2008
Annual Meeting
The
Annual Meeting was held on March
11, 2008 at 6:00 PM
immediately prior to the regularly scheduled club meeting night. Twelve
members showed up (not including several late stragglers) to participate.
The
first order of business was the presentation of the Treasurer's report by Roy
Jones. Roy
provided an income and expense statement that included a pie chart that
clearly showed the major and minor expenses incurred to run the club.
Interested members can obtain a copy of the treasurer report by asking one of
the club officers.
Three
proposed changes to the club bylaws were then presented to the
membership. The first proposal concerned Article 5 and added the
position of vice president to the club officers. The second proposal, also
concerning Article 5 specified that officers will be elected by a majority of
members present at the annual club meeting and will include absent members
who have submitted their votes via a ballot form which is submitted to the
club officers. The final proposed change was to Article 7 (Ratification
and Amendments). This proposal added the proviso that the two-thirds
majority required to change the bylaws also allows absentee voting by a
ballot from members who cannot attend the annual meeting. All three
changes to the bylaws were passed. The revised Club Bylaws should be
posted on the website shortly.
A
proposal submitted by Ben Bentrup was then brought to the floor. It
addressed the problem that has occurred a few times in the past when someone
shows up to play in the monthly tournament, but happens to be the bye player
when an odd number of players are present. The suggested policy was to
provide the individual with the standard one full point bye for that round
and then omit the next round entry fee as compensation for the inconvenience
of not being able to play. The members passed this policy.
The
final order of business was the elections for club officers. For the
first time since the Cranston-Warwick Chess club was established, a contested
election was at stake. Roy Jones was running for president against the
current club president, Frank Vogel. John Magill ran uncontested for
the Vice President position. The election was held by ballot and
the results were that Frank Vogel will remain as the President and that John
Magill is the Vice President. The club membership thanks Roy Jones for
his dedicated service as club treasurer.
Frank
Vogel
"One of the greatest threats to a democratic organization is for the
members to become apathetic and let a small group of the membership do all
the work This creates divisions and
promotes authoritarianism." -- Robert
's Rules of Order
2008 Club Championship
Carlos Avalos has successfully defended his club champion title and is now
2008 Cranston-Warwick Chess Club Champion! The event began on
January 15th and ended on March 18th after a grueling 10 round double
round-robin tournament. Each player had one game with black and one
with white against each opponent. The selection of the players was
based upon their year long results at the monthly club tournaments and USCF
rating. A few of the stronger players were unable to make the
commitment to play but every participant had a USCF rating of 1600 or
higher. The final results are as follows::
1. Carlos Avalos - 7 points
2. Tomas Ramirez - 6.5 points
3. Rick Massimo - 6 points
4. JZ Perrotta - 4 points
5. Roy Jones - 3.5 points
6. Richard Dusza- 3 points
The prize fund for the winners was:
1st Place
- $100
2nd Place - $75
3rd Place - $50
Congratulations to all 6 players for their hard fought games and good
sportsmanship throughout the tournament!
John Magill
Chess Notes - Aug/Sept 2007
I know it has been some time since my last newsletter to the
members. The pace of life
has picked up since the school year is now underway.
I would like to discuss my experience at the 2007 U.S. Open Chess
Championship. Held 7/28-8/5
in
Cherry Hill
,
NJ
at the Crown Plaza Hotel, the tournament conditions were excellent.
The largest book and equipment store I have ever witnessed at a
chess tournament was displayed in a room adjacent to the playing hall.
The TD crew ran the tournament without any glitches.
If you have never been to the US Open or a similar large
tournament, I would definitely recommend that you make it one of your
personal goals in chess.
One of the best aspects for me was reuniting with numerous chessplayers
whom I had not seen or communicated with in several years.
I actually got to meet in person two correspondence players whom
I had only talked with through postal chess cards.
And I roomed with an old chess buddy that I met shortly after I
got back into chess in 1986.
As
far as the actual chess, my results could have been better.
The large open section made for strange pairings.
I really didn't play anyone who was close to my rating through
the whole tournament! I was
paired up then down repeatedly. My
actual score was 3.5 points out of 8 games which ended up losing me 7
points overall. I managed to
play two actual checkmates over the board, which was quite unusual.
I also attended the Delegates meeting as the Rhode Island
representative. The meeting
was long and sometimes boring but there were several topics that were of
importance to the future of the federation.
With the completion of the August CWCC monthly, we probably won't be
seeing much of Ben Bentrup. Ben
teaches school on Block Island so he will likely not grace us with his
presence until next summer. We
three board members greatly appreciate the TD work and assistance that
Ben provided in his short time with us.
In an all volunteer organization like our chess club, help like
that is hard to come by.
Good chess!
Frank
Vogel
State Championship
The
month of May was a very busy time for your new president.
I directed the 2007 RI State Chess Championship on May 5-6 at Rhode Island
College.
Our club was well represented with nine (9) players participating.
Brendan Burns (U1500) and Roy Jones (U1800) both were first place
winners in their respective classes. If you haven't already, be sure to
check out the photographs link on the Events page that shows some of the
winners and a few action shots of the competition. This event at the
college was the last chess tournament until September 2007.
The regular monthly Pawn Eater tournaments will resume at that
time. Those club players who
have not played in one of these tourneys should definitely give one a try.
The playing conditions are excellent with the college cafeteria right on
the premises. This is also a
good time to inform everyone that the Rhode Island Chess Association is
planning to have a memorial tournament for the recently deceased expert
Max
Malyuta.
The exact dates
and format are yet to be determined.
Photos
from the 2007 State Championships
New Club Officers
The photograph on the first page of our web site
shows the newly elected officers for the Cranston-Warwick Chess Club for the
2007-2008 year. Pictured from left to right are:
John
Magill
(Vice President),
Frank
Vogel
(President), and
Roy
Jones
(Secretary/Treasurer). The board was unanimously elected
since there were no other candidates. The election was official as
of
March 5, 2007. With three committed new officers, the club is
in good hands for the near future.
Pawn Eater Tournament
The
recently completed 91st Pawn Eater tournament (April 15, 2007) organized by the
Rhode Island Chess Association saw our very own Roy Jones tie for first place in
the U1800 section. Roy
scored 3.5 points out of a
possible 4, only giving up a draw to
Jonathan
Poggi, who tied
Roy
for first in the section.
Roy
also gained 102 points onto
his USCF rating. Congratulations to
Roy
for his fine performance.
