2nd Annual WMCA Club Team Championship

The 2nd Annual WMCA Club Team Championship was held at the Kingsmen CC in Athol.

This year's event drew 21 players as compared to 24 for 2005.

Players from 4 clubs came to play. The Pioneer Valley CC [8], Wachusett CC [6], Kingsmen CC [4] and the Greenfield CC [2] sent representatives.

It took a while to determine team size. The PVCC group graciously agreed to add the 2 GCC players to their B team and the WCC gave the KCC 1 so that there would be 5 players per team and 4 teams vying for the trophy.

The pairings were to be done by computer, furnished by Ed Kostreba, but it failed prior to the start!  Oh boy! Hand pairings for a team event! Wonderful for sure! I  was glad that I had the "foresight" to grab some pairing cards, X-table sheets and pairing sheets BEFORE I left for the event!  Premonition or "poop" luck??

Pairing the 1st round was "relatively" easy. Top half plays bottom half. My only prerequisite was that players from the same team DID NOT play each other. PVCC-A could play PVCC-B, but that was it.

Doing round 2 and 3 was extremely interesting! I called it a "REALLY MODIFIED SWISS"! I really think the computer would have cooked itself during round 2 or 3 anyway! I was able to avoid anyone getting the same colors 3 in a row. Those small victories made up for the minor headaches with pairing. It WAS fun though.

Fighting spirit was evident in all rounds as most games went almost the full time control of G/60. There were upsets in each round. Round 1 saw Eduardo Valadares [1400] knock off Bruce Felton [1860] for an 460 point difference! In round 2 Noah Morris-Siegel [1572] defeated Harold Moye [2000] for an 428 point spread.  Round 3 saw Martin Lane [1750] take out Harold Moye [2000] to make a 250 point spread AND the 2nd upset of Moye!

The winner of the event was not determined until the last 2 games ended. WCC closed out both games with wins to take first place by 2 full points. Had they split the last two a playoff would have been needed.

The Wachusett CC takes the 2006 event and gets to keep the trophy until next year's event!

CONGRATULATIONS WACHUSETT CHESS CLUB!!

By Frank Kolasinski

The Champs!

(L to R: Martin Laine of Lunenburg, Parker Montgomery of Keene, NH, George Mirijanian of Fitchburg, Ken Gurge of Leominster, and foreground in the lower photo, Bruce Felton of Fitchburg)

2nd WMCA Inter-club Match
3 Round Swiss, Game 60, Not U.S.C.F. rated
April 30th, 2006 - Athol, MA
Organizing Affiliate: The Kingsmen Chess Club
Chief T.D. John Dould

# Name Team Rating Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Score
1. Clifford McLaughlin PVCC-A 2200 W11 D 8 L 4 1.5
2. Parker Montgomery WCC 2013 W13 W 9 W10 3.0
3. Harold Moye PVCC-A 2000 W12 L 2 L 8 1.0
4. George Mirijanian WCC 1955 W14 L 5 W 1 2.0
5. Larry Williams PVCC-A 1918 W16 W 4 W 6 3.0
6. John Dould KCC 1903 W18 -U- L 5 1.0
7. Bruce Felton WCC 1860 L15 W13 W14 2.0
8. Martin Laine WCC 1750 W17 D 1 W 3 2.5
9. Tom Smith PVCC-A 1739 W19 L 2 D12 1.5
10. Dave Hall PVCC-A 1673 W20 W15 L 2 2.0
11. Richard Gold PVCC-B 1642 L 1 W19 L15 1.0
12. Ken Gurge WCC 1596 L 3 W18 D 9 1.5
13. Enrique McDonald PVCC-B 1470 L 2 L 7 D17 0.5
14. Ed Kostreba PVCC-B 1460 L 4 W16 L 7 1.0
15. Eduardo Valadares KCC 1400 W 7 L10 W11 2.0
16. Joe Spooner KCC 1400 L 5 L14 L20 0.0
17. Frank Kolasinski KCC 1332 L 8 W20 D13 1.5
18. Pat Spatorella PVCC-B 1200 L 6 L12 W19 1.0
19. James Spooner KCC 1000 L 9 L11 L18 0.0
20. Brandon Eckert PVCC-B UNR L10 L17 W16 1.0
21. Noah Morris-Siegel KCC 1572 -U- W 3 -U- 1.0


TEAM STANDINGS

# Team Name Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Score
1. Wachusett Chess Club (WCC) 3.0 3.5 4.5 11.0
2. Pioneer Valley Chess Club - team A (PVCC-A) 5.0 2.5 1.5 9.0
3. Kingsmen Chess Club (KCC) 2.0 2.0 1.5 5.5
3. Pioneer Valley Chess Club - team B (PVCC-B) 0.0 2.0 2.5 4.5