Congratulations to John Roush, who is a winner of the US Chess Outstanding Career Achievement Award. Also notable is Former US Senator Jay Rockefeller, who was named as Special Friend of US Chess. See the full announcement at uschess.org.
4th Peter DuPuy Memorial
The 4th Peter DuPuy memorial event was held June 3, 2017 at the Benedum Civic Center in Bridgeport.
Jim Anthony, a friend of Peter DuPuy, attended the event and told us a little bit about Peter. Jim and Peter had been friends for some time, and Peter would always tell Jim how he was in the middle of playing chess on the computer when Jim would call. Charles McCallister began working for Jim at a nuclear plant in Vermont several years ago. Jim found out that Charles played chess and introduced him to Peter. The three of them were good friends from then on.
Peter had heart trouble and died seven years ago with Jim and Chuck at his side. Chuck decided to hold a memorial tournament in Peter’s honor and has held the event four times now in West Virginia where Chuck resides.
21 players attended the event, including Grandmaster Alex Shabalov of Pittsburgh, who has played in all four. Alex won the event with a 4-0 score. The running joke of the event was to see who could last the longest against him.
Lawrence Iorio was up first and lasted 19 moves before impending checkmate. Michael Felton was next and faced the same fate in 9 moves. Markle Butcher castled into fire in an 6. h3 Najdorf and lasted 22 moves.
Your webmaster (Benjamin Good) was the only other 3-0 going into the last round. I made some early mistakes and was faced with a 2 pawn disadvantage and a weakened king position. However, I had a slight bit of counterplay with an active queen and rook and weakened dark squares near Shabalov’s king. Alex thought for a good twenty minutes about how to handle the situation. He gave up one pawn to trade off the pieces, and won a rook and pawn endgame. The game was the last game to finish in the tournament and went 46 moves.
Thanks to donations from Jim Anthony and Chuck McCallister, nearly everyone received a prize. The math was a bit difficult, though!
1st – GM Alex Shabalov 4
2nd – Ed Garner 3.5
Bridgeport Library #10
15 players competed in the 10th Bridgeport Library event on May 20, 2017. Sam Timmons won the event with a perfect 3/3. Dan Cady was second at 2.5.
CSCC Inaugural Tournament
The Inaugural event of the Checkmate Scholastic Chess Club was held on May 13, 2017. 5 players competed. Sam Timmons and Daniel Preece shared first place with 2 out of 3.
Maybe chess isn’t so bad after all
Well, since your webmaster won the chess tournament today, perhaps we’ll go back to being the WV Chess Association. Hope you enjoyed April 1.
Bridgeport Library #9
Ben Good won the 9th Bridgeport Library tournament with a 3-0 score. Ed Garner was second.
The Exponent-Telegram stopped by the tournament and spoke to a few of us. Here is their story.
The WVCA is now a checkers organization
The WVCA has decided after 76 years of playing this futile game, that we should try and simplify things a bit. To that end, we are now a checkers organization! All hail Marion Tinsley.
We’ll have our last hoorah at chess today at the Bridgeport Library at noon.
Games from the 78th WV State Championship
I recently received the game files from the 78th WV State Championship. They can be downloaded here. I won’t swear to the accuracy of a few of these games. Some of you are much better chess players than writers!
Harrison County Championship
32 players (10 open, 22 scholastic) competed in the Harrison County Championship, held on February 25, 2017 at Lincoln High School in Shinnston. Ed Garner won the open section with 3 points, and half the field (!) tied for second with 2.5. Elias Garden swept the scholastic section with a perfect 4-0.
Marjorie Sue Greer 1940 – 2017
It is with deepest condolences that we announce the passing of Marjorie Greer, Robert Greer’s mother. Her obituary can be found at burnsidefuneralhome.com.