Still Meeting on Mondays - 2023 US Open is in Grand Rapids, MI This Year!

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!

The US Open is in Grand Rapids this year! Some of LCCC's members will be in attendance. Your humble scribe played in this event in 2013, and if you love chess, you owe it to yourself to at least stop by. The action is intense, the equipment sellers have everything, and the side events meetings can be enjoyed by all.

Saturday July 29 to August 6, 2023

DeVos Place
303 Monroe Ave NW
Grand Rapids, MI, 49503, United States

 

Contact:

US Chess Federation
https://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2023/usopen/

Notes:

Event run by the United States Chess Federation

Location: DeVos Place
Hotel: Amway Grand Plaza Hotel

The US Open has one section, in which anyone can enter. This event is NOT rated by FIDE.

9 Round Swiss with 3 Schedules
Traditional:       One round daily at 7 p.m. then the final round [8/6] at 3 .p.m.
6-Day Option:   First 6 rounds 8/1 at 7 p.m., 8/2 at noon & 7 p.m., 8/3 at noon & 7p.m., 8/4 at noon. (Then it merges into the traditional schedule for round 7 at 7 p.m. on 84.)
4-Day Option:   First 6 rounds 8/3 at noon, 3 p.m., 7 p.m. & 10 p.m.; 8/4 noon & 3 p.m. (Then it merges into the traditional schedule for round 7 at 7 p.m. on 8/4.)
      All schedules merge after Round 6 and compete for the same prizes.
      Round 7 at 7 p.m. 8/4, Round 8 at 7 p.m. 8/5, & Round 9 at 3 p.m. 8/6.

Time Control:
Traditional and 6-Day Schedules: 40/100, SD/30, inc/30 (30-second increment from move one)
4-Day Schedule: rounds 1-6 at G/60 d5   rounds 7-9 at 40/100, SD/30, inc/30

Half-Point Byes
Must commit before Round 4 pairings are posted; up to 3 half point byes allowed for 2000/up, 2 half point byes for 1400-1999, one half point bye for Under 1400 or unrated. Limit 1 half point bye in last two rounds.
Zero-point byes are always available in any round.
All Byes must be requested at least two hours before the round(s) in question.

Entry Fee:
Online:      $155 by 6/26, $175 by 7/10, $195 after.
By Mail:     $177 postmarked by 7/10, $197 postmarked after 7/10; do not mail after 7/17!
                  U. S. Chess Federation, Attn.: 2023 U. S. Open, P.O. Box 775308, St. Louis, MO 63177.
                  No phone entries!
Contact:     nationalevents@uschess.org with changes or questions about entries.
On Site:     All $200.
GMs and WGMs play free; no deduction from prize. Must email nationalevents@uschess.org to enter.
All entries must be made at least 2 hours before your first game is played.
Re-entries: $100.

 

Side Events

Sat-Sun July 29-30   Weekend Swiss   10 US Chess Grand Prix Points 5SS, G/60 d5 $1,150 Guaranteed Prizes: $200-100-50, U2200/Unrated $160, U2000 $150, U1800 $140, U1600 $120, U1400 $100, U1200 $80, Unrated $50. Entry fee $40, Unrated players free if paying US Chess dues. Maximum two half-point byes; must declare before round 3 pairings are posted. On-site Registration 10:00-11:30 a.m. Saturday, Rounds at noon & 3:00 p.m. Saturday, 10:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m. & 3:00 p.m. Sunday. Sat July 29   U. S. Open Bughouse   G/5;d0. Entry fee $20 per team. 80% of entry fees in cash prizes. Registration ends at 10:00 AM, Round 1 begins at 10:30 AM. Sun July 30   U. S. Open Scholastic   (See Below) Mon, July 31; Wed, Thu, Fri August 2, 3, 4   U. S. Open Quads (one day events)   G/30;d5. Entry fee $20. Registration 9:30-11:30 a.m., Rounds at noon, 1:30 p.m. & 3:00 p.m. $50 to first in each quad. Tue August 1   U. S. Open Quads (Tuesday Quads Only)   G/60;d5. Entry fee $20. Registration 9:00-10:00 a.m., Rounds at 10:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m. & 3:30 p.m. $50 to first in each quad. Wed August 2   U. S. National G/15 Championship   5-SS, G/15;d5. Quick rated, higher of regular or quick rating used. Entry fee $40. Registration 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM. Rounds at noon, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, 4:00. 80% of entries as returned as cash prizes. 1st 30%, 2nd 15%, U2100 12%, U1800 10%, U1500/Unrated 8%, U1200 5%. Saturday August 5   U. S. Open National Blitz Championship 15 US Chess Grand Prix Points 7 Double Round (14 games) Swiss, 1 section, G/5;d0. Blitz rated, higher of regular or Blitz rating used. Entry fee $40, free to Unrated players if paying US Chess dues. Registration 9-11:30 a.m, round 1 begins at noon. $2000 Guaranteed Prizes!: $$400-200-150, U2200 $200-100, U2000 $200-100, U1800 $180-90, U1600/Unrated $140-70, U1400 $100, U1200 $70.

