The Gus Gosselin Grade Championship will be held on Sunday, January 15th at the Boxborough Regency (formerly known as the Holiday Inn).  All players must be Massachusetts residents or attend school in Massachusetts.  There are sections for players in Grades 8-12, Grade 7, Grade 6, Grade 5, Grade 4, Grade 3, Grade 2, and Grades K-1.  There is no "playing up"; each player must play in the section for his or her grade in school.  Trophies will be awarded to the top three players in each section, plus Top Grade 8 and Top Grade 9 in the Grades 8-12 section and to Top Kindergarten in the Grades K-1 section.  Players scoring three or more points, or belonging to a team which tied for a trophy, and not winning a trophy, will win medals. The entry fee is $20 in advance, $25 at the tournament site.  

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

Prize winners at the 3rd Spiegel Cup Qualifier, held December 11th in Marlborough, Mass.

Age 14 & Under Section

1st-2nd Vineeth Nareddy (playoff winner), Vittal Ranganath 3-1
3rd-6th Mark Chudnovsky, David Zhou, Shoumik Sompally 2.5-1.5

Age 11 & Under Section

1st David Katsman 4-0
2nd-5th Raymond Xu, Thomas Ha, Skyler Zhou, Krishna Munuri 3-1

Age 8 & Under Section

1st Eric Li 4-0
2nd Maya Figelman 3-1
3rd-5th Brandon Ni, Kurt Amber, Kelsey Liu 2-2

Booster Under 1200 Section

1st Sujith Yeruva 4-0
2nd-3rd Arnesh Yeola, Aditya Kothari 3-1

Booster Under 800 Section

1st Alex Zhong 4-0
2nd David Kalantar 3-1
3rd-6th Peter Kouznetsov, Eyal Zeldich, Jacob Furman, Suhavi Tiruveedhula 2-2

Booster Under 400 Section

1st Luca Conigliaro 4-0
2nd-3rd Sophia Tatar, Michelle Chudnovsky 3-1

Except as noted, tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Alonzo Ross and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Advance Entry for q3: https://goo.gl/yrhX0B

• 2nd update (final) as of 12/10/16 9:18 AM
• 1st update at 12/09/16 06:29 PM
• 1st post at 12/08/16 8:54 PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

The Third Spiegel Cup scholastic qualifier will be held Sunday, December 11th at the Best Western Royal Plaza in Marloborough.  There are qualifier sections for Age 14 & Under, Age 11 & Under, and Age 8 & Under, and booster sections for players rated Under 1200, Under 800 and Under 400. 

We suggest that players rated under 1200, or under 600 for age 8 & under, play in booster sections. However, all players are allowed to play in qualifier sections for their age group or older. Only players in qualifier sections can win invitations to the Spiegel Cup finals or earn Spiegel Cup Series (SCS) points. Qualifier sections are restricted to Massachusetts residents and students while the booster sections are open to players from all states. The winner of each of the qualifier sections will be invited to play in the Spiegel Cup finals in March 2017.

The advance entry fee is $20 for the qualifier sections and $15 for the booster sections, with a special $5 entry fee for players in the booster sections playing in their first USCF-rated tournament. 

Click here to register for the 3rd Spiegel Cup Qualifier.

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

Prize winners at the Harry Nelson Pillsbury Memorial, held December 4th in Marlborough, Mass.

Open Section

1st-2nd IM Denys Shmelov, Nithin Kavi 3.5-0.5
Top Under 2110 Jerry Li 3-1

Under 1910 Section

1st-2nd Evan MacLure, Bharath Heggadahalli 3.5-0.5
Top Under 1760 Jack Martin, David Xie, Carah Su 3-1

Under 1610 Section

1st Anjali Toly 4-0
2nd-4th Vittal Ranganath, Eddie Griswold 3-1
2nd-4th/Top Under 1460 Sofia Trakhtenberg 3-1

Under 1310 Section

1st/Top Unrated Kavita Bhatia 4-0
2nd-6th/Top Under 1100 Gregory Klimov 3-1
2nd-6th Edward Morris, Lukas Tolar, Sravan Mandepudi, Sijith Yeruva 3-1
Top Under 900 Giovanni DeBenedictis 2-2

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Paul Arond and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Final Advance Registrations for Pillsbury Memorial as of 12/03 07:50 AM: https://goo.gl/Tq2oUA 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Attention, aspiring chess journalists and proud game-winners (or gracious losers)! Now is your chance to become a part of Chess Horizons!
MACA's award-winning quarterly magazine is almost 50 years old, but it can't survive without your help.

We are currently looking for:

• Annotated games
• Local club spotlights
• Tournament tales
• ... and anything else you can think of!

