LCCC Back! New Club Tournament Announced and Chess Can Be a Problem!

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between 

4pm and 10pm 

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'. 

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

I want to open by thanking everyone for starting the official 2025 LCCC grand opening with a bang! Twenty-six players were here last Monday night. 

Hope to see everyone return again…..and again!

Just for fun, we will be having our first ever LCCC Dice Chess Championship starting next week. Don’t worry if you never played it before. Few of us have. 

The tournament is free to enter, and the simple rules are already posted here. Just type in the blog search box "Dice Chess" and the article will appear. And, of course the rules will be available at the Club for the duration of the actual tournament. 

So, don’t worry. Just play and have fun putting some gambling and “LUCK” into your chess match.

Now, some history about chess;

If you think chess has always been pure….or thought to be pure, your humble scribe has some news for you.

Chess has more skeletons in the closet than Bluebeard, Blackbeard, Machiavelli and Captain Kidd put together!

If you dig into the 6000 years of chess history you will find that the game itself was thought of as a menace to religion, morals, home life and politics.

In 1118, Zonares, Head of Justice for the Emperor wrote from his monastery that all clergymen who departed from virtue by playing chess shall be banned from the church!

His quote was, “"Because there are Bishops and clergy who depart from virtue and play chess, dice or drink to excess, the Rule commands that such shall cease to do so or be excluded; and if a Bishop or elder or deacon or subdeacon or reader or singer do not cease so to do, he shall be cast out: and if laymen be given to chess-playing and drunkenness, they shall be excluded."

He would not be in favor of our upcoming tournament!

French employers in the 1800’s would often require their apprentices to promise in writing that they would not play chess, either on the job or in their off time.

Chess may have gained a bawdy reputation because it was once used as a ruse by a suitor to gain access to his lady’s bedroom. Chess players and minstrels were permitted visit the maiden in her chambers in order to “entertain her” with game or music.

The ladies of the time pondered ways to obtain a knowledge of chess in order to be able to “be courted” more often.

Norsemen took it a step further. Prospective suitors for the hands of their daughters expected them to play chess with the men of the family in order to determine if he was a worthy prospect.

The game also made problems for families. Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, beat up his wife when she beat him at chess. In revenge, she later refused to pay a fine for him for a small crime and let him stay in a dungeon to cool off…for 13 years!

Chess indirectly helped with the birth of the USA! George Washington it is said, won the Battle at Trenton because the British General Rahl was so deeply absorbed in a chess game, that he put a note warning him of Washington’s approach in his vest pocket and continued playing!

Playing chess can be a problem it seems.

LCCC 2024 Club Champion Decided - See You on Jan. 6! - And an Optimist to the Max Revealed!

 

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between 

4pm and 10pm 

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'. 

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

LCCC will not be officially meeting for the next two weeks. The reason is the holidays, Lions playing on Monday night and it is college football bowl season. Many people will be using our location as a sports bar instead of a chess club! The nerve!

The 2024 Club Championship concluded this week! The winner is Pete B with a 3 – 0 score! Congratulations to Pete. He had a tough final match with the second-place finisher Charlie S.

And thank you to all the competitors!

LCCC will not officially meet for the next two weeks. But if you show, maybe someone will be there. See you all on January 6th, 2025. Happy New Year!

Now back to my little series on great chess players of the past you may never have heard of:

Efim D. Bogoljubow

One way of classifying chess players is by their temperament – the optimist and the pessimist. 

The pessimist views the outcome of each game as always in doubt and filled with trepidation. 

The optimist sees their attacks as always succeeding and their victory only a matter of when the opponent will resign.

Optimism reigned supreme with E. D. Bogolyubov. He was born on April 1, 1889 and was a contemporary of Alekhine and Capablanca.

He went thorough out life with the unshakable conviction that he was the best player in the world! He never let his defeats at the hands of the two players previously mentioned shake his trust in his abilities.

Take for instance, the organizers sent an invitation to Bogolyubov to play in the 1927 New York International Tournament against the likes of Alekhine, Capablanca, Nimzowitsch, Vidmar, Spielmann and Marshall.

Bogolyubov refused and sent this response: “Instead of this mediocre tournament, I propose a match between myself and Capablanca.”

At the time, his high opinion of himself may have been justified. He had just won the prestigious Moscow International Tournament in 1925 by 1.5 points over Lasker and 2 points over Capablanca. 

And the tournament before that, he won a tournament in Breslau with 9.5 points over Nimzowitsch with 7.5 and Rubinstein and Reti with 7 points.

Bogolyubov eventually did get his world championship matches in 1929 and 1934, and both were against the current title holder, Alexander Alekhine, and he lost both by the scores of 15.5 – 9.5 and 15.5 – 10.5 respectively.

