Plane of the Week and Weekly Newsletter 10/28/2025
PLANES & CHESS WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
10/28/2025
Welcome to edition No. 15! It's almost Halloween, and since Halloween is celebrated around the world, we've decided to make this newsletter Halloween-themed.
|Special Feature!|
Ghost Stories: A Creepy True-Story Aviation Mystery
It’s the winter of the Cold War, December 26th, 1980. The world hangs in peril at the brink of nuclear war. Outside the nuclear-armed base RAF Woodbridge, two sentries stand guard through the dark chill of the night. The dense forest outside is an eerie quiet, broken only by the distant sounds of insects rustling through the thick growth. Then, suddenly, the dark of the night is broken in violent fashion by a set of lights descending into the forest a mere few thousand feet from their location. At this time, the guards suspect an aircraft crash. But what they will find will be much more sinister.
The First Chilling Encounter
A search party was dispatched, trudging through the tall, dark pines and thick undergrowth. Aside from the rustling of their feet, the forest was silent. Dead silent. Then, just ahead, a malevolent glow, shining through the dark, like a massive, shining eye.
When the bewildered party finally broke through the undergrowth, they saw it: a large, triangular metallic object, about nine feet across and eight feet high, utterly silent and defying physics. It wasn't floating; it was suspended in the air, emitting a pulsing red light on top and a bank of blue lights beneath that bathed the clearing in an alien illumination. The sight was so utterly wrong that the animals on a nearby farm were driven into a wild, desperate frenzy.
As Sergeant Jim Penniston, one of the sentries, attempted to approach the craft, he later claimed to feel intense heat radiating from its core. He felt a chilling sense of static and a "time-stop" moment. The object then began to glide effortlessly through the trees, maneuvering with impossible agility before disappearing in a blinding flash—leaving the men thoroughly disoriented and psychologically traumatized.
The Unsettling Aftermath
The next morning, evidence of the last night’s encounter was chilling as the encounter itself. Broken branches, charred trees, and oddly-shaped scars on the trees suggested intense heat, or worse, an unknown, unfathomably powerful energy. But that was not all. Three distinct, triangular depressions sat in the hard-frozen soil, as if something impossibly heavy had rested there. Whatever had been there the night before was truly paranormal.
Colonel Halt's Terrifying Testimony
Two nights later, the deputy base commander, Colonel Charles I. Halt, accompanied by a small contingent of servicemen, set out to further investigate the site. What they found deepened the mystery from strange to terrifying. Radiation levels in the depressions were found to be exponentially higher than the surrounding soil.
But the night wasn't over. As Halt recorded his famous memo on a micro-cassette recorder, he and his men looked up. Three small, star-like objects began to pulse in the sky. As they watched in utter shock, the lights—described as "red sun-like"—began to dart and stop abruptly, performing maneuvers that no known aircraft could manage. One of the lights seemed to shine a penetrating beam down on the men's feet before dissolving into the darkness.
By the end of the ordeal, one thing was clear. These highly trained base guards- responsible for the security of nuclear weapons—were utterly helpless against an unknown presence that invaded their perimeter with impunity and left behind physical and radiological evidence of its existence. Whatever… thing… this was remains a mystery, but its chilling tracks remain etched into history.
|Irregular Format|
Plane(s) of the Week: Scary Names!
Today, unlike most days where we have a single plane of the week (or a military and comercial), we've compiled for you a list of the four planes with the scariest names. Which has the scariest name? Debate in the comments!
#1: The P-61 Black Widow
Black in color, large, powerful, and menacing, the P-61 Black Widow was the US's first dedicated night fighter. As large as a medium bomber, with a twin-boom tail and large turret, the P-61 proved incredibly effective in combat. Flying in both theaters of WWII, the P-61 is credited with 127 aircraft kills and 18 German V-1 flying bomb kills. Though lesser known than its P-38 and P-51 counterparts, the P-61 was a remarkable and terrifying combat aircraft.