Nathan Smolensky
MACA President

Prize winners at the 2nd Spiegel Cup Qualifier, held November 20th in Boxborough, Mass.

Age 14 & Under Section

1st Alex Yu 4-0
2nd Mark Chudnovsky 3.5-0.5
3rd David Xie 3-1

Age 11 & Under Section

1st-2nd Ryan Wang (playoff winner), Nicholas Belous 3.5-0.5
3rd-6th Lawrence Tu, Skyler Zhou, Tianna Wang, Krishna Mutnuri

Age 8 & Under Section

1st Victor Feng 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Kelsey Liu, Eric Li

Booster Under 1200 Section

1st Ian Van Hulle 4-0
2nd-3rd Rishi Gujjar, Sujith Yeruva 3-1

Booster Under 800 Section

1st Apollo Fung 4-0
2nd-5th Jack McAuliffe, Aditya Kothari, Jonathan Safran, Agathya Sivaharan 3-1

Booster Under 400 Section

1st Alex Gutting 4-0
2nd Mark Chumack 3.5-0.5
3rd-4th Svanik Gaddipati, Avbi Nagarai 3-1

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order except as noted.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Alonzo Ross, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

As of 11/19/16 9:05AM - Final: https://goo.gl/xQAeRc

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

The Harry Nelson Pillsbury Memorial will be held Sunday, December 4, 2016 at the Best Western Royal Plaza in Marlborough, Massachusetts with $1,500 in projected prizes (60% guaranteed) plus trophies in U1310 section. There are four sections: Open, Under 1910, Under 1610 and Under 1310, with additional prizes for the top players rated under 2110, under 1760, under 1460, under 1100, under 900 and unrated. The advance entry fee is $39, with a $20 discount to players in the Under 1310 section.

Click here for full details and to register.

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

The Second Spiegel Cup scholastic qualifier will be held Sunday, November 20th at the Holiday Inn in Boxborough.  There are qualifier sections for Age 14 & Under, Age 11 & Under, and Age 8 & Under, and booster sections for players rated Under 1200, Under 800 and Under 400.  The advance entry fee is $20 for the qualifier sections and $15 for the booster sections, with a special $5 entry fee for players in the booster sections playing in their first USCF-rated tournament.  Qualifier sections are restricted to Massachusetts residents and students while the booster sections are open to players from all states. The winner of each of the qualifier sections will be invited to play in the Spiegel Cup finals in March 2017.

Click here to register.

Spiegel Cup standings
Top ratings by Spiegel Cup age group 
Spiegel Cup Series standings

Click here for the Spiegel Cup rules.

Please send any questions about the Spiegel Cup to Scholastics Committee Chairman Steve Frymer.

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

SwissSys Wall Chart. Concord-Carlisle SCS 2016-2017: 14 & Under

SwissSys Wall Chart. Concord-Carlisle SCS 2016-2017: 11 & Under

SwissSys Wall Chart. Concord-Carlisle SCS 2016-2017: 8 & Under

Nicholas Sterling
Chief TD

Prize winners at the 83rd Greater Boston Open, held October 30th in Marlborough, Mass.

Open Section

1st-2nd GM Alexander Ivanov, IM David Vigorito 3.5-0.5
Top Under 2400 Ryan Sowa, Lawyer Times, Michael Isakov 3-1
Top Under 2200 Jason Tang 2.5-1.5

Under 2000 Section

1st Erik Skalnes 4-0
2nd-3rd Frederick Pearson, Maxwell Zhao 3.5-0.5

Under 1750 Section

1st Nathan Armstrong 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Bharath Heggadahalli, Skyler Zhou 3-1

Under 1500 Section

1st Morteza Salehjahromi 4-0
2nd-3rd Boris Zhevelyuk, Benjamin Zilber 3-1

Under 1200 Section

1st Sravan Mandepudi 4-0
2nd Jeffrey Hart 3.5-0.5
3rd Shrujal Ambati 3-1
Top Under 1000 Ansh Yadawad 3-1
Top Under 800 Hoyin Chu 2.5-1.5
Top Under 600 Isabella Lai 1.5-2.5
Top Unrated Joseph Aronovitz 2.5-1.5

Players in the Under 1200 Section are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Paul Arond, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Advance Entries for 83rd GBO (as of 10/29 9:42AM):https://goo.gl/KO1LFn 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the Massachusetts Junior Open, held October 23rd in Boxborough:

Open Section Individuals

1st-2nd Yue (Kerry) Huang, Vineeth Nareddy 3.5-0.5
3rd-5th Shoumik Sompally, Daniel Wang, Vittal Ranganath 3-1
Top Under 1400 Adithya Sharma 2-2

