Dec 20 Last Club Meeting of 2021! - Be There for the Joy of Chess!

 It will be a casual chess night from 4pm until you want to go home, or Santa's lovely elfette - Sydney - tells us to. 

Last meeting held our 2021 Club Speed Chess Championship! We had twelve attendees and ten entries in the tournament. Here are the results:

1st - James K.

2nd / 3rd - tie - Ken T. and Vince V.

4th / 5th - tie - Charlie S. and Sam T.

That's enough. If your humble scribe completes the list, everyone will know where he finished. His chess ego is bruised enough already! But fun was had by all!

 On tap for some time soon in the New Year will be our 2022 Fischer Random or 960 Club Championship. For those of you who have never played this variation of chess, you are in for a treat. 

How it is played is the pieces are randomly placed behind the pawns, so all opening theory you may know is out the window! You are actually playing 'middle game' chess from the first move. And it leads to some crazy positions with tactics possible all over the place. 

Ok, that was chess speak. In plain English, the games are wild and a lot of fun!

For a more detailed description of 'Random' chess, just search for it in our blog search box. Or of course, on-line.

Now for a nice debate topic. How would you build the perfect chess player? 

Well, first thing we have to do is eliminate two players. Because all you would have to do really is clone our club's two current champions - Paul M. and James K.! So, we must ignore the obvious!

One famous chess writer, who has been referenced before on this site, Irving Chernev, said the chess player would need ten attributes. I will list these and put his selection first (produced in 1933) and your humble scribe's second (produced in 2021). The only rule it seems is that you cannot use the same chess player twice. 

Now we have some fine chess minds in this club and it would be nice to see their list in the comment section. Hope all our readers will chime in! Here we go;

The patience of Steinitz or Smyslov

The accuracy of Capablanca or Anand

The brilliancy of Alekhine or Fischer

The attacking skills of Spielmann or Tal

The defensive genius of Maroczy or Petrosian

The combinative skill of Anderssen or Spassky

The endgame technique of Lasker or Karpov

The will to win of Bogoljubow or Kasparov

 The imagination of Reti or Kramnik

The confidence of Tchigorin or Carlsen

Making my list was much tougher than I thought! Where is Morphy, Caruana, Nepomanchi, Botvinnik, Euwe, Ding, So, Aronian, Korchnoi, Larsen, etc?

At any rate, studying the games of any of these players will leave you amazed at their talent!

Cannot wait to see some lists formed in the comment section!

Next Club Meeting Monday Dec. 6, 2021 - Speed Tournament - and More Chess Facts

We had another fine evening of casual chess and conversation at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton, MI.

We will be meeting again this coming Monday, December 6th, between 4pm and 10pm. 

Stop on by.

We are also having our Club Speed Chess Championship that night. Entry fee is FREE!

The tournament should start around 6:30ish. Every entrant will play 2 games against his opponent each round. Each player will have only five (5) minutes to complete the game. No delay or increment will be used. You will play one game with White and one game with Black. Two wins or a win and a draw, and you win the match.

Depending on the number of entries, we may complete the tournament that night, or we will finish it on December 20. I am guessing we will get it done in one night!  Even a 6:30pm start and 40 minutes for a round, we can get 4 rounds in. 

Feel free to stop in and try out your chess skills! And if you don't want to play in the speed tournament, there is usually other non-participants around to play casual chess with. Or, watch the action! Speed chess is very exciting!

Now for a few more chess facts:

The worst score ever recorded in a chess tournament took place in Monte Carlo in 1903. Colonel Moreau played in all twenty-six rounds and lost every game. (Sounds like your humble scribe on casual chess night)

Ernest Grunfeld, one of the greatest authority on the openings back in the early 1900's, always opened a game with White with 1. d4. (Bobby Fischer of course said 1. e4 is best for White)

Frank J. Marshall found what he thought was a winning line in the Ruy Lopez opening and saved it for ten years to use on a specific opponent. That opponent was Jose Capablanca, who Marshall played in New York in 1918, and lost the game.

Perhaps the most fanatical devotee of chess ever known was Daniel Harrwitz. He played at the Cafe de la Regence in Paris, morning, noon and night seven days a week. In addition, he had chess figures embroidered on his shirts and wore stick pins shaped like chess pieces. 

But perhaps, you know someone like this yourself.

Harrwitz was one of the very few players to beat Paul Morphy with the black pieces. He played a 12- game match against Morphy in Paris and won the first two games! But then lost the next five of six with a draw sprinkled in there. Down 5.5 to 2.5 Daniel quit the match siting health reasons.

We mentioned child prodigy and American GM Sammy Reshevsky in the last article. Before the Western Open in 1933, a reporter asked Sammy if he expected to win the tournament? Sammy replied, "There is no one here who can beat me." He was correct. No one did beat him, but he did not win the tournament either. Rueben Fine won the tournament, drawing Sammy and beating more of the other participants than Sammy did.

Speaking of Sammy and Rueben, here is another piece of chess lore. But we have to add into this tale the American chess Master and author Fred Reinfeld.

Reshevsky and Fine were grandmasters. Fred Reinfeld was a master, but never earned even an International Master title, let alone a GM title. But with Reshevsky being #1 and Fine being #5 in the United States, and Reinfeld ranked usually between #8 and #15 in the country, they seemed to meet each other quite often in big tournaments in the USA.

Now rankings at this level are usually even more accurate than ratings in the more normal ranges of let's say 1900 to 1000. There is much fluctuation and many upsets at that lower level. In the nosebleed section of the rankings, there is much less of that.

So Reshevshy had a predictable winning record against Fine. Sammy was too great a tactician for Rueben. That just makes sense.

And Fine had a dominating record against Reinfeld. Fine just crushed Reinfeld in the middle game or the endgame. Again, sort of expected.

However, the lower rated Reinfeld had a winning record against Sammy Reshevsky! How can this be??

