John Wright, SGVCC President – San Gabriel Valley Chess Club

Sierra Madre YMCA Update

We had hoped to return to the YMCA in August for in-person chess but the site is not yet available. After a shutdown during much of the last year, the YMCA is currently only open until 8:00 p.m. Also , the space we were using is only being used for summer camps at present. We have been in contact with YMCA management and they are certainly open to having us return when circumstances allow. Like many organizations they lost revenue and staff during the pandemic. We are still hopeful we will be able to return in the Fall and will keep everyone informed .

But we also think it wise to have a back-up plan. So we are in the process of looking for another site, even if it is just a temporary one until we can get back to the YMCA. Unfortunately the new rise in COVID cases due to the Delta variant might complicate things. If any member has a specific site they think may be interested in working with us please let us know. In the meantime all memberships that we’re paid last year remain valid and will be extended for whatever period you signed up for. So were we to be able to start in-person meetings again in September of this year, that membership would now be valid until September 2022.

We truly appreciate the patience and support you have all shown. We are continuing to host online events so check the SGVCC Website for details. Hoping to have everyone back together soon!

Chess Club News

Club League Rd. 5 Match Moved to Sunday

Our match will now be played on July 18, Sunday evening. Rapid starts at 6:00 pm and Blitz at 7:15 pm. Sorry for the many changes!

Chess Club News

Club League Round 5

Our upcoming match against Borba Gato Chess Club of Brazil is tentatively set for Friday, July 16, at 7:00 p.m. The match is played on Chess.com and you can find updated info on Season 3 of Club League at our Chess.com San Gabriel Valley CC site. Just click on the Club link and then “ News.”

Chess Club News Chess Tournaments Club Matches: Live

Chess.com’s Clubs League Season 2 About to Begin!

First round match starts this Saturday, November 7, at 10:00 a.m. PST, against LA Fortress. There is an important change from Season 1: There are now two segments to the match, a Rapid 15/2 time control and a Blitz 3/2 time control. You can play in both or just one if you prefer. The Blitz match will start at 11:15, following the conclusion of the Rapid segment. Both segments count the same for total score. So, if the Rapid is a tie, then the Blitz could decide, and vice-versa. We are expecting about six players on the LA Fortess side. Registration for each segment starts one hour before the start of that segment. Again, you can join in for the Rapid, Blitz or BOTH segments. Hope to see many of you join us!

Chess Tournaments Daily Matches: Daily

SGVCC Goes International!

We may all be physically stuck at home but your fellow Club members are making their presence felt abroad—online that is! We are presently in team matches against clubs from Scotland, France, and Singapore. We also have our old foes the Reno Chess Club. The matches started on July 15th and are what is called “Daily Play” by Chess.com, who organized the event. But in fact it is more like old school correspondence chess as you have three days to make a move. Each participant plays two games against the same player in each match.

The match against Singapore has the most players, with seven on each team. But someone may have forgotten to remind our opponents of the time control as Randy Hough won his first game in record time—-a mere 3 days! Randy was surprised at the speed of his opponent’s moves but certainly took advantage of it. His e6 pawn push was a nice way to pick up the errant Black Bishop on g4. It is our featured game:

In fact, we are now up 4-0 against the team from Bishan, Randy also won his second game and Chris Stychinsky, not to be outdone, also finished 2-0.

But, it is much more likely that the matches are going to take many months to finish. We are still waiting for our match against Thousand Oaks Chess Club to conclude, which started last March and is 93% done, with @ObedientRunner playing the clock out in a lost position. We will be providing periodic updates but you can check out the games yourself by following these links:

United Kingdom: https://www.chess.com/club/matches/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club/1145550

Singapore: https://www.chess.com/club/matches/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club/1147218

France: https://www.chess.com/club/matches/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club/1147212

Reno: https://www.chess.com/club/matches/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club/1147214

Azerbaijan: https://www.chess.com/club/matches/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club/1147248

Chess Tournaments Club Matches: Live

Chess.com Clubs League Concludes!

After an ignominious start, losing 9-1 in our first match, SGVCC won three of its last four matches to finish 4-4 over 8 rounds. Matches were played on Saturdays with a game 15|2 sec t/c. The League was sponsored by Chess.com and many thanks go to our own Laura Nyström for serving as our club administrator.

In Round 8 we faced the Huntsville Club of Alabama. The city of Huntsville is nicknamed “Rocket City” for its NASA facility that employs over 6,000 people. And it looked like they were trying to send us into orbit early as we were down after the first round of games. But two wins in round two and a half-point forfeit gave us the victory.