Open Section Teams

1st Patriots (Vineeth Nareddy, Vittal Ranganath, Arjun Girish, Adithya Sharma) 9.0
2nd Team Asian (Yue (Kerry) Huang, Carah Su, Joy Cao) 6.0
3rd Lexington / Wellesley (Daniel Wang, Lydia Shen, Kelsey Liu) 5.5

Under 1200 Section Individuals

1st Vishnu Mandepudi 4-0
2nd-3rd Audrey Gaines, Vaishnavi Vaijaeepay 3-1
Top Under 1000 Priyanshu Arora 3-1

Under 1200 Section Teams

1st The Kings (Vishnu Mandepudi, Sujith Yeruva, Sravan Mandepudi) 7.0
2nd Knights (Priyanshu Arora, Amit Piryatinsky, Tarun Iyer) 6.5

Under 800 Section Individuals

1st Henry Han 4-0
2nd-5th Nicole Zermani, Jason Zermani, Apollo Fung, Ansh Yadawad 3-1
Top Under 600 Isabella Lai 2-2

Under 800 Section Teams

1st Chess Kids (Nicole Zermani, Jason Zermani, Derek Moeller) 8.0
2nd Tiger Team (Ansh Yadawad, Riya Kanury, William Hua, Isabella Lai) 7.0
3rd Rooks (Apollo Fung, Raaga Pulya, Joanne Zhou) 6.0

Under 400 Section Individuals

1st Suhavi Tiruveedhula 4-0
2nd-3rd Felix Hentschel, Anna Katsman 3-1
Top Under 200 Asher Vidan 3-1

Under 400 Section Teams

1st Polgars (Suhavi Tiruveedhula, Anna Katsman, Reann Zhou) 9.0
2nd Four by Fours (Felix Hentschel, Oscar Gillette, Peter Stubler, Alex Sherman) 5.0
3rd Newbies (Aaron Huang, Nayan Kaul) 4.0

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Alonzo Ross, Dmitry Barash, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Adv. Entries for Mass Jr. Open (as of 10/22 09:42AM): https://goo.gl/KeLGkX 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

The Massachusetts Chess Association is holding a new scholastic championship tournament in Boxborough on Sunday, October 23rd: the Massachusetts Junior Open. Unlike the Barry S. Spiegel Cup, which is an invitational tournament with qualifiers, the Massachusetts Junior Open is open to all players in grades K-12, including players who live outside Massachusetts. There are four sections: Open, Under 1200, Under 800, and Under 400. The top-scoring Massachusetts resident or student in the Open Section will become the Massachusetts Junior Open champion. 

In addition to prizes for individual players there are trophies for the top three three-player teams in each section and medals for the players on the winning teams who don't win an individual trophy. Players don't have to be on a team in order to play in the tournament. If you need help forming a team for your child, please contact Steve Frymer.

For more information about the tournament and to enter the tournament online click here.

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

8 & Under

Isabella Lai – 537

Kurt Amber - 303

Suhavi Tiruveedhula – 282

Jack Serafini – 160

11 & Under

Jeffrey Liu – 1392

Isaac Gordon – 1054

Aaron Li – 1001

Saanvi Tiruveedhula – 977

Eric Gu – 668

14 & Under

Arjun Girish – 1482

Vittal Ranganash - 1460

Vishnu Ranganath – 1007

Nicholas Sterling
Chief TD

Prize winners at the 1st Spiegel Cup Qualifier, held Oct. 2nd in Marlborough, Mass.

Age 14 & Under Section

1st Danila Poliannikov 3.5-0.5
2nd-5th Michael Mi, Jonathan Hsu, Vineeth Nareddy, Vittal Ranganath 3-1

Age 11 & Under Section

1st David Xie 4-0
2nd David Katsman 3.5-0.5
3rd-8th Ryan Wang, Aaron Lu, Raymond Xu, Lawrence Tu, Andrew Su, Thomas Ha 3-1

Age 8 & Under Section

1st-3rd Jonathan Traub (playoff winner), Eric Li, Justin Li 3-1

Booster Under 1200 Section

1st-4th Andrew Trias, Saanvi Tiruveedhula, Priyanshu Arora, Audrey Gaines 3-1

Booster Under 800 Section

1st Ian Van Hulle 4-0
2nd-6th Ansh Yadawad, Rishi Gujjar, Teodoro Rivera-Wills, Derek Moeller, Paul Tompros 3-1

Booster Under 400 Section

1st Jared Mi 4-0
2nd-3rd Edgar Torres, Sankalp Katnalu 3-1

Except as noted, tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Paul Arond and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Adv. Entries for 1st Spiegel Cup Qualifier (as of 10/01/16 12:14AM): https://goo.gl/0EvaXs