Well, you might have heard it said that styles make fights, or classic battles in other sports. The puncher versus the counter-puncher, the strong offense against the strong defense, the attacking player versus the volley/return tennis player. 

Well Fred Reinfeld was a chess opening expert! He wrote books on the subject, from beginner to grandmaster level books. Sammy, as we told you in the last article, never bothered to learn openings that deeply. He played mostly by genius, tactical analysis and some chess intuition thrown in. 

Reinfeld was Sammy's perfect Achillies Heel. Sammy would get so bogged down in the opening against Fred, that Sammy would fall way behind on his clock. This time trouble caused him to error even worse. Other times he just fell into clever opening traps Fred knew and Sammy did not.

As we maintain on this blog, chess is the greatest game in the world. Period.

Next Club Meeting This Monday November 22, 2021 - And Some Chess Opinion

Another night of casual chess is on the slate for this coming Monday. So don’t be a turkey and miss out. And who wants to be a turkey this close to Thanksgiving? And add to that, the thrill of meeting your humble scribe in person! No autographs please. Well for an adult beverage, ok.

In addition, we have a chess player of much acclaim in the chess world - coming all the way from Beverly Hills! You don’t want to miss his visit! What is his claim to fame? Well, he claims to be a chess player. As the great Zen Master said, “We’ll see.”

LCCC had another fine night of casual chess on Nov. 8 with 14 players in attendance. We almost always have at least 10 players in attendance, guaranteeing a nice mix of opponents so you can get your chess on!

Not only that, our Club’s personal server, Sydney, will make sure your hunger and thirst are taken care of. She may be the best part of the entire visit to Buffalo Wild Wings.

Our LCCC Tournament Director, Ken T, has slated that the 2021 LCCC Speed Chess Championship will be held on December 6, 2021 and maybe December 20, 2021. The tourney is free to enter! The games will all be of 5 min with NO delay!

You will play two games against the same opponent. Two wins or a win and a draw gives you a victory. A split match is a draw for the result posted. We are figuring about a half hour to complete a round and maybe ten minutes for Ken to set up the new pairings and post them.

I believe a 6:30 to 7 pm start for the first round, depending on attendance and the number of entries. Late entries always welcome, even after the first round.

If the number of entries is large, we may go two nights of play. If we can get it done on the 6^th, we will do that instead. Three rounds @ 40 minutes is …..if my public school education doesn’t fail me….is two hours. That is easily done in one night. This is the most likely scenario.

Four rounds might be a go too, but we might let the leaders of the tournament decide if they want to play or wait two weeks.

Now for some chess history. Irving Chernev was a chess player, chess book writer and a chess historian. This 1933 article of his, is where this material was pulled from. Now the reason I post it here is because there are some suggestions of great games you can look up and play through at your leisure. Not to mention the list of great players from the past, a little history about them, or an opinion about them, that your humble scribe thinks are fascinating! My comments in brackets. Here we go:

 The perfect game is Reti-Kostics, Teplitz, 1922. (I could of swore it was my victory in the tournament of …oh, any one of them!)

The most important game, Pillsbury-Tarrasch, Hastings, 1895.  (ed. Note – I would like to know why?)

The greatest queen-ending player was Marcozy. (That happens almost never happens but good to know)

The most exhaustive…… and exhausting annotator is Tarkakower. The laziest, Lasker and Teichmann. (Ouch, and from a fellow writer? Me thinks he protest too much.)

The most artistic Rook endings are found in Rubinstein’s games. (Rubinstein was a great player!)

The most interesting matches were Alekhine – Bogoljubov, 1929, Tarrasch-Schlechter, 1911, and Capablanca-Euwe, 1931. (Agreed on two. Didn’t know about the middle one)

The most interesting combinative game was Alekhine-Cohn, Stockholm, 1912. (need to see it and run it thru a chess engine!)

The best tournament was Carlsbad, 1911. (Maybe, but that was before the 2nd Piatigorsky Cup, August 1966. What a tournament of chess greats that was!)

The three greatest books, “My Best Games of Chess” – Alekhine, and “My System” – Nimzovitch. (And Chernev left off one of his due to modesty. Uh, …….ok. But those are two great books!)

The coolest player under fire – Issac Kashdan. The hardest fighter – Lasker (which Lasker, he did not say, but I can guess)

The best annotators – Alekhine (agreed), Marco and Grunfeld (never saw their work).

The most unexpected move ever played was played in a game between Lewitzky-Marshall, Breslau, 1912. (uh, who made it and what move was it?)

The quietest finishing move was Black’s 25^th move played in the Samisch-Nimzovitch, Copenhagen, 1923.

The most brilliant move was move 36 in the game between Alekhine-Tartakower in Vienna, 1922.

The most brilliant player beyond a doubt is Alekhine. (Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen were not born yet)

The most over-rated player was Paul Morphy. (How would you like a punch in the mouth? Bobby Fischer calls Morphy the most under-rated chess player of all time, and he also said Morphy was farthest ahead of his contemporaries than any other player.... ever)

The greatest blindfold player is Alekhine. (At that time, yes, he was)

The greatest simul player was Capablanca. (correct, for that time)

The greatest natural player was Zukertort. He once one a tournament in 1883 by 4.5 points and his closest competitor was the current world champion Steinitz.

Ed. Closes - One could argue that American Sammy Reshevsky may have been the best natural player ever. This child prodigy chess player never bothered to learn or memorize opening theory at all. He played nearly every game by the seat of his pants, and was #2 in the world many times in his life. But he had a propensity to fall for deeper opening traps for just this reason, leaving him in positional and/or time trouble many, many times.

2021 LCCC Champion Crowned! - Next Meeting Nov 8, 2021 -And Some Chess Facts

 

The wily veteran and retired school teacher, Paul Mills (left) captured the club championship! Paul (4 - 0) played steady and never varied from his solid chess approach. Congratulations Paul!

