• Over $350 was raised in The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Tournament this afternoon.  Twenty-four players participated in this event spread out over an Open, Under 1100 and Under 600 section.

           In the Open Section we had our only perfect score as Aaron Lutz upset Eugene Seibert and Frank Jackson to win the event 4-0 and a performance rating of 1978.  Eugene came in second at 3-1.  Frank and Qianshuo finished in a tie with 2.5-1.5.  THough the 5 players rated between 1100 – 1200 did finish in the last 5 spots, Joe Zou finished with a 2 – 2 score, Darshan Gokulraj had a performance rating of 1437, and everyone scored at least 1 point.
            In the Under 1100 section Warrin John survived a last round draw to win the section 3.5 – 0.5.   Albert Wang came in second, 3 – 1, losing only to Warrin.  Like in the Open section, everyone scored at least a point.
           In the Under 600 section, Braxton Hughey and Bhadani entered the last round with 3 points.  A draw gave them both 3.5 – 0.5 scores and a tie for 1st and 2nd place.  Again, everyone scored at least 1 point.
          Thanks again to everyone who came out.  Hope everyone had a fun time!

  •  A “friendly” is a match between two groups not part of a league or larger playoff system.  They are popular in soccer and I believe back in the pre-internet days, chess clubs, especially in Europe would regularly have these events.

                In this case, Dov Gorman, who runs the Innovation Center asked us if we wanted to have such a match.  We were able to get 11 kids to participate, and Dov was able to get similar members to represent his New Jersey Club.

                  In the match, we were higher rated on 4 of the top 5 (based on chess.com ratings), and lower rated on the bottom 6.  Our top 5 boards did a great job of winning their games.  The bottom 6 boards fought hard, especially Warrin (Iamreallybad4), who continued his fine form from the LLS tournament (he won the U1100 section) by winning both his games.  Ratan Konda who also played in the LLS, split his games and Aaron, another LLS participant, nicked a much higher rated opponent for a draw.

                  Dov informed me that there were several teams that might be interested in more friendlies over the next few weekends.  Leteef Street in central PA, also mentioned possibly doing a few similar type of events, so please be on the lookout for more emails about similar events as this one.

    Board

    SJIC Score

    PA Score

    1

    Noah

    dragonz007

    1631

    0

    2

    Vasishta

    Pikachu50190

    1748

    2

    Shyla

    Advanced_Pawns

    1620

    0

    2

    Yajat

    TheFinalEndgame

    1495

    3

    Liam

    millefiori

    1387

    0

    2

    Sid Senthivel

    Sidharthsenthilvel

    1333

    4

    Jason

    You_LosTeR

    1153

    0

    2

    Even Carr

    Memezoood

    1300

    5

    Shane

    SWit6

    1128

    0

    2

    Darshan

    GM_Dolphin

    1244

    6

    Dakshin

    Dakshinbarath

    1106

    2

    0

    Braxton

    AwesomeDude2001

    1040

    7

    Jeffrey

    shark_sam12345

    1065

    0

    2

    Warrin

    Iamreallybad4

    957

    8

    Anay

    Flaming_avocado

    1013

    2

    0

    Rithik

    Anonymous927

    750

    9

    Noah

    trremu

    958

    2

    0

    Thanish

    Thanishm

    746

    10

    Ansh

    Al70203

    939

    1

    1

    Ratan Konda

    Ratankonda

    730

    11

    Matthew

    bebira07

    872

    1.5

    0.5

    Aaron

    Chesplayer5082

    512

    8.5

    13.5