Colorado Springs Chess Club

Game Of The Week This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Sunday-night, online, rapid tournaments.  This was another event that I wasn't sure if I was going to be able join.  Cal was playing the University of Washington this week.  Go Bears! My cousin, Daniel Scott, was starting at safety again, but this time we were going to meet his mom and brother at the game.  This was going to be his mother's first game outside of California.   His father created the nickname "Tre ...

Game Of The Week Thank you, Paul, for inviting me back for another installment of “Tim Brennan week!" Things got back to somewhat “normal” chess wise in the later part of 2021 after over a full year of things being shut down by the pandemic.  I got to be one of the “gaming monks” again this year at the Renaissance Festival, which was fun.  The crowds were especially crazy this summer.  While at the Ren Fest, I asked Buck, “What happened to Brian Wall’s emails.  Did he stop writing them”?  B...

Game Of The Week This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Sunday-night, online, rapid tournaments.  I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to play in this week's event since I was flying home from the Cal vs TCU football game on Sunday.  My cousin, Daniel Scott, is the starting safety for the University of California at Berkley's Golden Bears.  Go Bears! See image on blog:  https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/2021/09/pick-six.htmlCal vs TCU - Pick Six Daniel had the gam...

Game Of The Week This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Sunday-night, online, rapid tournaments. This week we played a club match against the Colorado School of Mines Chess Club instead of our usual Swiss events. I met them while I was playing chess at the Colorado Renaissance Festival as a monk over the summer. They were some of the better opponents I faced at the Ren Fest.  So, I wanted to put together the best fantasy picks to create my chess team.  I thought I sh...

Game Of The Week This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Sunday-night, online, rapid tournaments.  It was played by Koen Beaver and John Wagner.  Koen started with the club online in February and has played in 12 events.  John is new to the club and this was his first event.  He was very patient to wait 9 minutes for Koen's first move.   The computer will start the rounds immediately after the last game of the previous round ends, and sometimes you get caught away from ...

Game Of The Week This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's 4th Wednesday August Rapid OTB.  After playing in several Blitz tournaments, Will Wolf requested a longer time control of G/10+4.  The increment of 4 seconds seemed strange to me.  From where does that come?  Is Will secretly a trucker? Actually, the the "10-4" lingo comes from Police codes that were created in the 1940s.  Here are the first ten: 10-1 = Poor reception10-2 = Good reception10-3 = Stop transmitting1...

Game Of The Week This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Sunday Night Chess events.  It was a bit of an unusual tournament.  I didn't get to play since I was at the Renaissance Festival again.  So, I can only guess about the peculiarities.   I can tell it started with 3 games and 7 players.  I thought the computer would shorten the event to 3 rounds when less than 8 players joined at the start.  Maybe it only happens when 6 players have joined because the 7th player wil...

Game Of The Week This week's game comes from my database of 1,030 standard-rated, USCF games.  The database came to an abrupt halt on March 10, 2020 after my 42nd win over Mark "The Money-Man" McGough.  Then the club was shut down. Mark is the Treasurer of the Colorado Springs Chess Club and my most frequent opponent since 2010.  We have been working to get the Acacia Ballroom back open, but the Housing Authority controls the space and does not seem to be in any hurry to re-open.  I guess th...

Game Of The Week This week's game comes from the Colorado Springs Chess Club's Sunday Night Chess. It was played by the top 2 seeds in the event, Brian Rountree and Jose Llacza. They both have Rapid ratings over 1900. How they got their rapid ratings so high is beyond me. I am languishing in the class B range with my online, Rapid rating. Of course, I have developed some bad habits with my chess-study during the pandemic. Mostly, I haven't done anything. I have had a hard time motivating m...

Game Of The Week This week's game comes from the book by David Edmonds and John Eidinow called Bobby Fischer Goes To War, How A Lone American Star Defeated The Soviet Chess Machine. I was travelling across the country this past week to my sister's 25th Anniversary party at the Cubs vs Nationals game (Cubs won!) and back to my Uncle's funeral in Pasadena. I figured that I would have little to no chance to play chess or go over games for a week. So, being the chess nut that I am, I had to bri...