Play Long And Checkmate

My Dad Was My Hero

by Brian Rountree

I'll always love you.  I was thinking about you driving home from work tonight.  I thought about you on Wednesday, when you were ill, and I had no idea.  I thought about my two cats that I had years ago, and felt that you might go soon, and wanted to visit you again this year, as I didn't get a chance to tell you how much you meant to me, except for that one time when I graduated from college.  I was hoping you'd make it another year.  I'm sorry you had to go 20 years younger than your father.  You will be missed, but you will always with me.  And lastly, you were a good man, and that had a profound effect on who I am today.  I wish I could have said one last goodbye, one last conversation, one last get-together.  Bye, Dad.

John Byrd Rountree

April 3 1941 - February 28, 2015

Game Of The Week

It has been a bit of a sad week hearing about Brian Rountree's father dying.  Brian is a good friend, a loyal reader, and a fellow officer of the Colorado Springs Chess Club.  I would like to extend my sympathies to him.  My dad is the main reason I play chess today.

We also lost Leonard Nimoy this past week, who played chess as well.  His character, Spock, was a chess master on the TV series Star Trek.

I was not a big fan of the Star Trek TV show, since it was before my time.  However, I did enjoy the movies that came out in the 80s.  So, I began to think about who at the chess club would fill the roles on the USS Enterprise.  Here is my idea:

• Captain Kirk (Commanding Officer) = Paul Anderson
• Spock (Science Officer) = Jeff Fox
• Scotty (Chief Engineer) = Buck Buchanan
• Ensign Chekov (Navigator) = Brian Rountree
• Lieutenant Uhura (Communication Officer) = Shirley Herman
• Dr McCoy (Chief Medical Officer) = Paul Covington
• Lieutenant Sulu (Helmsman) = Joe Pahk
• Data (Chief Operations Officer) = Dean Brown
• Quark (Bar Owner) = Alex Freeman
• Wesley Crusher (Starfleet Cadet) = Daniel Herman
• Redshirt Character (Always Dies) = Mark McGough

Of course, we saw that they did play chess on the Enterprise.  And we know Kirk beat Spock.  But if Kirk had to play Scotty, I think it would have gone something like this:

Black to move

Play Long And Checkmate

[Event "Cabin Fever Reliever"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "2009.02.10"]
[Round "2.1"]
[White "Buchanan, Buck"]
[Black "Anderson, Paul"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A10"]
[WhiteElo "2000"]
[BlackElo "1960"]
[PlyCount "88"]
[EventDate "2009.02.10"]
[TimeControl "1800"]

1. c4 g6 2. Nc3 Bg7 3. Nf3 c6 4. g3 d5 5. cxd5 cxd5 6. Bg2 Nc6 7. O-O Nh6 8. d3 O-O 9. Bf4 a6 10. Rc1 Nf5 11. Qb3 e6 12. Bg5 Qa5 13. Bd2 Qb4 14. Qxb4 Nxb4 15. Na4 Nc6 16. Nb6 Rb8 17. Bc3 Nfd4 18. Nxd4 Nxd4 19. Rfe1 Rd8 20. a4 Bd7 21. a5 Nb3 22. Bb4 Nxc1 23. Rxc1 Bc6 24. b3 Bd4 25. Bc5 Bxc5 26. Rxc5 Rd6 27. f4 Rbd8 28. d4 Bb5 29. Kf2 Rc6 30. b4 Kf8 31. e3 Ke7 32. Bf1 Bxf1 33. Kxf1 Kd6 34. Ke2 f6 35. Na4 Re8 36. Nc3 Rxc5 37. bxc5+ Kc6 38. Kd3 e5 39. e4 exd4 40. Kxd4 dxe4 41. Nxe4 Rd8+ 42. Kc4 f5 43. Nc3 Rd2 44. h4 Rc2 0-1

https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=100139

This Week In Chess

On February 24th, the Colorado Springs Chess Club finished the February Flash (4SS, G/24 d/5, $10 entry).  11 players joined.  Father and son battled for the top prize with the older generation taking home the glory.

