Michael Thomas Takes 1st Place In The Elizabethtown Tornado!

          Michael Thomas (Right) wins his 4th round game vs. Randas Burns to take 1st Place!

Michael Thomas scored 4-0 to take first place and $150 cash!  Chris Bush and Matthew McDonald both scored 3 ½ , which netted them second place.  Tod Head won first place in Class C and Robert Cheng and Sal Mancuso split the first place prize for Class E and below.

The cross table can be viewed here:

Congratulations to Matthew McDonald for gaining 106 rating points and to Tod Head for picking up 64 rating points.

Twenty-three players participated in the tournament, but where were all our club members?  We had players from Illinois and Tennessee, but only 4 club members played in our annual club event!

Elizabethtown Tornado This Saturday!

Rememebr that our Annual Club tournament is this Saturday! I hope we can get a large turn-out
from our club membership!

A link to the flyer can be found here:

Match With New Albany

Johnny's post on the match was pretty brief and the "Anonymous" comment was pretty provocative. So I thought I'd present a more detailed account.

The E-town Chess Club is a "USCF Affiliate" which holds regular USCF rated events; all our current members are USCF members with current USCF ratings. The New Albany Club has three current USCF members. E-town selects their board players by current rating; New Albany has shuffled their line up at every meeting (three to date) to include playing folks who had never visited their Club before the night of the match (Phil Bond - second match).

The first match was won by E-town with a score of 3 wins and 2 draws. The second match was won by E-town with 4 wins and 3 draws.

Match #3 was a different story; as it was drawn with 3 wins and 1 draw each. Miami Fugate, KY's newest expert and representative of the Highland Chess Club majically appeared on 1st board!

Board 1 - Joe Farrell (2051)        -0           Miami Fugate  (2001)     - 1
Board 2 - John Coghill *              -1/2        Jerry Weldin (1820)      - 1/2
Board 3 - Loius DeFiore (1700)  -0           Mel Person (1850)        - 1
Board 4 - John Warth **             -0          Johnny Owens (1694)    - 1
Board 5 - Kerry Fatula (1640)     -1          Bryan Rayzor  ***         - 0
Board 6 - Andrew Comeau          -1          Amy Nunn (1511)         - 0
Board 7 - Bob Kilmer (1497)       -1          Bill Cornell                    - 0
E-town had white on odd numbered boards after coin toss.

*     John Coghill's USCF membership expired 2000-07-31 at that time he had a rating of 1451.
**   John Warth's USCF membership expired 2006-11-31 and is considered Unrated by USCF.
*** Bryon Rayzor's USCF membership expired 2011-06-30 at that time he was rated 1135.
Dan Bulleit with a USCF rating of 1368 was present for New Albany but did not play.

I'd like to see New Albany bring "over the board" USCF rated players to the next match so we can compare "apples to apples" instead trying to stack the deck with "correspondence masters" and others who don't play regularly for their Club. But I think I speak for all of us when I say "we just love to play chess"; bring on the strongest team you can muster and let's make the chess boards rumble!

Match With The Chess Club of Southern Indiana Ends In A Tie!

                                     John Warth playing the white pieces vs. Johnny Owens

Our match vs The Chess Club of Southern Indiana ended in a tie!  3.5 - 3.5!

Johnny Owens, Kerry Fatula and Bob Kilmer all scored victories and Jerry Weldin drew
as we ended with 3.5 points on the seven boards played at the Family Buffet.

Joe Farrell, Louie De Fiore and Amy Nunn also represented our club.

Next time we travel to New Albany!

Save Your Mechanical Clocks!

After writing an article about the "death" of mechanical clocks, I thought it only appropriate to announce their continued longevity. Now that USCF has added the "Blitz Rating" there will be time controls that use no delay. In fact the longest time control will be G/10;d0 (10 minutes - no delay). The shortest time control is G3;d2 and any combination of minutes plus delay that does not exceed 10 is permissible. Examples: G5;d5, G7;d3, G5;d0, and so on.
While mechanical clocks may be passe, watching a flag fall will still stir the passion in the hearts of old timers.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that your mechanical clocks can be used in cooking. Set the clock for how long you like your steaks grilled per side and punch the clock when you flip it over! Or - boil for 5 minutes, reduce heat and simmer for two minutes.

