Sorry We’re Late!

When I took over again as the acting editor of Chess Horizons I intended to go to press in December with a November-December issue. This slipped out into January, and then my laptop crashed on January 11th and it took me a long time to recover from that. Because it’s so late MACA has decided to make this a double issue. In terms of expiration dates, it counts as both “October-December 2011” and “January-March 2012”.

Congratulations, Mika!

Congratulations to Mika Brattain for fi nishing clear fi rst at the National Grade 8 Championship in Dallas, Texas in November with a score of 6½ - ½. Mika also won the Massachusetts Age 14 & Under Championship at the Spiegel Cup in February, and will represent Massachusetts at the Dewain Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions in August. Our cover photo shows Mika holding his fi rst place Spiegel Cup trophy.

Welcome Back, Joel Johnson

Life master and former Chess Horizons editor Joel Johnson has agreed to become our games editor. Joel won the U.S. Senior Championship in 2007 and is the author of the books “Formation Attacks” and the upcoming “Formation Attack Strategies.” If you have games for Joel to annotate please email them to him at bigbear12@hotmail.com.

Massachusetts Open

By the time most of you read this the 81st Massachusetts Open will have already been held in Marlborough on May 26-28. Coverage of the event will be in the next issue of Chess Horizons. Once again we will be offering prizes for the most interesting game in each section, courtesy of a generous donation from Walt Champion, who is also donating money to cover the entry fee discounts for players aged under 23 or 60 and over and to guarantee the top three prizes in the Open section. Walt has donated money to the tournament every year since 2006. Thanks, Walt!

Cover photo by En-Kuang Lung.