Sam Thompson was a clear second (3.5).

Pete Bruder and Mike Nikitin finished tied for 3rd (3).

Thank you to all 15 players who participated.

We are meeting again this Monday at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton MI at 4pm until 10pm. Please stop by for some fun casual chess.

Now for some fun chess facts:

> An English Master J.H. Blackburne was a player in international tournaments for over 50 years! (1862-1914).

> A. F. Mackenzie, although blind, composed some of the finest chess problems ever published.

> Judge James McConnell had the distinctive honor of having played chess games with both Paul Morphy and Jose Capablanca.

> Former USA Champion A. B. Hodges participated in every cable match between the USA and England and never lost a game.

> Alexander Alekhine played in a GM tournament in Bled, Slovenia in 1931 and did not lose a game for 26 full rounds. His margin of victory was 5.5 points over second place finisher Efim Bogoljubow, who was only 6 points ahead of the last place finisher.

> GM David Janowski lost a match to Frank Marshall. But confidence in his own play never waivered. A few months after the match, Janowski cabled Marshall and challenged him to another match and he would give Marshall knight odds.

> German Master Arnold Schottlander needed only a draw to win the Leipzig Tournament in 1888. His opponent, German Master Jacques Mieses offered him a draw during the game. Schottlander turned him down, then promptly lost the game and with that, 1st prize.

LCCC Meets Next Oct 25. - Last Rd of Club Champ. - and a Nice Endgame

 

Another great evening of chess at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton, MI. Twelve players were present and the LCCC 2021 Club Championship continued.

Feel free to stop by for some casual chess as, not only can you play before and after the tournament games are done, but not all our members are in the tournament. So you can find a casual game anyway!

Here are the pairings for the last round of action. The first player listed has the White pieces:

Board 1 - Paul M  - Ken T

Board 2 - Sam T - Charlie S

Board 3 - Levi T - Mike N

Board 4 - Pete B - Jeremy N

Board 5 - John T - Jacob W

Board 6 - Jeff S - Tim S

Board 7 - Jakob K - Eric V

Board 8 - Leo B   - Bye

 Now for a pretty endgame:

Your humble scribe made the decision to stop putting games on this blog. The reason is that you can find annotated games anywhere – either on-line or in books and magazines. Me reviewing a game on this blog, probably gets almost as little attention than me walking into a singles bar.

Ok, more attention than that, but my point is, the article will not get much attention.

But I found this endgame and thought it was worthy of noting. It is noteworthy because it shows the absolute beauty of chess.

White is ahead in material, but his King is woefully out of play having unsuccessfully attempted to protect a pawn into a new queen. White has issues in attempting to stop Black’s h-pawn from queening.

The White Knight cannot get there fast enough. Do you have the bishop play guard duty at the expense of the knight and the b-pawn, or are there other options?

Let us investigate with the help of Igor3000 as we review Grandmaster Max Euwe’s style and amount of correctness in the face of our Super Grandmaster Igor3000's computer chip analysis. Oh, and mine. 

Stop laughing please.

       1.     Nc1            …….

GM and Doctor of Mathematics Euwe makes the correct play. I would have played Bh5. Just sayin. White is winning after Euwe’s move by the equivalent of 6.5 pawns.

       1.     ……             h2

       2.     Be8+          Ka5?

Black, shall go nameless because I do not know who it was. But he was one of the many excellent chess players of that era who never got the recognition they deserved. Much like the writers of chess blogs, who toil in anonymity, long hours, for no pay! These bloggers should be heralded from the highest mountain and……..sorry. Back to the game.

 Igor3000 says that 2. …..  Kb4 was much better. A blunder which makes Max’s job easier. Igor’s move puts Black down 7 pawns as opposed to the 14 pawns he is down with the text move.

I am sure the Doctor would not have a problem with a blogger of my stature calling him Max. Just sayin.

        3.     Nd3           h1 = Q?

Black errors again, but who can blame him? Queening the pawn looks like the only move for humans. Igor says Kb6 was best but still leaves Black down 16 pawns. I would get the queen also. Maybe my opponent blunders. Get the bullets while you can if you are losing. Maybe you will get the chance to use them.

       4.     b4+            Kb6

       5.     Nb2!          a5???

The final nail in the coffin for Black as he walks into a mate in two. Both Qa1 or Qe1 prolong the fight to a mate in 20. If that means anything.

       6.     Na4+          Ka6

       7.     b5 mate

Why bother stopping the pawn when you can mate your opponent instead? An amazing finish!

LCCC Meets Next Oct. 11 - Casual Chess and Rd 3 of Tourney - and Blitz Chess is Good for You!

 

Round 2 of our 2021 Club Championship was played, along with some casual chess. 

There were thirteen players in attendance. 

We hope to see you there on Monday Oct. 11, 2021 at 4pm until 10pm.

Don't worry about our tournament as there will be plenty of time and players around for casual chess or lessons. That is what we do.

Here are the pairings for the tournament round #3 on Monday Oct. 11:

Board 1 - White - Ken T          -  Black - Sam T

Board 2 - White - Paul M        -  Black - Jeremy N

Board 3 - White -  Mike N      -  Black - John T

Board 4 - White -  Pete B        -   Black - Jeff S

Board 5 - White - Charlie S     -  Black - Levi

Board 6 - White -  Jacob W     -  Black - Jakob

Board 7 - White -  Eric V         -  Black - Leo B

Good luck to all and have fun!

Now for an article your humble scribe never thought he would write:

First the definition: Blitz Chess – a chess game played with a chess clock where each player will usually have between 1 and 9 minutes on their clock (usually 1 to 5 minutes) to finish an entire game before their clock time expires. Whoever has the clock that runs out of time first – loses. 

Or its a draw if the player did not run out of time does not have enough material to mate the other who did run out of time.  

