DCC November 2016 Report

....to stir the competitive fire that burns in the belly of every tournament chess player.

The Denver Chess Club is always looking for ways to enhance the competitive nature of chess players. Towards that end, let me start out this report by announcing the Upcoming 2017 DCC Grand Prix Tour.

Briefly, any and all players who play on Tuesday nights, DCC weekend tournaments, and DCC one day events will be awarded points for participation and score. Dean Clow has already wrote software that will automatically track and update each players point total over the course of the year. Is that like totally awesome or what? This idea would not be possible without Dean's system. The tour will have a guaranteed minimum prize fund of 1500 dollars. If attendance at DCC events is greater than anticipated, the prize fund will increase proportionally.

The prize fund will be divided equally between 5 rating classes, with 3 prizes for each class. To be fair, a players average standard rating over the year will be used to determine the players rating class with regards to winning tour prize money. In addition, we have structured the point system in such a way that the 3 major DCC weekend tournaments will nearly equal the maximum possible point total playing Tuesday nights. Plus, we plan to have at least 4 one day events that will essentially be tour bonus points.

We feel that while having guaranteed prize money is all well and good, the DCC tour is more to stir the competitive fire that burns in the belly of every tournament chess player. The burning desire to be the points leader in your rating class. Thus the DCC Grand Prix Tour. Light it up, baby :-)

We think the DCC Tour will be just as intense and exciting as the Tour de France :-)

On with the November report. We did slip a little below our over 40 players each week average, but not by very much. So I am not even going to mention it :-) As always we split the prize fund between the two sections based on the number of games played. There was 68 games on the Open and 76 in the U1600. So the split ended up being: Open = $260, and U1600 = $290.

We did not lack for competition, although we have been missing the participation of our club President the last couple of months. As long as I have been involved with the DCC, over and over I've been asked, "Is Brian going to be there?", or "will i get to play Brian?", and nobody reading this is saying, Brian who.

I understand why Mr. Wall wants to play private one on one matches, rather than a 1st round Swiss System pairing. It is just not going to be a challenging game for him. Nobody is more competitive over the board than Brian Wall. Mr. Colorado Chess plays to win every game. He only makes a draw to avoid losing and saves lost games seemingly at will. When he is playing "weak sauce" he doesn't have to find moves, the moves are just given to him. Meaning the much lower rated player either ? or ?? and there is nothing for Brian to find in the position.

I am not singling out Mr. Wall. I think it is generally true that higher rated players only want to play equal strength. The competitive nature of chess players again. if there is no resistance it is simply not a competitive game.

Speaking of high rated players...

Anyway, all of that was because I want to say we had 2 masters and 6 Experts playing this month. Instead I have to say, we had Chris Peterson and 6 Experts and a couple of 1900's. Chris took care of business by winning all his games after a 1st round bye. Jason Loving had 1st place in his sights, as he was a half point ahead of Mr. Peterson when they faced each other in the last round. But, like its said, the abyss is looking back at you :-) Clear 1st place won 70 dollars for Chris, and Jason's clear 2nd place won 50 dollars.

Dean Clow and Rudy Tia also finished with 3 points. But each had 2 byes, and DCC policy is only one bye counts for prize money. Mr. Tia lost his 4 round match against Brian, but let's just say Mr. Wall had to sweat. Against Morgan Robb, Brian had to win round 3 to even the score, then in round 4 he is down two pawns and both are passed. Draw. See above, "...saves lost games seemingly at will."

The position I'm talking about.... Look lost to you? Brian saves another lost game somehow.

Eamon Montgomery lost to Mr. Clow in the last round, but his 2.5 points still won the U2000 Prize of 40 dollars. I'm sure Mr. Montgomery will be over the 2000 mark before long. Peer Seyferman only played 2 games but those 2 points was enough for the 40 dollar U1600 prize. Peer just wins all his games. His live rating has got to be, or should be, 1800 at least. Sure not 1480. Congratulations to both these young strong players.

Good to see Roger Redmond playing more like his true strength. He lost his 1st round game to Kevin Seidler, took a round 2 bye to watch Donald Trump become the leader of the free world. Won against John Krue in round 3 and won the 40 dollar U1700 prize by beating the tough Jack Woehr in the last round. Congratulations, Mr. Redmond. Please stop being so happy Trump won :-)

Roger Redmond playing Jack Woehr, Bill O'Neil playing Sara Herman. 

Rob Cernich only played the last round. He agreed to play in the Open section, and I imagine now he is glad he did. He won the 20 dollar Upset prize by beating the not so easy to beat James LaMorgese. Rob said at one point he was getting crushed, but he hung tough and turned the tables. Well done Mr. Cernich.

Lately it seems like every time i write one of these reports, I am mentioning that 9 year old Jason Liang is winning money. No exception this month. Clear 1st place in the U1600 section. Undefeated. Untied. Another 80 dollars in the family coffers.

Jason and his dad, Chunlei, both won their first 3 rounds. Since no other players in this section had 3 points, there was no choice but to pair them for the final round. Maybe you would think a father playing his son would be a peaceful draw, and they go home. That was not the case. When i looked at the game it was clear both were trying to win. After a long, knock down, drag out battle, Mr. Liang had to concede. But that didn't leave him out of the money. His 3 points won the 45 dollar U1300 prize. Always good to see a father and his son enjoying a chess game.

Josh Romero observing Chunlei Liang making a move against his son, Jason.

The other 3 point final scores all tied for 2nd place. Brandon Hall, George Peschke, Matt Wilhite, and Walter Lowe all played well to win 25 dollars each. Long time DCC member, Paul Kullback, was a victim of both Mr. Hall and Mr. Lowe. Mr. Wilhite upset long time DCC member Randolph Schine. Mr. Peschke took a game from Mr.Lowe, but lost to the section winner. As did Mr. Hall. Pretty tight competition between the top 5 players, I'd say.

Arvind Gurumurthi and Nicolas Torres shared the U1000 prize and each won 22 dollars and 50 cents. Arvind is Mukund's dad, another father and son chess playing team. Nicolas' dad doesn't play, but he is there supporting his son's interest in the royal game. I respect and admire all the chess parents I have know over the years. All the kids I knew when they were Jason, Mukund,and Nicolas age have gone on to college and have been successful in life. I am sure it will be the same with these youngsters.

Finally don't let me forget to mention Brandon Emerson's fine 20 dollar Upset prize win over James Brunette. It is clear that Brandon is working on improving his game, and playing tournament chess at the DCC is the way to do just that.

Tournament chess at the Denver Chess Club

Thanks to all, J.C. MacNeil