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

The First Spiegel Cup scholastic qualifier will be held Sunday, October 2nd at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlboro. There are qualifier sections for Age 14 & Under, Age 11 & Under, and Age 8 & Under, and booster sections for players rated Under 1200, Under 800 and Under 400. The advance entry fee is $20 for the qualifier sections and $15 for the booster sections, with a special $5 entry fee for players in the booster sections playing in their first USCF-rated tournament. Qualifier sections are restricted to Massachusetts residents and students while the booster sections are open to players from all states.The winner of each of the qualifier sections will be invited to play in the Spiegel Cup finals in March 2016.

Click here for more information about the tournament and register.

Information about the Spiegel Cup will be updated throughout the year and can be found on our State Scholastics page.

Click here for the Spiegel Cup rules.

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

Prize winners at the Massachusetts Senior Open, held September 17-18 in Marlborough, Mass.

Open Section

1st GM Alexander Ivanov 4-0
2nd David Carter 3-1
Equal top U2210 Timothy Sage 2.5-1.5
Equal top U2210/U2010 Paul Arond, Marc Nolan 2.5-1.5

Under 1810 Section

1st-5th Robert Holmgren, Ronald Kirsch, Kevork Haddad, Cornel Osadsa, Paul Kolojeski 3-1
Top U1610 Robert Oresick 2.5-1.5
Top U1410 Edward Morris 1-3

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

The Massachusetts Chess Association is proud to announce the 2016-2017 Spiegel Cup season. The top 5 players by the March 2017 rating supplement, winners of the 4 Spiegel Cup Qualifiers and the player who accumulates the most points in the Spiegel Cup Series will make up the field of 10 players in each age group. This will mark the 4th year that the Spiegel Cup Series (SCS) will determine the final entrant in the Spiegel Cup Finals. The number of events required for determining the SCS invitee will be limited this year. We are very excited for the number of affiliates returning to organize SCS events, including the Waltham Papa Ginos, PerelChess, and Fuller Craft Chess Club.  

The first SCS event will take place this Sunday (9/18) at the Waltham Papa Gino's.  For more information please click here.
 
The 1st Spiegel Cup Qualifier will take place at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough on October 2, 2016. To register, please click here.

Information about the Spiegel Cup will be updated throughout the year and can be found on our State Scholastics page.

Spiegel Cup Standings
Top ratings by Spiegel Cup age group 
Spiegel Cup Series standings

Click here for the Spiegel Cup rules.

Please send any questions about the Spiegel Cup to Scholastics Committee Chairman Steve Frymer.

List of recent Spiegel Cup champions:
High School
Age 14 & Under
Age 11 & Under
Age 8 & Under

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

As of 09/16 3:24 PM: https://goo.gl/CcZ9PD 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

The Massachusetts Chess Association Board of Directors is pleased to announce committee members and coordinators for the 2016-2017 term.

Nathan Smolensky, as President, is a member of every Committee ex-officio.

Edward Chiu
MACA Board Member

 It's summertime and we want to hear from you! Keep us up to date about your summer chess-capades by sending us a picture with a brief caption!

E-mail your submissions to photos@masschess.org, or Tweet your photos with the hashtag #MassChess. We will share our favorites on Twitter and Facebook!

Edward Chiu
MACA Board Member

Prize winners at the 85th Massachusetts Open, held May 28-30 in Marlborough, Mass.

Championship Section

1st-3rd Mika Brattain, IM David Vigorito, FM David Brodsky (NY) 4.5-1.5
1st-3rd/Top U2300 Chris Williams 4.5-1.5

Under 2100 Section

1st Morris Lainer 5.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Eric Feng, Anton Barash 5-1
Top U1950 Scott Didham, Jeremy Kallen, Dustin Liang, Alan Song, Alan Sikarov 4-2

Under 1800 Section

1st-2nd Christoper Estremera, Bill Stein 5-1
Top U1650 Lewis Tu, Mark Chudnovsky, Carah Su 4-2

Under 1500 Section

1st Thomas Fini (NY) 6-0
2nd Joseph McGaffigan 5-1
Top U1350 Richard Cook, Erica Li, Meghana Kancharla 4.5-1.5
Top U1200 Victor Feng 4-2

K-12 Under 1500 Section

1st Vineeth Nareddy 4-0
2nd-7th Caleb Meyer-Chabris, Erica Li, Gregory Klimov, Eric Li, Eric Feng, Andrew Trias 3-1