Some have always said Blitz Chess is a miracle worker as a chess teaching tool. 

Some have said it is a poison that builds a bad habit in a player of making quick, aggressive moves that have no substance behind them.

I was in the latter column as a chess teacher and as a player. I rarely played speed chess for that reason. I felt I moved too fast and didn’t work hard enough to analyze a position as it was. Why would I play a chess variation that made me play faster and think less than I already did?

But now, there are volumes of speed games being played on-line by players. These players had chess ratings in ‘normal’ chess before playing hundreds if not thousands of speed games. And now the ratings of these same players in normal chess can be compared after all those speed games have been played.

The results say; Speed Chess is an excellent chess teaching tool! The speed player's regular ratings went UP!

Imagine a 7-year old playing in a nine round blitz tournament on Tuesday evening on-line at home. On Saturday, this same child plays in a Game 45min tournament. Instead of using his time wisely, he moves very quickly, while his opponent takes their time. Our blitz child quickly blunders all his pieces and loses. And if our speed player doesn't blunder, his opponent took his time to prepare, wards off the weak attack of our Blitz player, then counter attacks to an easy win. That is what I thought would happen.

But is that really what will happen? Or would it be fairer to say that the Blitzer’s will have a newfound ability to condense his thinking when needed, and already avoid moves he has learned are poor from so many past games. And what happens when the 45 minute game for both players drop to under 10 minutes left on the clock? Now which player is in better shape to handle the situation? The player who has never played blitz, is now is being called on to do just that. Now who is the favorite?

Data is showing that players who play blitz regularly, improve quicker than players who do not. Here are the list of positives for playing blitz chess:

  Ø  You learn to budget your time better

  Ø  You learn to make decisions faster

  Ø  You can try out new openings and traps in openings without worrying as much about results.

  Ø  Blitz is fun and that makes learning fun!

  Ø  You gain confidence as it does give you a chance to beat much stronger players

  Ø  You learn to re-evaluate quick changes in chess positions

  Ø  You can play many games in a much shorter period of time, and that is all good practice time

      Well now they tell me! This information would have been a lot more helpful to me 50 years ago! But that is OK. I will be very tough to beat in the next 50 years.

LCCC Next Meeting Sept 27th, Club Championship Underway - Alexander Alekhine Played in the USA?

Alexander Alekhine

Ten players were in attendance for last Monday's Club meeting and start of our Club Championship.

But we do have at least twelve in the tournament right now. Two players will play between now and the next club meeting and turn in their results as neither could make the last club date. We are a laid back group and our tournaments are for playing and not forfeiting people at all costs!

Mater of fact, you can still enter the tournament, getting a half point bye for the first round! So, if you missed last week, you can still be in the fun by joining the tournament on our next meeting, Monday Sept. 27, 4pm until 10pm. The tournament will start officially at 6:30 pm, but usually the games start when the two players paired decide to start. We are that laid back!

So come on by to play or just to watch real 'tournament' chess. Well, sort of real. There are chess sets and clocks and sometimes the players keep their record of their games. 

Hope to see you there! Now for an article. This tournament had ten players in attendance also. But are they as good as the ten assembled at the Brighton Buffalo Wild Wings? You be the judge.

I didn't know that! Did you know Alexander Alekhine's first tournament after winning the World Championship from Jose Capablanca was in Bradley Beach, New Jersey in 1927?

Alekhine was of course the favorite in the tournament which was a field of some USA masters. Frank Marshall, Herman Steiner, Abraham Kupchick,  Alexander Kevitz, Isador Turover, Maurice Fox (Canada), Rafael Cintron (Puerto Rico), Lajos Steiner (Hungary), and H. Ransom Bigelow. 

Interesting side note that Alekhine, Kupchik and Turover were all born in the same year of 1892.

Indeed, Alekhine gave up but one draw winning 8.5/9. Steiner was second with 7. Kupchik and Turover with 5.5. Alekhine also won the speed tournament that followed the regular tournament.

The games from that tournament were characterized by long endings, with many adjournments, attesting to the fighting spirit of the participants. Only 20% of the games were drawn. Hypermodern openings were beginning to take hold and double fianchetto systems were favored by Alekhine and Kevitz. 

Now some history of the players. Most chess players have interesting histories:

Alexander Alekhine - Russian by birth, he was actually a French citizen when he played at Bradley Beach. After defeating Capablanca in Buenos Aires, he toured the the USA and Europe giving simultaneous exhibitions.

Abraham Kupchik - Born in Russia, but arrived in New York at age 11. He tied for first with Frank Marshall at Lake Hopatcong in 1923. He won the New York State Championship and the Manhattan Chess Club Championship many times. It was said that at this time he had no peer at speed chess, although he did finish second by a 1/2 point to Alekhine at Bradley Beach. Read into that what you will. 

Isaac Turover - Born in Poland, he became a professional chess player while also building a very successful lumber business. He was Washington DC Champion for eight years. He was a well known philanthropist and he donated much of the money for brilliancy prizes in tournaments he played in. He often fell victim to the prize winner. 

Lajos Steiner - a young Hungarian from Budapest, working as a mechanical engineer. He later became a chess professional, winning the Hungarian Championship and the Australian Championship. He also finished tied for second with Nimzovitch just behind Alekhine in Kecskemet in 1927.

Maurice Fox - Born in the Ukraine and arrived in Canada in 1923. He was the reigning Canadian Champion when he arrived in Bradley Beach, and had won that title eight times. Fox had defeated Capablanca in a simul game and drew Alekhine in a blindfold game in 1924.

Frank Marshall - At the time of this tournament, he had been the US Champion for 20 years, but was now on the decline. Still, he finished 3rd in London in 1927 behind Nimzovitch and Tartakower in London and did represent the USA in five Chess Olympiads in the 1930's.

