Top rated Karl Tolentino won the Echo Mountain Open, a five round event that concluded on February 1, 2022. He went an undefeated 5-0 but had to fend off a last round challenge that made things interesting. It’s the National Master’s second clear first in just three events. Expert (and 5 time NM) Randall Hough was clear second at 4-1, only losing to Tolentino. Thirty-one players participated.
If you follow the results for our events you’ll notice that “fighting chess” is a hallmark of SGVCC and there are usually very few draws. With an ever increasing number of talented youngsters and under-rated adults, the top players get no rest. This event was no exception when in Round 1 twelve year old Benjamin Teng (1689) took down Will Webster (2165), who barely got a chance to savor the fruits of his recent Holiday Open Championship. Always the realist about his play, Will took it in stride and almost managed to climb back into contention but for needing a second round bye (check out Will’s blog on this game and others at this site).
As usual there were a number of good storylines. David Faulkner continued his good play from our last event and was 2.5 in his first three rounds, having defeated a player 300 points above his own rating and also drawing one 500 points higher. This landed him on Board 1 in Round 4 against Tolentino. Did we say Karl was undefeated?! Also, ten year old Ashley Lin (1303) put together a three game winning streak in Rounds 2 through 4, setting her up for a last round showdown with Hough where she put up a tough fight.
As has been the case, we continue to pick up new members and appreciate the continued support of all who have been playing. The Millard Falls Open is currently underway and you can track the results at this website. Our next event will start March 15th, so stay tuned for details!
Artem Aleksenko went an undefeated 5-0 to win the Euwe Open, our most recent Friday night online event. He finished in style with a nice game against NM John Wright where he delivered a knockout blow after Black snatched a pawn with Qxd4.
NM Larry Stevens took second with 3.5, his only loss also by Artem. Special kudos to Russel Keating who won his last 3 games, including a win over the always tough Arturo Armagnac.
A new Friday online event starts October 29, sign up here
Round 1 combatants gave no quarter to their fellow SGVCC members—all five matches were decisive and three ended in checkmate. Newcomer Jason Nicholson had a strong debut, Larry played a nice endgame, and Artem and Arturo showed off their tactics. Your humble author got s break from Russel, who had the better game. Check out the games and comments below.
Congrats to NM Larry Stevens who only gave up a draw in his march to first place in the Capablanca Open. “Mr. e4” scores a nice win over top seed NM Axel Müller along the way. The event only had 8 participants and we are hoping more of you will join us for the 5 round Euwe Open that starts on September 17th. It will be played at our usual LiChess SGVCC Site. You need to join SGVCC at that site and let us know if you need any assistance.
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!
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.”
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!
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:
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.
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.
