Tournament Results

Waltham Chess Club - November 2011

Our Holiday Party will be held on December 16. There will be an unrated G/5 or G/10, and then Bughouse! Bring food! We usually have more food than we know what to do with, but it doesn't matter - bring more!

Some highlights from the last few months:

  • Steven Winer, our resident Master, took the May First Friday with a score of 6.5 out of 7 points.
  • GM Denys Shmelov was a winner in every summer event he played in, including taking a perfect 7-point score in the July First Friday and a perfect 4-point score in the July G/20.
  • Friday the 13th was a most lucky night for Denys Shmelov, Steven Winer, and Todd Chase, who tied for first place with scores of 6 out of 7 points in the May Triskadekaphobia.
  • How about a four-way tie? Andrew Liu and Jesse Nicholas tied for first place with Shmelov and Winer with 2 points each in the Stanley Cup G/60 (so named in honor of the Bruins' victory earlier that week).
  • How about a five-way tie? Andrew Luff and master Lawyer Times tied with Shmelov, Winer, and Chase with 2 points each in the Hazy and Humid G/60.
  • In the Under-1500 Section of the Mid-Summer G/60, Sam Lurie, Marcus Luzzi, and Andrew Boyer tied for first place with 2 points. Great job, guys!
  • Steven Winer, Evan Rabin, and Andrew Liu split first place three ways with 3.5 out of 4 points in the September G/20.
  • In our first ever G/40 (replacing G/60 by popular request), the Autumnal Equinox G/40, Steven Winer, Lawyer Times, and Andrew Boyer tied three ways for first place in the Open Section with 2.5 out of 3 points. Edward Varvak took sole first place in the under-1000 section - way to go, Edward!
  • Robert Perez, a new Master for Waltham CC, edged Steven Winer in the October First Friday to take sole first place with a perfect score of 7 points. Congratulations, Robert!
  • Another new Master for us, Marek Andrzej Stryjecki, tied with Steven Winer for first place in the *HOWLING!* G/40 with 2.5 out of 3 points. Andrew Luff took the Under-1500 Section with a perfect score of 3 points.

Finally, our five-week Club Championship comes next year in June. This will be a 10-round G/45 Swiss, 2 rounds per Friday night. The fee will be $30 per night, but will be discounted for those who come regularly to our Club. There will be daily prizes for each night and a first- and second-place Grand Prize at the end. Advance entries are recommended.

See you at our Party and enjoy your holiday season!

Nicholas P. Sterling, Ph.D. Waltham Chess Club, Tournament Director

Waltham Chess Club - October 2011: Ghosts and Goblins G/5

Plenty of Halloween candy was on hand to greet chess trick-or-treaters at our Blitz event on 10/28/11. The Wall-Chart is on my blog, http://xenophon98.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/77/. Steven Winer, Robert Perez, and Evan Rabin tied in first place with 10 points apiece out of 12. Thanks to all who played.

Waltham Chess Club - April 2011

Waltham Chess thanks Jim Walker, self-described as "photo editor of the Waltham News Tribune and wickedlocalwaltham.com and proud resident of the Watch City since 2008", for coming to visit our Club in January and posting a great article with pictures in the February Tribune. We came to know Jim last December after he published his blog entry "So many chess tables, so little chess..."(http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/brandnewwatch/2010/12/14/so-many-chess-tables-so-little-chess/#ixzz1KIyzSPTI), with his first mention of the Waltham Club. You may find the final article at the Wicked Local Waltham site:(http://www.wickedlocal.com/waltham/photos/x1240515108/Waltham-Chess-Club).

We also thank SM Denys Shmelov for coming so faithfully week after week through 2010. He has started graduate school at University of Connecticut, and we wish him the best of luck. We additionally congratulate him on receiving his first GM norm at Berkeley.

Finally, we will be hosting a Waltham Club Championship in June, 2012. More details to come.