Alexander Kevitz - The new champion of the Manhattan Chess Club. His style was hypermodern and had a fondness for unusual openings with the Black pieces. His style gave mixed results and soon quit chess for ten years, before returning later in life.

Herman Steiner - born in Hungary, he came to the USA at age 16. He became New York State Champion. He later moved to Hollywood and became famous as the chess teacher to the stars. Humphrey Bogart and Billy Wilder were among his pupils. He played on four US Olympiad teams and won the US Championship in 1948. He also wrote a chess column for the LA Times from 1932 until his death in 1955.

Rafael Cintron - Puerto Rico Champion, and he showed some talent, but was in over his head in this tournament.

H. Ransom Bigelow - Chess Editor of the New York Post and past champion of the Manhattan Chess Club but he was clearly out of form in this tournament.

Club Championship to Start Sept. 13 – and Michigan Open Labor Day Weekend

LCCC is doing well! Sorry for the delay in posting. Summer activities, weddings, new child arrivals and family activities you know.

Our chess club is going strong! We had 14 players two meetings ago, 12 players two meetings ago and 14 again this last meeting on Monday August 23. A nice and friendly group of players to hang around with.

Our next meeting is Monday September 13, 2021, starting at 4pm until 8:30pm at Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton. Please feel free to attend. It’s free! Well except BWW would like you to order something.

We might go longer than 8:30 if possible. But remember, this is a restaurant that must turn tables to make a profit. We are there only by their generosity and our patronage. And we were a nice source of business during the summer. It was a win-win for all of us.

But now, Monday Night Football will be on the TV’s there and it is a sports bar. We may have to vacate when the football crowd wants to move in. We will have to play it by ear and see how busy it gets. Hopefully the NFL has over saturated, and then insulted enough fans where it will not matter and they will not fill up. We will see.

Meanwhile, that night will be the start of our annual Club Championship. There is no cost to enter! Depending on the number of entries, it will be a 3, 4 or 5 round tournament. You only play one round every club meeting until the tournament is over. The time limit is (yes clocks will be used if possible) 45 minutes/ 5 second delay - for both players. We are shooting for as close to a 6pm start as possible. But as always, we are flexible and last minute entries and late entries are no problem.

This leaves time and room for the usual casual games and conversation. We are not real hard and fast on the playing times either. If you cannot make a regular meeting, and if your opponent agrees, you two can make up the game either in person or on line.

All except the first night’s pairings will be posted here. So if you have an issue for any round after the first one, you can contact the club email, me personally, or your opponent. We will supply their contact information.

Just finish before the next meeting and let the TD know the result. Then, there is no forfeit. And as far as I know, no LCCC player has ever not tried to accommodate the player that had to miss the regular round.

In other less important events (lol):

Michigan Open – Labor Day, Lansing Michigan, at the Raddison Hotel

Your humble scribe was looking forward to returning to tournament chess in this year’s Michigan Open over Labor Day weekend. Those hopes were dashed as there was a near last minute mandate issued by someone. It demanded that everyone wear masks during the tournament.

Some people do not want to attempt to play chess while forced to breath their own exhaust for 5 hours every round, so I withdrew. Some of our LCCC members are going to play anyway, and I wish them all the best.

If you do not mind wearing a mask, please consider entering this tournament. Or the Booster (beginners) tournament that runs on Saturday only.

Or simply stop up and watch the action.

LCCC is Meeting Monday. Club Championship Soon! And Some Curious Facts!

 

Our club meetings at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton continue to be a success! We are averaging 14 members a night, so you will be sure to get a game against a choice of many opponents.

Our next meeting is this coming Monday, August 9, 2021 at 4pm until 10pm. Hope to see you all there. 

As an added bonus, the Club has spared no expense and is making arrangements to fly in a State Champion from Colorado to appear at our chess club this Monday! We are hoping he will accept our offer.

 This offer comes from the MSTV Trust Fund (formed from club officers, President excluded), and it was most generous! This trust fund was put in place by the law firm of Dewey, Cheetam and Howe.

The 2021 LCCC Club Championship will begin on Monday September 13, 2021. The time limit for the game will be 45 minutes with a 5 second delay. Touch move rule in effect.

How the tournament works is we will play one round of the tournament per meeting. Since we meet every other week, one round will be played every two weeks. 

We are a friendly group and this is a friendly tournament with no entry fee, so if you have to miss your scheduled round, you do have almost two weeks to make up the game - as long as your opponent agrees and you can both find an agreeable make up date and time.

This usually works out as we have never had a member say no to a make up game.....yet.

This format also allows time after the tournament round for you to review the game with your opponent and/or other club members or play some 'casual' chess after your round - or both!

Please be sure to enter! It's free, fun and is a great opportunity to play some serious (semi-serious) chess. Besides if the last person to win the LCCC Club Championship is any indication, anyone can win it. So don't be shy. 

Now for some strange chess facts:

• A Russian chess grandmaster Alexander Ilyin-Genevski, who actually defeated and drew World Champion Jose Capablanca in their only two games, had to learn how to play chess twice. The reason? A bullet to the head suffered during the Russian civil war as Stalin rose to power. 
• In a tournament in 1912, Nimzovitch and Rubinstein played a game to settle first place in the last round. During that game, Nimzovitch made a move that allowed Rubinstein an easy mate in two. Rubinstein missed it but went on to win the game anyway.
• In 1911 Spielmann and Alapin played a match in Munich of 10 games. It was played with the strange option that each player could have a second chess board on the side in which to study. You could not move the pieces, but you could look at the position without having your opponent directly across from you. Alapin used the option. Spielmann did not. Spielmann won the match 6.5 to 3.5.
• That same year Schlechter and Tarrasch played a match in Cologne, which chess experts have said was one of the finest matches ever played as far as the quality of the games. This is amazing from the standpoint that the temperatures during the entire match were in the high 90's and air conditioning was not yet invented for another 20 years.
•  A chess handbook written by IM Dufresne and GM Mieses in the mid 1800's had the following line of play:

        1. d4           d5

        2. c4            e6

        3. Nc3         c5

        4. Nf3          cxd

        5. Nxd4        e5

        6. Nb5          d4

        7. Nd5          Na6

        8. Qa4          Bd7

        9. e3              Ne7

"and Black has a superior position." 

