Waltham Chess Club is getting ready for its fi rst Club Championship in several years, to be held in June over fi ve weeks. We will have a Master Invitational with fi ve rounds, one per night, and the rest of the fi eld will play two rounds of G/45 per night. The fee will be $15 per night, with a discounted rate of $40 for the entire event, and a discounted rate for Masters. Bragging rights!
We also are considering introducing two new Prize levels to our general tournaments: Under-2000 and Under-1300. Player attendance and fund levels permitting, these two prizes (single fi rst place) will be given either to separate sections or to the top players under the thresholds in a single section. Our increasing player numbers have made it possible for us to expand our Prizes, and I am grateful to all the players who have come regularly to Waltham Chess Club and swelled our numbers.
Some highlights from the last few months:
• GM Alexander Ivanov paid us another visit in November and swept the November First Friday with a perfect score of 7 points.
• Resident master Steven Winer won the Open Section of the Veteran’s Day G/40 (one of many events he won), and Syed Al-Mamun took the Under 1500 Section. Both won with perfect scores of 3 points.
• Masters Steven Winer and Lawyer Times tied with 3.5 points out of 4 in the Open Section of the November G/20, while Steven Malcolm Sparber took the Under 1400 Section with a perfect score of 4 points.
• Masters Denys Shmelov and Steven Winer tied with 6 points out of 7 in the January First Friday.
• We had a four-way tie in the Snowbound G/40: Denys Shmelov, Steven Winer, Alex Cherniack, and David Martin, all with 2.5 points out of 3.
• Denys Shmelov edged Steve Winer with 6.5 points out of 7 in the March First Friday.
• And fi nally, last but not least: we had a fourway tie in the Under 1100 Section of the March G/20: Prakalya Chandrasekar, Evan MacLure, Jesse Liu, and David Peng. These last three players were all brand new that night, and scored 3 out of 4 points. This was the largest event we had run recently with a record turnout of 32 players. |