Odds And Ends

Sam Hunt, winner of the biggest upset in the Mike Anders Memorial.



                                         Gelvic is back! And played in the Mike Anders Memorial.

                  Davis Whaley, winner of the Mike Anders Memorial, playing Randas Burns.

There are only 5 "Second Tuesday Tournaments" left this year. Just a reminder that Johnny added the requirement to play in at least 5 tournaments to qualify for the 2013 Club Championship. So far only Amy, Sal, and Johnny have met that requirement.

Requiem For A Chess Club

Under any other circumstances there would be a death knoll sounding for our Club. But as long as I still breath and can get one other chess player to attend our weekly meetings the Club will live on. I realize that it is "summer" and have heard all the excuses; but attendance has shrunk to such a low that I am fearful that the remaining stalwart members will start to "deprioritize" our weekly meetings as others have done.
Last Tuesday there were 4 players; one - James Ballard drove all the way from Louisville! The meeting was over at 8pm. We will not last long at this rate. I challenge every member to not only attend next weeks meeting, but bring a new member.

Reflections on 2011

With the year drawing to a close I'd like to thank everyone who helped the Club stay viable as we prepare for 2012. A special thanks to Johnny Owens who met and exceeded all Tournament Director expectations; I'm sure that no other club in the USA had tournament results posted faster and more accurately than ours. Johnny also served as Vice President, thanks Johnny!

Kerry Fatula deserves recognition for always being at Club meetings, rain or shine, Kerry doesn't care about rating points he truly loves the game and plays win, lose, or draw. It should be noted that Kerry gained over 100 rating points this year!! Kerry has also accepted the position of Club Tournament Director for 2012.

Stephanie Clayton: with plate already filled with work, her kids chess club, and teaching at night; took on the responsibility of Treasurer when Steve Parsons had to relinquish the position due to extreme family circumstances. Stephanie took home prize money at the Kentucky Open again this year, organised and financed the Veteran's Appreciation Tournament, and gained 62 rating points this year.

Joe Farrell served as Club Secretary and has made a great personal effort to attend all business meetings and tournaments. Joe gets the "Hero Award" for fending off the "bee swarm" to get to the "honey" and become the Club's first "home grown" Expert!! Joe is the Club's new Vice President.

Amy Nunn has distinguished herself and brought glory to the Club by becoming the 2011 Kentucky Woman's Champion!! Amy not only raised her rating 44 points over the year, but has also "volunteered" to serve as Club Secretary.

Ernie Weaver serves as our "Liaison" to the College and schedules classrooms for our "Spring Tournament". Ernie also proof reads books for Dan Heisman and is the point of contact for the Club on the ECTC Web Site.

Rudy McKinney, Bob Kilmer, Nick Folino, Dave Brock, and Sal Mancuso always attend when they are able, in town and work permitting. This group along with Peston Andrew, provide the foundation on which the Club is built on.

Gelvic Cubar our new Club President is currently experiencing a time of personal turmoil from which I am sure he will emerge stronger than ever. The Bluegrass State Champion for 2011, Gelvic is a tough opponent across the board and a refreshingly genuine "good guy".

This year our Club gained 431 rating points; 1744 if you count Josh Jordan's initial rating of 1313. Josh e-mailed me that he will come by in January and pay his 2012 dues. We need to put a GPS tracking device on him so we can get him to show up more often!

Larry Davidson (Glasgow) deserves a special mention for supporting our Egg Salad Tournament by participation and donating enough books for each participant to receive one FREE! Larry also provided a book concession with very reasonable prices which I think "sold out" (James Whiddon was top purchaser). Thanks Larry for all your support and kind e-mails.

Nathanial Emdee, where are you? Your e-mail address is no longer valid.

Thanks to everyone who reads this far. Thanks to all for your support during my tenure as Club President. I eagerly await our next meeting over the board! Wishing everyone health, joy, and prosperity in 2012!

PS - Benny Wilson is back. Andrew Preston is recovering from his knee replacement surgery after a rough fight with infection. Joe thinks he has two new members lined up for 2012. The Club will host the inaugural "Kings Tournament". Life is good and Chess will be even better in 2012!!

