17 Starters at the September 10-October 15 FIDE Thursdays

We are happy to see some new participants in this Thursday slow event (G/120 to be rateable by FIDE), including 12 seeking FIDE ratings. The five with FIDE ratings already are regulars Yefim Treger, George Berg, Ed Frumkin and Marian Waxman, joined by G/30 regular Asa Hoffmann. In addition to longstanding Thursday regulars Ed Scher, Jeff Tannenbaum, Jerry Monaco and Sandra Oliver, we were joined by occasional Sarathi Ray and Lawrence Carlos, returning former regular (newly retired) Tony Greco, new member but familiar face John Brendel, Wednesday regulars Serge Adelson and Paul Rachlin, and G/30 convert (we hope) Polly Wright. We may have set a new record with seven of the fifteen members of the Marshall Board of Governors playing in the same event (this is the most I remember in my 4 years and change on the Board).

Round 1 pairings:

Greco ½ -Hoffmann ½ : Asa’s beloved Czech Benoni didn’t get him anything special; Tony had the usual big space advantage.
Treger 1-Scher 0: Ed’s Scandinavian left him down his usual pawn, and by his own admission he missed a couple of chances to stay in the game.
Tannenbaum 0- Ray 1: I must admit I didn’t get a chance to look at this one, since I was in enough difficulties in my own game.
Berg ½ -Adelson ½ : George was up a pawn or two until Black got in a neat rook offer based on a back rank mate.
Rachlin 0-Frumkin 1: My opponent declined a draw offer and then apparently miscounted the material, liquidating into a pawn down same color Bishop ending which was probably dead lost.
Waxman 1-Monaco 0: The last game to finish – Marian lost the Exchange but seemed to be holding with Knight vs. Rook when Jerry walked into a Knight fork rather than return the exchange for a probable draw.
Oliver 1-Carlos 0: The big upset of the night – by the time I saw it, Sandra had a Rook against an armada of pawns which hadn’t yet advanced very far, so she prevailed.
Brendel 1-Wright 0: This looked like a Wing Gambit in the Sicilian or something similar in which Polly put up a good fight.

The prize fund is $175-$125-$100 and $100 under 2000 based on 20 players and if we exceed 20, the prizes will be raised. We expect more players next week (Paul Doganges (1800), another Thursday regular, took a first round bye). We especially need players with FIDE ratings so that this event can fulfill its mission of enabling players without them to play at least four games against those who already have them. There are only four players rated over 2000 so far, so anybody can win it. There are six rounds in the event and two ½ point byes are permitted (byes in the last three rounds must be committed to before Round 4 (October 1)).

[posted by Ed Frumkin]