Here are the results:

Tot Rtng Name Prize

3.5 1708 Duwayne Langseth $29.00 1st
3.0 1740 Rhett Langseth $20.00 U1800
2.5 1923 Earle P Wikle
2.5 1880 Paul Douglas Anderson
2.0 2047 Gunnar James Andersen
2.0 1556 Brian John Rountree $15.00 U1600
1.0 1909 Jeff Fox
1.0 1624 Mark McGough
1.0 1400 Dean W Brown
0.5 1666 Benjamin Maye
0.5 1511 David Silva

Chess Student

by Holly Nichols

I work with international high school age students who earn the opportunity to study in the US for a school year.  This opportunity is a very competitive scholarship through the Department of State.  The students come to school for one school year, live in an American host family and attend the local high school.

One of our applicants, a boy from Armenia, is an avid chess player and I would love to find a host for him that shares this interest and could help facilitate this hobby.

Host families can be married or single, with or without children in the home.  The students are covered by medical insurance and they receive a monthly spending money allowance.  The host volunteers to provide a bed (the student can share a room with a host sibling, but needs their own bed), meals and a nurturing home environment.

I am writing to see if you might consider hosting this student or might be willing to pass this information on to others in the chess community so they might learn about our need for a host family!

This student is coming in August, to spend the next school year, but we are needing to find a host as soon as possible in order to get him into an American school and finalize his placement.

I live here in Colorado Springs and can be reached using the contact information below!  I can be reached anytime for questions or interest in this student or in our program and can provide more details about this student to anyone interested!

Holly Nichols, hollyenichols@gmail.com
Regional Coordinator, World Link, Inc.
www.worldlinkinc.org
719-445-6USA
806-577-9533

Gone Fishin'

Game Of The Week

Seven times I have published a game from Al Ufer to remember him after his death on July 10th, 2005.  I think it speaks volumes about Al that his passing was the only time I was flooded with chess game submissions.  I have kept the tradition going until I published all the games I received.  This year will be the last game.

So, I have decided to bring an end to my Al Ufer Week.  However, before I close things out, I wanted to thanks those people who helped me out over the years and add a few words of my own.

Thanks to Dean Brown, Tom Mullikin, Paul Grimm, Jon Fortune, LaMoyne Splichal, Randy Reynolds, Barb Fortune, Brian Walker, and Michael Varney for sharing their thoughts and games.

Fantastic Four - Paul, Dean, Kathy, & Al

Here is Al (right) with his top 2 opponents and number 7

I would like to say that Al was one of my favorite chess players.  He had a great spirit about and love for the game.  I was the player who played him the most who he could not beat, which put me 7th on his list of most common opponents.

However, he should have gotten me several times.  He was a very solid player but had a very creative side.  He would often try some wild attacks with good success, but then just fail to close them out against me.  But I don't think he cared about losing, he just loved to fight.  He was not one to get discouraged and resign early.  He seemed to get the most out of every chess game and taught me that the most important thing in chess is the joy of playing.

