The Gijon International Chess Tournaments, 1944 – 1965: A History with Biographies and 213 Games by Pedro Mendez Castedo and Luis Mendez Castedo
Not all stories need 100,000 words. McFarland Books recognized this and has begun to expand past the large thorough biographies they are known for publishing into historical works that examine an idea, theme, or tournament history. Their most recent book – The Gijon International Chess Tournaments, 1944 – 1965: A History with Biographies and 213 Games by Pedro Mendez Castedo and Luis Mendez Castedo, is a fine example of the [...]
Fred Reinfeld: The Man Who Taught America Chess with 282 Games by Alex Dunne
Fred Reinfeld: The Man Who Taught America Chess with 282 Games by Alex Dunne, who is the correspondence chess director for U S Chess. Dunne’s lightly researched book attempts to make two main arguments. The first is that Reinfeld was an incredibly prolific author and the second is that he was much stronger than given credit for – a top American player, just below Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky. Dunne’s [...]
Tal, Petrosian, Spassky and Korchnoi: A Chess Multibiography with 207 Games
Andy Soltis’ new book, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky and Korchnoi: A Chess Multibiography with 207 Games explores the lives of four of the top Soviet chess players during the Fischer era. This book is a group biography with less focus on the entirety of an individual player’s life, but rather includes some of the chess highlights within the context of their interactions. There is a focus on the years 1958 to [...]
The American Football League: A Year – by – Year History, 1960 – 1969
To tell the history of a league, not a team or a year, but an entire league, is the goal of Ed Gruver in his 1997 book, The American Football League: A Year – by – Year History, 1960 – 1969. This narrative history covers the league in a chronological year by year fashion, beginning in 1959 with Lamar Hunt’s interest in purchasing the Chicago Cardinals. Though Hunt was unable [...]
Pro Football Championships Before the Super Bowl: A Year – By – Year History, 1926 – 1965
Pro Football Championships Before the Super Bowl: A Year – By – Year History, 1926 – 1965 by Joseph S. Page introduces football fans to championship games played prior to the development of the Super Bowl structure. He examines games from the NFL, AAFC, and AFL leagues. The book is divided into short chapters of about five pages for each of the selected games. The text focuses on coverage of [...]
Neumann, Hirschfeld and Suhle: 19th Century Berlin Chess Biographies with 711 Games
Neumann, Hirschfeld and Suhle: 19th Century Berlin Chess Biographies with 711 Games by Hans Renette and Fabrizio Zavatarelli is the most recent in McFarland’s coverage of nineteenth century European chess players. Renette and Zavatarelli explicitly, and successfully, set out to explore Berlin Chess through its players. The book is broken into four sections: including mini-biographies and in-depth coverage of Ludwig Neumann, Philipp Martin Hirschfeld, and Carl Friedrich Berthold Suhle. The [...]
Pass Receiving in Early Pro Football: A History to the 1960s
Slingin’ Sammy Baugh, Sid Luckman, and Otto Graham – the average football fan probably recognizes these famous Hall of Fame quarterbacks but likely has no idea who they threw the ball to. Jerry Roberts’ Pass Receiving in Early Pro Football: A History to the 1960s is a unique attempt to answer this question by examining the receivers who caught the balls, not only from these great quarterbacks, but many others [...]
Just Too Good: The Undefeated 1948 Cleveland Browns
Gary Webster’s recent work Just Too Good: The Undefeated 1948 Cleveland Browns, goes beyond just a game-by-game analysis of the Browns’ perfect 1948 season to examine the challenges faced by the Browns that year. In addition, Webster argues that Cleveland was “just too good” and this may have led to downfall of the AAFC. Webster uses the weekly games as a framework for tracing the season. First, he covers the [...]
Football’s New York Giants: A History by Lawrence A. Pervin
Football’s New York Giants: A History by Lawrence A. Pervin is an ambitious undertaking that tackles the history of a sports franchise that nearly spans a century. The book attempts to cover an incredible amount of material and condense it to less than 200 pages. Pervin, a long-time fan of the Giants, presents the team’s history in chronological order and divides the time into six chapters. Since each chapter has [...]
Saturday Exton Commons tournament # 49
The first event of a fantastic new year is the 49th Exton Commons Event. Mohit Maringanti led the Open section. He was the only one in the section with a perfect score of 4-0. Greg Yardley, a new player, scored 2.5-1.5 to finish second. Azim Ahmad Julkipli, a regular player, finished third place with a score of 2.5/1.5. Aanya Kollur led the Under 1000 section with a perfect score of [...]
