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Winchester

Chess Club MA USA

Club meets 7:00 P.M to 10:0 P.M on Friday nights except in the Summer

or if severe weather or non chess event is scheduled

at the Griffin Museum 67 Shore Road Winchester, MA 01890 USA.

Call John Shawcross 781 729 8925 to check if club is meeting

Rick, Tom and David

MOST RECENT WEB PAGE UPDATE

May 11 , 2008 9 p.m.

(added results of second round of annual tournament, see schedule)

Club is open on May 16, we will be playing the third round of the club annual open tournament.

April 25, Club Credit total $717.30 (plus entry fees for tournament which will be returned as prizes.)

(Club finance update details. Added two $10 memberships, subtracted $15.70 cost of Herbert Handicap trophy inscription)

(Griffin web site is at www.griffinmuseum.org) that web site

has maps of how to get to the Museum.

For  close up location

of Chess Club location at 67 Shore Road, Winchester, MA 01890 near rotary in Winchester Center

(Google maps photo is of wrong building do not be mislead, Griffin Museum is just a little further down the street on the right)

click here .

If you want to download a Word file of the revised chess club schedule as of February 10th to print out

click here

otherwise scroll down for schedule.

SCHEDULE WILL ALWAYS BE POSTED AND UPDATED FIRST ON THE WINCHESTER CHESS CLUB HOME PAGE AT

http://www.shawx.com/chess/winchester.html

Please bring a chess clock, if you have one, for tournaments.

If you don't have one it would be a great Birthday Present! (talk to David Plantamura)

January to June 2008 Calendar

  1. Chess Club Opens at 7:00 p.m. and closes by 10:00 p.m.
  2. If you want to play in a tournament please arrive by 7:15 p.m. for registration and pairing. (Or call at least one day in advance to say you plan to play and will be there by 7:30 p.m.
  3. If you have a chess clock please bring it to the club for tournaments.
  4. If you are not playing in a tournament you are always welcome to play in casual or rated games with other players not taking part in the tournament.
  5. January to June Club Membership is $25 per family (ask John Shawcross about late season membership, and reduced senior, retired or adult not employed rate )
  6. Note 100%  or more of Entry fees are returned as cash prizes or as trophies.

Date

2008

Event or Casual Chess Games night

Fee

Time

Jr/Open

Jan 4

Welcome back Happy New Year: Casual and rated games

Your choice

Jan 11

Casual and rated games membership fees $25 per family and $10 retired/senior citizen rate, ask John Shawcross, treasurer)

See below

Your choice

Jan 18

Casual and rated games

 

Your choice

Jan 25

Action Chess Week 1

$ 4

20m+10s(Bronstein)

CLUB RELOCATED TO GRIFFIN MUSEUM FEB 1.

Feb 1

Action Chess Week 2  Click here for results

-

20m+10s(Bronstein)

Feb 8

Casual and rated games

Your choice

Feb 15

Casual and rated games Also dues reduced to $20 per family for period though June 6 (retired/ senior rate $10) Ask about Griffin Museum and POE member discounts.

 

Your choice

Feb 22

Due to snow blitz tournament was cancelled.  But chess club was open.

Zero

Feb 29

Club closed Griffin event.

   

Mar 7

Casual and rated games.

 

Your choice

Mar 14

Herbert Handicap *

$ 4

20m+10s(Bronstein)

Mar 21

Herbert Handicap Week 2 (2 rounds) Trophy awarded For results click here

 

20m+10s(Bronstein)

Mar 28

Club closed Griffin event

   

Apr 4

Casual and rated games

Your choice

Apr 11

Club open for casual and rated games.

Fees reduce to $10 though June 6.

   

Apr 18

Fast Quads. First and Second by Group.

Grp 1,1 Winston Huang, 2- Blaise Aguirre:

Grp 2,1 Arvan Sahakian, 2 Mateos Sahakian:

Grp 3,1 Lucas Aguirre, 2 Richard Cui:

Grp 4,1 Jerry Wang, 2 Tanmay Khale:

Grp 5,1 Zubin Baliga, 2 Sean Raskucasas.

$2

Was planned at 20 minutes but changed to 15 minutes on April 18.

Apr 25

BUGHOUSE

TOURNAMENT Click Results

Tom F. and Sean Richard first; David P. and Zubin tied with Richard and Marcus for third.The two Alexs' were fourth.

-

Your choice OR 5 MINUTES FOR BUGHOUSE.

May 2

Club Annual Open Tournament

Week 1

$5

45m Jr/ 75m Open

May 9

Club Annual Tournament Week 2 Click here for results first two rounds.

