Club Update: Summer Spring Swiss, Pairings Round Three

Van Leyden Painting, The Chess Players, c.1508

Before the immediate business of posting the lattest pairings for Round Three of the WOCC Summer Swiss, let us take a moment to give special thanks to Roger E. Pedersen for being of service to the club in furnishing the pairing calculations and reporting them.

He has been among our chief advocates in favor of the club not only obtaining an inexpernsive computor to use at the clubhouse, but to do so with a view to have SwissMaster (link here, in red) software close at hand.

We love and appreciate our President, John Hagerty, but having already done way, way too much, this spares him that particular labor of love. John does so and did so to the fullest extent possible--manually, but this insures the work being done so without possible error or the slightest margin of interpretion. Any of us would face the same thing, were it us.

Roger has generiously allowed us to not only use his version, and has been of service in recording the results at evening end--to the fullest extent possible, but also taken time to promptlyy report the calculated next round pairings to the blog administrator.

Let us all be sure to thank Roger for his effort. Every bit helps, we all can agree. That said, our official business:

ROUND 3
Rd Bd White Black
03 1. Radomskyj, Peter (2.0) Tica, Juan P (2.0)
03 2. Zilbermintz, Lev (1.5) Race, Doran (2.0)
03 3. Burn, Murray (1.5) Pedersen, Roger E (1.5)
03 4. Lynn, Robert L (1.5) Hart, Charles M (1.5)
03 5. Cohen, Bryan Paul (1.0) Hochheiser Jeremy S. (1.5)
03 6. Boxer, Matthew (1.0) Katz, Harry S (1.0)
03 7. Martinez, Alberto (1.0) Prettyman, William (1.0)
03 8. Arias, Fermin (1.0) Fortunato, Joseph (1.0)
03 9. Paris, Shea (1.0) Garrett, Damon T (1.0)
03 10. Korn, David Allan (1.0) Nayak, Mohan Rao (1.0)
03 11. Rivero, Rene Thoma (0.5) Trieste, Edward Wi (1.0)
03 12. Kwok, Manchit (0.5) Sharpell, Fred (0.5)
03 13. Corcoran, Paul (0.0) Mehta, Palash (0.0)
03 14. West, Robert (0.0) Falconi, Stefano (0.0)


West Orange Summer Swiss 2011
Name/State ID Rate Rnd 1 Rnd 2 Rnd 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Radomskyj, Peter 2269 W 13 B 5 W 2
NJ 12460475 1.0 2.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Tica, Juan P 2202 B 14 W 8 B 1
NJ 14020117 1.0 2.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Zilbermintz, Lev 2054 W 15 B 7 W 4
NJ 12476202 1.0 1.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Race, Doran 1952 B 26 W 12 B 3
NJ 12183660 1.0 2.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Cohen, Bryan Paul 1924 B 16 W 1 W 28
NJ 20020149 1.0 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Boxer, Matthew 1914 W 17 B 11 W 16
NJ 12510577 0.5 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Pedersen, Roger E 1911 B 18 W 3 B 11
NJ 10092990 1.0 1.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Martinez, Alberto 1902 W 21 B 2 W 17
NJ 12490535 1.0 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
9. Hart, Charles M 1900 B 23 W 10 B 24
NJ 10004071 0.5 1.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Sharpell, Fred 1853 W 24 B 9 B 22
NJ 12088600 0.5 0.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Burn, Murray 1852 B 25 W 6 W 7
NJ 10104891 1.0 1.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
12. Arias, Fermin 1817 W 27 B 4 W 21
NJ 12670179 1.0 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
13. Garrett, Damon T 1797 B 1 W 18 B 20
NJ 12545276 0.0 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
14. Corcoran, Paul 1783 W 2 B 21 W 26
NJ 11476317 0.0 0.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
15. Nayak, Mohan Rao 1758 B 3 W 26 B 23
NJ 12237580 0.0 1.0


16. Katz, Harry S 1720 W 5 B 27 B 6
NJ 12052860 0.0 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
17. Prettyman, William 1710 B 6 W 23 B 8
NJ 12393939 0.5 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
18. West, Robert 1686 W 7 B 13 W 27
NJ 12904515 0.0 0.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
19. Rivero, Rene Thoma 1656 HALF B 24 W 25
NJ 12441215 0.5 0.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
20. Paris, Shea 1590 HALF HALF W 13
NJ 12659701 0.5 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
21. Fortunato, Joseph 1510 B 8 W 14 B 12
NJ 12932570 0.0 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
22. Kwok, Manchit 1504 HALF B 28 W 10
NJ 14201547 0.5 0.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
23. Korn, David Allan 1466 W 9 B 17 W 15
NJ 14564164 0.5 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
24. Lynn, Robert L 1445 B 10 W 19 W 9
NJ 14010970 0.5 1.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
25. Trieste, Edward Wi 1414 W 11 BYE B 19
NJ 12029830 0.0 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
26. Mehta, Palash 1300 W 4 B 15 B 14
NJ 0.0 0.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
27. Falconi, Stefano 1220 B 12 W 16 B 18
NJ 14571505 0.0 0.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
28. Hochheiser Jeremy S. 1212 HALF W 22 B 5
NJ 14446490 0.5 1.5

Conduct: Good Sportsmanship, Morals, and Learning

DRAFT / DRAFT / DRAFT / subject to review by WOCC board / DRAFT / DRAFT

Played as a serious game, competitive chess while sedentary can be quite tense in nature.