Like traditional in-person team events there was a lot of excitement each match. It all comes down to how the team does and so even if you lost your own games you could cheer on your teammates. The Chess.com playing site was ideal as you could see other games in real time and we had some amazing comeback games in the last round that had us fixated on our screens!

The only downside we ran into were teams not having an even number of players, which meant some people did not always get a game. We apologize if this happened to you. It was never clear how many players would show for each team until the time of the event, so hopefully that improves.

To see the full match results, including any game played during the match, visit: https://www.chess.com/clubs/matches/live/san-gabriel-valley-chess-club

Thanks as well to all our members who participated! It was great fun meeting people from other clubs and checking out their club websites. Keep watching for the next rapid play Clubs League.

Featured Game

Standings After Round 8 (Final Round)

#	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Pts	TB1	Place
1	Chess Club Zebra	W45	W17	W2	W10	W3	W7	W9	W8	8.0	40	1st
2	GROP Chess Club	W49	W51	L1	W14	W10	W4	W3	W9	7.0	40	2nd
3	Exeter Chess Club	W39	W35	W11	W40	L1	W28	L2	W7	6.0	39.5	3rd
4	Chess Long Island	W8	L15	W29	W19	W21	L2	W20	W12	6.0	38	4th
5	Club Scacchi Cesena	W13	W16	L40	W18	W11	L9	W17	W10	6.0	38	5th
6	Galeria de Xadrez Borba Gato	L7	L27	W34	W30	W36	W21	W14	W15	6.0	31.5	6th
7	Gill Saint Bernard’s Knights	W6	W25	W30	W15	W12	L1	D8	L3	5.5	42	7th
8	Cercle D’Echecs De Hull	L4	W23	W25	W36	W20	W12	D7	L1	5.5	39	8th
9	Chess Projects Club Milano	H—	W24	W51	W17	W40	W5	L1	L2	5.5	37	9th
10	Noble Park Chess Club	W33	W14	W28	L1	L2	W18	W32	L5	5.0	41	10th
11	Stockport Chess Club	W26	W29	L3	W35	L5	W16	W15	L13	5.0	36.5
12	The Secret Dark Knight Society	W34	W42	W20	W46	L7	L8	W25	L4	5.0	36
13	Club Atletismo Huesca	L5	W39	L24	W29	L16	W33	W31	W11	5.0	33
14	TJ Valasska Bystrice – Sachy	W55	L10	W16	L2	W24	W37	L6	X32	5.0	31
15	Saint Petersburg CC Florida	W44	W4	W46	L7	D42	W19	L11	L6	4.5	37
16	TJ Bohemians Praha	W50	L5	L14	W26	W13	L11	W35	D24	4.5	35
17	Aatos Chess Club	W52	L1	W33	L9	W39	X40	L5	D18	4.5	33
18	SK Povazske Podhradie	W47	L40	W48	L5	W35	L10	W28	D17	4.5	33
19	Burlington Ambush Chess Club	W36	L46	W27	L4	W23	L15	W38	D20	4.5	32
20	Los Pujamaderas Chess Club	W22	W21	L12	W44	L8	X42	L4	D19	4.5	31
21	Los Angeles Chess Fortress	W41	L20	W53	B—	L4	L6	W23	D25	4.5	29.5
22	San Gabriel Valley Chess Club	L20	L44	D41	W53	L37	W30	W36	W38	4.5	24
23	Columbia SC Chess Club	L25	L8	W38	W27	L19	W43	L21	W37	4.0	29
24	Airbus Chess Club	L51	L9	W13	W49	L14	H—	W29	D16	4.0	28
25	ChessEmpire [Case Western Univ.]	W23	L7	L8	W37	X46	H—	L12	D21	4.0	27
26	Eagle and Child Chess	L11	D43	D31	L16	W52	L32	W45	W28	4.0	26.5
27	Aurora CC 2012	L46	W6	L19	L23	W30	L35	D34	W41	3.5	31
28	Schachclub Hochstadt a.d. Aisch	W48	H—	L10	W50	W32	L3	L18	L26	3.5	30.5
29	Badgers Brook Chess Club	W43	L11	L4	L13	D31	W49	L24	W35	3.5	30
30	Club Depor. Esp. de Buenos Aires	D37	W38	L7	L6	L27	L22	W44	W43	3.5	29
31	Wimbledon Chess Club	L35	W49	D26	L32	D29	W39	L13	D33	3.5	27.5
32	Circolo Scacchistico Forlivese	L40	W52	D50	W31	L28	W26	L10	F14	3.5	26.5
33	Hobart Chess Club	L10	W45	L17	L41	W44	L13	W49	D31	3.5	25
34	Villages Chess Club of Florida	L12	L36	L6	L38	B—	W44	D27	W45	3.5	23.5
35	Warley Quinborne	W31	L3	W43	L11	L18	W27	L16	L29	3.0	32.5
36	Billiards Cafe Chess Club	L19	W34	W37	L8	L6	L38	L22	W49	3.0	31
37	Club Mariano Moreno	D30	W54	L36	L25	W22	L14	D41	L23	3.0	29.5
38	Huntsville Chess Club	D54	L30	L23	W34	D41	W36	L19	L22	3.0	29
39	Echiquier du Grand Ales	L3	L13	W52	W47	L17	L31	D43	H—	3.0	26.5
40	Club Ajedrez Puerta Elvira	W32	W18	W5	L3	L9	F17	—	—	3.0	26
41	Lincoln High School Chess Club	L21	L53	D22	W33	D38	H—	D37	L27	3.0	24.5
42	Coachella Chess Club	W53	L12	W44	H—	D15	F20	—	—	3.0	14
43	Lycee Francais D’Agadir CC	L29	D26	L35	D45	X50	L23	D39	L30	2.5	22.5
44	Reno Chess Club	L15	W22	L42	L20	L33	L34	L30	B—	2.0	27.5
45	ShahmatKG	L1	L33	L47	D43	D49	X52	L26	L34	2.0	25.5
46	IHOP Chess Club	W27	W19	L15	L12	F25	—	—	—	2.0	17.5
47	SK Ceska Lipa	L18	L48	W45	L39	U—	U—	W55	—	2.0	14
48	Schaakclub’t Ros Dendermonde	L28	W47	L18	X51	—	—	—	—	2.0	11.5
49	Hermanus Chess Club	L2	L31	W55	L24	D45	L29	L33	L36	1.5	27.5
50	Val Parisis Echecs- Franconville	L16	W55	D32	L28	F43	—	—	—	1.5	13.5
51	A.D. Scacchi Foggia	W24	L2	L9	F48	—	—	—	—	1.0	16.5
52	Phoenix Chess Club	L17	L32	L39	W55	L26	F45	—	—	1.0	16.5
53	Highland High School Chess Club	L42	W41	L21	L22	U—	—	—	—	1.0	16
54	Jacksonville Chess Club NC	D38	L37	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.5	6
55	Gazmag Sakk Szakosztaly	L14	L50	L49	L52	U—	U—	L47	—	0.0	15.5