Saturday Exton Commons tournament # 48
The last event of a hectic December is the 48th Exton Commons Event. Michael Li led the Under 900 section. He won all three games. Kritarth Acharya, a regular club player, finished second with a score of 2-1 losing to Li. Swanik Gandhe won third on tiebreaks with a score of 2-1. Akshaj Bodla won the Under 450 section. He won all his games. Charan Perumalla, a new player, won [...]
Saturday Exton Commons tournament # 47
The first event of December 2023 was the 47th Exton Commons event. Joe Mucerino led the Open section. He was the highest-rated player by about 300 points, so the pressure was on him to win all his games. Mohit Maringanti, a regular club player, scored second place 3-1, only losing to Mucerino. Gideon Richard scored 2-2 in third place, only losing to Mucerino and Maringanti. In the Under 1000 section, [...]
Blast from the Past
As our 10th year winds down, I wanted to highlight a little of the past. Everyone takes many pictures these days, but for much of the pre-Covid time we really didn't take very many pictures of the kids. The first picture was not the first picture taken, but it a picture of my dad (technically steo-dad, and you may here my talk about my dad in Tennessee who I am [...]
New skill – Embedding Games
I am pleased to announce that we have things now set up so that we can embed games in our tournament write ups. This example is a game on the wall of our club from Chess Horizons magazine. It is the first round of the 1993 New England Open and I was white vs Edwin Burnett.
Exton Commons Event #46
The last event of a crazy November was the 46th Exton Commons Event. This is a traditional 4-round, 3-section, 1 to 5 on Saturday afternoon type tournament that we do once a month - the next one is December 9th. With the National Chess Congress going on, this tournament focused on more beginner kids by having an Under 700 and Under 300 section to go along with the Open section. [...]
Pennsylvania G/15 d3 State Championship
This past weekend, we had the 3rd in the series of Pennsylvania State Championships. This Championship was for the G/15 d3 East title. We had a lower turnout than initially expected due to various factors, but all those who participated benefited and had a good time. G/15 is an excellent time control because it is long enough to take the games seriously (you will note almost everyone is taking notation [...]
Tri-Bridges First Class Finishes
The first Tri-Bridges Chess Club wrapped up tonight. The class, taught by Ram Singh, was designed for beginners and covered the following material: how the pieces move, the three special moves, basic back rank checkmates, the four move checkmate, the two rook checkmate, the queen and king checkmate, and forks. The six children who signed up for the six-week class enjoyed it, and we look forward [...]
3rd Annual Reach for the Sky Tournament
Our club has the privilege of running many events. As such, it is natural that some are more significant and mean more to us than others. I know that I speak for most of the club when I say that the Reach for the Sky tournament is very near and dear to all of our hearts. We are grateful for the generosity of the Suresh family, who sponsors this event. [...]
2023 PA G/30 Championship – East
The 2023 G/30 Pennsylvania Championship occurred over two days. This setup is a novel way of doing these events. Still, some creative planning was necessary since the site isn’t large enough to hold everyone simultaneously (especially considering the amount of noise the little/younger kids in the Under 900 section can make). This style of the event made for a unique rule - one can play in both sections as they [...]
21st Holly Heisman Memorial by Joshua Anderson
October 7th saw chess players once again converge on the West Whiteland Township building for the 21st Holly Heisman Memorial. This event had a few years of bouncing around but has weathered the changes to become a staple of the area's fall calendar in the Philly suburbs. In the Open section, Matthew O'Brien won the event with a 4-1 score- he drew with Peter Minear and Karl Dehmelt, two of [...]
All – Girls Championship by Samika Nettem
On September 30th 2023, the first Tri-Bridges Chess Club All Girls Tournament occurred. A wide range of experienced players and beginners attended the event. We would like to give thanks to Kalyani Puranikmath and Samika Nettem for coming up with this idea in the first place and helping to organize the club space. A special thanks to Puranikmath’s mother for hanging most of the pictures as we now know not [...]
PSCF Returns to South-Eastern Pennsylvania
On September 16th, the Pennsylvania Chess Federation returned to southeastern Pennsylvania with the G/60 d5 championships. This event had 3 sections (the two coming up will just have an Open and scholastic section and can be signed up for under tournaments) - Open, Under 1600 (Reserve), and Under 900 (scholastic), The Under 900 section was by far the largest section, about the size of the other two. It varied from [...]
#42 Exton Commons Event by Kalyani Puranikmath
The 42# Exton Commons Event was held on September 12. There were two sections: U-500 and Open. Incredible fights took place in each section. In the U-500, Olivia Su took first place, only losing to Nicholas Junod, and she finished with 3 points! Pranav Srinivasula finished second with 2.5 points. Ethan Jiang finished with the same number of points, but worse tiebreaks, and [...]
