Eligibility: picture shows you playing chess somewhere cool, taken summer 2015, send entries to bcsdchessclub@gmail.com. Winners will be chosen and announced on September 10 at our first chess club meeting at the Community Campus.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Summer Chess Photo Contest
Summer 2015 Ending
Hard to believe summer is almost over! I have chosen tentative dates for this next year's chess tournaments - the entire school year: https://sites.google.com/
If you know of any conflicts let me know so I can change things if necessary.
News: Dylan Porth was selected to represent Idaho at the prestigious National Girls Invitational Chess Championship in Phoenix beginning this Saturday. One girl from each state was selected. She would love sponsorship so call me if you would like to help in some way (contact me). She has also opted to participate in the US Open with me! Very cool.
Dylan will perform a Simul at Java on Aug. 29 to raise funds. Call me to participate or just show up to play her from 10 am - 3 pm.
Chess Camp: Aug. 24 - 28 (any sponsors?). Sign Up (click here). Here are the participants so far:
- Darwin Porth
- Leam Van Law
- Quentin Van Law
- Myles Deffe
- Hunter, Luke, and Eric Thompson
- George Corkery
- Bayro Llantoya
- Otto Olson
- Jacob Choma
- Max Albright
- Sebastian and Aleczander Hanks
- River Shepard
- Cade Landon
There is room for more and I beg you to sign up so that I can order the right number of t-shirts and equipment. Also, I would love folks to pay asap so I can pay for the materials!
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Blitz and Bughouse Results
After our 12 am trek to Boise and then flights all day, bus to the hotel on Wednesday, getting up was very difficult for everyone. Bughouse was very much a tough proposition with my team moving in slow motion compared to the other teams. This is a good way to get the nervousness of a tournament dealt with.
 |
| Shopping at North Market |
Desmond and Dylan scored 3.0 points (53rd place)
With a brief rest and some food, the Blitz tournament began. The Silver Creek team was now fully awake and aware of the possibilities. Desmond and Andre continued to lead our team round-by-round and ended with 6.0 points each (better than last year's results). In Andre's games, there were some weird occurrences. One of his opponent's picked up his pawn an moved it backwards and then mentioned a racist comment. Later in the tournament, Andre saw a TD warning the player about racist comments. I was taking picture from the balcony of Wesley's game and then witnessed a "slight of hand" by his opponent. The player moved a bishop one square diagonal to take a piece of Wesley's and then returned it to the original square in one slick movement. Pressed for time, Wesley did not notice. Our team went into the last round in 27th place and had nearly 4 points to gain in order to overtake the 20th team (assuming their team did not earn any points!). I at least expected us to break the top 25, but we were 2 points behind them. Desmond won both his games handedly as well as Andre. Wesley scored 1.5 points and Dylan scored one ending our tournament in 22nd place. We moved up 5 positions!
Desmond 6.0 points (166th place)
Andre 6.0 points (172nd place)
Wesley 5.5 points (192nd place)
Dylan 4.0 points (273rd place)
 |
| Hopefully we will bring one of these home |
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Desmond, Dylan, Andre, Wesley, and Levi are in Columbus,
Ohio enjoying the heavy rain, but more importantly playing the greatest game
among the nations finest players.
Bughouse (a chess variant with teams)
- Andre and Wesley scored 6 points and are 37th in the nation.
- Desmond and Dylan scored 3 points and are 53rd in the nation
Blitz (fast chess G/5) is tonight beginning at 5 pm eastern
time.
Classical (G/120 d5)
begins tomorrow at noonish
I will begin publishing more today and throughout the tournament.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
2015 Girls State Chess Champion!
Temiloluwa Aderogba is the 2015 Girls State Champion and will be the Idaho representative for the Susan Polgar invitational Chess Tournament and the National Girls Invitational Tournament! Temi is a 5th grader at Eagle Elementary School of the Arts and is a newcomer to Idaho and the United States via England. We are very happy to offer her a warm welcome into the vibrant chess community that Idaho offers. Congratulations!