 

LCCC Not Meeting on July 3, 2023

LCCC will NOT be meeting on Monday, July 3rd. See you on July 10.

 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!

2023 960 Champs Crowned - Ladder Tournament Returns!

 

Now THAT is a Ladder!

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!

For the 2nd year in a row, The co-champions of the 2023 Fischer Randon Chess (960) Tournament are Ken T and Pete B!

Not a surprise although they did have their struggles and challenges to win it. Their game in the 3rd of the 4 rounds ended in a hard-fought draw, so this result makes sense. Here are the top 6 finishers of the 16 entrants:

1-2 Pete B and Ken T

3-4 Curt S and Mike N

5-6 Charlie S and Vince V

Thank you all for participating!

Now, moving forward, the TD and President will establish a Club Tournament Schedule and it will be posted here when finished. COVID disrupted our normal schedule and we have been sort of winging it with our tournaments since re-starting the club OTB.

And the continually running Ladder Tournament will be in effect when other Club tournaments are not scheduled. Here are the Ladder Tournament Rules!

Chess Ladder Rules (6-12-23)

1.     The Ladder Director (LD [Club President right now]) is responsible for the updating the Ladder at the end of each week for the next week’s Ladder posting.

2.    The decision of the LD on all Ladder games and issues is final.

3.    New players joining the Ladder Tournament are automatically placed at the bottom of the ladder.

 

4.    Time Controls for Ladder games; - G/15 minute or longer, with or without Delay/ Increment, are acceptable time limits for ladder games. If the two players cannot agree on a time limit, then G/30 no delay/increment is the standard.

 

5.     For Ladder matches, touch-move is in effect.

6. If both players agree to play Fischer Random 960, that is also allowed.

7.    CHALLENGES:

a.   You may challenge any player above you within 4 rungs.

b.    If a player cannot find a player to play in the next four rungs (absent or currently playing), then challenger is allowed to challenge the next player up the ladder that is present at the club, and so on until an opponent is found.

c.   You cannot play consecutive Ladder matches against the same opponent.

d.   All valid challenges (listed with date and time of challenge) must be accepted and played within two weeks (the week of the challenge and the next week).

e.   If multiple challenges are made to a player on the same day, a week is added for each additional challenge, and the challenges are played in the order made.

f.     Players are only required to play one challenge game on the same club night, but playing multiple challenges is always allowed.

g.   If this is the first time you have played each other in the Ladder Challenge, the color will be determined by lot. If you have played the opponent before then colors will be alternated (challenger shows proof if necessary).

h.  If the challenger WINS the match, the challenger is moved to the rung directly above the challenged player. If the challenger DRAWS, he is placed just below his opponent. If the challenger LOSES there is no change in the ladder positions.

i.   If a match has been arranged without any signing up on the Ladder Sheet, both players must notify the LD of the date, time and result for the game to count.

 

8.    PENALTIES:

a)     Failure to accept or play a valid challenge within the rules will constitute a forfeit and result in a win for the challenger.

b)    After 3 consecutive weeks of ladder inactivity, a player is removed from the ladder.

c)     All infringements of rules as deemed by the LD will result in forfeit of match or removal from Ladder.

9.    RECORDING OF RESULTS: Once a match is over, the winning player is responsible for filling in the results on the Ladder Sheet.

10.  Players must be aware of their appropriate (new) change in their rung positions on the ladder when applicable. (end)

 Any tournament needs rules, but the Ladder Tournament concept is just to make the casual chess games mean "something". 