Every Dog Has It's Day

Checking out the Championship X-Table, the other day, a couple of things jumped out at me. The first and probably most obvious was that there was a clear #1 and #2 with three tied in a log jam for the #3 & #4 positions. The second and most telling was the fact that all 5 of the top players had scored a perfect 3 out of 3 in one of the last 5 monthly tournaments. It will be interesting to see how things play out the last three months. It says a lot for the strength of our Club.

Expanded Comment

I decided to do an "expanded comment" in response to Joe's comment concerning the July Rating Tournament.I will use my usual "shotgun" approach and address all the topics brought up in the 4 original comments and some which weren't!

The electricity was restored about 20 minutes after I got home.There goes one of my "throw away scores".

The lights were off at Johnny's house too. I think Debbie just went to Wal-Mart to ride it out; my wife's car was "trapped" in the garage. Still it must have caused Johnny some anxiety as he continued to play and carry out his TD duties. Thanks Johnny!

Congratulations to Joe for his second "Trifecta" of the year! Joe also went 3-0 in January before the "Championship Series" began.

Amy!! You have played great chess the last two weeks; you are peaking at just the right time to win the KY Women's Championship this weekend! I talked with Dave Brock today and he asked how you were doing as he was still smarting from his loss to you in the April Fool's Tournament! Good luck in Winchester Saturday.

Joe, you mentioned creating an imbalance in your game with Gelvic. I have learned this past year that that is the way to win games! I may have known it for a while but have only "formulated" it into my chess vocabulary this past year.

Joe, you have taught me not to offer a draw to higher rated opponents. You have to believe in your ability to win in a better position even if you are playing Bobby Fischer!

I must concentrate on playing better without getting into time trouble, while I can usually do well... old age and rough living are beginning to take their toll. Getting into time trouble and not keeping score throws away the ability to claim a draw by repetition among other things. Alas that is now "part of the game" and I make no excuses. That said... I intend to "draft" behind you as you become an "Expert" and join you in that Rating Class by the end of 2012!

Here is the game I lost to Joe Tuesday night. Comments are mine, caution you are entering a "Fritz Free Zone"!

Play online chess

It's Kamsky and Zatonskih !!

Given a choice I naturally chose Anna's picture!

Unless you are still in your "storm shelter" you know that Gata Kamsky and Anna Zatonskih won the US Championship in their respective gender division.

I have noticed that most web sites/blogs just plagerize what has already been posted else where; so in an attempt to be original I'd like to give you a "patzers view" of my observations gleaned from watching the action (as much as I could) on the Saint Lewis Chess Club Web Site.

When we get as much rainfall as we did last week my back yard turns into a swamp and eventually water tries to claim my garage as the eight ocean. So.. around Good Friday I found myself battling the flood waters with a 12 gallon shop vac given to me by my son's family a couple of Christmas's ago. (Young folks love Black Friday!)
On Monday the day after Easter I sent my wife to Home Depot to get another shop vac with a drain plug as I was having trouble controling the water with only one! Last Tuesday while the the Club was forced into the hall due to a tornado warning I was battling the water. As things didn't get rough untill about 2:00 AM I used the box the new shop vac came in as a table and set up my lap top on it to watch the US Chess Championships. While I missed a good deal of the commentary, I actually got to view most of the play off games.

What I learned listening to Maurice Ashley and Jennifer Shahade commemtary was very insightful for me and the games were excellent. The following "lessons" that I gleaned from these sessions were:

Gata Kamsky, currently 18th in the world ratings @ 2732 deserves any accolades given. His first game against Shulman in the men's finals was nothing short of soccery! Check it out on the USCF web site. I will diffinately watch his match with Topalov next week!

Anna Zatonskih, currently the 7th highest female chess player in the world @ 2537 turned in a spendid performance in spite of the roughest opposition! In her interview after winning the Championship she bemoned the fact that she had not "played up to her performance level" but ensured her fans that she will have more time to devote to chess when her 4 year old daughter, Sofia, starts Kindergarten next year. Single and childless couples be assured that her performance was extradordinary under the circumstances!!

Tatev Abrahamyan playes fighting chess ! and hasn't finished 2nd in the last two championships by accident.

My impressions of the Championship are as follows:
1. The women fight without mercy and give no quarter! By far the most intertaining/instructive games were produced by the ladies.
2. The young /up and coming male players are almost as intertaining as the ladies and definately play fighting chess!
3. If Kamsky could play with a World Championship qualifying match pending with Topalov; what was Nakamura's problem?

