|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some Ramblings
Having missed a few weeks of the HCC meetings I only heard of this match a few days before
it began when Jerry Wheeler e-mailed me the details. The e-mail had a list of potential
players that the Chattanooga Chess Club intended to bring down. One of the players listed
was Bruce Amato. I knew a Bruce Amato when I used to be a member of the Winter Haven
Chess Club in Florida way back in 1983 and haven't heard anything from or of him since. I
had other plans this weekend (sleeping in late) but I had to see if this was my chess buddy
from 20 years ago... or maybe it was the free doughnuts and pizza that inspired me to come
but at any rate I made it there.
When I showed up a little after 8:30 Chattanooga was already there with eight members. I scanned the room and sure enough I recognized Bruce. He was playing a skiddles game with Will. I stood by the game for a while but he didn't seem to recognize who I was. Then I placed my chess clock which I bought from him 20 years ago by his board. He still didn't seem to notice. After the game I asked him to take a look at my clock. Once he turned it over and saw his initials he knew it used to be his but he still didn't know who I was. Have I aged that badly in the last 20 years?? My hair is getting awfully thin but that's a whole other story. I finally told him who I was and then he remembered me. We played a lot of games together in the past.
After my brief reminiscence with Bruce, Freddie Fabreo, an old HCC member, strolled up. I haven't seen him for a couple of years or so. I thought he came in support of Huntsville but found out that he moved to Chattanooga and was playing for the Chattanooga Chess Club! A traitor! He's an excellent blitz player and a pretty good slow player too. He should prove to be a real asset to their team.
Match Details
The match was held at 8:30 am Saturday June 1, 2002 at the Brahan Springs Recreation Center
in Huntsville. It would match each team's players in two G/30 games, then two 5-minute blitz
games and finally we would form teams which would play two Bughouse games each.
On paper it looked like we had a decent advantage over the Chattanooga team even without the aid of some of our stronger players that didn't show up. They did have a few question marks in the form of unrated players though. One of these unrated players had a distinctive Russian name; Dimitry Proshkin. He gets two question marks in my book.
Round 1
At a little after 9:00 am we got the first round of 30-minute games going. Since we had more
players than they did a few of us had to sit out. I volunteered to sit out because I don't
like to use my brain any more than I have to. I'd rather browse around watching some of the
games in a semi-catatonic state, maybe play some Blitz and Bughouse later in the day when
I finally wake up.
On board 1 Freddie Fabreo (CCC) drew John Schweinsberg (HCC). Philip Pennington (CCC) and Chris Lasky (HCC) also fought to a quick draw. Will Stevenson (HCC) and Bruce Amato (CCC) had an exciting game. Both got into time trouble. Bruce's flag fell first but Will didn't notice it and kept on playing. A few moves later his flag also fell and the game was declared a draw. These three draws would be the only points scored by Chattanooga in this round. Jerry Wheeler (HCC) had a totally lost position in his game against Steve Brady (CCC) but time proved to be his ally when Steve's flag fell. Joe Chaffee (HCC) also won on time against his Chattanooga opponent Sarah Stanhope who was clearly playing well above her rating of 537. Mike Begala (HCC) earned the full point against the double question mark Dimitry. HCC comfortably won this round 6.5 - 1.5.
| White | Score | Black | Score | |
| 1 | Fred Fabreo (1663) - CCC | ½ | ½ | |
| 2 | Jerry Wheeler (1732) - HCC | 1 | Steve Brady (1349) - CCC | 0 |
| 3 | ½ | Chris Lasky (1627) - HCC | ½ | |
| 4 | Mike Begala (1611) - HCC | 1 | Dimitry Proshkin (unr) - CCC | 0 |
| 5 | Malcolm Estrada (unr) - CCC | 0 | Horst Ruppert (1606) - HCC | 1 |
| 6 | Will Stevenson (unr) - HCC | ½ | Bruce Amato (1354) - CCC | ½ |
| 7 | Sarah Stanhope (537) - CCC | 0 | Joe Chaffee (1468) - HCC | 1 |
| 8 | Josh McClellan (unr) - HCC | 1 | Miles (unr) - CCC | 0 |
Round 2
Round 2 matched the same players against each other with colors reversed with one exception,
Jeff Daskar (HCC) didn't show up in time to play in the first round but was ready to play in
round 2. Unfortunately his opponent would be Steve, the guy that almost beat Jerry in the
first round. Steve was playing very strong today and handed us our first defeat by beating
Jeff this round. This would be the only point they would score this round however. After
Fred traded two minor pieces for a rook, John soon got an overwhelming position which he
capped off with a brilliant knight sacrifice that left Fred's position helpless. After
agreeing to a quick draw in the first round Chris came out with guns blazing and quickly
disposed of Phil with a crushing king-side attack. Will also upgraded his first round draw
to a win when he beat Bruce with a Sicilian Scheveningen. Mike, Horst, Joe, and Josh also
scored wins to remain undefeated. HCC convincingly won this round 7.0 - 1.0.
