Most nights we run some sort of organized event.  We hold both club and USChess rated mini tournaments.  Look at our schedule below to see what we have coming up and or join our mailing list to get a weekly(ish) email.

We provide boards, sets and clocks.  You of course are welcome to bring your own equipment.  Remember players can request to play on sets that meet the USChess equipment standards.

Below are some of the types of events we coordinate.  Members can always play casual games.

• Rated Quick Chess – About once a month we hold USCF Rated quick chess tournaments.  If you do not have a USCF membership we usually have a non-rated section.  As the cost is low / free, we promise no prizes but often have a small token prize.
• Multi-week events with slower time controls like our Club Championship.
• Thematic Nights – In the past we have had thematic nights for various openings, gong chess, and bughouse.
• Puzzles and Position Analysis – We occasionally review interesting positions, difficult puzzles, and significant games.
• Organized trips to larger tournaments outside our club.

Third Annual Bel Air National Chess Day Tournament

Come to visit Bel Air for two days of chess and explore our town!

For players of all levels!  Tournament for USChess Members and casual players.

At the Bel Air Armory, 37 N Main St, Bel Air, MD 21014 on Oct 14 and 15.

Updates and registration at Emmortonrec.com go to the Chess Page
Questions:  email RFEChess@yahoo.com

Casual Players Tournament

A great first tournament!  This is a five-round tournament (Swiss System), where players are not eliminated.  Time control is 30 minutes per player with 10 seconds added per move.

Prizes:

USChess memberships for the top finishers.  One prize for every 10 players.  Entry Fee:  $5. Only first time USchess members are eligible for these prizes.

Schedule:

Sunday, Oct 15:

Registration, 8:00 – 8:45 am

Round 1, 9:00 am

Round 2, 10:20 am

Round 3, 12:40 pm

Round 4, 2:00 pm

Round 5, 3:20 pm

USChess Rated Tournament

Two sections over two days.  A 5 round Swiss System, G/90 + 10.

Prizes:

$1,560 fully guaranteed.
Entry Fee: $40 with registration before 10/13 online and $45 on site.

Sections:

Open Section:  1^st $400; U2000 $240; U1800 $240, U1600 $200

U1400 Sectión:  1^st $200; U1200 $160; U1000 $120

Schedule:

Saturday Oct 14:

Registration; 7:30 – 8:00 am

Round 1, 8:15 am

Round 2, 12:30 pm

Round 3, 3:30 pm

Sunday Oct 15:

Round 4, 9:00 am;

Round 5, 1:15 pm.

• Spectators Welcome
• Remember your chess etiquette.
• During play, electronic devices must be off and not on your person
• Notation required in USChess rated sections, optional in non-rated section.
• If necessary, we may merge sections to optimize pairings.
• Please bring set, board, clock if possible.  While we have many board sets and clocks, this is a big event, and we may run a bit short
• No eating at the board
• USChess rules used for all sections
• Rated sections get priority on clocks

We always welcome sponsors.

Welcome Back SRC Technologies

And Welcome to Our New Sponsor

Some of our events have different names.  Here are the descriptions.

Big Fish Little Pond.
For the unrated section, the prize is a USCF membership. Only non-USCF member and those who have never been a USCF member are eligible for the prize. We will have a rated section with a prize also.

One vs. Many
We will split the group into 1/3 (higher rated) vs and 2/3 (lower rated). With G25; d5 time control each player in the top third plays 2 players in the bottom third at the same time (e.g. mini-simul)

Swiss (System)
A Swiss System tournament where players are not eliminated and can play every round. When there is a odd number of players, one player receives a bye.

Blitz
A Swiss System tournament where everybody is paired in one section. We play as many rounds as we can during the night. Time control is Game in 5 minutes.

Quads
Players are listed from highest rating to lowest rating and grouped into sets of 4. These four players play a small round robin of three games. The bottom 5 – 7 players are paired as a Swiss System. For our purposes, each quad will all USCF players is rated.

Decrement Blitz
When paired, both players start with 5 min on the clock. After a player wins, the winning player starts the next game, with the same player and one less minute on their clock AND gets choice of color. When a player wins with one minute on their clock, they win that round.

