OCBCF Newsletter 122005
OCBCF NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2005
From the Editor:
October and November have turned out to be some very exciting months for new chess developments and the OCBCF. Wynn Seal tournament turned out to be a great turnout for scholastic chess tournaments. Then in Kingsville, the fun got started when the parents got involved for the second year. Robstown turned out to be a great success as well. The support from the district, public, and the Superintendent was phenomenal and emotional. I wish to thank all the parents, teachers, coaches, directors and volunteers that have made these functions happen. This kind of support keeps challenging the organizers to come up with more creative tournaments to keep the momentum of Region going.
In light of the fact that these tournaments are fundraisers as well, the attendance of the players is crucial to the success and support of the clubs that host them. However, my concern is the fact that in some districts, much like my own, there are many more chess players than just those attending the tournaments. I am at this time formulating an attack plan to try to accomplish two goals. First, I wish to bring those players that are not involved with tournaments at this time out of the wood work and get them playing competitively. Secondly, I want to train coaches and sponsors to run their own unofficial tournaments within their own schools. The realization of these two goals can be accomplished in a half hour to an hour. I am toying with the idea of hosting some inexpensive non – USCF- membership, non- USCF rated tournaments. In these tournaments, we would economize by using medals instead of trophies, and if the tournaments are in-school, team trophies are not required. This would eliminate the price problem and encourage more scholastic players to participate. This would give the students that are interested to play in a tournament environment and truly challenge themselves an opportunity in spite of the finance problem. If the players feel like stepping up to the rated tournaments, then they may, at their own leisure. The responsibility of learning to run a rated chess tournament and becoming US Chess directors would not rest on the shoulders of the sponsors anymore. On the other hand, the sponsors would actually be learning how to run tournaments and would eventually evolve into organizing and running their own tournaments. I do wish to run a ½ day seminar on how to use the software, organize and run an in school tournament. I would like to do this as early as the beginning of the year. If you are interested, then feel free to notify me. If I receive enough interest, I will be ecstatic to host a seminar for this purpose. Remember, that since this is an unrated tournament, you do not have to worry about being an officially licensed director, or hold an affiliate license.
This December, we have at least two USCF member-required tournaments in our area. The first will be on the 10th and the second will be on the 17th. Both of these tournaments are for dual benefits. First, we collect food for the food bank, and secondly, we collect toys for the toys for tots organization, Then let us not forget the fact these tournaments are fundraisers for two different school clubs. The flyers will be included in this volume.
The two last items to mention are our upcoming meeting and the recognition of one very dedicated family to chess. The OCBCF will be meeting for December on the 11th of this month. I am encouraging everyone to attend. I am also asking anyone that can to possibly bring a covered dish so we can all enjoy a hard earned dinner with our own co-workers and spend a little time visiting with each other, in spite of our very busy schedule. I am bring some tamales, Charlene Tintera will bring some Chinese snacks, Dan supplies the “soft” drinks, Roy Robinson will bring some Pico de Gallo and enchiladas, and Judy Winston will surprise us. If you wish, please feel free to jump in and bring something. Bring your spouse!
The last part is very important to me. I have been involved with OCBCF for a total of about 10 years. During those past ten years, I have had the pleasure of know many different individuals come and go. I remember my first meeting. I walked in and there were about 60 to 80 persons(slow night) sitting at several tables at the Schanen Estates Elementary school. The individual that told me where to find this meeting was Rey Contreras from the Calallen district. This is where I actually met the following individuals. Bob and Lucy James, Ed Partridge, John Dubois, Jim Shaw, and many others. Now as I think back, many have come and many have gone, but to those that are still there, in the background, still doing their part to support the chess movement, I salute you, and I thank you for all your support. Each one of these individuals is a leader within themselves. Each one of these individuals is still doing their share to promote chess in our region. The comfort in the feeling that every time I have a question, I can count on them, is very reassuring to me. I do not want the year to pass by that I fail to thank these individuals for all their help. Two in particular have taught me almost all of what I know today as far as running tournaments today. Every time I doubt my decision about something dealing with chess, I go to either one or the other. If you ask them, they will gladly take the time, no matter how busy, to find out or answer your question on the spot. Even though they might deny this, they have a heart of gold about the size of Rhode Island. Thank Bob and Lucy. Ed (tocayo), John (the godfather) Dubois, Rey (the player)Contreras and Jim (the teacher) Shaw, it is my pleasure to still be working with these great individuals.
To all OCBCF volunteers, what you do for whatever reason, thank you for all your wonderful help. I now have had the pleasure of watching the enthusiasm renew itself with the fresh influx of members to the OCBCF. The effort behind the TD’s to learn and advance, the great leadership of the persons that have stepped up to the challenge, the concern and contributions each and every individual makes is a culmination of the effort of the OCBCF. You are the OCBCF. I also do not want the year to go by without letting you know that you do count and what you do is important. Thank you everyone for all you do, don’t stop, and find more members so we can grow more!