45m Jr/ 75m Open

May 16

Club Annual Tournament Week 3

45m Jr/ 75m Open

May 23

Club Annual Tournament Week 4

45m Jr/ 75m Open

May 30

Club Annual Tournament Week 5 Trophy awards

45m Jr/ 75m Open

June 6

Casual and rated games TOWN DAY TOMORROW ALSO MAYBE SIGN UP FOR SUMMER CHESS

-

Your choice

June 7

TOWN DAY- CLUB RUNS CHESS TABLE ON SATURDAY FROM 10 AM TO 4 PM SEE JOHN SHAWCROSS FOR DETAILS

* NOTES

HERBERT HANDICAP RULES ARE AVAILABLE ON WEB SITE ALSO RULES FOR BUGHOUSE

Possibly in the Summer we an informal group will play at Starbucks on Fridays.

PLEASE NOTE THERE IS NO SUPERVISION OF CHILDREN EXCEPT THAT PROVIDED BY PARENTS OR GUARDIANS. CHILDREN WITHOUT ADEQUATE SUPERVISION OR THOSE MAKING EXCESSIVE NOISE WILL BE ASKED TO LEAVE.

Call John Shawcross at 781 729 8925, or Tom Richardson at 781 721 1520 or David Plantamura at 781 729 8125 for information.

 

 

Original cartoon by Jack MacAlear; painted in 1959 and given to Annie Murphy Springer who gave it to my brother in law Michael McCaffry who lives in Rohnert Park, California; I photographed it Thanksgiving 2005. (John Shawcross)

 

Winchester Chess Club at Griffin Museum: photo Feb 1,2008.     (The End of Chess??)

Vivek and Daniel

Jim and Chris and at the back Rick and Paul

                        Herbert Handicap Photos taken on March 21, 2008 at the Griffin Museum

                       Another way to end the game!

 

Winchester Chess Club (MA)

 web page by John Shawcross

Meets at Griffin Museum 67 Shore Road Winchester.

 

Records and information.

Herbert Handicap Chess tournament winners

2008 Rick Lunetta

2007 Arnav Ghosh and Henry Li (tied)

2006 Benjamin Suire

2005 Arvan Sahakian

2004 Tom Filipek

2003 Laird Heal

We have been refining the chess handicap rules for the Herbert each year. The odds or handicap we plan on at present are as shown on this link.

Rating Difference Winchester or USCF use higher of the two ratings

Higher rated player loses (Piece) and plays (Color) also lower rated player may take back one move per game if it is taken back before opponent touches his piece.)

Less than 100 points

Loses nothing but plays black

100-199 points

Loses "b" pawn and plays white

200-299 points

Loses "f" pawn and plays black

300- 399 points

Loses "b" knight and plays white

400- 499 points

Loses "b" knight and “b” pawn plays white.

500-599 points

Loses "a" rook* and plays white

600-699 points

Loses "a" rook* and “b” pawn plays white

700-799 points

Loses "a" rook* and "a" pawn and plays black

800-899 points

Loses "c" bishop and "g" knight and plays black

900-999 points

Loses "a" rook* and "g" knight and plays white

1000 –1099 points

Loses "a" rook*, and "c" bishop and plays black.

1100-1199 points

Loses queen and plays white

1200 – 1299 points

Loses queen and plays black

1300- 1399 points

Loses both rooks* and plays white.

1400 points or more

Loses both rooks* and plays black.

 

When one or more rooks are removed player may, before the first move, advance pawn in front of rook one square. When one or more rooks is removed player cannot castle to that side.

Time control is 20 minutes + 10 seconds Bronstein

 

 

History of the Winchester Chess Club:

The Winchester Chess Club was formed in the Spring of 1992. Connie Stolow, an educational consultant to gifted students, had several parents who wanted to know if there was a chess club in the area where their children could learn chess. Connie contacted Harold Dondis, the chess correspondent to the Boston Globe who put her in touch with Dr. Michael Charney. Dr. Charney started The Games Project/Chess Makes Kids Smart. Connie and Dr. Charney came up with some ideas on how to start up a chess club in Winchester. Connie approached the Winchester Library about using one of the basement rooms and posted chess board notices around town inviting people to an organizational meeting. Although Connie did not play chess herself, the notices attracted several experienced chess players who began holding chess games and lessons.

The Games Project/Chess Makes Kids Smart established many neighborhood chess programs and distributed chess sets. It also started a program to design and construct giant chess sets. With a grant from Enka, the Winchester Chess Club participated in building a giant chess set that is still available for play on Town Day in the Winchester Chess Club area.

The club met on Saturday mornings at the library until January 1993. But, due to sports, many students could not play chess on Saturdays. The library could not provide space late enough in the evenings. So Connie found out that the Town Hall was available to the Chess Club at no charge on Friday evenings.

