2023 Year-In-Review
Sunday Night Chess
By Paul Anderson
Colorado Springs Chess Club President
The Colorado Springs Chess Club is an affiliate of Chess.com and meets every Sunday night for online chess. We typically have a 30-minute, Blitz Arena at 6:15pm followed by a Rapid Swiss at 7:00pm (4SS, G/10+10).
https://www.chess.com/club/colorado-springs-chess-club?ref_id=7846680
The online club started on April 10, 2013 after the Right Move Public Chess Club opened a competing club one block away from our downtown location, and I saw they had an online presence. As an officer of the Colorado Springs Chess Club, I could not let our club fall behind in the technological arms race. From 2013 to 2019, the online club grew to 11 members. Then pandemic!
Since the pandemic shut down our physical location, we actually started using the online club. Our first online event was on April 12th, 2020: CSCC Resurrection Online. 17 players showed up to reconnect with chess on a different platform.
I had planned to keep the online club going only until the physical site reopened, which happened on August 2nd, 2022. However, the online club took off more than I expected. We have run 189 events with 253 unique players, and, this year, the membership passed 500. The Right Move Public Chess Club ran 0 events with 0 unique players and had a membership of 41 during the same time. I think the Cold War is officially over.
Since running the online club keeps me coming back to the Chess.com website often, my chess addiction has only gotten worse. Here are some statistics they sent me for my 2023 year-in-review:
- You played 3,175 games (1,642 Won - 51.8%, 268 Drawn - 8.3%, 1,265 Lost - 39.9%)
- Your all-time longest streak was 331 days (that's longer than 99% of other players)
- You played games against people from 138 different countries (that's 58% of all countries)
- You won 1,642 games online (top 1% of live chess players)
- Your best win was against LenaMarie2004 (2357)
- You played 227 games against your friends
- Your chess best friend was HASamuel (49 games together)
- The most watched chess video of the year was Magnus Carlsen Arrives With Only 30 Seconds To Play (2,908,077 views)
[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.11.18"]
[Round "?"]
[White "LenaMarie2004"]
[Black "cschessnews"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2357"]
[BlackElo "2190"]
[TimeControl "300"]
[EndTime "10:28:38 PST"]
[Termination "cschessnews won by resignation"]
1. f3 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e4 Nf6 4. e5 Ng8 5. Bd3 g6 6. c3 Bg7 7. Ne2 Nh6 8. h4 Bf5 9. Bxf5 Nxf5 10. g4 Nh6 11. Bf4 f6 12. e6 Na6 13. Na3 Nc7 14. Qd2 Ng8 15. Qe3 Qc8 16. Bxc7 Qxc7 17. O-O-O O-O-O 18. h5 Bh6 19. Nf4 Bxf4 20. Qxf4 Qxf4+ 21. Kb1 g5 22. Rhf1 h6 23. Nc2 f5 24. Nb4 Nf6 25. Nd3 Qd6 26. Rg1 fxg4 27. fxg4 Qxe6 28. Rde1 Qd6 29. Ne5 Rhf8 30. Ng6 Rf7 31. Ne5 Rg7 32. b4 Ne4 33. Kb2 Rf8 34. Rg2 Rf4 35. Ree2 Rg8 36. Kb3 Qf6 37. Rb2 Rf2 38. Rbxf2 Nxf2 39. a4 Qf4 40. Ng6 Qe3 41. Rxf2 Qxf2 42. Nxe7+ Kd7 43. Nxg8 Qf8 44. Nxh6 0-1
Tuesday Night Chess
By Paul Anderson
Colorado Springs Chess Club President
The Colorado Springs Chess Club is an affiliate of USCF and meets every Tuesday night for OTB chess. We typically have a month-long, Swiss tournament (G/90+30) at 6:00pm. See the calendar for details:
https://sites.google.com/view/colorado-springs-chess-club
The Over-The-Board club started in 1947. We didn’t have an official City Championship until 1965, which was won by Francis Mason. Since that time 38 different players have won the City Crown. The most recent winner was Rhett Langseth, who won the 57th Colorado Springs City Chess Championship in October, just after getting engaged.
In addition, Rhett has filled out his application for Best Chess Player In The Springs by winning the 28th City Speed Chess Championship in December. He is the first player to win both titles in one calendar year since LM Josh Bloomer did it in 2017.
Since I am a stat-guy, I like the Chess.com year-in-review, even if it makes me realize I am playing way too much online chess. So, I pulled some of the statistics from the Tuesday night club to make our 2023 year-in-review:
- We played 379 games (350 Won - 46.2%, 58 Drawn - 7.6%, 350 Lost - 46.2%)
- Our all-time longest streak was 1 day (we only meet once a week)
- We played games against people from 1 different countries (we are in the middle of the US, what do you expect?)
- We won 350 games Over-The-Board (our best event was the Speed Challenger with 50 wins)
- Our best win was against Chris Motley (2014)
- We played 355 games against our friends (I had to subtract Whinemiller games)
- Our chess best friend was Clint Eads (58 games)
- The most watched chess stream of the year was #ChessConnectsUs Championship Open Section (64 views - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLOn9wLUTmg)
[Event "September Swiss 90"]
[Site "Colorado Springs"]
[Date "2023.09.26"]
[Round "4.3"]
[White "Motley, Chris"]
[Black "McGough, Mark"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A28"]
[WhiteElo "2014"]
[BlackElo "1780"]
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. e3 Bb4 5. Qc2 O-O 6. Nd5 Bc5 7. Ng5 g6 8. Nxf6+ Qxf6 9. Ne4 Qe7 10. a3 a5 11. b3 d6 12. Nc3 Bf5 13. d3 Qd8 14. Be2 Ne7 15. Bb2 c6 16. g4 Be6 17. Ne4 Ba7 18. Nf6+ Kg7 19. d4 exd4 20. exd4 d5 21. Ne4 Qc7 22. Qd2 Rae8 23. c5 Bb8 24. Nd6 Rd8 25. Bc1 Ng8 26. Qc3 Qe7 27. Bf4 Bxg4 28. Be5+ f6 29. Bxg4 fxe5 30. dxe5 Rf4 31. Be2 Bxd6 32. exd6+ Qf6 33. Qxf6+ Nxf6 34. f3 Re8 35. Kd2 Nd7 36. Rac1 Rd4+ 37. Ke1 Rf4 38. Kf2 Ne5 39. Kg3 g5 40. Rhe1 Ref8 41. Rf1 Kf6 42. Rce1 Rd4 43. f4 gxf4+ 44. Rxf4+ Ke6 45. h3 Rfxf4 46. Bg4+ Kf6 47. Kh4 Nxg4 48. hxg4 Rfe4 49. Rf1+ Ke6 50. d7 Kxd7 51. Rf7+ Re7 52. Rf6 Kc7 53. b4 axb4 54. axb4 Rc4 55. Kh5 d4 56. g5 d3 57. b5 cxb5 58. g6 hxg6+ 59. Kh6 d2 60. Rf1 Rd7 0-1
