• Our weekly schedule will be changing, effective Monday, October 11, 2004
  
  
  • Change in weekday club hours: On Monday, the club will open at 11 AM instead of 10 AM; on Thursday and Friday, the club will be open until 10 PM, rather than 11 PM
  • Change in weekend club hours: club will open an hour before the first round for registration, and 30 minutes before the round otherwise; the club will stay open until 30 minutes after the last game of the day finishes
  • The weekly blitz events, previously held on Monday nights will be moving to Thursday nights; registration is from 6-6:45 PM and the tournament will start at 7 PM; there will be no simultaneous exhibitions on Thursday nights
  • The weekly lecture for advanced and intermediate level players, previously held on Friday nights from 6-7 PM, are moving to Monday nights from 6-7 PM, directly before the start of the Mini-Marathon games
  • Friday nights will be open for more casual chess, chess variants, and even other board games; the weekly bughouse (or other chess variant tourney) will run from 7 PM to 9:30 PM
• Andries victorious in Monday Night Mini-Marathon
  
  
  • Craig Andries was the winner of the club’s first Monday Night tournament, with a perfect score of 4-0. Craig played well throughout the event. He will be playing in the next Marathon, started last Monday (10/18), so if you think you can give him a little competition, come on out! Entry is possible in any round with half point byes. The event now has a member entry fee of $10 with prizes.
• EBCC Quads
  
  
  • Carl Woebcke won his quad with a 3-0 score. In the other section (which became a quint rather than a quad when a missing player turned up late), there was a three way tie at 2-1 between Senior Masters Dmitry Zilberstein and David Pruess and National Master Andy Lee.
• Burlingame Tournament Report
  
  
  • EBCC Member Carl Woebcke had a nice result in the Booster section of the Burlingame Open, winning his first three before losing in the last round. In the top section IM Ricardo De Guzman was the winner. The tournament drew about 55 players.
• Western States Open in Reno
  
  
  • Many Bay Area players went to Reno last weekend for the Western States Open. Results and games will appear in the next EBCC newsletter.
• Bhat-Fritz Match
  
  
  • Vinay Bhat played two heroic battles with Fritz but was ultimately defeated by our club’s resident silicon monster, Fritz 8. The first of the two games, in which Vinay played the French Defense with black is annotated by the human player in this newsletter. The second, featuring Vinay on the white side of an open Sicilian (an opening that even the mighty Gary Kasparov was unwilling to play against the machine) was won when Bhat got into time pressure and lost to a tactical trick. 10-15 people watched analysis by IM John Donaldson and NM Andy Lee, and we very well may hold a similar exhibition in the future.
• League Plans
  
  
  • EBCC is organizing a chess league. Teams will be in two divisions, open and under 18. Teams can represent an organization (like a company or a university) or a geographical area (like a city). Matches will occur one weekend day out of the month. Teams can have reserves in case of conflicts in schedule. We are looking both for individuals who would like to play in this league, and those who would be interested in captaining a team. Space is limited for the first season, so let us know. League play will begin in January 2005.
• Call to Fide-rated players
  
  
  • EBCC is considering running some FIDE-rated events. If you are interested in a spot in one, let us know!

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