Here are the results of this fabulous event:
Overall Championship
1st place Temiloluwa Aderogba
2nd place Carmen Pemsler
3rd place Dylan Porth
Overall 6-8th grade
1st Amelia Mussler-Wright
2nd Katlyn Genta
3rd Heidi Mungall
Overall 4-5th grade
1st Celeste Hollist
2nd Darci DeAngelis
3rd Alex Schrader
Overall K-3rd grade
1st Machitas Fernandez
2nd Sara Hollist
3rd Veronica Richmond
1st place 12th grade Abby Shiner
1st place 1st grade Audrey Richmond
1st place 2nd grade Simone Williams
1st place 3rd grade Daniela Valencia
Even though there was 21 participants, there were not enough K, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 grade participants to award those prizes. Sign up next time so you can be your grade's champion. Thank you to all the donors, participants, parents, and volunteers to make this one of the best events.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Girls State Chess Championship
Greetings,
Door Prizes and donors:
It is so nice to see pre-registrants at this historic event! On Friday night before the tournament, a free, open blitz tournament will be hosted by the BCSD Chess Rage at the Community Campus at 7 pm. We have some donated prizes for this event.
On Saturday, plan to arrive a bit early to double check your registration information. Remember to request any byes.
9:00 am - 9:45 am Check-in
9:45 am - 10:00 Welcome (in CC Theater)
10:00 am- Round 1
11 am Round 2
12 pm Round 3
1 pm Round 4
2 pm Round 5 (3 pm for Championship Section)
3 pmish Other Section Awards (CC Theater)
5 pmish Championship Section Awards (CC Theater)
Beginning at 10:30 am, Brooklyn Castle (CC Theater)
12 pm Searching for Bobby Fischer (CC Theater)
2 pm Knights of the Bronx (CC Theater)
Simul by Levi Catangcatang (part of a school project) Ongoing 9:30 am until done.
Analysis by Fred Bartell and Desmond Porth
The BCRD has offered free workout passes. E-mail to claim ticket (there are only 10!)
Java (gift card)
Barnes & Noble (gift card)
The Closet (gift certificates)
Wise Guy Pizza (gift certificates)
Smith Optics ($250 in SWAG)
Chartwells (free drinks to winners)
Snow Bunny (free ice cream to participants)
Mason's Trophies (trophy award donations)
The Coffee House (Discounted drinks - mention chess)
The Wood River Inn (Discounted rates - mention chess)
BCRD (Workout Passes)
This is a great way to celebrate Easter Weekend - See you soon!
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
2015 National Dragon Day Tournament
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January 16th is National Appreciate a Dragon Day and to celebrate, the BCSD Chess Club (under the guise of Silver Creek Dragons!) showed their appreciation with a celebratory tournament. This is the second year of the tournament which features the Sicilian Dragon opening lines: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6
 |
| Dragon Chess Set as prize |
The G/15 0d tournament proved to be a favorite of some of the players as I heard them exclaim, "I love this defense!" I try to offer theme tournaments in order to expand and challenge players to learn and try new things on the chess board. The game is meant to be a scientific, hypothesis, prediction, and experiment-ridden smorgasbord of openings, middle game tactics, and endgame strategies. The kids I work with appreciate my philosophy and our style remains flexible, creative, and fun.
 |
| Wesley Brimstein vs. Journey Iverson |
The tournament was held in the Silver Creek High School science classroom where I hang my hat most of the time. Twelve players showed up to play with most of the high schoolers curiously absent due to jobs. The time proved fun and the tournament started strong for Desmond Porth and it appeared that he was going to stay on top. G/15 games can take a nasty turn and in the 3rd round, he had an unexpected loss to Otto Olsen. Otto used time to his advantage and capitalized on Desmond's temporal deficit. Desmond withdrew and attended a lecture for educators and parents by Daniel Pink. I was sorry to be missing the presentation.
Wikipedia says, Pink has written five books that focus on the "changing workplace," and that have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list:
His articles on business and technology have appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Wired. As of 2012, Pink's 2009 talk on The puzzle of motivation was one of the 10 most-watched TED Talks. In 2011, Thinkers50 named Pink as one of the 50 most-influential management thinkers in the world.
The games continued and Levi Catangcatang, Wesley Brimstein, and Spencer Gaudereau shifted to overdrive. By round 5 Levi and Wesley were tied for first place (though Wesley had 0.5 point lead in the first tie-breaks). They agreed to play an Armageddon Match to settle the placement and win the Dragon Chess board graciously donated by Tyler Avila last year. An Armageddon Match is decisive in that white has time odds and black has draw odds. That is, white has 3 min. on the clock and black had 2 minutes on the clock. If black draws then it is considered a win. Wesley was white and Levi was black.