Lockheed AC-130 Spectre/Ghostrider/Spooky/Angel of Death
Ah yes- the flare shooting, cannon-firing angel of death. This attack C-130 variant is armed to the teeth- Machine guns, howitzers, flares, and these names! You know a plane's going to be terrifying when every one of its variants has names like "Angel of Death" and "Ghostrider"!
De Havilland Vampire
The de Havilland vampire has arguably the one of the scariest names in aviation. Though this British monster lacked sharp fangs, its guns made up for it.
B-2 Spirit 
This massive, triangular-shaped bomber looks like something from another world. And its name does not disappoint. Able to slip by radar completely invisible, "Spirit" is a very appropriate name!
Gambit of the Week: The Halloween Gambit
The Halloween Gambit sacrifices a knight for a minefield. Literally. Once Black accepts the “free” knight, White has so many traps and tricks that I can hardly keep up. You start by slowly chasing the knights, gaining ridiculous amounts of tempo. Along the mainline, you slowly chase the knights away with d4, d5, f4, and e5. There are three separate lines that can go from here. After a failed attempt to pin your pawn, Black is forced to retreat. Next, you push your pawn storm, sacrifice a knight, and go home with the queen. Along the two other less common lines, the game goes as follows: (line 1) You chase their knights, and they retreat without resistance. After h4 and h5, you both get your bishops out. You threaten the queen and start a deadly mating attack that does not relent. (line 2) They retreat immediately, and after subsequent pawn trades, Qf6 only seems natural for White. But after Nb5, Kd8, Be3, and a6, a brutal sequence forces the loss of a queen and eventually checkmate.
Chess News
Speed Chess Championship: Round 1 Wraps Up (Current): GM Hans Neimann advances to the second round after his victory against GM Ding Liren.
FIDE Announces Investigation into Vladimir Kramnik (Current): The FIDE Ethics Commission has begun an investigation into GM and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik's statements in the months leading up to GM Daniel Naroditsky's death.
Petition to Ban GM Kramnik Opens (Current): A Change.org petition has been organized to call for GM and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik's FIDE title to be revoked on the basis of violating ethics standards. The petition can be found here.
Weekly Chess Riddle
A piece is lost, the game seems thrown,
But this sacrifice is to dethrone,
The enemy king, piece by piece,
By distracting his army from the squares policed
By them, guarded carefully, and now lost carelessly.
What Tactic Am I?
Trophies will be awarded to the first correct answer. The answer and explanation will be in the next edition.
Previous Riddle Answer:
The answer was desperado, in which a trapped piece (or piece to be captured) takes another piece to gain maximum material before its demise.
Plane Trivia
What was the plane to fly across the world? Only answer if you know it already for 5 trophies.
Club Happenings
Red signifies “new” news
New Member: @Cassie-Madore is our newest member. Welcome!
Dogfight Chess: Please join the latest Planes & Chess Dogfight Chess Tournament!
Vote Chess: We are playing in numerous vote chess matches against KLM Airlines, ISM Chess Crew, Baseball Chess Crew, and others. Good luck and play well!
Tournament Tracker
Dogfight Chess (Status: Open for Registration):
https://www.chess.com/tournament/planes-chess-presents-dogfight-chess-no-4-1
Club Daily Match (Status: None):
Regular Daily Chess (Status: open for registration):
https://www.chess.com/tournament/planes-chess-presents-daily-chess
Chess960 Daily Chess (Status: None):
Vote Chess (Status: open for registration):
https://www.chess.com/votechess/game/374078
https://www.chess.com/votechess/game/395945
Member Activity
@CheckerTails31 and @Luca-Castle were most active this week. Great job!
To compete to be listed, post in the forums, chat, answer the riddle, and partake in other club-related activities.
Editor’s Note
Happy early Halloween and welcome to edition 15! This is likely the longest newsletter in club history, thanks to this week's unconventional format for Plane of the Week and Special Feature< We are now 2 members short of our 40 member goal (so close!). In other news, as mentioned above, the Kramnik petition is open for anyone to sign, so if you would like to take a stance against cyberbullying, sign it here (if you prefer to be anonymous, put "anonymous" or "name deferred" as your first and last name, then just make up an email).
Thanks for reading!