I guess computers and even proof readers were non existent in the 1850's.

10. Nd6 mate was missed by both masters! And if they meant to say "White has a superior position", it would be an extreme understatement. Thank you Captain Obvious!'

Sorry Sorry for the Delay in Posting - LCCC Alive and Well - Next OTB Meeting July 26, 2021

 Summer is a tough time to be in the house blogging. Your humble scribe will strive to work harder ...and golf less.

Anyway, LCCC is doing well - both over the board and on line on Chess. com.

Our every other Monday meetings at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton, MI from 4pm until 10pm continue to draw crowds. Both new and old members seem to show up every week.

We had 16 players on June 21 - including 5 new members. We had 15 players on July 12 with another 5 new players! Welcome everyone! See you all again on Monday July 26 at 4pm until 10pm.

And if you would like to play for the Club in Daily (3 or more days to make a move usually) Matches on Chess dot com, feel free to join both the site and the Club for free. The only requirement is that you sign up for some of the matches as the challenges are accepted and don't forfeit! 

Now some endgame analysis for beginners:

So you won the race to queen first, but your opponent is about to queen his pawn to tie the game. How do you stop him?

Well it requires careful handling. But the Queen, if handled correctly, will do the work for you.

1.  Qd1+          Kf2

2. Qd2+           Kf1

3. Qf4+            Ke2

4. Qg3              Kf1

5. Qf3+             Kg1

Mission accomplished. The black king blocks his own pawn so now you are free to move up your Monarch for the surrender or mate.

6. Ke7               Kh2

7. Qh5+             Kg1

8. Qe2                Kh2

9. Qf2                 Kh1

10. Qh4+            Kg1

Again, the white king can move and will soon be close enough to force checkmate!

11. Ke6               Kf1

12. Qf4+             Ke1

13. Qe3+             Kf1

14. Qf3+             Kg1

15.  Ke5              Kh2

16. Qf4+             Kh1

17. Qh4+            Kg1

18.  Ke4              Kf1

19. Qh3               Kf2

20. Qh2               Kf1

21. Kf3                Black resigns

Faced with either:

A) 21. .....g1=Q, 22. Qe2 mate

B) 21. .....g1=N+  22. Kf4, Nh3  23. Ke3, Nf4  24. Qf2 mate

C) 21. .....Ke1   22. Qxg2, Kd1   23. Qb2, Ke1  24. Qe2 mate

LCCC Still Meeting at BWW in Brighton - and Stockfish is the Best Chess Player in the World

 

Who's on f6?

Older chess players will catch the joke.

LCCC met again at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton, MI, with 12 players in attendance. Your humble scribe could not attend battling a head cold (and no, not Covid). But the Club Secretary Paul filled in as host and made sure everyone had a good time.

We had some new faces join us – Jim and Matt, as well as two old faces (that means players that used to attend the club. But in this case they are old faces also) – Dave and James. Welcome all four of you.

LCCC will be meeting next on Monday June 21 at 4pm at the same Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton, MI in the Green Oak Mall just off of US-23 at the Lee Road Exit. See you then.

Practice must start as over the board chess tournaments seem to be starting back up! An email announcement let me know that the Michigan Open Chess Tournament will be held again!

The Michigan Open will be held at the Radisson Hotel Lansing from Friday September 3 thru Monday September 6. There will be a 3-day and a 4-day schedule, and two sections – the Open and the Reserve.

This is great news and visit the Michigan Chess Association website or the United States Chess Federation website for details on how to enter.

Now for a partial reprint of information from an article that appeared the US Chess magazine in March 2021 by John Hartmann, along with some commentary.

STOCKFISH retains the title of the best chess computer program.

The tournament is called the Top Chess Engine Championship or TCEC. Stockfish won the 20^th version of the tournament and has won it for the third straight year.

Stockfish beat Leela 53 – 47 over a 100 game match, winning 14 games and losing 8, the rest ending in draws, so a 14 – 8 – 78 record.

Leela upended Stockfish four years ago when it arrived on the computer chess world with it’s new ‘neutral network-based intelligence’ and beating the traditional ‘alpha-beta driven’ chess engines.

Now for drumroll………………Stockfish top addition has a rating of 3601!

Wood pusher Leela comes in at a pathetic 3586.

Magnus Carlsen, the current best human player on the planet has a rating of 2847 at this writing.

To give you a perspective as to how great this spread is, players not within 100 points of Carlsen have literally no chance of being him, and maybe only a 25% of even drawing.

I know back here where us mere mortals play chess, a 100-point difference is rating usually translates into about a 55-35 and 10 draws difference in results over 100 games. At that top level, a 100 point difference would probably look like this 50 – 5 and  45 draws.

This leads to the logical question – will programs ever solve chess and ruin the game for humans?

This humble scribe says no. Not any more than the automobile or airplane eliminated running competitions for humans. We will always know that our brains will never catch up to the calculating speed, strength, stamina and complete lack of emotion during the process as computers, but …..after all…..we still created those programs and machines.

Humans still win.

How to Lose at Chess - and 051021 LCCC Meeting Had Twelve!

 

Twelve strong for our meeting at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton, MI on Monday May 10, 2021. 

Hope to see you there for the next meeting, Monday, May 24, 2021 at 4pm.

Now for the article:

I stared at the chessboard in front of me. It's hopeless now. Even against this opponent who allegedly is rated 400 points lower than myself. But, this is after all, the US Open. Not too many players entered this tournament after 'padding' their rating on the high side. 