It was obvious to everyone that “Bogo” was just not quite Alekhine’s level, but that never swayed Bogo’s belief that he was the best player in the world. Even as late as 1951 when the upcoming Botvinnik – Bronstein Championship match was about to take place, Bogo would tell everyone who would listen that he should rightfully play the winner of that match to really decide the crown!

One would think that this personal but honest optimism would put the other players off. But Bogo’s personality and his enjoyment of life made his boasts endearing to the other players. They never took it as an insult to their abilities, but rather just looked at it as “Bogo being Bogo.”

In the late 1930’s and early 1940’s when it was obvious he would never again be one of the top tournament finishers, Efim would often blame mediocre results on the weather, the food, the lodging the tournament playing conditions or his health. 

Nimzowitsch was quoted as saying, “Poor Bogo has never lost a game in good health.”

Efim died in his sleep in 1952 at the age of 63.

2024 LCCC Championship Starts Tonight - And Some Chess Trivia

 The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between 4pm and 10pm 

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'. 

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

Announcement: The 2024 Club Championship begins this week! Free to enter. Tournament will start around 6:30pm so get there before then to sign up!

The time limit will be 1 hour per player with a 5 second delay! We will play one round a week for 3 or 4 weeks depending on the number of entries. 

Casual chess will still be available before, during or after the tournament games, so come on by.

Next a little chess trivia quiz. Answers in the comment section:

1. How many hours did Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov spend playing one another over the years?

A: More than 700

B: 400 – 700

C: Less than 400

2. Vladimir Kramnik said that making chess into a sport has no future because you need a rating of at least this to enjoy the televised match:

A: 1300

B: 1500

C: 1700

3. Paul Morphy and Adolf Anderson were given a lasting tribute by;

A: having opening variations named after them

B: having varieties of potatoes named after them

C: having asteroids named after them

2024 LCCC Action Tournament Completed! And a "Would You Have Seen It?"

 

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between 

4pm and 10pm 

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'. 

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

Now on to the news! Our annual Action Tournament (30-minute Time Limit) concluded with the winner being Dr. Ken Tack! - Again! Congratulations Ken. 2nd-3rd went to John O and Thomas V. , with Luke M., Pete B., and Vince V. rounding out the top finishers out of 14 players. Thanks to all that participated!

Now for the diagram: Your humble scribe refrains from putting games or puzzles up here since you can get those anywhere. But recently, some have caught my eye having actually happened in a real tournament game some time ago.

The players are F. D. Yates with White and none other than Alexander Alekhine with Black!

From the archives of the 1924 New York Master's Tournament book, it says that White has just played 26. Bd5, moving from e4 to escape capture from the knight and to protect his own knight at f3.

Alekhine remarked at the time, "Still losing a piece, and what followed from my opponent was sheer desperation!" Indeed, after Alekhine played 26. ...c6, White responded with 27. Rxg7 and resigned a few moves later. Another victory for the World Champion and the tournament and life goes on.

However, instead of the desperation move, another Master playing in the tournament, Frank Marshall, found the WIN for White after glancing at the position for just a few moments in post-mortem! Alekhine and Yates were both stunned.

Find the winning move!  

2nd Round of the 2024 Action Tournament - and The Last Influential Writer of All Time

Aron Nimzowitsch 

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between

4pm and 10pm

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'.

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

Sorry for the delay in posting. Life gets in the way of chess sometimes.

Like for instance, my dishwasher apparently broke. And my automatic dirty laundry basket, that cleans and folds clothes, doesn’t empty itself right now. Depressing.

Also, my wife went in for a knee replacement. (Insert laugh or groan.)

Round 2 of our unadvertised annual Action Tournament, with the player with White listed first, has these pairings:

Board 1: Luke M – Pete B

Board 2: Vince V – John O

Board 3: Jon C – Ken T

Board 4: Mike N – Thomas V

Board 5: Charlie S – Jeff S

Board 6: Jaden C – Ken L

Board 7: Paul M – Joe W

Board 8: Desmond W – George H

Now for our final instalment of the series; Writers that Change Chess History

Aron Nimzowitsch

In about 1906 or 1907 a young chess master was breaking onto the scene by the name of Aron Nimzowitsch. Born in Riga, young Aron learned chess from his father, who was a wealthy timber merchant.

Nimzowitsch and Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch were two grandmasters that had a running feud at the time over the correct way to play chess. Nimzowitsch was from the "hypermodern" style of chess - where the center could be controlled from the wings with a fianchettoed bishop, thus allowing over extension of your opponent's pawns which would then be attacked from the wings. Tarrasch was from the "classical" style of chess - control the center with pawns and take open files. It is said they did not speak to each other for decades!

Nimzowitsch had said that in his early chess career he was only interested in a 'combination' style of play. That gained him minor successes. After finding out from bitter experience that this alone was not enough against masterly opposition, Aron retired from active play and worked out his highly original ideas on the game.

