BUFFALO BLIZZARDS CHESS TEAM!

Members representing Buffalo at the First Annual Robert C. Johnson Memorial Tournament held at St. Bonaventure University were, in the back row, Father Procyk, Barry Davis, Tom Callea, and Vic Bahl, Front row, Coach Mc Duffie, Miles A. James, and Tournament Director Robert Ferguson. The Buffalo team finished in fifth place. I have invited Tamara Ferguson and Victor Randolph to participate in the October Grand Prix. Tamara was the Open Section Champion and Victor was the U1600 Champion. To register for the October Grand Prix, mail and make checks payable to Archangel 8 Chess Academy, 60F Guilford Lane, Buffalo, NY 14221 with full name, uscf id number, section and telephone number. Advance entry fee $20 vs $30 CASH Only at the door. Online registration to arcangel8chess@yahoo.com.

Sardinia Tournament

Sat. Oct. 3 at the Sardinia Community Center (Town Offices) 12320 Savage Rd, Sardinia 2 Sections: Adults: 3SS, G/60, Rds 10:30am. 1:00pm, 3:00p, EF $20 Prizes per entries Scholastic: G/30, EF: $10 Games start at 1:00pm. Play as many games as possible in 3 hrs! Trophy for 1st. For questions and info Tom Warner 716-496-5230 e-mail warner689@roadrunner.com

Stiff Southernly Forces

The strong chess teams from the Southern Tier took first through fourth at the Robert C. Johnson Memorial Team Chess Tournament played at St. Bonaventure University this past Saturday.

Bradford, PA carried off the overall trophy for this year with an overwhelming score of 11, a full point-and-a-half ahead of the second place Southtowns, NY team that included Don Hoak, Tom Warner, and John Mauer in the Open section and Ryan Madden, George Tasevski, and Ryan Palmisno in the u1600 section. Two points behind them tied-for-third-place were the Jamestown, NY and Westfield, NY teams. The Buffalo Blizzards represented by NM Barry Davis, Rev. Marijan Procyk, Tom Callea, Michael McDuffie, Vic Bahl, and Miles James finished a respectable fifth.

TD Bob Ferguson ran a fine event on the beautiful St. Bonaventure University campus: A number of people commented on the ivy-clad buildings and the architectural details. Even the food drew applause. The rounds went off as planned, the room was conducive to playing and easily handled the large crowd of 38 players from seven teams that took part in the competition. Bob even took the time to give Charles Ferraro pointers on running future tournaments. Well done, Bob!! Thanks for your efforts and to Charles Ferraro who sent me the news.

The cross table is available at http://main.uschess.org/assets/msa_joomla/XtblMain.php?200909264571

ACKER GRAND PRIX 2009 RESULTS

*** Update Crosstable now available Twenty four players came out in support of the Daniel R. Acker Memorial Grand Prix.

The results for the STAR SCHOLASTIC SECTION, open to all students K - 12th grades had Partho Bhattacharya(City Honors) and Ryan Madden(Pioneer) tied for First Place with 2.5 points each, 2nd Place William J. Deuschle(Nardin Academy), 3rd Place Miles A. James(Olmstead #64) and 4th Place Dakaylah Winfield(MLK JR.#39).

In the Daniel R Acker Memorial U1500 Section, the winners were First Place - Timothy Pierce and 2nd Place - James P. Davis, Esq. U1500 UPSET LEADERS: Miles A. James 555 pts, Williams J. Deuschle 81 pts, Steve L. Baer 77.5 pts. (Upset points are awarded to the lower rated player who gets a result aginst a higher rated player. It is determined by the full point differential between the winning lower rated player and the higher rated player s/he beat or in the case of a draw half of the points between the lower and higher rated player. )

In the Daniel R Acker Memorial OPEN Section, First Place went to Robert P. Cousins, who recently moved into the WNY area from New Hampshire, 2nd Place was tied between Vance Williams and Harish Srinivasan. Harish earned the U1900 class prize. UPSET LEADERS: Harish Srinivasan 307.5 pts., Ryan Madden 109.5 pts., David M. Biddle 98 pts.

It was nice to see NM Lionel L. Davis again, as he came and gave game analysis to Dakaylah Winfield. Perhaps we might see some of the other top WNY players like IM Kenneth Regan, NM Eddie Mark, experts Mark Clark, Douglas Dubose, and Rev. Marijan Procyk at future events.

We want to thank all of those you attended. To those of you that had the desire to play but were unable to do so this time, our next Grand Prix will be SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2009, MAIN PLACE MALL, 390 MAIN STREET, BUFFALO, NY, SAME FORMAT, DEADLINE FOR ADVANCE ENTRIES IS OCTOBER 14, 2009. All questions and comments with reply to arcangel8chess@yahoo.com

No Clevehill Chess Knights meeting this Saturday

There will be no Clevehill Knights Chess Club meeting Saturday on 9/19/09 due to the chess tournament at the Mall. Hope to see you next week.