| White | Score | Black | Score | |
| 1 | 1 | Fred Fabreo (1663) - CCC | 0 | |
| 2 | Steve Brady (1349) - CCC | 1 | Jeff Daskar (1452) - HCC | 0 |
| 3 | Chris Lasky (1627) - HCC | 1 | 0 | |
| 4 | Dimitry Proshkin (unr) - CCC | 0 | Mike Begala (1611) - HCC | 1 |
| 5 | Horst Ruppert (1606) - HCC | 1 | Malcolm Estrada (unr) - CCC | 0 |
| 6 | Bruce Amato (1354) - CCC | 0 | Will Stevenson (unr) - HCC | 1 |
| 7 | Joe Chaffee (1468) - HCC | 1 | Sarah Stanhope (537) - CCC | 0 |
| 8 | Miles (unr) - CCC | 0 | Josh McClellan (unr) - HCC | 1 |
Break Time
After the second round we had a well-rounded nutritious lunch of pizza, doughnuts, cookies,
and soda. One of the Chattanooga players brought some cookies baked by his wife. I usually
only get home cooked food once a year at Thanksgiving (not counting all the TV dinners that
I heat up at home) so I considered this a treat. David Hayes showed up and took some
photos of this event.
Round 3
For the third round we shifted over to 5-Minute Blitz chess. I decided to get in on this. Pam
showed up with her two kids and they played also. Jerry made the pairings so that
players matched together in the first two rounds would not be matched together in this round,
and since each Chattanooga player would play two blitz games, some of the Huntsville players
would play tag team and swap out after one game to get more participants. Once again
the results showed Huntsville to be the stronger team... in conventional chess anyway. HCC
won this round 11.0 - 5.0.
| HCC Player | Score | CCC Player | Score | |
| 1 | 1 | Fred Fabreo | 1 | |
| 2 | Mike Begala | 1 | Steve Brady | 1 |
| 3 | Roger McIntyre | 2 | Philip Pennington | 0 |
| 4 | Horst Ruppert | 2 | Dimitry Proshkin | 0 |
| 5 | Will Stevenson | 2 | 0 | |
| 6 | Jeff Daskar/Pam Zoller | 0 | Bruce Amato | 2 |
| 7 | Josh McClellan/Zak Zoller | 1 | Sarah Stanhope | 1 |
| 8 | Joe Chaffee | 2 | Miles | 0 |
Round 4
And now for something completely different. The Huntsville Chess Club does not play too
much Bughouse so if Chattanooga was to stop the bleeding, this was the time to do it. I find
this game fun but I don't have a good grasp on it. I tend to play it like conventional chess
but always seem to get into trouble when pieces keep popping up out of nowhere. I teamed
up with Joe who is a pretty good Bughouse player and we actually won both our games. I
admit that he mostly carried me in these games. He was the one who mated his opponent
in both games, the last one after I ran out of time. This was the only sweep Huntsville
had in this round. Chattanooga won it 5 - 3.
| HCC Team | Score | CCC Team | Score | |
| 1 | 0 | Fred Fabreo/Steve Brady | 2 | |
| 2 | Joe Chaffee/Roger McIntyre | 2 | 0 | |
| 3 | Horst Ruppert/Chris Lasky | 1 | Malcolm Estrada/Bruce Amato | 1 |
| 4 | Bert Gower/Jerry Wheeler | 0 | Miles/Sarah Stanhope | 2 |
Round 5
There was no scheduled round 5 but there was still plenty of time before we would be kicked
out of the center at 5:00 pm so we decided to have one more round of games in 30-minutes.
Some of the players already left but we had enough to get seven games in. Will made some
brilliant moves in his game against Phil to gain a huge advantage. In the post analysis
Fritz pointed out a drawing opportunity that Phil missed on move 30. After missing the saving
move, Phil soon resigned. Despite this loss Chattanooga did very well this round and scored
even with Huntsville 3.5 - 3.5.
| White | Score | Black | Score | |
| 1 | Fred Fabreo (1663) - CCC | 1 | Bert Gower (1695) - HCC | 0 |
| 2 | Steve Brady (1349) - CCC | 1 | Horst Ruppert (1606) - HCC | 0 |
| 3 | Will Stevenson (unr) - HCC | 1 | 0 | |
| 4 | ½ | Joe Chaffee (1468) - HCC | ½ | |
| 5 | Jeff Daskar (1452) - HCC | 1 | Malcolm Estrada (unr) - CCC | 0 |
| 6 | Pam Zoller (unr) - HCC | 0 | Bruce Amato (1354) - CCC | 1 |
| 7 | Miles (unr) - CCC | 0 | Zak Zoller (845) - HCC | 1 |
Conclusion
When you add up all the points from all the rounds the final score is: HCC - 31, CCC - 16.
We won! Yeah!
If I were to give out trophies (I'm not), on the Chattanooga team I would give Steve Brady one. He had an excellent match. His registered rating of 1349 is obviously not accurate. He played much stronger than that. Both Freddie and Bruce also performed well.
There were many players on the Huntsville team that had great performances. If I had only one trophy to give out (I don't), I would have to give it to Joe. He played in every round and won every game he played except the last round which he drew Dmitry. Since I don't have a trophy maybe I'll give him a handshake next time I see him... and two brownie points. Horst and Will also had notable performances. I ended up undefeated but only played in the Blitz and Bughouse rounds.
Last modified: 05 June 2002
Roger McIntyre