K-12 Under 800 Section

1st Fitch Perkins 4-0
2nd-4th Derek Liu, David Gao, Vaishnavi Vaijaeepay 3-1

K-6 Under 1400 Section

1st-2nd Brian Yu, Lucas Kamon 3.5-0.5
3rd-4th Vineeth Nareddy, Dylan Jiang 3-1

K-6 Under 600 Section

1st-2nd Apollo Fung (playoff winner), Jeremy Li 4-0
3rd-7th Charles Lin, Ansh Yadawad, Alisa Korosteleva, Jacob Barshteyn, Timothy Liang 3-1

K-3 Under 1000 Section

1st Isaac Gordon 3.5-0.5
2nd Aditya Ratnawat 3-1
3rd-4th Jierui Lin, Ani Perl 2.5-1.5

K-3 Under 400 Section

1st William Hua 4-0
3rd-5th Isabella Lai, Andrew Zhang, Venkat Madhuvarsu, Ruhan Karthik 3-1

Massachusetts Blitz Championship

1st Grant Xu 9-1
2nd GM Alexander Ivanov 8-2
Top U2200 Charles Slade 7.5-2.5
Top U2000 Nathan Smolensky 5.5-4.5
Top U1700 Jacob Hetman 4-5

Tied players in the scholastic sections are listed in tiebreak order except as noted.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Frank Vogel, Paul Arond, Jeff Caruso, Nathan Smolensky, Dmitriy Barash, and Steve Frymer. Special thanks to Walt Champion, who donated the top three Championship Section prizes.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

            President

            Vice President

           Treasurer

            Clerk

            Director (8 positions)

Officers-elect and directors-elect will take office at the end of the annual MACA meeting (May 30).

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

(Final) Advanced Entries for 85th Mass Open, as of 05/27 3:34 PM): http://goo.gl/L4H2Cl. 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Congratulations to 12-year-old Carissa Yip of Andover, Mass., winner of US Chess's Woman Chessplayer of the Year Award!

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

Prize winners at the Massachusetts Girls Championship, held May 1st at the Boylston Chess Club in Cambridge, Mass.

Open Section

1st-2nd Joy Cao (playoff winner), Sandra Shur 3-1
3rd Tianna Wang, tiebreak over Yue Huang, 2.5-1.5

Under 1000 Section

1st Amy Lei 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Saanvi Tirudeedhula, Michelle Zhang 3-1
1st U600 Sree Dasari 3-1
2nd-3rd U600 Michelle Chudnovsky, Shreeya Gomathinayagam, tiebreak over Isabella Lai and Anna Gorovits 2-2

Players are listed in tiebreak order except as noted.

Wallcharts are posted at https://boylstonchess.org/events/52/massachusetts-girls-championship

The tournament was directed by Andrew Hoy, assisted by Edward Chiu.
 

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

Final Adv. Entries for Massachusetts Girls Championship (as of 4/30 1:53PM): http://goo.gl/thxkq1 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the 26th Massachusetts G/60 Championship, held April 10th in Marlborough, Mass.

Open Section

1st GM Alexander Ivanov 3.5-0.5
2nd-8th IM David Vigorito, FM Steven Winer, FM Jacob Chudnovsky 3-1
2nd-8th/top U2400 FM Christopher Chase 3-1
2nd-8th/top U2400/top U2200 Sherif Khater, WFM Roza Eynula, Brandon Wu 3-1

Under 2000 Section

1st Alonzo Ross 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Dustin Liang, David Zhou 3-1

Under 1800 Section

1st-3rd Sandra Shur, Jonathan Crowe, Manikandan Jeyarajan 3.5-0.5

Under 1600 Section

1st Rafael Pashkov 4-0
2nd Tianna Wang 3.5-0.5

Under 1400 Section

1st William Nemirovsky 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Anjali Toly, Aarish Patell 3-1

Under 1200 Section

1st Cory Eckert 4-0
2nd-3rd/top U1000 (cash) Justin Li, Ivan Roldan-Levchenko 3.5-0.5
4th Sujith Yeruva 3-1
Top U1000 (trophy) Lawrence Legros 3-1
Top U900 Amy Lei 3-1
Top Unrated Dennis Dolor 2.5-1.5
Top U800 Giovanni DeBenedictis 2.5-1.5

Players in the Under 1200 section are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

FINAL 26th Massachusetts G/60 Championship Advance Entries (as of 04/09 09:20 AM): http://goo.gl/dsldbG

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Nathan Smolensky, candidate for President (incumbent)

Now almost three years into my MACA presidency, it is remarkable to look back and see how much has changed. The Spiegel Cup Series has allowed us to expand our scholastic offerings while integrating our affiliate clubs like never before. Chess Horizons is up and running, with consistent contributions from the top players in the state. The Northeastern Open this year marked the return of organized chess to our college campuses, hopefully a sign of more such tournaments to come. And MACA is more visible than ever, through both Facebook and our own site.

