The Wood River Weekend Progressive commenced on National Chess Day, Oct. 11 and was a pleasant event for beginners and veterans alike. This is the fifth year of the event with the Idaho Chess Association (ICA) participating in Co-sponsorship (except in 2011 & 2013). Results from previous years include:
2014 Jeff Roland (Open) & Dylan Porth (Reserve)
2013 Jarod Buus (Open) & Quentin Van Law (Reserve) (called National Chess Day)
2011 Adam Porth (Open) & Desmond Porth (Reserve)
This year, Jeff Roland was able to capture his second event title with Dylan Porth entering the fray in the reserve (scholastic) section. The National Chess Day event has evolved into a challenging tournament with games getting progressively longer (G/30 - G/90) as the rounds continue. Endurance is a must! I wonder what a reversed progressive would be like?
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| Wood River Weekend Progressive was held in the Community Campus of Hailey. |
The BCSD Chess Rage strives to provide a variety of tournament types including Blitz, Bughouse, Chess960, opening theme tournaments, using swiss pairing and round-robins. Progressive tournaments are not very common. Education and experience is the primary goal of the club’s tournaments.
Ten of the twenty players were from the Boise area and the rest were from the Wood River Valley. The rated event is attractive to out-of-towners because of the Trailing of the Sheep festival provides players, friends, and family with an extravaganza of Basque and Peruvian sheep-herder culture and history. There is sheep shearing and sheep dog demonstrations, music, dancing, and the running of the sheep through downtown Ketchum. Food is exceptional with lamb-meat pizzas and mutton burritos.
The tournament began with players squaring off in a G/30 round. After the games were all finished, Jarod Buus commented that the scholastic players in the open section should have been encouraged to “win some money and play in the reserve section.” Meaning, the high school players in the BCSD Chess Rage were very competitive and stretched the abilities of the veteran players. It is tough to be a Class B or C player and lose or draw to a Class E or F player that are clearly underrated.
The largest upset occurred between Wesley Brimstein(846) and Cory Longhurst (1483). After missing a mate in one opportunity, Wesley persevered and finally won with seconds on the clock. With time controls becoming increasingly longer by ½ hour intervals, virtually no-one flagged during the tournament.
In the reserve section, the games seemingly looked like a blitz tournament with scholastic players reacting with immediate moves. Dylan Porth (9th grade), however, worked patiently with first time player, Abby Davis (1st grade) and helped her learn about openings and checkmates during and after the game. In a surprise, Journey Iverson fell prey to Dennis Delaney in a variation of Scholar’s Mate. Even veteran players are caught off-guard by this sneaky opening where the queen and bishop (or the knight) work together to target black’s f7 square.
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| Darwin Porth gets some immersive perspective. |
The scholastic Reserve section finished early and games were paused in the Open section to clap and applaud the 11 scholastic players which won $50, $33, and $16 respectively for 1st - 3rd place. Dylan Porth (1st place), 3-way tie for 2nd place with Dennis Delaney, River Shepard, and Darwin Porth sharing the cash awards. Players were also awarded plaques, ribbons, and medals for their 7 hour efforts.
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| Jeff Roland (left) plays the English against Jarod Buus (right) |
When the Open section re-commenced, Jeff Roland was unstoppable and scored a perfect tournament (4.0 points). Players from Boise rallied the Wood River hosts and also took 2nd place (Jarod Buus 3.0 points) and 3rd place (Cory Longhurst 2.5 points). Cash prizes were $75, $50, and $35. It wasn’t a piece of the million-dollar tournament also being played in Las Vegas that weekend, but it certainly made for a great weekend in Wood River!
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| Journey Iverson |
The BCSD Chess Rage wishes to thank the ICA and Jeff Roland for bringing a rated tournament to our area.
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| Dennis Delaney |
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| Jarod Buus |
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| Desmond Porth |
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| Andre Murphy |