Some highlights from the last few months:

  • Allen Wang won the under-1500 section in the December First Friday with 6.5 out of 7 points. Great job, Allen!
  • There was a four-way 2-point tie for first place at the Fireplace G/60 among Denys Shmelov, Todd Chase, Daniel Shapiro, and Nithin Kavi.
  • GM Alexander Ivanov swept the January First Friday with a perfect score of 7 points, and the January G/20 with a perfect score of 4 points.
  • Yurij Zhaurov and Peter Teodorescu tied, with 2 points apiece, for first place at the MLK G/60.
  • There was a three-way 6-point tie (out of 7 points) at the February First Friday among Todd, Yurij, and Andrew Liu.
  • Todd and Tian Rossi tied, with 2 points apiece, for first place in the Open Section of the Valentine's Day G/60. Steve Carlin and Justin Wu tied , with 2 points apiece, for first place in the under 1500 section.
  • Vitaliy Ryabinin held tough at the March First Friday and won with 4.5 points out of 5. Way to go, Vitaliy!
  • There was a three-way 3-point tie (out of 4 points) at the March G/20 among Todd, Andrew Liu, and Edward Astrachan.
  • Steve Winer, a 2400-rated Master, and Edward Astrachan tied, with 2 points apiece, for first place in the Open Section of the College Hoops G/60. Akshay Saini, Alex Kaye, and Brandon Wu tied , with 2 points apiece, for first place in the under 1600 section.
  • Steve Winer swept the April First Friday with a perfect score of 7 points,a and the April G/20 with a perfect score of 4 points. We welcome Steve aboard at the Waltham Chess Club and hope to have him at many more tournaments.
  • Steve Winer and Simon Slutsky tied, with 2 points apiece, for first place in the Open Section of the Marathon G/60. Akshay Saini, Andrew Luff, and Eddie Wang tied , with 2 points apiece, for first place in the under 1600 section. Great job to all the winners.

Waltham Chess Club - November 2010

In September Waltham Chess Club collaborated with Howard Goldowsky and Back Pages Bookstore to host an event at the bookstore (on Waltham's Moody Street) on the 11th. The event was designed to promote the book Masters of Technique, edited by Goldowsky and published by Mongoose Press. Included was a simultaneous exhibition by Senior Master Denys Shmelov, followed by a blitz tournament run by Michael Gosselin and Todd Chase. All of the proceeds were donated to charity. I'd like to thank Howard and Back Pages for organizing this event and inviting us to participate, and Denys, Michael and Todd for running the simul and blitz tournament. The participating players enjoyed themselves and a few copies of Masters were sold. We hope the bookstore will host another such event in the future and that, with more effective promotion, more players will come.

Waltham Chess Club had a slight dip in attendance in September, but came back strong in October, and in November we had our highest turnout in my tenure, 20 players. I am especially pleased with the high influx of new players, an average of one per week.

Check out our newly designed website at http://walthamchessclub.org. Vitaliy Ryabinin worked really hard to get it published for us, and we thank him for the high-class upgrade.

Some highlights from the last few months:

  • SM Denys Shmelov marches on! Among several victories, he had a perfect score of 7 points at the November First Friday, taking clear first place over the next contender (with 5.5 points).
  • Evan Rabin split first prize with Denys Shmelov with scores of 3.5 out of 4 points in the November G/20. The two players drew in the prize round. We were pleased to welcome Evan from Brandeis University, and we thank him for his blog entry (http://adventuresofrabin.blogspot.com/2010/11/excursion-to-other-side-of-waltham.html) about his experience at our Club.
  • Todd Chase split first prize with Denys Shmelov in the Open Section of the Day of Thanks G/60, with 2 points. Jesse Klimov took the Under-1600 prize with a score of 2 points.
  • With 6.5 points out of 7, Todd Chase edged Denys Shmelov (with 6 points) to win the October First Friday. It was Todd's night!
  • At the November First Friday, Brandon Wu and Allen Wang split first prize in the Under-1300 section with scores of 6.5 out of 7 points.
  • Leonardo Lopez won the Under-1500 section with 2 points at the Sukkot G/60 in September.
  • Brandon Wu and Peter Teodorescu split first prize in the Under -1300 section with 2 points at the Fright Night G/60.

We'll see you in 2011 - Happy Holidays!