Not all of this is my doing – the volunteers that make MACA what it is run far beyond the president. But all of these things are vital to me, in my quest to fulfill my chief promise from years ago – to help MACA be the best it can be.  

There is more work to be done, however, and because of that it behooves me to run once again. I want to see to more outreach events and better tournaments. I want to see through the Early Education Initiative. And I want to hear from you all, on how to make MACA even better.

Vote for me.

Paul Arond, candidate for Director (incumbent)

To quote the old Indian proverb, “chess is a sea where a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe.” After the past year as a MACA Director, I continue to be an avid club and tournament player, instructor, and supporter of scholastic chess. This is an exciting time for chess, and MACA provides the infrastructure for tournaments and club play, scholastic and education programs, and outreach to underserved communities. I will continue to support and help facilitate these activities, and be a voice for positive change, growth, and diversity in the chess community and beyond.

Dmitry Barash, candidate for Director (incumbent)

I’m chess player (2300), parent (Anton Barash is one of top kids in MA chess), tutor (teaching kids for 30 years), director, sponsor, member of Scholastic Committee, and Board member.

I’m running Chess Scholastic Grand Prix based on Matt Gosselin’s tournaments, and awarded winners for the last 7 years.

You can see more details on scholastic chess in MA on my page https://sites.google.com/site/scholasticchessinma/

After my two years on MACA board I’m glad to see increased interest in scholastic chess, and greater number of kids playing chess (see statistics page on my site).

Jeff Caruso, candidate for Director (incumbent)

In my first year I have served as Parliamentarian and on the Tournament and Bylaws committees, and worked to keep MACA Board meetings productive. As Elections Commission chair, you have seen my commitment to transparency, service and absolute fairness in the registration reminders, call for nominations and publication of candidate statements.

I seek a second term to advance my vision of making MACA relevant to its members. As a Massachusetts native, TD and club player, I have loved the game for decades.

Please re-elect me so I can continue to serve you and make chess thrive in Massachusetts.

Stephen Dann, candidate for Director (incumbent)

Now serving 47 years as a communications professional, USCF and MACA volunteer and a five-decade life member of both.

A networker, aiming to index chess as a hobby, sport and educational pursuit through schools, colleges and public libraries.

Father of Michelle and Marshall, also dedicated to charitable causes and programs of professional service.

Mentor of LinkedIn.com network of 1,200 educators and thousands of communications professionals most believing in benefits of lifelong education.

Time is what life is made of and chess is a lifelong mind sport.

Steve Frymer, candidate for Director (incumbent)

incumbent scholastic chair;

incumbent living memorial chess fund coordinator;

incumbent prison chess coordinator [present chair, us chess prison chess comm.];

former president, vice president, and treasurer; former tournament coordinator;

active member of budget committee; and

active service for 45 of last 48 years.

Robert E. King, candidate for Director (challenger)

It is important for members to be active members in MACA, which in addition to playing and studying chess, can include volunteering for MACA and voting in MACA elections.  It is important to vote for those that have a history of MACA service; because the experience of serving, and in particular my past service as director and president, can continue to be beneficial.  Then we can remake the MACA board size larger, as I did in the past, to allow for additional volunteers as representatives on the MACA board. This way more can be achieved toward promoting chess and achieving MACA's goals.

Vadim Martirosov, candidate for Director (challenger)

I have taught hundreds of students from all age groups in elementary, middle and high schools, and have mentored many of them from beginners up to expert level. I coach students in groups (such as schools) as well as give private lessons to both children and adults. I am also an active player and experienced master myself. I intend to bring that body of diverse experience to MACA and work to improve the tournament experience for players of all ages and levels.

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the Hurvitz Cup, which is the Massachusetts scholastic team championship, held April 3rd in Boxborough, Mass.