Beyond the Boards: Notes from the Wynn Seale tournament
By Ken Muir
Two days before Halloween, a large and enthusiastic crowd of approximately 190 scholastic players set all thoughts of trick or treating temporarily aside in order to do battle over the boards in the very spacious cafeteria of a school listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Wynn Seale Middle School was built in 1935 in Moorish Revival architectural style, and it certainly was a treat for the undersigned to direct a tournament there. There was even enough room to separate each table from the others, which made our efforts as tournament directors much simpler. All of the volunteers, including T Ds, scorers, and school personnel, did a great job, despite the fact we were almost an hour behind schedule. The parents seemed to be quite understanding as well.
While displaying a robust number of primary, elementary and middle school students, including as many as ten teams in a couple of categories, the relative paucity of high school students in this tournament made it necessary once again to combine middle and high school sections for pairings purposes. From the pictures included in this article one can see that the kids were quite intensely focused on their chess play.
Something that players and parents may wonder about when they check their ratings on the MSA section of the USCF web site, is why it is that the order of players listed for a particular tournament differs from the order of the trophy winners announced at the actual tournament. For example, in this tournament, the 1st and 2nd place finishers for elementary appear to be switched on the USCF web site, as do the 2nd and 3rd place winners in primary and many others. There is a two part explanation for this (courtesy of Dr. George Tintera). First, the default procedure in the official USCF rules book for breaking tie breakers at Swiss System tournaments involves application of a series of four mathematical formulas, all which take into account in different ways the relative difficulty of players played. This procedure is followed in our OCBCF computer pairing system. Secondly, the USCF web site simply lists players from a tournament in descending order, ranked by points and also by USCF ratings when they have the same number of points. The USCF web site does not take tie breakers into account or otherwise assess winners. The long and short of this is that if you’ve won a particular trophy at one of our tournaments, it’s certainly yours to keep!
I have noticed that OCBCF’s new requirement to notate in elementary division and up appears to be slowly resulting in improved play, although many players are still quite resistant to notating. As a player who didn’t even know how to notate when I started back up with all this “chess stuff” again about four years ago after a few decades of inactivity, I can assure any readers that notating is a worthwhile and very necessary skill to acquire if you are going to enjoy chess in a meaningful way. In fact, at the next tournament I intend to invite players to submit any worthwhile notated games for possible inclusion in this newsletter.
To further demonstrate the usefulness of notation, I am including a game I recorded during a trip to Charlottesville, Virginia last week. I stopped by the Charlottesville Chess Club (an earnest group of about 16 guys, including an 80 year old, that meets on Monday evenings in a church) and later in the week by the University of Virginia chess club (a smaller but enthusiastic group of students meeting near a snack bar on campus). This particular game is not only one of the shortest ones I’ve played, but also was against the highest rated player I’ve beaten, and but for notation, would have been lost forever to posterity. Without further ado, and with a considerably unabashed dose of vanity, recorded for all time, is this historic game, along with my very first and possibly last attempt ever at chess commentary (the games I lost in Virginia – ahem -- will not be mentioned -- editorial privilege).
(K. Muir, 1087 – G. Randall Lewis, 1577, October 24, 2005).
1. e4 c5
So far after one move I’m doing o.k. despite my complete lack of understanding about the Sicilian or how to combat it. Its doubtful I will ever learn it (sigh).
2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 bxc6
What the heck. Why not?
5. 0-0 d5 6. exd5 cxd5 7. d4 cxd4
Black helped me develop here.
8. Qxd4
I was thinking Qa4+ might be a possibility at some point. And it was.
8. … Nf6 9. Nc3 e6 10. Ne5 Qc7 11. Bf4 Bd6 12. Qa4+ Kf8?
I’m not sure what was the best move for Black. Someday I’ll learn how to analyze with one of these computer databases. d7 was possibly better.
13. Nb5! axb5?
I’m thinking Qb6 perhaps, eyeing b2 and pinning f2. Black is already down a rook though, and in serious trouble.
14. Qxa8 Nh5?
Black never saw my next move coming. Neither did I at first.
15. Ng6+!! hxg6 16. Bxd6+ Resigns.
Ouch. After 16. …. Qxd6 17. Qxc8+ Ke7 18. Qxh8, Black would have been left with a Queen and knight against a Queen and two rooks, a depressing situation even for someone with a 500 point rating advantage. Afterwards, my opponent asked me what my rating was. I’m glad I didn’t know what his was before the game. Sometimes it’s just better not to know.
Hasta la vista!