- To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
- The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need
- A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future
- Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself
His articles on business and technology have appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Wired. As of 2012, Pink's 2009 talk on The puzzle of motivation was one of the 10 most-watched TED Talks. In 2011, Thinkers50 named Pink as one of the 50 most-influential management thinkers in the world.
The games continued and Levi Catangcatang, Wesley Brimstein, and Spencer Gaudereau shifted to overdrive. By round 5 Levi and Wesley were tied for first place (though Wesley had 0.5 point lead in the first tie-breaks). They agreed to play an Armageddon Match to settle the placement and win the Dragon Chess board graciously donated by Tyler Avila last year. An Armageddon Match is decisive in that white has time odds and black has draw odds. That is, white has 3 min. on the clock and black had 2 minutes on the clock. If black draws then it is considered a win. Wesley was white and Levi was black.
 |
| Levi Catangcatang vs. Wesley Brimstein |
Wesley calmly moved like a machine with constant intervals between moves. Levi chose a fast opening and then slowed too much to think about some middle game tactics and finally lost on time. A fun, energizing, and heart-racing end to a tournament.
CrossTable
No.
|
Name
|
Pts
|
Rnd1
|
Rnd2
|
Rnd3
|
Rnd4
|
Rnd5
|
1
|
Brimstein, Wesley
|
4.0
|
W5
|
L9
|
W3
|
W6
|
W4
|
2
|
Catangcatang, Levi
|
4.0
|
W3
|
L4
|
W5
|
W8
|
W6
|
3
|
Gaudereau, Spencer
|
3.0
|
L2
|
W10
|
L1
|
W11
|
W7
|
4
|
Iverson, Journey
|
3.0
|
W10
|
W2
|
L6
|
W7
|
L1
|
5
|
Llantoy, Bayro
|
3.0
|
L1
|
W11
|
L2
|
W12
|
W8
|
6
|
Porth, Darwin
|
3.0
|
W7
|
W8
|
W4
|
L1
|
L2
|
7
|
Enriquez, Froilan
|
2.0
|
L6
|
W12
|
W10
|
L4
|
L3
|
8
|
Olsen, Otto
|
2.0
|
W12
|
L6
|
W9
|
L2
|
L5
|
9
|
Porth, Desmond
|
2.0
|
W11
|
W1
|
L8
|
-U-
|
-U-
|
10
|
Quesnel, Zach
|
2.0
|
L4
|
L3
|
L7
|
-B-
|
W12
|
11
|
Quesnel, Skade
|
1.5
|
L9
|
L5
|
D12
|
L3
|
-B-
|
12
|
Cross, Kaiden
|
0.5
|
L8
|
L7
|
D11
|
L5
|
L10
|
Tiebreaks
Place
|
Name/Team
|
Score
|
Solk
|
CumOp
|
Cum
|
MMed
|
1
|
Brimstein, Wesley (1)
|
4.0
|
15.0
|
46.0
|
11.0
|
12.0
|
2
|
Catangcatang, Levi (2)
|
4.0
|
14.0
|
45.0
|
11.0
|
12.0
|
3
|
Porth, Darwin (9)
|
3.0
|
15.0
|
48.0
|
12.0
|
13.0
|
4
|
Iverson, Journey (6)
|
3.0
|
14.5
|
43.0
|
11.0
|
13.0
|
5
|
Gaudereau, Spencer (5)
|
3.0
|
12.5
|
32.5
|
7.0
|
11.5
|
6
|
Llantoy, Bayro (7)
|
3.0
|
11.5
|
33.0
|
7.0
|
11.0
|
7
|
Olsen, Otto (8)
|
2.0
|
13.5
|
40.5
|
8.0
|
9.5
|
8
|
Enriquez, Froilan (4)
|
2.0
|
11.0
|
33.5
|
7.0
|
8.0
|
9
|
Quesnel, Zach (12)
|
2.0
|
8.5
|
26.5
|
2.0
|
5.5
|
10
|
Porth, Desmond (10)
|
2.0
|
7.0
|
20.5
|
9.0
|
3.0
|
11
|
Quesnel, Skade (11)
|
1.5
|
9.5
|
24.5
|
1.5
|
6.5
|
12
|
Cross, Kaiden (3)
|
0.5
|
9.5
|
25.5
|
1.5
|
6.5
|
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