Nicholas P. Sterling, Ph.D.

Waltham Chess Club

Tournament Director

Waltham Chess Club - August 2010

The highlight of our summer was the observance of our 100th First Friday G/10 tournament this August. The first ever First Friday was directed by Michael Gosselin back in 1996, making our 100th a long-awaited watershed to reached. Everyone who came brought lots of munchies to nosh on and made the event a great success.

Another event upcoming (as of the time of writing) will be held at Back Pages Bookstore on Waltham's Moody Street on Saturday, September 11, from 12 PM to 6 PM. The event will include a simultaneous exhibition by Senior Master Denys Shmelov, followed by a blitz tournament run by Michael Gosselin and Todd Chase. All of the proceeds will be donated to charity. I'd like to thank Howard Goldowsky for organizing this event and inviting Waltham Chess Club to participate.

Our attendance numbers this summer have stayed consistently high, between 16 and 20 players, with occasional dips when players were away on vacation. We expect our numbers to return to full strength from September onward.

The Waltham Chess Club meets every Friday evening from 7 PM through the evening, sometimes burning the post-midnight oil. Our website is http://walthamchessclub.org, including directions to our site at the IBM Building (404 Wyman Street in Waltham), and our schedule of events (which can also be found on the MACA website calendar).

Some highlights from the last few months:

  • Denys Shmelov has continued to march through tournament after tournament in winning style. Perfect 7-point scores at the June and July First Fridays, a perfect 4-point score at the June G/20 - congratulations to Denys!
  • The Hot and Steamy G/60 in July featured a remarkable four-way 2-point tie for first among Denys, Todd Chase, Edward Astrachan, and Andrew Liu.
  • Frank Sisto, Todd Chase, and Geoffrey Collins tied three ways for first place with 3 points out of 4 each in the Open Section. Vitaliy Ryabinin took sole first place in the Under-1400 Section with a perfect score of 4 points.
  • Erik Siggelkoe took sole first place at the August First Friday with a score of 6.5 out of 7 points.
  • Brandon Wu took sole first place in the Under 1500 Section at the Aloha G/60 in August with a perfect score of 2 points. Way to go, Brandon!

And I continue to welcome game scores to publish as articles.

We thank all of you who have come to play at Waltham Chess Club.

Nicholas P. Sterling, Ph.D.

Waltham Chess Club

Tournament Director

Waltham Chess Club – June 2010

Pizza! The staff of life for chess players.

On the Friday before Memorial Day, our club hosted a Free Pizza Night to escort in the MA Open weekend. 11 players appeared, including a few new players and one returning after a long absence; together we made quick work of 3 16” pizzas. The winner of that night’s 5-round G/15 was a new player for us, Igor Gavrilov, who comes to us from Skopje, Macedonia. He put his FIDE experience to good work that Friday night, winning the event with a score of 4.5 out of 5 points.

The Waltham Chess Club meets every Friday evening from 7 PM through the evening, sometimes burning the post-midnight oil. Our website is http://walthamchessclub.org, including directions to our site at the IBM Building (404 Wyman Street in Waltham), and our schedule of events (which can also be found on the MACA website calendar).

The "Top 10" free or low-cost benefits that the club offers are:

  1. Covered Parking Garage with lots of space!
  2. A great, clean and secure facility with low overhead that keeps the club's costs down!
  3. No membership dues! (currently)
  4. Low tournament entry fees, with a no-prize option and free to Masters!
  5. Friday Night games - can play all night
  6. Weekly 1-Night Tournaments
  7. Multiple Time Controls
  8. Varied levels of chess members (rating-wise)
  9. Occasional Free Food and Special Events
  10. BugHouse and Games for Fun after regular tournaments.

