Hello chess friends
Chess club will begin again this Thursday. This semester, the club will be held once a week, on Thursday, from 6-8 to allow people who have a busy work schedule to have some time to play. There will be 10 meetings this semester:
1/26 Student union (SU) 222
2/9 SU 222
2/16 SU 222
2/23 SU 209
3/8 SU 222
3/29 SU 222
4/12 SU 222
4/19 SU 222
4/26 SU 222
5/3 SU 222
Due to a lack of room availability, there will be no club on the following dates:
Play is open to both UNLV students/faculty/staff as well as outside individuals. Materials will be provided, but if you want to bring your own, be my guest.
there will be no chess club 11/18. The club will resume tuesday 11/22
chess club is cancelled on 11/8/11
ICC is hosting a free online tournament this Sunday, Nov. 6. The details are below
1) This is a collegiate tournament, but it is also an individual tournament. This means players will represent the university but will compete individually for prizes, i.e, no four person teams all playing at the same time as in many team tournaments.
2) This tournament is completely FREE. ICC costs money usually, but they are giving away free membership for the duration of the tournament until Dec. 1st I think.
3) the structure is 5 rounds, game 15 + 5 second per move, starting at 11AM pacific. This is the day we turn clocks back, remember, and the tournament starts at 11 after the time change.
let me know if you would like to play so I can get an idea of our representation
more info can be found at
http://www.chessclub.com/activities/CCLinfo.html
questions go to
billscotty@chessclub.com
There will be no meeting of chess club on 10/21, the club will resume Tuesday the 25th
Just a reminder that we have no room for Friday Sept. 23, and thus no meeting. The club will resume next Tuesday
No chess today, 9/2/11, going out of town, will start up again next Tuesday
Below is a guide to week-to-week happenings at chess club, we will be studying openings, endgame theory, and basic elements to the game and positional play(see explanation in previous post)
Chess meetings
Aug 30,
Sept, 6, 9, 13, 16, 20, 27, 30
Oct 4, 7, 11, 14, 18, 25
Nov 1, 4, 8, 15, 18, 22, 29
Dec 2, 6
No meeting on 9/2, 9/23, 10/21, 10/28, 11/11, 11/25, 12/9
23 meetings for the fall semester
Tuesday: Openings
Friday: Endgame and positional play
15 meetings on Tuesday
8 meetings on Friday
Chess Openings essentials, E4 openings:
All italics openings are to do at home, since we won't have time for all during meeting hours.
Kings gambit (quick); Latvian at home
Four knights Philidor defense (quick)
Giucco piano (quick); Scotch gambit (quick) Petroff defense (quick)
Italian (quick) Ponziana opening (quick)
Ruy lopez 2-3 weeks, Two knights defense (quick)
Pirc defense Alekhine defense (quick)
Caro-kahn Evans gambit (quick)
French 2-3 weeks
Sililian 2-3 weeks
Silman’s complete Endgame book: Work way through starting with p. 213
Nimzowitsch's My system:
1 element a week for 8 weeks (do two one week)
Positional play chapters Spring semester
For the fall 2011, chess club will be held Tuesday and Friday from 2:30-4
rooms will change a little during the semester, here is the breakdown
Aug 30-Sept 20 Student Union room 205
Tuesday Sept 27th room 213
Friday Sept 30th room 205
Tuesday Oct 4th room 207
Friday Oct. 7th room 218
Tuesday Oct. 11th room 205
Friday Oct 14th room 211
then up through Tuesday Nov 15th room 205
Friday Nov 18th room 211
then 205 again through Tuesday Dec 6, which is the last meeting of the season
see post below for how the chess club will be organized this year, and tell your friends, we need members
On June 9, the UNLV chess club visited south point casino, the home of the national open, and played a match against Arizona State's chess club, who had 7 players come down to play in the big tournament. We represented ourselves well, playing two G15 rounds, going 2-2 in round 1 and 3-1 in round 2. Thanks to all that played for us and thanks to Jeff at ASU for making this match possible.
For the upcoming academic year, Fall 2011, I want to try something different. We have just received new materials for the club: four new chronos clocks, and six chess books. The books are broken down this way: a complete course on opening strategy, 1 book on endgames, and Nimzovich’s My System, which deals mainly with middle and endgame strategy.
It has been my experience that simply playing casual chess, while lots of fun, is not as helpful as studying the game in depth, and for any of those genuinely wishing to improve their game, there really is no substitute for hard work. That’s why the majority of club time will now be spent learning new opening theory, new middlegame and endgame technique, and improving tactics. The last 20-30 minutes of club time will be spent applying the days learning with 2-3 blitz games.
For tactics specifically, there are several good computer programs out there that actually make tactics kind of fun. The best I think is the chess.com mobile app, which is on iphone/ipod/ipad and probably android as well. Also, ideachess.com has unlimited free tactics as well.
Also, UNLV is now certified to hold USCF rated tournaments again, so we will plan to have one, probably next spring.
So tell your friends about the revamped UNLV club and let’s try to build up our membership a little.
The club will start up again this Fall when school starts.
I suppose it would help if I told you the room
Tuesday March 22 SU 224
Friday March 25 SU 222
Tuesday March 29 SU 205
Friday April 1 SU 211
next meeting will be Tuesday march 22, then Friday march 25
the following week meetings will be Tuesday March 29 and Friday April 1
(2/27/2011)
next club meeting Tuesday March 1st SU 205
then Friday March 4th SU 213
both 2-4 PM
the next chess club meeting will be Friday February 25th at Student Union 222. 2-4 pm.
This sunday is the first round of an ONLINE team tournament. It appears to be FREE in all respects. It is run through ICC (look them up), probably the best internet chess website there is, and I think they are offering free memberships to team participants while the tournament is going, which means you don't have to pay anything to download the software and have an account as you normally would. 4 rounds, game 60, and all through the month of Feb, except some holiday, and the last round is
March 6 I think. Every round is
on Sunday at noon, our time, except round 1 which is at eleven. I think this would be a nice, easy way to start our team tournament history as a club. If I play, and I would like to, we need three other players. Give it some thought and let me know if you want to play, and we can talk about it Friday also if you come to the meeting at 1.
www.collegechess.org Gabriel