He rejoined tournament play post-World War I and his results were formidable:

1st place at Copenhagen in 1923 ahead of Tartakower and Spielmann 

1st place tied with Rubinstein at Marienbad in 1925

1st place in Dresden in 1926 ahead of Alekhine

1st place in Hanover in 1926 over Rubinstein

Two 1st place tie finishes in 1927 against the best of that time.

1st place in Berlin in 1928 ahead of Bogolyubov

and a 1st place in Carlsbad in 1929 ahead of Capablanca, Spielmann, Rubinstein, Tartakower, Bogolyubov and Vidmar.

This should have earned Nimzowitsch the right to challenge for the World Championship, but he could never seem to find the financial backing to challenge. Back in those days, the challenger had to find the prize fund somehow.

So, during this period Alekhine and Bogolyubov played a couple of times.

Also, during this time, Aron put his theories on paper in a book called My System. This book is broken into two sections. The first is on the elements of chess strategy and the other is more advanced and looks at positional play. It is certainly one of the classic chess works of all time!

Aron also wrote a follow up book: Chess Praxis

LCCC Casual Chess Happening - 2024 Action Champion Crowned - and Writers Part 4

 

Richard Reti'

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between

4pm and 10pm

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'.

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

Now the winner of the 2024 LCCC Rapid Tournament was Dr. Ken Tack – going 4 – 0! Congratulations Ken!

2nd - Pete B

3rd-5th - John O, Jon C and Paul M

Thank you to all 18 players who participated.

Later, in September, we will have our 2024 Action Tournament – or game in 30 minutes per player. Look forward to that!

Now;

Writers Who Have Changed Chess History – Part IV

Richard Reti

Born in Bazin, Austria-Hungary, what is now Pezinok, Slovakia, in 1889, Richard Reti ended up leaving a great impression in Moscow. His writings are still highly regarded by Russian chess experts.

His book was called Modern Ideas in Chess, published in 1923. Another book, Masters of the Chessboard was published posthumously in 1933. 

The focus of Modern Ideas in Chess was the study of the styles of the greatest players of the past and his present. This included Morphy, Steinitz, Tarrasch, Pillsbury, Schlechter, Capablanca, Rubinstein, Breyer, Tartakower, Alekhine and Nimzowitsch. 

Richard Reti sadly died in a Prague hospital of scarlet fever at the age of 40. This left the chess world much the poorer for it. 

Other accomplishments of Reti; 

Winning a great international tournament in Gothenburg in 1921.

He also set what was a blindfold exhibition record of 29 games at once, winning 21, losing 2 and drawing 6.

2024 Quick Tournament Starts Next Monday - Writers Who Have Changed Chess History Part III - Dr. Emanuel Lasker

 

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between

4pm and 10pm

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'.

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

We will be having our free Quick Tournament starting next week. "Quick" means a 15-minute time limit per game and two rounds a night for probably 2 consecutive Monday nights. 

This should make for some exciting chess and a fun time. Be sure to be at the Club for this event probably starting around 6:30 pm.

Casual chess and early entry into the tournament is the plan for tonight.

Now, Writers Who Have Changed Chess History - Part III

Dr. Emanuel Lasker was perhaps the most remarkable man ever to achieve eminence in the chess world. 

That statement in itself tells you all you need to know as we go thru this list of chess writers that have changed history.

He was chess world champion for 27 years! The longest reign of any champion in chess history. From 1894 when he beat Steinitz, until 1921 when he lost to Capablanca.

And he maintained his chess skills for almost all of his life. 

In 1935, in the Moscow Championship, at the age of 67, he finished 3rd behind Botvinnik and Flohr by a half-point, finishing ahead of Capablanca by a half point!

Dr. Lasker was also a mathematician of caliber sufficient to earn praise from Albert Einstein - whoever he is.

Meanwhile, I am still working on my "gozintas". You know, like 3 gozinta 9, 3 times? I think

Dr. Lasker also was a first-class bridge, Go and dominos player and even invented a game called "Lasca", a variant of checkers.

The famous chess book he wrote was called "Common Sense in Chess" was a small work of only 141 pages, but it was published all over the world!

Lasker's 4 rules for development are:

> Do not move any pawns in the opening except the D and E pawns.

> Do not move any piece twice in the opening

> Bring knights out before bishops

> Do not pin your opponent's knights before your opponent castles

Dr. Lasker had a brother Frank who also was a chess player, but no where near Emanuel in strength, but very few were.

Edward Lasker, a grandmaster that came along later, claimed to be distantly related to Emanuel but that could not be substantiated beyond all doubt. Possible, but not proven historians say.

Emanuel and Edward did play against each other in a 1924 tournament in New York with Emanuel winning the tournament and beating his much less famous namesake 1-0-1 in their meetings in that tournament.