Staunton Club Blitz Championship Feb. 24, 2008

The Staunton Club will hold its annual Blitz Championship on Sunday February 24, 2008. Registration Ends at 7:45. If there are 13 players or less, this will be a single round robin format. Otherwise a series of quads or small swiss's with "weighted" sections. No more than 12 games required, except tie broken by playoff.

EF $4.00--$2.00 Club Members (Staunton Club, Schenectady, Albany, Ronen's Group)

First Prize--Nice Plaque--to be engraved

Medals--1st through 5th place.

G/5 or G/3 with 2 second delay. USCF official Blitz Rules, 5th Ed. P. 290

Held at the United Methodist Church Saratoga Springs. See Directions in Club Section.

TD: Alan LeCours

Staunton Club Lecture February 17 at 7:30

The Saratoga Staunton Club announces its Second Lecture in the 2008 Series. This will be given by Alan LeCours on Sunday, February 17 at 7:30 P.M. The lecture is entitled "Adventures in the Slav Accepted". We will examine the position arising after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nxc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 with black's move 6. Nh4!? Black has a solid position with his bishop aggressively placed on f5 (Dutch Variation). To counter this, white immediately puts the question to the bishop. Black could allow his pawns to be disrupted with 6...e6 or run with the bishop somewhere. Frequently the bishop will go all the way back home 6...Bc8, or 6...Bd7 is interesting. 6...Bg6 isn't that good after 7. Nxg6 hxg6, 8. e4 which seems to affirm the choice by white.

The Lecture is Free. Materials are available Now. Go to the Club Listing for Saratoga Staunton Club and click on alecours1@hotmail.com. Ask for the flyer and the pamphlet of 41 grandmaster games.

On March 2, 2008 there will be a quick thematic tournament at the club 4-SS (G/20) with the starting moves for all the games going through 6. Nh4. You do not need to go to the lecture to play in the tournament.

Gausewitz Wins Staunton Club January Quick

On Sunday Evening, January 27 at the Staunton Club in Saratoga Springs 10 players competed in the "Quick" event, held as a 4 round Swiss. The time control was G/15 (G/12 3-sec. delay). Glen Gausewitz won clear first place with a 3.5 score earning $50.00. He drew "Poppa" Jon Leisner (the moniker congratulations on Jon's first born--Cigars to you buddy) in round three and beat Ray Alguire in the final round to hold the victory.

Jon Leisner was second with 3.0. Tied for 3rd-4th were Gary Farrell and Lee Battes (2.5).

Rounding out the field were Alguire, Dipre and LeCours with (2.0), David Connors, Gary Salage and James Tiernan.

Raymond Alguire Wins Staunton Club Reserve Section

The 2007-2008 Staunton Club Championships recently ended.

Raymond Alguire won first prize in the Under 1800 Section. Raymond was undefeated drawing David Connors and Andrew Barnes with a score of 5 out of 6 of the games played.

In second place was Joseph Kruppenbacher with 4.5 points.

George Dipre was third with 4.0, followed by David Connors (3.5), Gary Salage and Andrew Barnes (2.0) and James Tortorici (1.0)


Good Job Raymond.

Peter Michelman Wins 2007-2008 Staunton Club Championship Open Section

The 2007-2008 Staunton Club Championship recently concluded.

Peter Michelman with better time management played "solidly enough" and emerged the winner! The tournament was a Round Robin format with seven players. Peter scored 5.5 out of 6 points. Peter won despite the fact that he was in big trouble against Steven Taylor. That game was incredible in that Steve had an incredible attack in the opening, but Peter defended well, and Steve having about every piece en pris ended up down the exchange, and losing the game. Against Alan LeCours, Peter offered a pawn for no apparent compensation, but LeCours refused to take the pawn because of a "phantom attack"--Peter got the upper hand and won.

Tied for second were Jon Leisner and Steven Taylor (4.5). In fourth place was Bill Little, followed by Glen Gausewitz, Alan LeCours and Maja Cabarkapa.

Congratulations Peter.

The Saratoga Staunton Club Thanks Bill Little

On January 6, 2008 Bill Little gave a lecture on "Lurking Knights" and other "Tactical Debacles". Bill has been an area expert for many years. He provided us with just a few examples of the wisdom that he has drawn over the ages. There were about 14 people at the lecture, and Bill did a great job showing us some fascinating positions and giving great practical advice. I think the highlight for the lecture was that 90% of the positions came from hotly contested local games. In addition to Bill Littles' own games, we saw positions from Lee Battes, Bobby Rotter, and Carl Adamec, just to name a few.

The Saratoga "Stauntons" wish to express our gratitude to Bill Little for a fine lecture. Maybe some of you local players need to come up to Saratoga to find out what we are saying about you at our lectures.