship from the 1st and 2nd place Miles and Bill Melvin and their opponents.  We’ll have casual chess at the library again this week.  Hope to see you all there!

The first game is that of Logan Richey vs. Miles Melvin.  Logan is an up and coming scholastic player, who suffered his first loss to Miles in the last round and still gained nearly 100 rating points!

Miles mentioned that his plan throughout the tournament was to lose material and then battle back to victory.  This game was not a good example of that.  With the exception of just a few missed opportunities by his opponent,  The future HCC Champ took control of the game and never let go.

Bill Melvin took 2nd place in the tournament and ended with a solid finish as well.  Seeking out imbalances right out of the gate, it was clear that he would not be satisfied with a drawn game.

His opponent, Luis Morenilla, has been a strong player in the Huntsville community for years.  During a game quite a few months back, where Luis soundly stomped me into oblivion, I mentioned that I was hoping to get to 1800 someday in the not too distant future.  Luis seemed to recognize what a struggle that could end up being for me and responded that he was trying to do the same, himself.  Well, he definitely won the race to 1800 with the completion of this tournament – and then some, ending up at 1815.  Congrats Luis, you’re still underrated!