Schedule Changes II

Canceled Games

10/7 Kortchnois - Kramniks
11/2 Kramniks - West Orange
12/2 Staten Island - Kramniks
1/6 Kramniks - Hamilton
2/5 Kramniks - DOCA Knights
3/3 Summit - Kramniks
4/5 Kramniks - Sparta
5/5 Chess Mates - Kramniks
6/2 Kramniks - Karpovs

Byes

October... Kortchnois
November... West Orange
December... Staten Island
January... Hamilton
February... DOCA Knights
March... Summit
April... Sparta
May... Chess Mates
June... Karpovs

Visitor/Home switches

5/3 Summit - Sparta (at W. Orange)
6/2 Kortchnois - Hamilton (at Kenilworth)
6/3 Chess Mates - Summit (at Rahway)

Venue for the 6/3 match is subject to change.

Kramniks Sitting-Out 2010-11 Season

The Kramniks are sitting-out the 2010-11 season because they could not secure the minimum number of players.

The GSCL's 9 remaining teams will receive a 0 point bye in the month they were scheduled to play the Kramniks.

To ensure that each will have 4 home and 4 road matches, some minor schedule changes will be necessary but the November matches (except Kramniks vs. West Orange) will take place as listed.

More information will be posted tonight or in the early morning.

Correction

The final score of Chess Mates-Sparta match was 3-1, not the previously reported 2.5-1.5.

The standings page and other affected pages have been corrected.

Schedule Changes

Please note the following schedule changes:

• Round 3's West Orange-Summit match has been moved to Monday, 12/6 at Summit.
• Round 4's Summit-Staten Island match has been moved to Thursday, 1/6 in Kenilworth.
• Round 5's Hamilton-Summit match has been moved to Thursday, 2/17 in Kenilworth.
• Round 7's Summit-DOCA Knights match has been moved to Saturday, 4/2 in Branchburg.

Also the starting time for all matches in Kenilworth will now be 8 p.m.

Thanks.

Thanks to Kevin Chen, Ziggy Bliznikas, Jose Fernandez and Phil Hepler for contributing 1st round lineups, results and games.

Karpovs Rally, Edge Summit

Ian Mangion and Joe Demetrick won with black on boards 2 & 4 to give the Kenilworth Karpovs a come-from-behind 2.5-1.5 victory in Summit last night.

The hosts grabbed an early lead when Simon Thomson upset FM Steve Stoyko on board 1 and got a save from Glen Hart but could not overcome weak openings in the other games and succumbed when Demetrick defeated Don Varneckas.

P.S. - Ian has also posted a match-report at the Kenilworth Kibitzer.

Hamilton Held To A Draw

In what they hope will be a good omen, defending champion Hamilton matched its 2009-10 start with a 2-2 tie against West Orange. All 4 boards were drawn.

Chess Mates, DOCA Knights Debut With Wins

The GSCL's two new teams started-off on the right foot by notching narrow victories last week.

Arthur Macaspac and Ziggy Bliznikas won with the white pieces to lead the Chess Mates over Sparta, 2.5-1.5 3-1 while Aleksey Vishnyakov and Kevin Chen collected middle-board wins in the DOCA Knights' similar 2.5-1.5 success against Staten Island.

The Knights will visit Chess Mates, in Rahway, on Friday, November 5th.

Kortchnois-Kramniks Postponed

The Kortchnois-Karpovs match scheduled for October 7th has been postponed. A make-up date has not been set.

New Polls

The following polls were recently added to our sidebar:

• Poll #9 - Which team will win the 2010-11 GSCL title?
• Poll #10 - Should the GSCL require players to submit a copy of their game score?

#9 will be open through November and #10 will close June 30, 2011.

Season To Open October 5th

The Garden State Chess League will open its 3rd season on Tuesday, October 5th in West Orange.

The matches scheduled for that night are (visiting team listed 1st) Chess Mates vs. Sparta, West Orange vs. Hamilton and Staten Island vs. the DOCA Knights.

The Kortchnois and Kramniks will meet in Kenilworth on October 7th while the Karpovs will visit Summit on October 11th.

Bound-Player Rule Change

The rule regarding bound-players has been amended to allow a loaned house-player to remain eligible for his club.

It now reads as follows: 

"Once a player competes for a team, he is bound to them for the season. Exception: An unbound house player may be loaned to another team once (just once) and remain eligible for his club."

GSCL Adds Teams In Branchburg, Rahway

The Garden State Chess league has added 2 teams for the 2010-11 season:

• The DOCA Knights, which will play their home games in Branchburg.
• The Chess Mates, which hail from Rahway.