Some highlights from the last few months:

  • Our resident master, SM Denys Shmelov, swept all the events that he came to since my last report, with perfect scores at several of them. Congratulations to Denys. Watch next issue for an annotated game of his.
  • Andrew Liu deserves an honorary mention for defeating Denys at the April First Friday and drawing with him at the April G/25. In addition Andrew took sole second place at the Patriot’s Day G/60, with 1.5 out of 2 points; and split second place three ways with Glen Soucy and Tian Rossi at the May First Friday, with 4.5 out of 7 points. Good job, Andrew, Glen, and Tian.
  • Lawyer Times split first place with Denys at the Memorial Day G/60. We are glad to have him playing at our club again.
  • Edward Astrachan and Steve Desouza split first prize at the March Madness G/60. (No Denys?)
  • We welcomed back Paul Sciaraffa, Carlos Avalos, and Tomas Ramirez, and we are really pleased to have many new Scholastic and other players join us. Our numbers grew considerably these past few months, and it is all thanks to you, the players who have come to our club.

Finally, I intend to publish regularly in Chess Horizons one featured game from a WCC tournament. If you have a score of a game that you’d like to see in print, turn it in to me and I’ll write up an article. Annotations are welcome but not necessary.

Thanks to all those who have come to Waltham on Friday night. We love to have you!

Nicholas P. Sterling, Ph.D.

Waltham Chess Club

Tournament Director

Waltham Chess Club – February 2010

We closed out 2009 in high spirits with a highly successful Holiday Party on 12/18/09. Everyone who came brought so much pizza and so many delicious desserts, snacks, and soda that we were all floating in food within an hour. We ran a 3-Round Game/10 tournament, which Max Chiu-hsin Lu won with a perfect score of 3 points; we followed that with a team quad Bughouse tournament., which Team I (Todd Chase and Hao-Yuan Pai) won with a perfect score of 3 points. This is certainly the first Bughouse Tournament WCC has held for a long time, if ever, and I look forward to many more. Thanks to everyone who came, brought food, and played.

The Waltham Chess Club meets every Friday evening from 7 PM through the evening, sometimes burning the post-midnight oil. Our website is http://walthamchessclub.org, including directions to our site at the IBM Building (404 Wyman Street in Waltham), and our schedule of events (which can also be found on the MACA website calendar).

Some highlights from the last few months:

  • Tomas Girnius took first place in the Festival of Lights G/60 in December, with a score of 2 points.
  • Frank Sisto took first place in the First Friday in January with a score of 6.5 out of 7 points.
  • We were delighted to welcome International GM Arthur Bisguier, and welcome back Edward Epp, to the MLK G/60 in January. Todd Chase and Matthew James Webber took first and second prizes with scores of 2 points and 1.5 points respectively.
  • Todd Chase took first prize in the January G/25 with a perfect score of 3 points, while George Comeau took the first under-1500 prize with a score of 2 out of 3 points.
  • We are honored to welcome SM Denys Shmelov to our club. In a tough field that included Gregory Kaden, Todd Chase, and Frank Sisto, Denys took first prize in the First Friday in February with a score of 6 out of 7 points.
  • In our first Wild Card event in February, we held a 5-Round G/15. We were pleased to have Patrick Sciacca join us that night, and he and Tomas Girnius took first and second prizes with scores of 5 and 4 points respectively. We were also happy to welcome back Barbara Peskin. Free pizza was served that night, and I thank everyone who made donations to cover the cost.

Finally, I intend to publish regularly in Chess Horizons one featured game from a WCC tournament. If you have a score of a game that you’d like to see in print, turn it in to me and I’ll write up an article. Annotations are welcome but not necessary.

Thanks to all those who have come to Waltham on Friday night and helped our club to grow and prosper.

Nicholas P. Sterling, Ph.D.

Waltham Chess Club

Tournament Director

Waltham Chess Club – December 2009

Thank you to all the players who have come to the Waltham Chess Club recently and raised our attendance! We had so many people show up on the Friday before Columbus Day that we were able to run an impromptu unrated G/5! My goal is to crack an attendance of 16 so that we can have sections with at least 8 players in a section. So keep on coming and helping our club to be a success.

The Waltham Chess Club meets every Friday evening from 7 PM through the evening, sometimes burning the post-midnight oil. Our website is http://walthamchessclub.org, including directions to our site at the IBM Building (404 Wyman Street in Waltham), and our schedule of events (which can also be found on the MACA website calendar). Each month, we schedule most of the following events: a First Friday G/10, a two-round G/60, a three-round G/25 (all of these USCF rated), and an unrated G/5 Blitz. Our prizes come out of the cash from entry fees each night.