Can black equalize ??

This position was reached in a game played between myself and Marijan few months ago. In a rare occasion White (myself) is winning, if not for the move that White has just played Bd2-c3?? It looks intuitively a strong move -- increasing scope of the bishop and attacking the queen. But it was a blunder. Fortunately for me, my opponent also missed the tactic. I am sure if it was tournament game, he would have found the right continuation. Black can equalize here with a nice tactic. Can you find it? (Diagram is black at bottom)

ACKER GRAND PRIX 2009 REMINDER

Saturday, September 19, 2009, EVERY THIRD SATURDAY OF EACH MONTH!

Main Place Mall, Upper Level, 390 Main St, Buffalo NY 14201

USCF membership is required!

Four rounds, Swiss, Game 50, Cash prizes based upon 17 total paid entries.

CASH PRIZES:Open $120.00 and $75.00, U1900 $60.00, U1500 $50.00

Registration closes at 9:30am. Game Schedule: 9:45am, 11:30am, 1:15pm and 3:00pm.

A USCF rated 2150 player is coming in from New Hampshire to check out the chess players in this area. So please reply by midnight tonite (9/18) with full name, section, USCF ID #, section of play, and telephone number to arcangel8chess@yahoo.com to get in on this action.

Please try to be early and ontime so we can start ontime. Thanks for your continued support.

We are still looking for four players to participate at the St Bonaventure University, Olean, NY on Saturday, September 26, 2009, Three Rounds, Games start at 10am. If you are interested please submit your name to arcangel8chess@yahoo.com

NYS Championship Results

Georgian (the country not the state) GM GIORGI KACHEISHVILI tied with Indian (the country not Native American) SIDDHARTH RAVICHANDRAN for first in the Open section of the 131st New York State Open Championship with 5/6. However the title of New York State Champion likely stays with GM-elect Alex Lenderman as he was the highest scoring New Yorker at 4.5/6.

On a more local note: FM Igor Nikolayev and Ben Dean-Kamura, both members of The Rochester Chess Center finished 4/6 in the Open section good for a tie for 7th.

On an even more local level: Benjamin Havey scored 3.5/6 in the U2000 section good for a share of 14th place and Michael Gerow scored 5/6 to capture clear second in the U1600 section.

The cross table is at http://main.uschess.org/assets/msa_joomla/XtblMain.php?200909079301

Procyk wins in Sardinia

Rev.Marjan Procyk made the trip from Buffalo a succesful one by winning all 3 games and finishing 1st in the Sardinia tournament last Saturday. Procyk's play was excellent as he defeated Ryan Madden, Tom Warner, and Pat Patterson without much trouble. Hopefully he'll come again next month and give us a chance for some revenge! LOL Also competing were Ryan and Nathan Palmisano. Next tournament Oct 3. Hope to see you there.

Clevehill Chess Club

I would like to thank all who came out to the Clevehill Chess Club today. Participants were Will Deuschle, Matt Peck, Matthew Newuiett, Joe Tornambe, and Douglas Dubose. We have implemented a club ladder system system where players can move up the ladder by challenging players above them and winning. Join us from 10 am-1 pm on Saturdays. Email Douglas Dubose for details at zugzwang92857@yahoo.com

September 26 Quads

The tournament at E.O.C. September 26 has been cancelled due to the team event on the same day.

BUFFALO BLIZZARDS CHESS TEAM!

I would like to form a team of players to participate in the Bob Johnson Memorial Tournament at St Bonaventure University on Saturday, September 26, 2009. We need at least 5 players-one of which must play in the Open section. It is free to participate but we must register two days in advance. No registrations onsite! See prior post at http://buffalochess.blogspot.com/2009/08/st-bonaventure-team-tournament.html

If you are interested, please reply with full name, USCF ID and telephone number. The schedule starts at 10am, 1:30pm and 5pm. with 30 minutes between games to get a bite to eat or for post mortum. 3 round SS , Game/85 with 5 sec delay. Two sections Open and U1600. An unrated section which does not count for team standings is also available.

Tom Warner and Rochester have already registered. I'm sure we can get a few of us to represent the Buffalo area.

"PAWN MASTER" TAKES SECOND PLACE!

David "Pawn Master" Mc Duffie,former Buffalonian and now Baltimore Maryland resident, participated in the 41st Atlantic Open U 1900 section and came home with second place. We want to send him our best wishes and hopes that he will continue his winning ways and maybe even visit us back here in Buffalo for one of the monthly Grand Prixs.