Rank, Opponent, Games, Wins, Draws, Losses

1 KATHY A SCHNEIDER 43 41 0 2
2 DEAN W BROWN 27 3 1 23
3 GARY G FRENZEL 18 11 1 6
4 THOMAS LEE MULLIKIN 17 8 0 9
5 PAUL M GRIMM 14 3 0 11
6 ROY L HEATH 10 3 0 7
7 PAUL DOUGLAS ANDERSON 10 0 0 10
8 ANDREW CHOW 9 3 1 5
9 CHARLES E MARTIN 9 3 1 5
10 SEAN J CABRERA 9 0 1 8
11 SAMUEL D MEYER 9 4 0 5
12 BARBARA MARY FORTUNE 7 7 0 0
13 FRANK SHOTWELL 7 1 0 6
14 GERARD R SUNDERLAND 7 1 1 5
15 JEFFREY RANDOLPH FOX 6 1 0 5
16 DANIEL M CABRERA 6 1 1 4
17 LAURENCE R WUTT 6 1 0 5
18 ALDO M MENDOZA 6 1 0 5
19 DAN SOUTHARD 6 1 0 5
20 VIRGIL P MC GUIRE 5 0 0 5
21 SAM WHEELER 4 3 0 1
22 AARON R SHOTWELL 4 3 0 1
23 BRENDAN A KULLBACK 4 2 0 2
24 WILLIAM BLAKE GARCIA 4 0 0 4
25 JOHN F SCHULTZ 4 0 0 4
26 JOSEPH ARAGON 4 0 0 4
27 JONATHAN RAY FORTUNE 4 0 1 3
28 FREDERICK HOPE 4 2 0 2
29 ISAAC MARTINEZ 4 3 1 0
30 JOHN P MC INTYRE 4 4 0 0
31 RENAE D DELAWARE 4 0 0 4
32 LA MOYNE SPLICHAL 4 0 0 4
33 RICHARD W BUCHANAN 4 0 0 4
34 KENDEL BOYD CROSE 4 2 1 1
35 JAMES C MACNEIL 4 0 0 4

If you want to see some Al Ufer games, click on Tributes and scroll down.  Here is a game from Michael Varney where Al uses a Fishing Pole Knight to get up an exchange, gets himself in huge trouble, but fights his way to the victory.

Black to move

Gone Fishin'

[Event "Winter Springs Open"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "2004.12.04"]
[Round "1.6"]
[White "Ufer, Allan"]
[Black "Varney, Michael"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "1096"]
[BlackElo "892"]
[PlyCount "137"]
[EventDate "2004.12.04"]
[TimeControl "180"]

1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Bg5 f6 4. Bf4 Bd6 5. Bxd6 Qxd6 6. e3 Ne7 7. Bd3 O-O 8. Nbd2 e5 9. dxe5 fxe5 10. Ng5 Bf5 11. Bxf5 Rxf5 12. h4 h6 13. g4 Rxf2 14. Kxf2 Qf6+ 15. Qf3 hxg5 16. Qxf6 gxf6 17. h5 Nbc6 18. c3 e4 19. Raf1 Ne5 20. Kg3 Rf8 21. b3 c6 22. a4 Kf7 23. a5 Ng8 24. c4 Nh6 25. c5 Nexg4 26. a6 bxa6 27. Ra1 Nxe3 28. Rxa6 Nef5+ 29. Kg2 Nh4+ 30. Kf2 Ng4+ 31. Ke2 Ne5 32. Rxa7+ Ke6 33. h6 Rf7 34. Rxf7 Kxf7 35. Rf1 f5 36. Rg1 Kf6 37. h7 Neg6 38. Ra1 Ke5 39. Ra8 d4 40. h8=Q+ Nxh8 41. Rxh8 e3 42. Nf3+ Nxf3 43. Kxf3 f4 44. Ke2 Kd5 45. b4 Kc4 46. Rh6 d3+ 47. Kd1 Kc3 48. Re6 e2+ 49. Ke1 f3 50. Rd6 Kc2 51. b5 cxb5 52. c6 g4 53. c7 f2+ 54. Kxf2 Kd2 55. Rxd3+ Kxd3 56. c8=Q g3+ 57. Ke1 g2 58. Qh3+ Kc4 59. Qxg2 Kc3 60. Qxe2 b4 61. Kd1 Kb3 62. Kc1 Ka4 63. Qa6+ Kb3 64. Kb1 Kc3 65. Qf6+ Kb3 66. Qf3+ Ka4 67. Kb2 Kb5 68. Kb3 Ka5 69. Qf8 1-0

https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=66984

This Week In Chess

On July 5th, the CSCC had 9 members in attendance.  The participants played in an double, Round Robin, blitz tournament (2RR, G5).  Here are the results:

Score, Player

10.5 Paul Anderson
10.0 Jeff Fox
9.5 Mark McGough
8.5 Alex Torres
8.0 Buck Buchanan
4.5 Nick Curott
3.0 Kenton Lloyd
2.0 Dean Brown