Bug House
Players select their own teams of 2 players. Each team sits opposite the other and one player on each team plays White and Black. A captured piece is passed to your teammate. Instead of a move, a play may place a captured piece on the board. More details to follow.

Mixed Teams
Teams of two pair up against other teams of two. Each team can only have 1 USCF member and USCF members MUST play each other. On the night of the event, any players without a team, will be randomly assigned.

Want to improve your game, take a look at these resources.

How to play the game.  This video teaches you the basic rules of the game.  But that is just the beginning.

Beginners sometimes have trouble finding checkmate.  Thess puzzles will help you recognize checkmate and how to win.  mate in 1

Now move on to some harder puzzles.  Here are 300 puzzles from Chess.com.

Now on to practice.  Playing online is a good way to start to experience chess.  Consider playing at lichess.org.  You can not only play at lichess, but you can also improve your game from their vast resources.  And best of all, it is FREE!

Blitz Night 5/11/2023

Usually blitz chess nights don’t provide enough recorded results to make an interesting report but this week was an exception.  We ran two sections as usual.  After the USChess and Club rated sections completed four rounds, the top two finishers in each group moved on to a Quad Blitz Shootout.  The winner had rights to the prize.

In the USChess rated section there were zero surprises.  I mean none.  There were no upsets.  Whit “Princess” Weber finished with a perfect 4-0 record and Val took his sole loss to Whit finishing with a 3-1 record.  These scores qualified them both for the shootout quad.

Ben Larson went on a tear and upset Ethan Leahy right out of the gate on his march to claim the top spot in the section.  His only stumbling block was Jim Dempsey in the final round.

In round two, Jim Dempsey misplaced his king on the board causing an illegal move and Brian Fox wasted no time claiming a win.  In true Gary Kasparov style, Dempsey took his disappointment out on the following two players.  Dempsey’s 3-1 record qualified him too for the shootout on tiebreaks.

Ethan’s first round loss hurt him as it cost him a shot at the prize.  It took the third level tiebreak to separate him Dempsey.  Don’t ya just hate tiebreaks?

Two newbies arrived to play in the Club rated section.  Gavin “Pittsburgh” Hope returned after cascade night and Matt McBride arrived to play in round 3

On to the Shootout…

Weber walked through the field untouched and finished with a perfect 3-0 to follow his previous perfect performance.  Jim Dempsey had a clear winning position but Val leveraged his time advantaged and Jim flagged.

All of the results are available on the SwissSys site and the rated results are up on USChess.

Round 2 of G20+30

Upset Upset Upset!

Two weeks ago, Komiljon made perennial favorite Whit Weber work for his win.  This week, Derek Kromm did more than that by nicking the Club Champion for a full point.  For want of a pawn… We saw Derek take a pawn advantage and press it for a win.  We have the game with some commentary below.

Killmond gave Ranjan a run for his money last week.  Unfortunately the score sheet becomes unreliable before the game gets really good.  Stump stumped Gabor (sorry had to do that).  We would love to have the game as the endgame had some nice maneuvers.  Whitehurst held on for a bit however two unforced errors gave Siwinski the advantage he needed for a full point.

Absences in the rated section has left the field with an interesting matchup for the prize.  Unless something odd happens, Ranjan and Kromm should face off in the final round.

In the Club rated section, Allman and Dempsey both prevailed.  Leahy gave Allman an advantage on the dark squares that cost him a piece, and then the game.  No major upsets here.  Allman will bow out of the section to keep the numbers even, making predicting round three pairings near impossible.

Final round fireworks are this Thursday at 7:00!

Round 1 of G20+30

We saw some good games last week.  Most notable were the Weber v Rahimov and Kromm v Gabor.

Rahimov played very well and kept Weber on his toes however age and guile won the day.  You can see here how Weber gives up a pawn in exchange for an attack.

As for Kromm v Gabor, we now have showing a that score as an unforgiving rook pawn endgame taken too to the end with Kromm ultimately prevailing.

Overall, there we no upsets with an odd distribution of wins for black and white where black had almost all the wins in the USChess section and white had almost all the wins in the club rated section.