Doesn't matter who is beating you anyway. It hurts when you know it's time to resign. It always hurts, at least a little bit.

Even though my five previous losses in the last seven had numbed me a little from the usual pain of tournament chess losses, this one was going to really send me into a chess depression. This loss was going to be even more devastating to my rating as it was going to be to my ego. My chess ego was already approaching zero, and dropping rapidly.

I turned over my king and shook my very young opponent's hand and told him "Nice game. You played well." Six losses and only two wins, with one round to go. And that round was one I no longer had any desire to play in. As I stumbled to my room, I wondered how it all went so wrong. After all, I tied for first in a pre-tournament US Open Quad - two wins and the dreaded 'GM draw' in the last round to clinch the tie for first. 

But now, in the main tournament, I had two wins against very weak opponents and six losses, with four of those losses against opponents I could expect to beat or should beat. I had no confidence I could beat the next 'lower rated' player I would probably be paired with. It was going to be a very long 500 mile drive home as it was. A loss in the last round might have me looking for taking a short cut into Lake Michigan from Wisconsin instead of driving around it!

US Open rounds are played in the evening. But falling asleep after this loss was out of the question. So after watching TV until I could not keep my eyes open, and getting up only in time for a late lunch, it was time to prepare for the last round.

That is when the gremlins of negativity, laziness and self pity started talking to me in my head. "Prepare? What for? You will probably have a real easy opponent that you will finish off quickly. And even if you draw or even lose, so what? You are out of any prizes anyway. Better to finish the game early and enjoy the last night of your chess vacation."

As I heard the gremlins, it occurred to me that I had heard some of this 'out of the prizes' chatter the last round. Then I thought back and noticed that my last two losses may have had a lot of moves, but I was done awfully early. 

I pulled out my scoresheets and played over every one of my games from this tournament. Even the Quad games. I quickly noticed two things in my last four games. One - I was 'forcing' play when the positions did not warrant it. Two - I was using less and less of my clock as the tournament went on.

In other words, I stopped working. I did not knowingly think I had, but I had started playing chess - in the US Open - almost like a casual rapid or blitz game! I completely deserved the thrashing I was receiving. I got lazy!

I looked as some of the moves I made in the previous games and wondered who had poisoned my ice water. Did I forget there are more than 16 squares on the board, and looking over the entire board might be of benefit? Or that when your opponent moves one of his pieces, you may want to consider why he did that? How about castling BEFORE blowing open the center of the board for no apparent reason?

The 'gremlins' had it right. I HAD gone on vacation - during a chess tournament!

The lesson here is that when you lose, learn something from it! Don't start a pity party where the only attendee will be you. Turn losses into a learning tool. Learn from your mistakes. So don't be sad.

And of course winning is not learning. You just did not make as many mistakes as your opponent did. So don't be happy. 

Why was it again, that we love to play chess?

PS: I won the last round. Not so much because of my 'prep'. But because my opponent was on vacation even more than I was.

Endgames are Tricky! - And LCCC Meetings 041221 and 042621 Were Fun!

 Sorry for the delay in posting. Lots going on in life that gets in the way of chess blogging.

Anyway, we had nine members at the Monday April 26 meeting and we grew to our highest total since the re-start to 12 members! Welcome all!

Our next meeting is Monday May 10th at 4pm until at least 9pm. So feel free to stop by. 

We continue - as a club - to move up the Chess .com standings in the club rankings. We are nearing 500 wins as a club! Most clubs never get near that number. 

If you like playing chess in a way that is basically - postal chess on Chess .com, then come join the Livingston County Chess Club on Chess .com and then sign up for the Team Matches as they become available. We don't care if you win or lose - just don't forfiet on time.

Also, if you are on the LCCC on Chess .com and are not playing in any Daily tournaments for us, don't be surprised if you are booted out of the club on that site. We cannot have players listed on our club that do not play in our Daily matches occasionally. The main reason is that it makes our club look bigger than we are, but also your rating may inflate our Team rating. Both factors may stop some teams from challenging us or accepting our challenges. You don't have to play in them all or even half of them. But some participation is required to stay on the on-line club on Chess .com.

 Why no one would play at least a few games this way is a mystery to me. To have a few games going that you have 3 days to make a move seems fun and relaxing to me. And the fact you can play or analyze from your phone, takes away just about any excuse I can think of.

Now for the endgame magic!

White to move and win. The material is even but White has a huge positional lead says Igor3000. But how?

Very  tricky endgame here. White must somehow stop the more advanced a-pawn of Black's and at the same time try to promote his only chance to win - his own g-pawn.

First things first!

1. Bb1      

Needed to stop the a-pawn. No other move wins. 

1. Bc2+ makes the position even.

1. g6? will let Black queen his pawn first and is losing for White! 

1. ......          f4

"Passed pawns must be pushed." Understandable for Black. The f-pawn is the only pawn White cannot stop without wasting another move. But now what does White do?

2.  Kc5!        .......

Threatening mate in one move with Bc2, so Black must delay his pawn advance by another move.

2. ......           Kb3

3. g6             Kb2

Black must remove the bishop in order to queen his pawn. But this takes too much time.

4. g7             Kxb1

5. g8 =Q       a2

White's queen must first stop the a-pawn and at the same time either sweep up all the Black pawns or set a mate trap by allowing a queened pawn.

6. Qg1=        Kb2

7.  Qd4+        Kb1

8. Qd3+         Kb2

9. Qb5+         Kc2  (or even if Ka1, White's next move is the same)

10. Qxa5        Kb2

11. Qd2+       Kb1

12. Kb4         d4   (12. ....a8=Q is a mating net with 13. Kb3 and mate soon to follow.)

13. Qd1+      Kb2

14. Qb3+      Kc1  (14. ...Ka1 allows 15. Kc4, 16. Kxd4, 17. Kc3 and 18. Qb2++)

15. Qxa2       Kd1

16. Qf2          Kc1

17.  Kc4        f3    (Black is trapped on the back rank and his pawns won't make it to the finish line.)

18. Kxd4       Kb2

19. Kc3          Ka1

20. Qb2++

032921 LCCC Night of Chess a Sucess; And Meet Erich Eliskases

LCCC met again at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton, MI. It was another nice round of over the board chess and great conversation, with 8 players in attendance.