Exton Commons Event #41 Report by Samika Nettem
On September 8th, 16 players attended the 41st Exton Commons tournament. The Under 400 section had eight players and was won by Zihem Omebere-Iyari, going 3-0. Rishav Vignesh, who only lost to Zihem, got second place with 2 points. Both Roshini Sadhu Venkata and Jaarun Jairath ended up with 1.5 points, but Roshini just edged out Jaarun to take third place. Two very new players named Vivaan Baheti and Shriya [...]
39th Exton Commons Report by Joshua Anderson
In the 39th Exton Commons Event (all tournaments so far), we had 22 players in 3 sections, with numerous upsets. In the Open section, the first round saw top seeds winning. In the second round, however, Mohit Maringanti, a 1500, upset Joe Mucerino. Maringanti was not as successful in the third round, drawing up and comer Andy Wu, a fellow 1500. In the final round, both players, as well as [...]
The Princess, the Knight, and the Lost God: A Chess Story – Review by Kanishk Ramprasath
I just read The Princess, the Knight, and the Lost God: A Chess Story, and it is an amazing fantasy book. Children would absolutely love it. The plot is wonderful, and the setting is familiar as it takes place on Earth. Some parts of the book are funny and relaxing while others are action packed and intrigue the reader. The main character has a very good personality and is very [...]
The Princess, the Knight, and the Lost God: A Chess Story – Review by Samika Nettem
This book is such a beautiful story filled with exciting plots and charming characters. Each page of this story grabs your attention and makes you wonder what happens next since the story is fully packed with suspense. The adventures that Kassie experienced on planet Earth were thoroughly enjoyable and magical that I could imagine it all. As someone who plays chess, Victoria Winifred does an exceptional job not only conveying [...]
Tournament Report: Blitz Tournament #5 – #6 by Kalyani Puranikmath
Blitz Tournament #5 - #6 Two blitz tournaments (rated as a single event as all players took part in both) took place at Code Ninjas - Downingtown on August 27th. One tournament was eight rounds at time control game 5 delay 2 (G/5, d2), and the other was 10 rounds of game 3 delay 2 (G/3, d2). There were two sections in each tournament - Open and Under 800 (U800). [...]
Report on Exton Commons Event #40 by Samika Nettem
Starting with this report Samika Nettem (and eventually Kalyani Puranikmath) will be taking over some of the tournament writeups as I am terribly slow with them. The tournament rating report can be found at -US Chess MSA - Cross Table for EXTON COMMON EVENT -40 (Event 202308250882) . The following is by Samika. In the Exton Commons 40th tournament, 22 players came together this Friday night to play for first [...]
State 1 Day event results
This past weekend many members of the club attended the state scholastic championship. A good time was had by most everyone and in between games we had a great time hanging out and meeting several new kids as well as several students of mine who can’t regularly attend club. The event starts off on Friday night with the state quick championship. This event has a G/8, d3 time [...]
Exton Commons Event #29 – State Warm – Up
38 participants! This was our record showing on Saturday, March 11th, for the 29th ECE (Exton Common Event) - In the Under 1250, Abhiram Vadiguri, a long time active club player knocked off some rust and scored 3.5 out of 4. In second place was Vignesh Divvela who scored 3 out of 4, losing to Abhi in round 4. In third was Mohit Mariganti who also was 3 - [...]
Exton Commons Event #28 – Friday Night Tournament
This Friday evening as part of our additional chess club we decided to have a blitz tournament so that several players could get the games they needed to get an established blitz rating. Unfortunately, I made a mistake, and I made it a 3 round event when they needed a 5 round event to get established ratings. Aside from this error the event went very well. The event was free [...]
Exton Commons Event #27
On February 18th we had a post Covid record of 21 players attended the 27th Exton Common Event tournament. We had 8 players in the Under 1200 Section. This section was won by Kalyani Puranikmath, seeded 4th at 924, with 3.5 points. Four players tied for 2nd through 5th with 2.5 - 1.5 scores. Three 900s, Vignesh Divvela, Gideon Richard, and Ratan Konda, were joined by Kanishk Ramprasath, who is [...]
Exton Commons Event #26 – Friday Night Event
The January 27th Friday night event was the largest since COVID. We had 17 players over two sections, and a new assistant tournament director as Kasyap Tumuluri is now a club TD. This is an official US Chess recognition, not just from our club- congratulations to Kasyap! In the top section. Ratan Kanda scored a perfect 3-0. In the third round he defeated Partha Gottumukkala who came in second and [...]