Performed at a high level you must not only evaluate hundreds--if not thousands--of combinations and postions, but this must be done not only quickly, but accurately for a sustained period of time. As is well know in these circles, one bad move, and its OVER.

Then you are seated across from someone, for hours at a time, and cannot help but be affected by their state of mind, or conduct. Think about this.

Nevermind chess, but the much broader arena of life is filled with costs, benefits, and costs. Risk is everywhere, and while it can to an extent can be controlled, cannot completely done so. And the process of playing chess and the process of engaging our opponent is a small labority within which to do so.

Playing chess for two or three hours is s significant investment of time and energy. You might have worked all day and come straight to the club or tournament hall without letup; your opponent might have left spouses or children to face you across the board, or feel anxiety when there is a history of other battles with you or imbalance of skills or ability.

If it is true as Kasparov said that 'Chess is mental torture', it has never been encouraged to torture your opponent off the board. Well OK, if its not tortune, then disturbance if you will.

Then the clubhouse. Chess in a club such as ours is a real priviledge. Let it be remembered please, that membership is a priviledge not a right. Lets cherish this place and each other. Let there be good sportsmanship (Wikipedia, link at left).

It is not hard to be disruptive. Making faces, banging pieces, hitting the clock, making other noises, side talk or little comments, standing too close over the shoulder of another tables player, maing faces, all that is not what a good sportsman does.

We want to keep it positive. We are not a formal club. We are serious, but are friendly and do everything possible to keep it that way.

Take a moment and visit the webpages of some high level professional golf webpages. Sometimes, in the upper left, outside FAQ [1] is a note on code of conduct. Whereas golf can involve wearing spiked shoes and swing a metal club which is capable of great destruction, chess can be just a board and a clock. Why should we be any less?

[1] FAQ, abrev for 'Frequently asked questions'.

Ponderous Hippo

We are all very proud of the imprimateur of NM Peter Radomsky (click red for web-link), who very kindly prepared the game record ready for publicaton at our blog. Peter ranks 415th out of 46,161 USCF members nationally, or an even more impressive figure, ranking 15th out of 815 rated players in the state of New Jersey. Notice how he demonishes his opponent, Candidate Master Lev Zilbermintz, who while also very much at times a most forminable force, falls ill to Peter by his preturnatural yearning for the idiosyncratic!

Radomskyj,Peter (2261) - Zilbermintz,Lev (2113) [A04]
West Orange Chess Club Double Round Rob (5), 17.05.2011
[Peter Radomskyj]

Hippopatamus Defence 1.Nf3 f6 This is not a typo 2.e4 e6 3.d4 b6 4.Bd3 Bb7 5.0-0 g6 6.c4 Bg7 7.Nc3 Ne7 8.Be3 d6 9.e5! dxe5 10.dxe5 f5 11.Ng5 Qc8 12.f4 h6 13.Nf3 Nd7 14.b4 a6 15.Nd4 Nf8 16.c5 Nc6 17.Nxc6 Bxc6 18.a4 Qb7 19.b5! axb5 20.axb5 Rxa1? 21.bxc6!! Rxd1 22.cxb7 Rxf1+ 23.Kxf1 Nd7 24.Bb5 Ke7 25.c6 Nb8 26.Bxb6! Kd8 27.Ba7 Ke7 28.Na4 Rd8 29.Nc5 Rd1+ 30.Ke2 Rb1 31.Bxb8 Rxb5 32.Bxc7 Bf8 33.Bd6+ Kf7 34.c7 Bxd6 35.exd6 Rxc5 36.c8Q 1-0

Since this game stands on its owns so well, we will wait a few days till we furnish Peters second game, equally impressively and therefore shown seperately.

[Peter wishes to correct the error in our recent post, 'Next Up, and Spring Results'. He did not win his section in its entirety, but tied with Juan for 1st. Now let us also extend our congratulations to Juan also! Thank you Peter.]

Club Update: Summer Spring Swiss, Pairings Round Two

Useful Swiss Knife

The character of The West Orange Chess Club has a variety of components, but outside of commitment, depth, and a much deserved reputation for genuine friendlyness, the major flavor of our club is our consistency.

We have been around for a long time, and we can still count among our regular members more than a few persons who have been comming for over twenty years. Can you imagine? Thats one fifth of a century, or 2% of 1000 years, or 1% of the elapsed time since antiguity. Thats a lot of time. Thats a lot of human character. And in our case, thats a lot of chess.

Our Board--and with it, our President John Hagerty--has put in place an environment where rated tournaments--often between all club members--are held on a regular basis. As our editor here told a family member last night, 'Its not that Tuesday night rated play is the exception, but rather that a few weeks of off from serious play is the exception'. This affords us all a regular venue within which to practice chess among familiar faces in a comfortable and secure environment. That is to say:

Besides being of very low cost relative to overal quality and availability (not to sound too much like Harvard Business Review, but this means location, access, ease of entry, good terms), we hasten to repeat that we are a friendly, welcoming club with a lot of strong players. And for sure a strong club are particularly welcoming of new players and visitors [1].

