How It Started vs How It's Going
Game Of The Week
This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Right Place Rapid Online. I was a late entrant to the event since I was a chess-playing monk at the Colorado Renaissance Festival during the day. It is nice that the computer will allow a number of late entrants to join the event if you can't make it before 7 pm on Sunday nights. Also, the computer will not pair you if you are not online for any particular round and will allow you to withdraw with just the click of the mouse.
I was only a half hour late, but I just missed the start of round 2 by a few seconds. Also, the turnout was light with the holiday. So, the computer will shorten the event to 3 rounds when less than 8 players have entered the event at the start. Due to these factors, I only ended up with one game to go over.
I got to play Albert Gardner. He is a former Coloradoan who has retired to Nevada. He played in some notable events in Colorado Springs like the 2004 Winter Springs Open, the 2004 Southern Colorado Open, and the 2003 Colorado Springs Open. I checked my chess stats database, and while we played in some of the same events, we never faced each other, until COVID.
Since I was strolling down memory lane by dusting off my chess stats database, and since I just tweeted about the How It Started vs How It's Going challenge, I thought I would share some of the differences between last year and this year.
https://twitter.com/cschessnews/status/1413209450324795395
One difference I found out is that one of the club officers will go on my daily walks to any place, at any time, and in any weather. The other is a big chicken, afraid of extreme cold and torrential rains.
Mark "The Money Man" McGough is the club treasurer and we began meeting once a week to walk, usually to Popeye's for their Tuesday special. We are both trying to lose weight and eat better. Tuesday is my day for protein, and Mark was impressed with how ravenous a carnivore I could be with my 2 pieces, leaving only a handful of bones and sucking out the marrow.
See chart on blog: https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/2021/07/how-it-started-vs-how-its-going.html
Category
How It Started
How It’s Going
Popeye’s Walk
Weight
253 lbs
189 lbs
Toilet Paper Reserve
4 rolls
12 rolls
Chess.com Members
11
179
Virtual Medals Awarded
0
191
While the virtual medals started out as a joke, which I called the Corona Chess Olympics. I have now collected 2 years worth of statistics. So, the club has decided to reward those players for their commitment to our online presence with a 6-month Supporting Membership to the Colorado Springs Chess Club.
See chart on blog: https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/2021/07/how-it-started-vs-how-its-going.html
In recognition of their olympian performance in 2020, Brian Wall wins the reward for most Gold medals, Jeff Fox claims the reward for most Silver medals, and John Brezina earns the reward for most Bronze medals. In addition, Vedant Margale gets the reward for Best Attendance with 31 events joined.
Year
Medal Count
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Totals
2020
cschessnews
6
10
4
20
jfoxhoot
4
4
6
14
Czechmate1972
2
2
7
11
BrianWall
8
1
2
11
2020 Total
38
35
38
111
Grand Total
67
64
60
191
For the Supporting Members who were current at the time the club shut down, we have extended the expiration dates out a year and a half. Here is a list of current Supporting Members of the Colorado Springs Chess Club.
See chart on blog: https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/2021/07/how-it-started-vs-how-its-going.html
In the game, the computer gave me 96.9% accuracy score, with only 1 mistake. I was quite surprised since I missed winning the exchange on move 19, which was not the mistake. The mistake came in this position where I quickly moved the Knight to guard my B-Pawn. However, the computer had another idea for the best move and gave me a chance to retry my move to see if I could find it. It took me a couple of tries to find the computer move, and even my old Fritz 8 engine was not in agreement with "The Best." See if you can find the computer move?
See diagram on blog: https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/2021/07/how-it-started-vs-how-its-going.html
White to move
How It Started vs How It's Going
[Event "Right Place Online"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "2021.07.04"]
[Round "3.3"]
[White "Anderson, Paul"]
[Black "Gardner, Albert"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B08"]
[WhiteElo "1775"]
[BlackElo "1497"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "2021.07.04"]
[TimeControl "600+10"]
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. h3 O-O 6. Bd3 b6 7. Be3 Ba6 8. O-O
Bxd3 9. Qxd3 c5 10. d5 Nbd7 11. Rad1 a6 12. a4 Qc7 13. Rfe1 Rfb8 14. Bf4 c4 15.
Qe2 b5 16. e5 dxe5 17. Nxe5 Nxe5 18. Bxe5 Qc8 19. axb5 Rb6 20. bxa6 Raxa6 21.
Nb1 Rb7 22. b3 Ra8 23. bxc4 Ra4 24. Nd2 Nd7 25. Bxg7 Kxg7 26. Qxe7 Nf6 27. Qe5
Raa7 28. Ne4 Qd8 29. Qxf6+ Qxf6 30. Nxf6 Kxf6 31. c5 Rb5 32. d6 Rxc5 33. d7
Rxd7 34. Rxd7 Rxc2 35. Ree7 1-00
https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=116758
This Week In Chess
On July 4th, the Colorado Springs Chess Club held the Right Place Rapid Online (3SS, G/10+10). Brian Rountree got Gold! He has earned 9 medals in our Corona Chess Olympics over the past 2 years and finally made it to the top of the podium. Vedant Margale and Jeff Fox notched their 2nd Gold Medals for 2021.
Place, Right Place Rapid Online, Score
1 "#1 KingVed (1578)" 2.0
2 "#1 linuxguy1 (1804)" 2.0
3 "#1 jfoxhoot (1696)" 2.0
4 "#4 cschessnews (1775)" 1.0
5 "#5 pktiger90 (1250)" 1.0
6 "#5 albertgardner (1484)" 1.0
