CHESS CHATTER This site is for news and recent results of the local chess community. Mostly about the Chess Castle but including the state. If you have some news or an announcement you think local chess players would like to know about send it to Bill at feellikeapawn@comcast.net. Click for the RESULTS OF ALL OUR EVENTS . 
 
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Castle Chess
Club
Club Champion Andrew Tang
Club Manager Dan Voje
ARTICLE LIST(scroll down or click on title) MINNESOTA OPEN ROCHESTER GRAND RESULTS RECENT NEWS WINTER OPEN RESULTS 11th FIDE OPEN MEMBERSHIP THURSDAY NIGHT HOLIDAY THINK MINNEAPOLIS SCHOLASTIC CHESS SMARTCHESS.COM NOVICE PLAYERS CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS FIDE EVENTS JASON DRAKE WINS FIDE ROUND ROBIN MINNESOTA OPEN (2/20/2012) 
  Sean Nagle
and Jason Drake tied for first in the Premier
section of the Minnesota Open 2012. Scoring 4.5/5
and only drawing each other after Jason proved
that he knew his Rook and Pawn endings. Sean was
able to beat IM John Bartholomew in a Bishop vs
Knight ending and Jason played a nice double check
to beat IM Victor Adler in a long tense game. They
will join Matt Dahl and Frank Johnson in the
playoffs. Two others qualified and you can check
back to see who they are. I will post a link to
the crosstables as soon as they are rated. The
tournament was held in St. Paul this year and the
site was great. Thanks to Dave, Shu, and Sisira
for a well run tournament. The playoffs are
scheduled for March 16-18th at the Castle as of
now. Those who qualify should be notified or can
check the MSCA or Castle site for the official
announcement. Robert Newshutz took clear first in
the Amatuer section joining last years champion:
Justin Kleist. Four more players with 4 points
also qualified.Back
to list. ROCHESTER GRAND RESULTS (2/6/2012) Another fine tournament was held in Rochester. Their two a year Grand series should be on your calendar. The site is great, the prizes generous and the event runs smoothly. They draw a lot of low rated and new players along with a fairly strong Premier section. This year Master Matt Dahl crushed the field. Scoring 5/5 he cruised to first. Matt Jensen came out of retirement to play instead of direct but was too rusty to stop Dahl. The next one will be in early June, mark you calendar. The RESULTS are posted. Back to list. RECENT NEWS (1/28/2012) The big news is what is up with MSCA. The Minnesota State Chess Association is the official affiliate for the USCF. Run by volunteers it does great things at times and at times struggles. They have held two US Opens. The State Championship has been held successfully for more years than I can remember. They also hold a Yearly Scholastic Championship, again for many years. They used to publish a magazine:Minnesota Chess Journal. Also a bi-monthly tournament bulletin: Northern Chess News. These have fallen by the wayside with the dominance of the Internet. They also run 5-6 tournaments a year. See Winter Open Results below. On Feb.17-19th,2012 the Minnesota Open will be held at the Crown Plaza in St. Paul. The sight has been changed for reasons that do not matter. The new sight has been used before and there should be plenty of room. Finding sites for chess events is one of the hardest tasks in organizing. The Open will qualify players for the Closed to determine a State Champion. In the Premier there could be only three spots open as there were co-champions last year and the winner of the Class have qualified. In other sections it depends on if past champions are still eligible or can play.In the past to qualify for the closed one needed to be a member in good standing at the start of the tournament. Check with Dave Kuhns if you have questions. On Friday there is a general membership meeting at 6:00pm. Any one interested in helping out MSCA can run for the board, a ballot should be mailed soon, or just volunteer for some function. BACK TO LIST ROCHESTER GRAND LINK WINTER OPEN RESULTS(1/27/2012) 
   Victor Adler and
George Kane were co-winners of the Winter Open.
