Summer Chess

While the Ellsworth Chess Club heated up, a few Mainers enjoyed the cool air conditioning in hot Orlando, Florida while participating in the US Open and other chess championships. Keji Xu represented Maine high school players at the Denker, Matthew Fishbein represented K-8 students at the newly formed Barber Invitational, and Steve Abrahams, Matthew, and his dad Dan took part in the US Open itself.

Keji Xu finished with 2.5 points good for a tie for 32nd out of 50 competitors. The highlight of his competition was an upset of Graham Horobetz (2125) in the last round. Keji's rating was 1616 heading into the tournament. He was able to raise his rating to 1637 through his play at the Denker; that is his best to date.

Matthew Fishbein also had a very successful tournament. He finished 4th in the field of 44 in the first-ever Barber K-8 Tournament of Champions. By the time he was done, he had inched his rating closer to the 2000 marked finishing at 1991. It won't be long now before Matthew will become the first Maine elementary student to reach the coveted plateau. Let's hope he does it at one of our Maine tournaments!

Steve Abrahams and Matthew Fishbein both finished with 4.5 points out of nine rounds in the US Open. I trust that they all had a great time in Florida and took some time to see some of the sights that aren't so available in Maine.

Meanwhile back in Ellsworth Dick Powell continued to keep things hopping at Mr. Paperback at 6:00 on Thursdays. Seasonal players came by to challenge the likes of Mark Woida, Isaac Marnik, and Paul Wlodkowski. Sometimes there were up to a dozen players enjoying the competition.