Masters play for free, as long as they have a 2200 Rating as of the latest Supplement, or can show they have a Life Master title.

We’ll have Free Pizza some nights, and we look forward to scheduling big special events with lots of prize money.

Some highlights from the last few months:

  • We were pleased to have GM Alexander Ivanov join us for the First Fridays in September and October, winning both events handily with perfect scores.
  • We were also pleased to have NM Charles Robert Riordan and expert Frank Sisto join us for the First Friday in November. They split first prize with tie scores of 6.5 out of 7 points.
  • Winston Huang took first prize in the Waltham November Triskaidekaphobia G/13, winning 6.5 out of 7 points. Congratulations to Winston.
  • Tomas Girnius, Steve DeSouza, and Homer Franck split first place three ways with scores of 2 points each at the Waltham Turkey Day G/60.
  • We gladly welcomed NM Lawyer Times back to the Club for the First Friday in December. He and Max Yarmolinsky split first prize, winning 6 points out of 7 each. James Thompson and Homer Franck split the Under 1550 prize with 3 points each.

Finally, I intend to publish regularly in Chess Horizons one featured game from a WCC tournament. If you have a score of a game that you’d like to see in print, turn it in to me and I’ll write up an article. Annotations are welcome but not necessary.

Happy chess-playing and all the best wishes for a safe and prosperous 2010.

Nicholas P. Sterling, Ph.D.

Waltham Chess Club

Tournament Director

Waltham Chess Club – September 2009

This is my first report to MACA as Tournament Director of the Waltham Chess Club. I have been regularly active as Director since November, 2008, and since I started, we have had a slowly but steadily increasing number of regular attendees to our Club. The Waltham Chess Club, after having endured a lengthy period of doldrums with distressingly low attendance, appears at last poised to enter a new period of renewed vigor. Rumors afoot of our demise are greatly exaggerated.

We meet every Friday evening from 7 PM on, and our website is http://walthamchessclub.org, including directions to our site at the IBM Building on Wyman Street in Waltham, and our schedule of events (which can also be found on the MACA website calendar). Each month, we schedule most of the following events: a First Friday G/10, a two-round G/60, a three-round G/25 (all of these USCF rated), and an unrated G/5 Blitz. Our prizes come out of the cash from entry fees each night.

Masters get to play for free, as long as they have a 2200 Rating as of the latest Supplement, or can show they have a Life Master title.

On some nights, we will bring in Free Pizza, and whoever is lucky enough to show up first will get some. The more people come regularly, the more Free Pizza we’ll bring in – and the more prize money we can award!

Some highlights from 2009:

  • Stephen Brudno took first prize in the First Friday in January, winning 6.5 points in 10 games in a Double Round-Robin.
  • Frank Sisto took first prize in the First Friday in March, winning 6.5 points in 7 rounds.
  • Joseph Perl took first prize in the First Friday in April, winning 4.5 points in 5 games in a Round Robin.
  • Todd Chase took first prize in the April G/60, winning a perfect 4 points. See my article on the Games page featuring his brilliant victory against me in Round 2.
  • Gregory Kaden and Todd Chase tied for first prize in the First Friday in June, both winning 6 points in 7 rounds.
  • Andrew Tichenor took first prize in the First Friday in July, winning 6 points in 7 rounds.
  • Max Enkin took first prize in the July G/25, winning a perfect 3 points, and in the First Friday in August, winning a perfect 7 points. Way to go, Max!

We may also schedule some big special events in the future, so stay tuned.

I heartily thank everyone who has played at our Club, and hope you will all come visit us regularly and often to keep our Club prospering and flourishing.

Nicholas P. Sterling, Ph.D.

Waltham Chess Club

Tournament Director

Contact Information

WCC Member Coordinator

Todd Chase

(781) 790-1033

info@WalthamChessClub.org


WCC Webmaster

Vitaliy Ryabinin

vitaliy1219@gmail.com