Beat Your Opponents With A Club!
A chess club, that is!
This weekend I played in the Southern Open in Orlando, sponsored by the Continental Chess Association and directed by David Hater, Krista Alton, Harvey Lerman, and Harold Scott.
[My last round game (the $$ game) is linked at the bottom. The GM games in the notes are really cool, and worth seeing alone.]
The attendance was huge, and the event was an extremely well-run affair. Harold Scott gets a special "shout out" for details such as updating the results sheets in almost "real time", so it was always easy to see how rounds were progressing as games ended.
I attended the event with my fellow Clermont Chess Clubmates Todd Durham, Jim McTigue, and Connor Eickelman. I was fortunate to score 3.5/5 in the U2100 section, which was good for the U1900 1st prize of $500- the full payout, as the tournament paid 100% due to the excellent attendance.
I have been especially fortunate in that it is my second 1st place finish in as many months (I had a stinker tournament in the middle - gotta keep it real!). Luck is a big factor, of course, whether we admit it or not.
However, I attribute my primary success to two factors. First, I have been a big beneficiary of the arrival of GM Lars Bo Hansen and WIM Jen Hansen to Orlando- and I am not the only one. Attending some of his Master Class sessions, and then especially working with his books, has changed my thinking and approach to the game. I am the same person, but I am not the same player.
Second, I am very fortunate to belong to a chess club that meets regularly, and to work with other players who share my passion for chess and learning. The three guys mentioned above, along with Norm Meintel, Joe Sanderlin, and Garry Day, have been my constant sparring partners.
Our club is not a normal club. For one, we are more talkative than usual. We want to get better, and we collaborate on our work. In fact, the Thursday before the tournament, the four of us who planned to play met on Thursday night and discussed positions from GM Chris Ward's Chess Choice Challenge, which gives positions with 5 different assessments, and you have to decide which one is correct (a concept I was introduced to by Lars, I should add). We would look at a quiz position, we would each weigh in on it, then we would check the answer and discuss/debated it. It was a great way to get the creative chess juices flowing, and both times we have done it, I have been successful- to the tune of $1100 in prize money in 45 days.
My point is this- working with my buds at the club makes me a better player. We kibbitz all the time, we play into each other's openings to help each other learn, we work on endgames (read that again!) and we give each other honest feedback to help us all improve. I also play on the internet, but it is not the same- there is no substitute for sitting across the board from someone and playing a person, not an engine, an icon, or emoji.
If you live close by, come by and see us. If not, find a club or start one of your own. Here's a link that might help:
And as I mentioned, here is my final round game from the tournament.
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