Emily wins Girls’ State Tournament

Last Saturday, Emily beat two former Indiana state champions on the way to a perfect 5-0 record at the Indiana Girls’ Championship tournament. Awesome performance, Emily! As a result of that tournament performance, she has been invited to the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls. Now we can say we have a State Champion as a member.

Another of our sometime members, Helen, finished 4th in that tournament.  Congrats, Helen!

Danny is in Atlanta this weekend playing in the High School Nationals. Good luck!

Lots of people!

The last couple of weekends we’ve had 15+ people at our Chess Club meetings.  Let’s keep it going!  If you’re thinking about coming by, do it this Saturday.  And next Saturday.  And the Saturday after that.  And the … well, you get the idea.  Pretty soon we’ll have enough people to hold a small tournament!

Speaking of tournaments …

It has been mentioned by more than one person that it would be good to have a tournament where anyone can enter, regardless of age.

This is really the reason I started the ACPL All Ages Chess Club.  It’s not really useful to limit the membership of a chess club by age, unless you are in a school.  What makes more sense is to get as many chess players of all ages together, so that the players with more knowledge and experience of the game can mentor the players who are just starting out or just beginning to grasp certain key concepts.

Then, once you have a steady attendance, you build the interest and excitement by running tournaments several times a year.  So help me out by stopping by on the Saturdays you can make it, and pretty soon we’ll have enough people to get a tournament going!

Bobby Fischer, 1943-2008

Bobby Fischer died in Iceland on Thursday.  Best known for his victory over Boris Spassky in the 1972 world championship, he was only slightly less well known for being eccentric and, some would say, unbalanced.  Nevertheless, he was one of the greatest chess players of all time.

News article on Fischer’s death

Fischer article at Wikipedia

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose

… And sometimes it’s a draw.

Emily beat me for the first time last Saturday.  She wasn’t really keeping track, because she’s much more caught up in keeping track of how many times she’s beaten Danny (with good reason – he’s better than me).  But I notice these things.  After all, it was only a couple of weeks ago that I beat Danny for the first time!  After months of trying.

So congrats to Emily – I’m sure it won’t be the last time.