Held at the Roseville Oval it was a huge success.130
players in four sections was a record for this
event. The Novice did well too. For the rating
story check out RESULTS
.Rochester this weekend and the
first game can be played at the Castle
on Thursday or a couple of quick games on
Saturday. Two Castle regulars played the
attached endgame. Tough defense by Vince was not
enough as Connor took his time and converted to a
win. Black to move. In the second diagram Black to
move and draw. He took the pawn on e6 and White
missed the win by offering a draw after
Bishop-f7. BACK TO
LIST11th FIDE OPEN(1/27/2012) The 11th tournament in the FIDE series was held recently. The good Dr. Iwu ( call me OK) was the winner of a tough field with 4/5. Three Masters with discount entries showed up to do battle. In the under 2000 section John Baker took clear first. Seventeen in each section. Dr. Sisira Amarasinghe was the organizer and sponsor. Look here for his next tournament or check out his site. PAST RESULTS Official results. BACK TO LIST MEMBERSHIP(1/6/2012) You can join our club for $120 a year or $180 for a family membership. This allows you to play in all our events and receive a discount on each one. It pays for itself in no time! You can also just show up and play and pay the event fee. You will need a USCF membership to play in the events as all our tournaments are rated. They have many membership rates and Dan can explain them for you. We have a wide range of skill levels playing at the club so please check us out. HOUSE MAN Any day that we are open, any event that we run, if we have an odd number of players, we are more than happy to let any visitor play as a houseman. This means you play for free, but are ineligible for prizes. The only requirement is that you be a member of the United States Chess Federation. You can join at our club for $49 (USCF is running some specials at this time.) a year's membership, less for juniors. You must be a current member, as all of our events are rated, and these are the people who keep track of the ratings BACK TO LIST THURSDAY NIGHT(1/1/2012) Starting with the first Thursday of the month a once a week tournament begins. Time control is game in two hours. Norm Myrin at 612-964-6673 usually runs the event.If you can not make all the games that is OK, just tell Norm. A chance to play some slow chess and analyze the game afterwards.November's and December's results are rated. Official announcement: Thursday Knighters Four or five round swiss tournament, with a game played each Thursday of the month, starting at 7:30 pm. Castle opens at 6:45 Time control is game in 2 hours. Register: First Thursday, before the start of the first round. Entry Fee is $15 for members, $20 for others. Prizes: Winners get free or reduced entry next month, with participation counting towards an invitation to Club Championship. Most games done by 11:00 BACK TO LIST HOLIDAY THINK (12/19/2011)  This type of ending was played
twice at the Holiday Think. The first time some
players were embarrassed that they did not know it
was a draw. Tate Simmons had no such trouble in
his game as he sacked a Knight to arrive at a
similar configuration and calmly took the half
point.30 players participated with Robert Donahue and Dan Voje tied for first with 6.5 points. There was a wide range of player ratings with some of our younger players gaining lots of rating points. They can consider it an early Christmas gift from the old guys that crumpled before the end. The club championship will be the same format but with different results, I hope. Check out who gained! BACK TO LIST MINNEAPOLIS SCHOLASTIC CHESS (12/18/2011) We share our space with the Minneapolis Scholastic Chess organization. They focus on teaching chess to Minneapolis children. They run some events at the club but mostly run weekly meetings at locations around the city. They are a non profit dedicated to spreading the benefits of chess to school kids. They also travel to national tournaments. Check out their WEBSITE for more details.BACK TO LIST SMARTCHESS(12/13/2011) Regular Castle member, Andre Hortillosa, has started a chess company called: Smartchess. It uses cutting edge technology to bring the study of Chess into the 21st. Century. With apps that allow one to study a book and play along at the same time. Moving between diagrams and text. Too much for us old dinosaurs but the youngsters and tech savvy should feel right at home. For details visit the website: playsmartchess. For a hands on look ask Andre at the club. BACK TO LIST NOVICE PLAYERS(12/10/2011) If you are a beginning player thinking of taking on the game of Chess more seriously, a Novice Tournament is a great place to start. We hold Novice events with our big State tournaments: Winter Open and Minnesota Open. Held in Jan. and Feb. every year. A low cost way to get a feel for tournament play. Usually a one day format. Watch for the official announcement from MSCA. The Rochester Grand also has a section for novices. Called the Under 800. Check for details. BACK TO LIST T MONDAY NIGHT QUADS(12/2/2011) Monday is Quad night at the Castle. We have been getting between 8 and 12 players for this Round Robin event. Top Quad is made up of Experts and those that visit that title. We have Sonal who plays only two games as it gets past her bedtime. Get there by 7:00pm. to get paired or call Dan. Three games at Game/30 with a 5 sec delay. Will you be ready for the Winter big events? BACK TO LIST CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS(11/27/2011)  Matt Dahl
winner of the Master /Expert section of the
Class Championships. He is now in the state
playoffs. 86 players in six sections took
part. It has been rated. Click
for the CROSS
TABLE . The
Class has been slowly growing in size.
Shu Lee has been the force behind this
tournament. It fills a nice void on the Fall
calendar. BACK TO LISTRecently there have been some FIDE rated tournaments at the Castle. Organized by Dr. Sisira Amarasinghe and directed by Dave Kuhns they give players the chance to earn a FIDE rating and play some top players with out traveling far from home. There is also a USCF under 2,000 event held along side. Nov. 19-20, 2011 was the date of the most recent event. There was a four way tie for first in the Open section. In the under 2000 John Baker and Gregory Star tied for first. The cross tables can be found HERE BACK TO LIST. JASON DRAKE WINS FIDE ROUND ROBIN (11/26/2011) A
.two weekend round robin tournament was
held at the Castle on two weekends in
October. Jason back from a chess break
blew through the field with 7 wins and
two draws to take first. Quite
amazing after a few years off. Maybe the
warm-up games at the Castle
helped? The nice thing about these
events is you can follow some of the
games at the Monroi site.GAMES
No need to sign up, just click on login
and OK and you are ready to watch.
There were two sections and Andrew Tang
took the Amateur section in the same
fashion. He plays regularly at the
Castle and all of his games seem to be
of the speed variety. No matter the time
control.BACK TO LIST
TEST ........  .... ... |