Chess Tournaments

SGVCC Wins Dramatic Round 7 Match Against Billiards Café Chess Club!

After coasting to victory last week in Round 6, SGVCC needed heroic efforts in our match versus the Club from Ayer, Massachusetts. It all came down to the final two games on Boards 2 and 3, where Chris Stychinsky and Richard Reid had to overcome very difficult potions to help us win 4.5 to 3.5, by just a single game.

It seemed we were coming from behind the entire match. First, John Wright on Board 1 went down quickly losing both games. But then @Capital2 on Board 4 got us back even with strong play, taking both games. Chris had lost his first game and Richard had won his, so the match was tied at 3 points each going into the last two games.

But no sooner did we get a reprieve we were fighting for our lives again. Richard was Black against the London System and White had broken through on the Kingside, first by sacrificing a piece, then getting the piece back plus all three of Black’s Kingside pawns! Chris was White against the Black Lion Defense and the “Lion” was roaring! Our opponents meet at a pool hall and it looked like they were going to run the table! Later computer evaluations have both our hero’s lost, but it’s people–not machines–that finish chess games.

In a time scramble Richard was able to create his own passed pawn and the players agreed to a draw with seconds remaining. At that point, the match was still tied and it was all up to Chris. Appropriately, we have made this our featured game this week:

If you look at White’s position after Black played #33…Rh8, it is hard to see how White avoids getting checkmated in short order. Chris’s solution on move #34 seemed to rattle Black, who was still winning, but likely frustrated by White’s stubborn resistance. And “Nimzotech” was starting to make some threats of his own too. Sure enough, five moves later Black dropped a piece and the Lion had been tamed!

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Author: John Wright, SGVCC President