• East Bay Chess Club 1st Club Championship:
  
  
  • NM Andy Lee won the EBC 1st Club Championship with a score of 3.5/4, drawing IM Vinay Bhat in the penultimate round and defeating SM David Pruess in the final round (game annotated in instructional section). Lee was assured sole first place and the title of EBC Club Champion when SM Dmitry Zilberstein defeated Expert David Steel, the only other player who could hope to finish with 3.5 points. Daichi Siegrist won the top junior prize with an excellent undefeated score of 3 out of 4. David Steel won the brilliancy prize for his win over fellow Expert David Barton (this game can also be found with annotations in the instructional section).
  • A total of 21 players participated in the unrated, no entry fee, 40/2 SD/1 event. The field included one International Master, two Senior Masters, one National Master, and two Experts.
• East Bay Chess Club 1st Bughouse Championship
  
  
  • The first East Bay Chess Club Bughouse Championship was won by the team of Jason Yun and Daichi Siegrist, the club’s U18 Champion. In the fierce competition four teams raced for the top spot, with Jason and Daichi coming out a clear point ahead of 2nd-3rd place finishers David Chock with Teddy Stenmark, and Frank Li with David Pruess. In 5 double rounds, Jason and Daichi gave up 1-1 splits to the two second place teams, and won their other three matches 2-0, to finish with 8 points. 12 players on 6 teams enjoyed the all-play-all competition, which was capped off by a massive 5-board, 10-player game of bug, the club’s current record for largest bughouse game.
• EBCC 1st Action Championship
  
  
  • The EBCC’s first Action Championship drew a small but solid field of 9 players. Few players in the area are very accustomed to the time control of g/30. In New York though, many tournaments are run at this time control, in order to give people a chance to play rated games, and entire tournaments on weekday evenings. The EBCC will be running such four game evening tournaments, starting this Wednesday (8/25). In the Action Championship, Senior Master David Pruess’s experience from the New York Masters (where he played about 10 times while staying in New York) came into play, as he swept through the event with a 5-0 score.
• EBCC 1st Fischer Random Championship
  
  
  • I have not heard of any Fischer Random tournaments being played before, so this may have been the first serious Fischer Random competition in the Area. In Fischer Random Chess, the pieces are shuffled on the back rank, subject to two constraints: that the bishops be of different colors, and that the king be placed somewhere between the two rooks. The castling rules for Fischer Random are that regardless of where the king and rook start, kingside castling always leaves the king on the g1 or g8 square and the rook on the f1 or f8 square; while queenside castling always leaves the king on c1 (c8) and the rook on d1 (d8). This means that if, for example, your king started on b1, with a rook on a1, castling queenside would actually move your king one step towards the kingside!
  • The obvious argument for Fischer Random chess is that it includes all the elements of chess strategy and tactics for which we love our game, while eliminating the element of memorizing (and researching) openings. This decreases the possibilities of seeing a game peter out into a draw quickly as both side throw out moves they have read in a magazine or opening manual. We also think that running such tournaments will allow players, who are discouraged from taking tournaments up again because they have not kept up with opening theory, to play once more.
  • The first FR tournament was a fun affair played at the rate of all moves in 45 minutes. 10 players (half of them rated over 2000-- stiff competition!) took a shot at new opening positions, which changed with every round. In the end, SM David Pruess took first with a 4-0 tally. If you are interested in seeing what Fischer Random Chess is about, check out the analysis of a game from this tournament in the instructional materials section. And stay posted for the next FR tournament at the club.
• Monday Night Marathon kicks off
  
  
  • 8 players competed in the first night of our Monday Marathon. Although all favorites emerged victorious, the games were very well contested. The games, played at a time control of 30/90, g/60, begin every Monday (except 9/6) at 7 pm. Byes are available for any round. To be paired for a round, you must come register by 6:45 pm the night of a game, or let us know a day in advance by email. The top seed as of now is SM David Pruess.

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