Exton Commons Event #25
In the first event of 2023, we had 16 participants, including several new ones. This event clearly showed that ratings are merely suggestions and should not be much of a consideration for beginners when deciding to play. In the Under 1000 section (accidentally called the Under 400 on the rating list), Hugo Duvall, the lowest rated player, scored a perfect 4-0. He started with a bye, then had a [...]
Boxing Day Blitz #3
On December 26, we had the third Boxing Day blitz tournament. This event is a game 5 d0 event, meaning that you have 5 minutes and no delay for all your moves. There were seven players ranging from 1900 to unrated. (These ratings are based solely on blitz games, not their regular ratings.) Joseph Mucerino won the event with a perfect 12-0 score. Vasishta, back from his studies at University [...]
Friday Night ECE #23
For the second consecutive month, the event, a single section 3-rounder, was won by a girl who beat her brother in the last round to win the event. In this case, it was the Puranikmath family, as older sister Kalyani defeated younger brother Achintya. Achintya edged Simon Ye and Hugo Derval for 2nd place, with all three players having 2 points. Felix Feng, Ethan Jiang, and Shiven Mishra (in his [...]
TBCC at Grade School Championships
This year we had 3 kids, and a former student who participated at Grade School Championships. In 1st grade Achintya Puranikmath went 4 - 3 gaining over 100 rating points. His score of 4 - 3 was equaled by his sister Kalyani, except she game over 200 rating points! A mammoth gain, especially considering that her one game was a no show victory. Her 3 victories each came over players [...]
And a Chessing We Will Go Results
Twelve players met at the Chessing We Will Go Event. While this is a little light, there was an accidental double booking with Main Line Chess and Leteef had an event in Hershey (funny story about that at the end.) We ended up with two sections, an Under 400 section with 3 players and an Under 900 section with 9 players. The Under 400 section, a double round robin was [...]
TBCC (and friends) at National Chess Congress!
A highlight of Thanksgiving weekend is always the National Chess Congress in Philadelphia. This year numerous people who play in TBCC events such as club or tournaments, participated in this event. (The list I worked off of for this write up can be found at - National Chess CongressStandings for Premier (chessevents.com) ) These players ranged from IM Tom Bartell who generously donates to the Holly Heisman every year and [...]
British Chess Literature to 1914: A Handbook for Historians
Tim Harding’s new book British Chess Literature to 1914: A Handbook for Historians highlights noted chess columns, magazines, and even books from before the First World War. As a handbook, it strives to be not only a research tool, but also to serve as an example of how one historian works. The end date of 1914 is chosen because ‘the outbreak of the first World War, after which there are [...]
San Francisco 1995 by James Eade
San Francisco 1995 by James Eade Piatagorsky 1966, AVRO 1938, Zurich 1953. These top rated tournaments are known by all and reported by many. There are few books, however, geared to telling the story of lesser category tournaments, even though there are many such tournaments held each year. One work that does accomplish this task is James Eade’s San Francisco 1995. This book is part of the Competitive Chess Series published by [...]
Reach for the Sky – November 5 2022 – Tournament Summary
Tournaments happen for all kinds of reasons. In the case of the Reach for the Sky Tournament, the Suresh family sponsors the event to celebrate and honor their son, Sid’s, love of chess tournaments. Their generous sponsorship allows us to run this event for free, and even to offer generous prizes of Amazon gift cards of $60, $40, and $25 in each of 3 sections - Open, Under 1000, and [...]
The Day Kasparov Quit: and other chess interviews
Smart Chip from St. Petersburg and other tales of a bygone chess era by Genna Sosonko was published by New In Chess in 2006. This book contains character portraits of some quite strong, but lesser-known names like Irina Levitina and Jan Donner, and some even less familiar characters, such as Genrikh Chepukaitis. There are also articles on how age affects chess, the killer instinct, chess in dreams, and religion and [...]
Tal, Petrosian, Spassky and Korchnoi — A Chess Multibiography with 207 Games
Andy Soltis’ new book, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky and Korchnoi: A Chess Multibiography with 207 Games explores the lives of four of the top Soviet chess players during the Fischer era. This book is a group biography with less focus on the entirety of an individual player’s life, but rather includes some of the chess highlights within the context of their interactions. There is a focus on the years 1958 to [...]
Kurt Richter – A Chess Biography with 499 Games
Alan McGowan’s Kurt Richter: A Chess Biography with 499 Games examines the life and times of the often-forgotten about European master. The book highlights not only Richter’s career but also the German chess culture and the effect that the two world wars had on his play. McGowan divides Richter’s life into 9 parts. All 9 are basically the same in style and substance, which has a few pictures, sometimes not [...]
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