Match With The New Albany Club Set For April 18th!

We have a 7 board match set with the "Chess Club of Southern Indiana" for Thursday, April 18th!

They are bringing in some ringers this time, so I'm asking the club to come out and support this match.  We have 3 players confirmed for this, so if you want to play, give me a call or send me an email as soon as possible.

The match will start at 7:45 pm at the Family Buffet in Elizabethtown. We need 4 more players to commit to this match!

The April Monthly Swiss Was Another Quad!

Joe Farrell, Johnny Owens, Amy Nunn and Sal Mancuso played in this month's Monthly Swiss!

The crosstable can be view here:

It's time to register for the club's annual tournament - The Elizabethtown Tornado!

King of Kings Results

Whaley wins King of Kings with a perfect score in a 4 man shootout! Elizabethtown was not represented.
Read the KCA report here, to include the winners games.

Here Is A Post From The Past - Jackson Whipps Showalter

If you thought the title was a typo and were looking for a game between two new members; it was an intentional "curve ball" thrown to get your attention.

Showalter who was known as "The Kentucky Lion" for his huge mane of hair in addition to his ferocity at the chess board; was the 5th US Chess Champion. Also the 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th!!
Showalter was held in such high regard by his peers that both Pillsbury (after his triumph at Hastings-1895) and Marshall (after winning in Paris -1909) refused to accept the title of United States Chess Champion; which their fans tried to thrust upon them; until they could arrange (and win) a match against Showalter!

If you think Showalter was a backwoods push over; think again, the list of players he beat is a "who's who" list of his era including two World Champions: Bird, Blackburne, Burn, Chigorin, Albin, Alapin, Janowski, Lasker (Emanuel), Maroczy, Marshall, Mieses, Pillsbury, Steinitz, and Von Bardeleben.

Showalter had to satisfy his chess appetite through correspondence chess for most of his early years due to work/family responsibilities and the transportation limitations of his day or his chess accomplishments might have even been greater.

Oh yeah; that curve ball thing. Showalter was an avid baseball player in his youth and is credited with inventing the curve ball by some sources. He was probably the first to throw a curve ball in Kentucky; it is doubtful if anyone can prove who among the 7-9 claimants really deserves the honor of "discovering" the curve ball and in all likelihood it was discovered by several players independent of each other.

I could go on; but then I'd rob my readers of the joy derived from investigating for his/her self; was his wife Nellie a knock out in both beauty and chess; why did he go to Texas, and who was William "Candy" Cummings?

For more explorations try:
http://www.correspondencechess.com/campbell/articles/a060615.htm
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=10532
http://1heckofaguy.com/2009/03/11/jackson-whipps-showalter-chess-champion-curve-ball-proponent-cigar-aficionado/
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9405E0D81039E433A25756C2A9679C94699ED7CF
http://www.wtharvey.com/show.html
http://www.chessclub.org/news.php?n=447
http://www.georgetownky.gov/content/view/22/44/
http://www.rookhouse.com/blog/?p=325
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=712

Note: While I researched and wrote this article in 2009; Bob Lenning added the links and "more explorations" which made it one of the best Blog posts ever (in my opinion) - Jerry

Latest News / Reminder

Tuesday saw a weak turnout as many of our members either had family/personal obligations, were enjoying other pursuits, or weren't able to overcome their Chinese Restaurant phobia. We ended up with 4 players to include "first timer" Frank Little who is enrolled in the "Wounded Warrior" program at Fort Knox. Frank was very eager to expand his chess experience and stayed until the restaurant was closing. Frank intends to join USCF and play in next weeks tournament!

Kerry Fatula dropped by and announced that he and his wife have made an offer on a house in Pennsylvania. Stay in touch Kerry and show those boys in Allentown,PA how the game is played!

Amy and I rounded out the meeting.

Johnny left for Nashville and the Super Nationals today.

Joe got delayed in Colorado, where Steven receives medical treatment from time to time, and will not be able to play in the "Kings" tournament this weekend. His post on KCA (1 April) was not an April Fools hoax. We all wish Steven a speedy recovery and a safe trip home. Joe has passed the baton to Ernie Weaver. Good luck Ernie!

Again, this serves as a reminder that we will meet at the College next Tuesday.