Ladder Strategy also comes into play for the keen Ladder watcher. Upsets happen and to get your challenge in at the right time could give you a chance to move up quickly. Also, if you look at rule 7B, challenge timing could get you a match higher up the ladder than Rule 7A directly allows.

It's a fun thing if people get involved and embrace The Ladder concept.

LCCC Back Tonight! 960 Tourney to Finish - Plus Casual Chess

 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!

Our 960 tournament is in full swing. But you can still stop by and play casual chess or even enter the tournament if we have a player on a bye. We are easy that way. No fee as always.

The pairings for this final round were either: 

A) calculated and completed by IBM on their strongest computer using combination software jointly commissioned for development by Apple and Microsoft, then audited for accuracy by the accounting firms of Price/Waterhouse and KPMG or 

B) your humble scribe flipped a coin. 

Here are the pairings for tonight's action - White listed first:

Board 1: Charlie S - Ken T

Board 2: Pete B - Tom V

Board 3: Mike N - Jon C

Board 4: Curt S - Paul M

Board 5: Vince V - Vince S

Board 6: Desmond W - Tyler B

Board 7: Jeff S - Aaron W

Board 8: Mary H - Sam T

Good luck to all and of course all are welcome to join in.

LCCC Dark Memorial Day Monday! We Return to BWW on Monday, June 5!

 Hope to have another nice turnout.

Please take note of a chess supplier added to the blog. It is a small business making handcrafted chess sets and boards. Check Tim Offenstein's business - Falling Leaf Chess. 

Nice looking stuff.

Everyone have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and hope to see you at the chess board!

LCCC 960 Tourney Continues - Brighton HS Hosting Livingston County HS Chess Tournament May 24 from 5pm - 7pm

I doubt the Brighton Tournament will be this big. 😁

See the link to the right to enter or volunteer for the High School Chess Tournament. I would call the High School if I were you since the link is hard to navigate. It is open to all high school students in Livingston County.

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!

Our 960 tournament is in full swing. But you can still stop by and play casual chess or even enter the tournament if we have a player on a bye. We are easy that way. No fee as always.

Here are the pairings for tonight's action:

ROUND 3 - Board # - White - Black:

1 - Ken T - Pete B

2 - Paul M - Mike N

3 - Charlie S - Vince V

4 - Vince S - Tom V

5 - Jonathan C - Jeff S

6 - Tyler B - Curt S

7 - Sam T - Aaron W

8 - Mary H - Desmond W

Looking forward to another great night of chess. Stop by!
 

LCCC on Monday - 2023 Fischer 960 Tournament Begins - And Some Old Chess Facts

 

Robert James Fischer came up with the idea of randomly shuffling the pieces on the back row before the start of a chess game. There are 1130 possible positions, but only 960 have the king in between the rooks to allow castling. Hence, Fischer 960 was born!

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 Fischer Random 960 Tournament this Monday! It’s free to enter. Be sure to do that! The tournament will begin around 6 or 6:30 PM. Games will be 45 minutes per player with a 5 second delay.

One round each night for usually 3 or 4 weeks. It always depends on how many entries we have. It’s a lot of fun!

Now for some old fun chess facts:

Hans Muller, an Austrian Grandmaster wrote a thesis on the English Opening, only to lose to GM Arthur Dake, who played the English Opening against Muller. He beat him in 21 moves.

In 1935, The Champions Tournament was played at the Williamsburg Chess Club and none of the 36 games ended in a draw!

In a double round robin tournament held in Baden-Baden, Germany in 1870, Anderssen beat Steinitz 2 – 0, Steinitz beat Neumann 2-0, and Neumann beat Anderssen 2 – 0.

In a tournament in Mexico in 1935, there were three Americans playing and nine Mexicans. The Americans won all their games against the Mexicans, but Dake beat Fine, Fine beat Steiner and Steiner beat Dake for a three way tie for first place.

In 1889, William Steintz was arrested as a spy by the New York police when his notes and moves from his cable chess match against Russian Mikhail Tchigorin were misinterpreted as a secret code.

In 1834, in a match between Louis La Bourdonnais and Alexander MacDonnell, in game 62, La Bourdonnais had 3 pawns on the 7^th rank waiting to promote, while MacDonnell had 1 pawn on the 7^th rank.

In the 21^st round of a tournament in New York City in 1924, David Janowski had 3 pawns on the 7^th rank waiting to promote, while Edward Lasker had 1 pawn on the 7^th rank.