(See the ^zhurnal entry of 14 December 2000, Chess1990To1991)

On the day before ^z's 39th birthday, his over-the-board chess career took a new turn. The Saint James School (a pre-college religious institution for boys) sits on a pleasant rural campus near the Antietam (US Civil War) Battlefield south of Hagerstown, Maryland, an hour's drive from ^z's customary turf. Michael Anders taught Spanish at St. James, and in the early 1990's he organized and ran a series of tournaments. ^z ventured to St. James a total of five times, and also took part in three other tourneys closer to home before hanging up his caissic spurs for the rest of the 20th Century. Let the record show:

• St. James "Bilbo's Unexpected Party" G/60 (28 September 1991): In a first venture there, among a field of 20 ^z took first place ($35- $15 entry fee) in Class B with a score of 2 wins (vs. Brian Chaney (C) and Jon Morris (A)), a loss (to Senior Master Boris Zisman, who read a newspaper during the endgame), and a draw (with Frank Knarr (C), by mutual agreement with both players in severe time trouble).
• St. James Chess Club "1/4 k" G/30 (11 October 1991): The "k" factor in the USCF's system governs how fast a player's rating changes. This "1/4 k" experimental tourney reduced the risk of disaster from a bad performance, but also reduced the rewards to be gained by a triumph. Chess players being eternal optimists, only 6 appeared for the contest. ^z emerged victorious, in first place with 4 straight wins over Laura Nelson (C), Mike Keppel (C), Tournament Director Michael Anders (B), and Bill Lewis (B). No prize money, but quite an ego boost.
• St. James Open Open (8 December 1991): Another lucky day, 4 wins and a first place among the 10 competitors for a $30 prize (-$10 entry fee). Opponents were John Tutin (C), Thomas Simson (C), Linda Simson (B), and Mira Madans (C).
• St. James Team Tourney (5 January 1992): In a "team" tournament the people are grouped into squads, which are then paired against each other as sort of "virtual" players. Each individual game is a normal chess game, but results are aggregated to determine which team won in every round. ^z's team finished 3-1, although he himself had only 2 wins (over David Halterman (D) and David Keppel (D)) and 2 losses (vs. Farah Frederick (B) and Master David Sherman).
• Rockville JCC G/30 (26 April 1992): This time ^z did well, a 4-2 score to finish first among the seven players in the Under 1900 group which yielded $21.25 (-$12 entry fee). There were 17 total participants in the tournament. Master Boris Zisman and Expert Mark Coleman crushed ^z, as he expected. But he won against Jay Campbell (D), Brian J. Robertson (D), and Brandon Becker (A). Then, in a splendid last-round upset, ^z with the White pieces managed to defeat Master Alexander Passov in a hard-fought and highly tactical Giuocco Piano.
• St. James Quick Chess (23 October 1992): "Quick Chess" is played under time controls of less than 30 minutes per side. The one and only rated QC experience that ^z had was in this outing, where games were played in at a sudden-death 10 minute (G/10) pace. The result: a third-place finish among the six competitors, with 6 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw — but with no record of moves played or even opponents' names.
• Rockville JCC G/30 (21 March 1993): Not good; 2 wins (against Steven Willmore (D) and Josh Biber (D)) but 3 losses (to Expert Don McMahon and Masters Pappu Murthy and Alexander Passov, who got his revenge for the loss he suffered in the previous month). This was a six-round tournament, but since there were an odd number of players left going into the final round, when the Tournament Director asked for a volunteer to sit it out, an exhausted ^z raised his hand. His rating was a little above 1800 at this point, putting him barely into Class A — and he did not want to risk a loss on a day when he felt unlucky.
• Ft. Meade G/60 (22 May 1993): This was the final tournament chess foray of ^z for the 1990's. It went superbly: among 12 players present, ^z finished first with 3 wins and a draw. His victories were over Terry Coffee (B), Roger Smith (A), and Bob Giordani (A). In the final round, after a tough struggle he reached a draw with Hilbert Turner (B) to guarantee the first prize of $32 (-$12 entry fee). More importantly, ^z gained another clutch of rating points — putting him solidly into Class A.

The main chess changes that ^z observed after two decades of siesta? Instead of tournaments that lasted two or three days with games played at a slow pace of 2 hours (or more) per 40 moves, by the early 1990's single-day tournaments at sudden-death time controls of G/30 or G/60 had become the bill of fare. Players seemed stronger, probably because they had good computers to train against. Tournament directors were better-organized, and frequently had computer assistants to optimize pairings and scorekeeping. And there were far more players who were young and/or female and/or non-European — many of whom were deadly opponents across the board. Overall, healthy progress for one of the world's foremost intellectual pursuits.

(See also the ^zhurnal entry of 10 December 2000, TexasChess, for a summary of ^z's teenage chess experiences in 1969-1971. Please send me a note if you spot your name, or the name of someone you know, in these listings — and let me know how you're doing nowadays! I still have the record of the moves for all of these games, with the exception of those played at fast time controls.)

Thursday, December 21, 2000 at 20:54:34 (EST) = 2000-12-21

(see PostaLite, TexasChess, and Chess1990To1991)

TopicPersonalHistory - TopicRecreation

(correlates: Chess1990To1991, LongThink, FocusAndFanout, ...)