What I learned from listening to the commentary by GM Ashley, Shahade, and GM's in the audiance:
1. Buying "Opening Books" is a waste of time and money until you are rated 1800.
2. Playing "game 30" doesn't even count in their book!
3. There is not that great of a differance between you and I and the "chess professional". They do it for a living (money) and we do it for fun. But they make the same mistakes we do; even though they have more time to devote to the game.
4. The younger players are throwing the old guys a curve ball by not playing "standard openings"

This is an opinion piece and I'm sure that many of my readers will disagree with some if not all of my opinions; that's ok with me! If this piece provoked you into study, introspection, or the desire to challenge me to a rated game next meeting then I have done my job.

The Club needs more authors, please consider posting on the site. Contact me if you haven't received an invite.

h8,a1,h1, or a8 "My View From The Corner" How I Saw 2010

11 year old Bob Seltzer plays 3 members of the then NBA World Champion Boston Celtics.


If you can't identify the three basket ball legends above; ask Bob Kilmer or click on the link below the picture before your neighbors find out and run you out of town on a rail. I exaggerate a little; after all they did play on a "Yankee" team. But this is Kentucky the home of fast horses, bourbon, and basketball.

I wanted to find a picture that might be of interest and not be "political" in nature as an intro to my rambling observations of 2010. I guess I reflect my age as the photo is in black and white.

In 2010 the Club suffered from an internal struggle to change from our casual chess tete-a-tete's to a more structured affair with rules and regulations that virtually choked the fun out of the Club. As a result we lost on odd member or two but rebounded even stronger than before. By popular vote it was decided that the only rule was that there were no rules! Except of course for those laid down by USCF. Actually we are a little more structured now; but without the staid stiffness of the country clubs of yore.

E Pluribus Unium should strike a familiar cord with you; translated from the Latin that appears on the everyday coins you carry in your purse or pocket; it means... Out of many one! As it happens the E-town Chess Club is exactly that...a meeting of like, but different souls who share a common interest in chess! The sage sexagenarian (like Andrew Preston), the confident mid lifer (like Nick Folino and Ernie Weaver), the rebellious teen (like Andrew Lee and Kerry Fatula) , and the chess neophyte of all ages come together to play individually under the canape of the Elizabethtown Chess Club.

2010 saw the introduction of dues for the first time. Included in our 20 dues paying members are 3 Life Members who antied up $100 each as an expression of their belief in the Club. It is significant to note that all the Life Members have a rating below 1200; I believe we should keep that in mind when we begin to spend the club treasury. I was queried by a member as to why I didn't become a Life Member; it must be the Scottish part of my ancestry kicking in as I had already paid to participate in all the 2010 Tuesday Tournaments in advance. Rest assured that I intend to be the 4th Life Member at our first meeting in 2011; joining Sal Mancuso, Stephanie Clayton, and Dave Brock.

Congratulations to Rudy McKinney for becoming the first member of 2011 by winning the "Under 1400" Section of the "Remember Pearl Harbor" Tournament! Johnny Owens became the second member of 2011 by winning the "Open" Section.

2010 saw Johnny Owens becoming a USCF delegate representing the state of Kentucky at the annual USCF business meetings. That's a feature in the cap of both Johnny and the Club.

Stephanie Clayton placed 1st in her class at the Kentucky Open, winning $100 cash!

The Club hosted the Bluegrass State Games for the second year in a row.

Stephanie Clayton and Steve Parsons put together the 2nd Annual Veteran's Tournament; and guaranteed the prize fund!

The Club gained 407 rating points during 2010 with Gelvic Cubar gaining 199 points to take the "Most Improved" title!

The economy directly impacted on the Club with two members changing jobs, one taking an additional job, and one put on "mandatory overtime" for the majority of the year.

All in all it was a very good year for the Club with Joe Farrell winning the 2010 Club Championship in the last game of the December Tournament!

Looking forward to next year I hope for more members to consider running for office; better attendance; and new members. Johnny has already submitted the Chess Life advertisement to USCF for our 2011 "Spring Tournament" and has negotiated a deal to advertise our Second Tuesday Tournaments for free in a couple of issues.

Any ideas for 2011 would be appreciated; you may present your idea to any of the Club officers and I guarantee that they will all be considered.