We were graced with the presence of a past member of our club that has moved to the east side of the state and cannot make the commute anymore. He is none other than Jason Morris, an Expert and writer for the Michigan Chess Magazine.

Jason played some games with us and reviewed some grandmaster games with our members. Thanks Jason!

Erich Eliskases (picture on left) is another great chess player you never heard of. He is the only man to represent 3 different countries in the Chess Olympiads (thru no fault of his own – more on that later). He also had tournament victories over the likes of Max Euwe, Jose Capablanca and …..drumroll…Bobby Fischer! His record against all three was (3-3), (2-2) and (1-1) respectively. Impressive.

Born in Innsbruck, Austria in 1913 Erich learned to play chess completely by chance at the age of twelve. And at the age of nineteen, he won a ten-game match against World Championship contender Rudolf Speilmann 5.5 to 4.5, losing the final meaningless game. Eliskases had already won the match winning games 2, 7 and 9 (odd numbered games with Black).

There were discussions of the young Erich to play Alexander Alekhine for the World Chess Championship, but political issues soon got in the way. Go figure. Eliskases did represent Austria in the Chess Olympiads during the early 1930’s.

Young Erich Eliskases saw what was happening in Europe and left for South America in 1939. He did play for Germany in the 1939 Buenos Aires Chess Olympiad. When World War II broke out, Erich decided to stay put.

Erich moved back and forth between Brazil and Argentina, finally becoming a naturalized Argentine citizen and representing his new country in the Chess Olympiads of 1952, 1958, 1960 and 1964. He made his living as a chess instructor.

Eliskases was a strong correspondence player and an endgame wizard. His defeat of Capablanca was in an endgame – and Capablanca is regarded as the best endgame player of all the greats!

Erich Eliskases died in Cordoba, Argentina in 1997 at the age of 83.

Here is game #7 of his match with Rudolf Speilmann, Litz, Austria, January, 1932.

White: Speilmann – Black: Eliskases, Queen’s Gambit Declined; Semi-Slav without Nf6 (D31)

1.     d4          d5

2.     Nf3          e6

3.     c4          c6

4.     Nc3        dxc4

5.     e4          b5

6.     e5          Bb7

7.     Be2        Ne7

8.     Ne4        Nd5

9.     O-O        Nd7

10.  Nfg5       Be7

11.  f4?          g6?!

White’s 11^th move is the last “book” move but both Igor3000 (-1) and Stockfish12 (-1.9) say this move is a real stinker. Correct was 11. b3, putting pressure on Black’s queen-side pawns. Black’s reply shows why f4 was playable in those days. Black weakens his king-side (and we assume his castling side) for no reason. Castling was best here (-.6). But as we will see, Black never needs to.

Noted chess author and annotator Fred Reinfeld said, “Spielmann is playing the opening in an aggressive fashion attempting to get an attack at all costs. The manner in which his young opponent defends himself is highly instructive.”

            12, f5 ?!         ………

As was Speilmann’s lifelong chess weakness…..this is too aggressive too soon. Remember pawn advances cannot be retreated if incorrect. 12. Rf3 was best. (-.9).

12.  …….          exf5

13.  e6             fxe6

14.  Nxe6        Qb6

15.  a4?           ........

Fred Reinfeld said of White's #15 move; “This desperate move is the beginning of an extremely ingenious combination……which is defeated by a still finer counter-combination.”

The chess engines see all and have White lost at (-2.6) and suggests instead for White 15. Rxf5, c5 16. Ng7+, Kd8 17. Rf2, cxd4 18. Qxd4 and still losing (-1) but still playable.  Eliskases sees that a4 is wrong also.

       15. ......          fxe4

       16.  a5            Qa6

       17.  Qc2 ?       N7f6 ?  (!)

Another blunder by White (-3.75).  17. Ng7+ was needed. But Black ‘blunders’ back - sort of.

It is interesting here – in this position - to note that this is the type if situation where chess cheats get caught.

Fred Reinfeld was considered one of the very best chess annotators back in the days before chess engines. He gave 17… N7f7 an exclamation point! He states, “The alternative 17. …..c5 would lead to all sorts of complications, whereas the text move forces White’s hand.” 

The only problem is Fred, is that c5 is the real best and crushing move. The computers can wander thru the analysis maze faster and with no emotional strain or drain.

In other words, Eliskases made the ‘human’ move to victory by not muddying the waters (- 1.7) Computers have no such fear at a million moves per second analysis.

18.  Rxf6?        Bxf6

19.  Qxe4         Kf7 !

Reinfeld exclaims, “A remarkable position! Black must lose the Queen, and yet has a won game!” (-3.4) Your humble scribe agrees. The type of position only GMs are not afraid to play.

20.  Nc5          Rae8

21.  Qf3           Rxe2!

22.  Nxa6        Re1+

23.  Kf2          Rhe8!

(-4.5) Reinfeld: “This turns out to be even more powerful than 23. …..Rxc1 24. Rxc1, Bxa6.” (-1.3)

24.  Nc5          Bc8

25.  b4            Kg8

Reinfeld: “This makes the hostile c-pawn very strong, but how else is White able to free his bishop?” (-7.4)

26.  Bb2          R1e3

27.  Qd1          c3

28.  Bc1          c2

29.  Qxc2        Re2+

30.  Qxe2        Bxd4+

31.  Be3          Rxe3

32.  Qf1          Ra3+

White resigns