Grades 9-12 Section

1st Lincoln-Sudbury Regional H.S. (Michael Isakov, Sandeep Shankar, Jesse Sun, Greer Fried, Jacob Donowitz) 4-0
2nd Newton North High School A (Alex Fauman, David McCabe, Max Bennett, Kaifan Wang) 3-1
3rd Boston Latin School 1 (Anton Barash, Henry Liu, Jerry Han, Huy Nguyen) 2.5-1.5
Booster (U1300) Commonwealth School (Evan Meyer, Samuel Gloss, Charlie Kip, Max Sunog) 2.5-1.5

Medal: Allen Wang (Acton-Boxborough Regional H.S.) 3.5-0.5

Grades 6-8 Section

1st RJ Grey Junior High A (Brandon Wu, Alex Yu, Kevin Chen, Eddie Wang) 4-0
2nd Sharon Middle School (Dustin Liang, Maxwell Chen, Jason Xiong, Raghav Srinivasan) 2-2
3rd Ephraim Curtis Middle School (Eric Feng, Brian Yin, Tyler Saklad, Anthony Wang) 1.5-2.5
Booster (U1000) RJ Grey Junior High B (Arjun Girish, Amrit Subramanian, Ritvik Pulya, Daniel Lobo) 0.5-3.5

Grades K-5 Section

1st Cabot School A (Benjamin Fauman, Noah Brauner, Duncan Naylor, Desmond Fitzgerald-Lara) 4-0
2nd Conant School (Advay Goel, Prakul Saxena, Johan Mathew, Rohil Saxena) 3-1
3rd The Learning Project Elementary (Jack Tompros, Oliver Barca, Jude Cannon, Edgar Torres),
    Tenacre Country Day School (Matthew Loose, Ronan Borkar, Alex Yi, Turner Rayment) 2.5-1.5
Booster (U300) Cabot School B (Hernan Fitzgerald-Lara, Luca Guzzi, Thomas Carvalho, Naveh Gershon),
    Nixon Elementary, Sudbury A (Talia Szwarc, Connor Lee, Jesse Harriott, Eron Leung) 2-2

Medal: Eli Traub (Lincoln School, Brookline) 3-1

Grades K-3 Section

1st Carlisle Huskies (Eric Miller, Charles Mastromarino, Jesse Dahlberg, Thomas Zhang) 4-0
2nd-3rd Bowen Elementary School (Isaac Gordon, Eyal Zeldich, Andrew McGuire, Samuel McGuire),
     Peirce School (Nikola Shubochkin, Kannan Chockalingam, Layla Vernon, Conall Schuette, Gabriel Cuba) 2.5-1.5
Booster (U150/Unr) Carlisle Huskies Too (Ranai Shah, Tudor Rosca, David Yoonk Model, Isabella Lai) 2-2

Medals: Christian Haas (Tenacre Country Day School) 3.5-0.5; Sam Parsi (The Learning Project Elementary) 3-1

Tied teams are listed in tiebreak order. Players scoring three or more points whose team did not win a prize won medals.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Jeff Caruso and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

2016 Hurvitz Cup State Team Championship Advance Entries (as of 04/02 8:58 PM): http://goo.gl/sUwqZA 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the Barry S. Spiegel Cup, which is the Massachusetts state scholastic championship for individual players, held March 20th in Marlborough, Mass.

High School Section

1st Mika Brattain 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Michael Isakov, Siddharth Arun 3-1
Top Under 2000 Alex Fauman, Anton Barash 2-2
Top Under 1600 William Nemirovsky 2-2

Age 14 & Under Section

1st Carissa Yip 4-0
2nd-3rd Danila Poliannikov, Alex Yu 3-1

Age 11 & Under Section

1st-2nd David Zhou, Bernie Xu 3-1
3rd Derek Jin 2.5-1.5

Age 8 & Under Section

1st Raymond Xu 4-0
2nd-3rd Thomas Ha, Ryan Wang 2.5-1.5

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Paul Arond, Steve Frymer, and Dmitry Barash.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

3/19: FINAL Adv. Entries for Spiegel (as of 3/19 7:18PM): http://goo.gl/iXDQ0t.

3/18: Adv. Entries (as of 3/18/16 3:40 PM) for Spiegel Cup State Championshp:http://goo.gl/iXDQ0t. 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Congratulations to Philip Adams, my student from Day School of Newton (formerly Larry Eldridge's) through Newton Community Education for winning last Sunday's 4th Qualifer Booster U800 with a perfect 4-0 record. Well done!

Nicholas Sterling
MACA Web Coordinator

Prize winners at the 4th Spiegel Cup Qualifier, held March 6th in Marlborough, Mass.