 

Vernon Shoup was the first president.  Tom Richardson (currently Tournament Director) was vice president and John Shawcross (currently Treasurer and Secretary) were members from the first year. Neil Akiyama was also active in membership and and publicity during the early day of the club. David Plantamura (currently President) joined a few years later. Steve Frymer of Lexington who was MACA President also came by the club from time to time to encourage it to develop and include more tournaments.  In the early days, Tom Richardson and sometimes Steve Frymer would do a simultaneous exhibition playing up to 20 players.

On January 8, 1993 the club moved to the Winchester Town Hall. Initially using the Winchester Room and expanding to a second basement level room as membership grew. Since the Town Hall was free, the club was a low cost operation. No membership dues were charged although small entry fees were charged for tournaments in order to provide prizes and to purchase trophies.  A coffee can was available for donations and gradually chess sets and boards were purchased.  Some parents started bringing soda and selling it and this enabled the club to buy chess clocks. Later on the ENKA society provided a grant to buy digital clocks, which are still in use in 2008.

In the fall of 2004, after more than 11 years, the Town decided that the club could no longer play free of charge at the Town Hall.  It would require the Chess Club to pay for the janitor who would be on overtime. The club could not afford that, so we looked at several alternatives, finally settling on the Parish of the Epiphany at 70 Church Street Winchester.  We played there for the first time on October 8, 2004. The church charged the club to recover the costs of heating the church so it became necessary to charge a $25 fee per player each half season. The members loved the new location with its gothic charm. The parents also enjoyed having an area with couches and soft chairs, where they could relax and socialize, while their children played chess.

In late 2007, Jim Herbert heard that the Griffin Museum at 67 Shore Road Winchester would host the Winchester Chess Club at no cost.  The club moved on February 1, 2008. This is a beautiful well lit location with the added benefit of providing chess club members an opportunity to view the various exhibits at the Museum.

Tournaments and Events:

The club holds tournaments at various times throughout the season. These tournaments offer time controls from five minutes for the one week speed tournament to seventy-five minutes for the five week annual club tournament. There is also a bughouse tournament where teams of two players battle it out. In bughouse, teams are chosen by pairing the best players with junior players which means any team has a chance of winning the event. We also hold a Herbert Handicap where based on club ratings the better players remove some of their pieces at the start of the game to equalize the games. The event is named after Jim Herbert who donated an antique silver cocktail shaker which had been a trophy at the Boston Chess Club in 1932 (the Boston Chess Club played Bridge!). 

Above history compiled in early 2008 by David Plantamura (President), and reviewed by John Shawcross (Treasurer and Webmaster), Tom Richardson (Tournament Director) and Connie Stolow (Founder of the Chess Club). Details were updated April 2008 after Tom Richardson found a copy of the first Winchester Chess Club Newsletter (Volume 1, Number 1 dated January 1993 announcing the scheduele and the move to the Town Hall).

  ( As time permits we may expand this history. if anyone wants to suggest some detail or correct errors please let me know.  John Shawcross)

Any person wishing to take an organizational role in the club should please advise Tom, David or John who will be happy to help you get involved.

 

  • Membership fees are now $10 through til June. Non members will not be charged for the first visit but will be charged $5 per subsequent visit.  Discounts to membership fees are available for for senior citizens and unemployed adults are available (ask John Shawcross).
  • Parish of the Epiphany church members are encouraged to join the Winchester Chess Club. For them the half yearly fee is reduced by $5, as a thank you to the POE church for hosting the club 2004-2008.
  • Griffin Museum members will also get a $10 discount for hosting the club from February 1, 2008

 

 
Winchester Chess Club Contacts
President;  David Plantamura  781 729 8125
Tournaments/lessons;  Tom Richardson 781 721 1520
Secretary/Treasurer; John Shawcross 781 729 8925



  1. Chess Club meets at the Griffin Museum at 67 Shore Road Winchester.
  2. Small extra competition entry fees are as shown in the schedule(this pays for cash prizes or trophies).
  3. Members and visitors are required to sign an agreement regarding use of the facility and liability release. Children may attend the club with the consent, attendance and vigilance of a parent or other adult responsible for the child.
  4. Any person attending the chess club who is not behaving responsiblymay be asked to leave the POE premises.

ease bring a chess clock, if you have one, for tournaments.

 

 

CHILDREN WITHOUT ADEQUATE SUPERVISION OR THOSE MAKING A NOISE WILL BE ASKED TO LEAVE.

 

Financial Status as of April 25, 2008.  We have $707.30 in our account.

John F. Shawcross Secretary/Treasurer.

For more information or questions contact John Shawcross 781 729 8925