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Our Huntsville Chess Club accepted a match challenge from the Birmingham Chess Club by hosting the first ever rated match between two Alabama chess clubs on 09 December 2000 at the Brahan Springs Recreation Center, Huntsville, Alabama. The match consisted of three events; two rated 30-minute games, double round robin unrated 5 minute games, and bughouse. Club honor, bragging rights, and rating points were at stake.
Huntsville edged Birmingham in the rated event by a single point out of 12 games. Time pressure from the fastest allowable standard time control was telling in more than one game. Here are two game scores 1 and 2 that demonstrate the importance of watching the clock as well as the board.
The table below shows a strange result. Players of the white color in the first round won all their games. That by itself is not strange because white has a slight advantage afforded by the first move. We should expect a similar result in round 2. However, the players of the white color in round 2 lost the large majority of their games. Does anyone besides me find this improbable?
| Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 1 | Game 2 | ||
| White | Black | Black | White | ||
| Bill Melvin | 1 | .5 | Steven Dowd | 0 | .5 |
| Rick Aeria | 1 | 1 | Greg Funaro | 0 | 0 |
| David Hayes | 1 | 1 | James Richardson | 0 | 0 |
| James Scheuermann | 1 | 1 | Roger McIntyre | 0 | 0 |
| Jerry Wheeler | 1 | 1 | Mark Stribling | 0 | 0 |
| Quinn Parks | 1 | 0 | Miles Melvin | 0 | 1 |
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Huntsville Chess Club
|
6.5 | Birmingham Chess Club | 5.5 |
Birmingham crushed Huntsville in the bughouse competition 11-5. The team of J. Scheurmann / J. Richardson posted a particularly impressive score of 7 wins out of 8 games.
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F. Scheurmann/Aeria | J. Scheurmann/Richardson | Totals |
| Melvin/Melvin | 3-1 | 1-3 | 4-4 |
| Funaro/McIntyre | 1-3 | 0-4 | 1-7 |
All bragging rights and club honor rested in the hands of the blitz players. The two clubs' top scorers tied at 7-1. It all seemed to come down to a 3 game blitz match between Birmingham's Steven Dowd and Huntsville's club president Jerry Wheeler. Wheeler was bested in the first two games for clear victory to Birmingham -- or so it seemed at first count. (You know where this is leading don't you.)
| Steven Dowd | Jerry Wheeler | David Hayes | Mark Stribling | Quinn Parks | Totals | |
| Steven Dowd | 0-1 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 7-1 | |
| Jerry Wheeler | 1-0 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 7-1 | |
| David Hayes | 0-0 | 0-0 | .5-1 | 1-1 | 3.5-4 | |
| Mark Stribling | 0-0 | 0-0 | .5-0 | 1-1 | 2.5-5.5 | |
| Quinn Parks | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-8 |
Then some legalist pointed out that everything must be counted to be fair; not just the "overtime" games between the top blitz players. Everything was counted and recounted. Officials from both clubs counted rating points, the number of players who turned out for the event, and the number of donuts consumed. Several recounts were hastily made, shouts were heard, and law suits were threatened. Hanging pawns were recounted on only those boards that seemed to favor one club... In the end, no clear victor emerged. So all agreed to meet again to resolve the true winner.
Now for some thanks. Birmingham went the distance. The Huntsville Chess Club paid the rating fee. David Hayes supplied the donuts. Many thanks to all who made this event possible.
You all come back now ya' here.
I, David Hayes, officially directed the match.
We regret that we took no pictures to record the event.
Last modified: 10 February 2002
Roger McIntyre