Age 14 & Under Section:

1st Danila Poliannikov 4-0
2nd Maxwell Zhao 3-1
3rd-4th Michael Mi, Maxwell Chen 2.5-1.5

Age 11 & Under Section:

1st Jerry Li 4-0
2nd-7th Charles Bing, Nang Dang, Vineeth Nareddy, Eddie Wei, Mark Chudnovsky, Rafael Pashkov 3-1

Age 8 & Under Section:

1st Kevin Li 4-0
2nd Victor Feng 3-1
3rd Adithya Sharma 2.5-1.5

Booster Under 1200 Section:

1st-3rd Allen Guo, Jack Tompros, Sahil Dua 3-1

Booster Under 800 Section:

1st Philip Adams 4-0
2nd Saanvi Tiruveedhula 3.5-0.5
3rd-7th Aaron Lu, Amy Lei, Edward Li, Jacob Snell, Ram Godbole 3-1

Booster Under 400 Section:

1st Jacob Furman 4-0
2nd-4th Andrew Miao, Alexa Pelham, Renee Lubomirski 3-1

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Alonzo Ross, Paul Arond, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Final Adv. Entries for 4th Qualifier (as of 3/5 10:58 AM) available: http://goo.gl/g3fBGd. 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

SwissSys Wall Chart. Concord-Carlisle Spiegel Cup Series: 14 & Under

SwissSys Wall Chart. Concord-Carlisle Spiegel Cup Series: 11 & Under

SwissSys Wall Chart. Concord-Carlisle Spiegel Cup Series: 8 & Under

Nicholas Sterling
Chief TD

Prize winners at the Winter Team Challenge, held January 24th in Boxborough, Mass.

Grades K-12 Section

1st Newton North Tiger A (Alex Fauman, Charlie Fauman, David McCabe, Max Bennett) 4-0
2nd-3rd Phillips Exeter Academy (Hunter Rockley, Elias Issa, Patrick Dickinson, Michael Donnelly),
    Newton North Tiger B (Kaifan Wang, Gershon Gilman, Yiyang Zhi, Steven Kann) 2.5-1.5

Medals: William Wang (Nobles A), Jeremy Johnson (Nobles B)

Grades K-6 Section

1st Rook and Roll (Vineeth Nareddy, Meghana Kancharla, Arjun Girish, Venkatraman Varatharajan) 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Concord-Carlisle B (Daniel Erlich-Herzog, Alexander Erlich-Herzog, Lucas Kamon, Henry Booth),
    F4 (Kevin Li, Andrew Su, Eric Feng, Eric Li) 3-1

Medals: David Katsman (Knights of Chessland), Kevin Liu (Chess Mates), Benjamin Zilber (Knights of Chessland),
    Danish Usmani (Concord-Carlisle C), Duncan Naylor (Cabot A), Curtis Ying (The Big Shots), Edward Li (ACLS Lions)

Grades K-3 Section

1st Steve's Team (Jonathan Lobo, Jonathan Traub, Alexander Meng, Kelsey Liu) 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Dragon Striker 113 (Jack McAuliffe, Manas Kontham, Irith Midha, Ethan Lubomirsky),
    ACLS Tigers (Eric Miller, Jeffrey Xu, William Hua, Jesse Dahlberg) 2.5-1.5

Medals: Adithya Sharma (Four Knights and a Queen), Vedant Vohra (Perls of Wisdom)

Tied teams are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger and Steve Frymer. Nita Patel helped during registration.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Advance Entries for the Winter Team Challenge (as of 1/23/16 3:02PM): http://goo.gl/QFpwC2 .

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Submitted by Jeff Caruso, Chair of the MACA Elections Commission

Nicholas Sterling
MACA Web Coordinator

Prize winners at the Gus Gosselin Grade Championship, held January 3rd at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Mass.

Grades 8-12*

1st Siddharth Arun 4-0
2nd-3rd Anton Barash, Gershon Gilman 3-1
Top 9th Grade Alon Trogan 2-2
Top 8th Grade Kevin Chen 2-2

(Anton Barash is in 9th grade but finished 2nd overall.)

Grade 7*

1st Michael Mi 3-1
2nd Amrit Subramanian 2-2
3rd Sei Young Jang 1-3

* Grades 7-12 were combined into a single section with separate prizes.

Grade 6

1st Maxwell Zhao 4-0
2nd-3rd Carah Su, Arjun Girish 2.5-1.5

Grade 5

1st Benjamin Zilber 4-0
2nd-3rd Brian Yu, Eric Gu 2.5-1.5

Grade 4

1st Lewis Tu 4-0
2nd-3rd Krishna Mutnuri, Rafael Pashkov 3-1

Grade 3

1st Nang Dang 4-0
2nd Winston Zhao 3-1
3rd-4th Tianna Wang, David Katsman 2-2

Grade 2

1st Henry He 4-0
2nd-3rd Victor Feng, Ethan Lubomirsky 3-1
 

Grades K-1

1st Ryan Wang 4-0
2nd-3rd Lawrence Tu, Alexander Meng 3-1
Top Kindergarten NangK Dang 2-2

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Nicholas Sterling, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Adv. Entries (as of 1/2/16 2:42 PM) for 2016 Gus Gosselin / Massachusetts Grade Championship: http://goo.gl/AVCyXa 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster