Mediaboss Marketing

Greetings! I wanted to start this months article off by telling everyone about an exciting new opportunity for anyone even remotely interested in correspondence chess!

As many of you know or at least suspect, participation in correspondence chess has been shrinking for several years. Thats one of the things the Correspondence Chess Working Group (CCWG) has recently strived to address. One initiative this led to is the creation of a first-of-its-kind US Chess rated correspondence pyramid tournament on Chess.com. It starts on June 1st, 2021 and is open to players of all ages and skill levels. California chess coach and correspondence chess master Chris Torres will be running this tournament.

This event is a pilot program that will be used to gauge the viability and interest in having US Chess rated correspondence tournaments run by US Chess affiliates instead of solely through the US Chess Correspondence Chess Director. The hope of course is that events like this will draw increased participants into US Chess rated correspondence chess (also called Daily Chess on some websites) and US Chess as a whole. Increased participants in correspondence chess would hopefully spur more participants in Golden Knights (and other events) and enable us all to see a wider variety of opponents and not be subjected to that feeling of Aw man, Ive got to play Michael Buss again?! quite so often. [I know many of you know what Im talking about]

For those who might be unfamiliar, the pyramid tournament Chris will be running is an ongoing event similar to a ladder event that many folks will recognize from chess clubs, band experience, etc. The key difference between a pyramid tournament and a ladder event is that in the pyramid tourney the standings are grouped into tiers. For example, maybe tier/level 11 would be the players in places 56-66 in the rankings. Instead of just being able to challenge the person directly ahead of them in the rankings, a person might be able to challenge anyone above them in their tier and maybe a certain X number of tiers above them. That way a person doesnt have to get stuck playing the same person over and over necessarily to advance.

Chris is running this new tournament through his affiliate, Daily Chess Musings, on the Chess.com website. As alluded to earlier, this is the first affiliate-organized US Chess rated correspondence chess tournament.

For more details please check out the following links for the press release (https://dailychessmusings.com/2021/04/23/harnessing-the-power-of-the-pyramid-in-chess/) and the main tournament page (https://dailychessmusings.com/daily-chess-musings-rated-correspondence-pyramid/).

A few final notes. Participants will have to remain members of US Chess and create a Chess.com account. There is a small one-time entry fee to participate with a very small $5 annual renewal fee for every additional year one wants to participate. Please take a moment to check out the site and consider participating!

And now, on to the games!

In our first game, a battle between correspondence chess newcomers, Joydeep Bhattacharyya takes out Gerald MacDonald from the white side of Closed Sicilian. Out of a sideline of this opening, a slugfest begins to develop as Joydeep starts a kingside pawn that, after the pseudo-sacrifice of a pawn at move 23, culminates in a fine and instructive mating attack.

Note - this is also a game from our new/ICCF version of the Victor Palciauskas events, a worthwhile example of the exciting play that can be found there to those willing to throw their hat in the ring.

Young plays well to eliminate his isolated d-pawn, leaving Ellis with an isolated, but passed, d-pawn of his own. After White loses a pawn at move 25, he battles to hold the position despite the ongoing liquidation of forces. Young regains the pawn roughly 20 moves later and, in a complicated queen and minor pieces endgame with apparent chances for both sides, the combatants agree to peacefully coexist.

Thirty-Month Limit and Adjudications

All sections that started prior to July 1, 2018 have been closed out and any games still open in those sections declared drawn per our thirty-month rule. At the end of this month (May), all sections that started prior to August 1, 2018 will be closed out. If you still have an active game going in such an event, you have until the end of the month to request a claim of a win or draw by following the adjudication instructions in the rules. If neither player submits a claim, the games will be declared drawn.

Recent Event Winners

18C07 Scott Sensiba, 5-119C11, Cory Bloch, 5.5-0.5

20W12 Douglas Stewart, 4-221W20 Gregory Hall, 4.5-1.5

19V01 John Walton, 5-1

Oh, last but certainly not least, last month I mentioned Tim Corkum winning the 2018 Electronic Knights championship. I have the results from the Finals section and plan to include those in next months article.

See you then!

Larry

Go here to see the original:
Check Is In The Mail: May 2021 | US Chess.org - uschess.org