G15 – All in One Quick

Results to the G15 All in One Quick are here.

The no delay or increment time control created some interesting endings. Safe to say, we may not try that again for a while.

Congratulations to Whit for a perfect 4-0 result.

https://swisssys.com/report_viewer.php?upload_file=events/20230330%20All%20in%20Quick%20(Allman%20%20Killmond).json&tournament=20230330%20All%20in%20Quick&section=C&time_stamp=3/31/2023%20-%2012:18

The results of our blitz event on 3/23

Congratulations to Sid and Steve for winning their sections!

USChess Rated Section: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202303233042-17009851

The Club Rated Section:
https://www.swisssys.com/report_viewer.php?upload_file=events/20230323%20ERC%20Blitz%20(Killmond).json&tournament=20230323%20ERC%20Blitz&section=20230323%20club%20rated&report_type=wall%20chart&time_stamp=3/27/2023%20-%2021:01

2/16/2023 Congratulations to Whit Weber Our Returning Club Champion!

Whit and Pat slugged it out with Whit prevailing to retain the club title.  Here is the annotated game.

While Pat and Whit played for the club title, the rest of us played a G5 blitz.  We played WAY too many rounds for a Swiss and we had nine round.

Val came out on top by a half point.  The close packed crowd shows the tight competition.  Results are HERE.

Club Championship Report

With 30 players total over four weeks, the Club Championship had interesting games in every round and this week was no exception.

In the Club Rated Section we had a tie for first place. Pat Whitehurst and Brian King each finished with a 3-1 record. Contender Steve Chalk did not play in the 4th round. Fair warning, newcomer Matt Gabor has some sharp skills. I tell you this from personal experience. Pat and Brian played a G30 tiebreaker and Pat emerged on top. With this win, Pat earned his right to play for the Club Championship this week.

In the USChess rated section, Whit managed a win against Sid in round to secure his 4 – 0 record and the section title by a full 1.5 points. Val, who almost nipped Whit in round 3 finished with a clear second place finish. Giancarlo and Chad had a hell of a barn burner filled with nasty little ticks and traps. In the end, Giancarlo ran out of thinking time while looking to make magic out of a lesser position.

One upside to my computer loss, and thank you to Mike for filling, was an upgrade to SwissSys. What this means to you is our results are not posted on their website HERE https://swisssys.com/section_selector.php?t_id=1296&tournament=Club%20Championship%202023 . Of course USChess will continue to have the results for the rated sections .https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php…

Jan 19 – Feb 9

The Club Championship.  Four Rounds of G60+5 with one round a week.  We have two sections, USChess Rated and club rated.  The winners of each section have a shootout on the following week, Feb 16.

5 Jan – Back to the Grind – G15+3 in a 3 round Swiss

Well it wasn’t a Swiss we had Quads instead.  Find the results HERE.

15 Dec – Casual Chess and Holiday Social

A night of casual chess. and refreshments.  Come on by for a relaxed evening.

3, 10 & 17 Nov – Slower and Colder 3 Rd Swiss

Below are the results form our 3rd Swiss.  Congratulations to Whit and Val for taking the top spot in each of their sections!
G60+5 is a good time control to get into some more serious chess and the games proved that out.  You can also find the USChess Rated results HERE.

27 Oct – A Club Rated King’s Gambit Accepted Thematic

At the last minute we changed things up a bit to a 4 round G10 event to allow everyone a shot at playing two games each with the white and black piecs.  A good thing too as with 16 players, a 3 round event may not have resulted in a clear winner.

There were some serious fireworks with pieces all over the board, busted pawn structures, and exposed kings.  The resounding opinion was, folks do NOT like playing the Kings Gambit accepted.  Let that sink in, most players in the club don’t like this opening.  Hmmm, what could you do with that information?

Not much of a surprise Jim Dempsey, who suggested this thematic night, seemed to fair well by securing a clear second place out of the pack of 16.  Whit managed to end up on top but there were some shaky positions for Whit too.

Not that we should look at ratings too closely, Sanat managed a 150 point increase in his club rating.  Is he a rising star?