* . * . *
On that note, after the winter Club Championship and Spring Swiss, we are now underway with our Summer Swiss. This is five round (prior we seven and six respectively).

The pairings for round two are as follows. And our sincere appreciation to Roger Peterson for his great contribution of furnishing and operating his Swiss Master programs:

Rd Bd Scr White Scr Black
02 1. xxx Cohen, Bryan Paul (1.0) xxx Radomskyj, Peter (1.0)
02 2. xxx Tica, Juan P (1.0) xxx Martinez, Alberto (1.0)
02 3. xxx Pedersen, Roger E (1.0) xxx Zilbermintz, Lev (1.0)
02 4. xxx Race, Doran (1.0) xxx Arias, Fermin (1.0)
02 5. xxx Burn, Murray (1.0) xxx Boxer, Matthew (0.5)
02 6. xxx Hart, Charles M (0.5) xxx Sharpell, Fred (0.5)
02 7. xxx Prettyman, William (0.5) xxx Korn, David Allan (0.5)
02 8. xxx Lynn, Robert L (0.5) xxx Rivero, Rene Thoma (0.5)
02 9. xxx Garrett, Damon T (0.0) xxx West, Robert (0.0)
02 10. xxx Fortunato, Joseph (0.0) xxx Corcoran, Paul (0.0)
02 11. xxx Nayak, Mohan Rao (0.0) xxx Mehta, Palash (0.0)
02 12. xxx Falconi, Stefano (0.0) xxx Katz, Harry S (0.0)
02 1.0 Trieste, Edward Wi (0.0) BYE

[1.] Ten dollers per year, or about 19 cents per weekly visit. Can you imagine?

Next Up, and Spring Results

Along the recent lines of our commitment to keeping the WOCC Blog fresh and up to date, one or two house keeping things, then a bit of news. In no particilar order of significance:

* . * . *

Starting this next Tuesday, the next Swiss starts, which promises to have a good turnout for the summer months. While 32 or 36 participants is a good turn out for our club--especially in the winter months when vacations are not often planned, Tournament Director Charlie Hart sees 24, possibly 25 members planned on entering the summer tournament [1].

Members have been hungering for another tournament, and this fullfills this need after the long six round Spring Swiss, which was seven weeks with a one week hiatus between round three and four, as players switched sides of play (double round robbin, white plays Blk, then black plays Wht).

If you are new to our area, new to chess, or a serious chess player looking for a new place to play, meet nice persons of engaging mind, we very greatly hope that you will visit. Easy contact information, page down to earlier post, including phone numbers.

* . * . *

Winners by section in the Spring Swiss:

Perenial winner Peter Radomskyj tied for first with Juan Tica, won their sections, sharing first honors. We all enjoy Peters leadership as one of our strongest players, and for participating at our club, raising our profile in the region as we take our club to the next level. Congratulations to Peter! And not least of which to say:

Let it be duly noted that Juan Tica played extraordinarily strong for someone who was only just making his debut games, as a provisional player. Can you imagine? 2000 elo plus, one must assume, as an unrated? The writer asked him so much and so on, and was told by Juan that he trains with CT-Art 3.0 [link here], which is known as still the best master level tactical trainer. Its an older program, based on Maxim Blokh's book Combinative Motifs [linked here] but the CR-Rom powerfully reflect his labor of of love. He trained several future GM's, not least of which, now world number 12, Alexander Grischuk. CD Publisher: Convekta, a competitor of ChessBase.

Matthew Boxer won the second section. Congratulations to Matthew. There is nothing harder than winning a won game. :-)

Fred Sharpell who is also very well accomplished as a correspondence player, not just nationally, but globally, won his section. If we have this right (correct us if the editor is wrong), he previously won the under 1900 section of the club championship, a very tough section if ever there was one. Congratulations to Fred for his 'convincing performance'. Fred does not fool around, and is known for deep, careful calculation.

Despite a tough work schedule, Fermin Arias still won the forth second he found himself in. The writer here--as many of us do--knows how hard it is to make as little as just a ham sandwitch after a long day working, never mind several hour battles at the chess board. He is noted for 'steady improvment'. Congratulations to Fermin, whom we are delighted to see keep making it to our club to compete and other. Thank you from all of us.

Shea Paris won his section. Shea is always understated, and anyone who underestimates his solid, quiet, but always very accurate play is making a very big mistake (the writer here??). Congratulations to Shea. Joseph Fortunato was the sole member in the chasing pack, very close behind. Hope to see more of Shea at our club. Shea is always a very positive person, which never hurts!

Ed Trieste won the sixth and final section commandingly.

[1] We remind kind readers, notably new ones, that we are not only quite well heated in the winter, and well appointed as we are, thanks to the efforts of Toby Katz whom we never wish to cease thank for our debt of gratitude, but also have the good fortune to enjoy a properly cooled environment for the summer. Can you imagine?? On a lake with trees and ample parking!