Alabama Chess
The Official Publication
of the Alabama Chess
Federation
Antics
Winter 2016
Inside this issue:
Beat the Benoni:
15th Dothan
Open
4
by Scott Varagona
Snapshots from
the Magic City
Classic
8
Game submitted by
Stephen Adams
“The Rest of the
Story”
10
by Charles Anthony
Winter Chess
Tactics
13
by various players
“Breaking Up”
With an Opening
Gone Bad
14
Some of “the usual suspects” gather at the 2017 MLK Classic.
(A whopping 9887 rating points in one photo!)
by Scott Varagona
Winter Photo
Gallery
by various contributors
16
Left to Right: Kirk Petty (1900); Stephen Graveling (2136);
Doug Strout (1723); Tejas Thorat (2092); Jonathan Rasberry (2036)
Page 2
Alabama Chess Antics
Greetings from the Editor
It’s time to wrap up the last bit of
2016 and prepare for the new chess year.
This issue includes major contributions
from Stephen Adams and Charles
Anthony as well as various puzzles and
pictures from many others. Thank you,
one and all, for supporting the Antics. I
also included a nice game of my own (a
“refutation” of the Benoni, I hope!) and
an article with musings on the decision to
drop an opening from one’s repertoire.
Here’s hoping you find this issue
entertaining and instructive.
There are two very significant
tournaments on the Alabama chess
horizon. First, the Queen of Hearts will
take place at AUM on February 11-12,
2017, in Montgomery. This tournament
(the second-longest-running tournament
in Alabama) always features a lot of
fighting chess, and the 2017 edition will
surely promise even more.
Second, the details of the
Alabama State Scholastic Chess
Championships have been announced.
Madison will be hosting the Individual
Championship on Saturday, March 11,
2017, and then the Team Championship
on Sunday, March 12, 2017. (See the ACF
website for details.) The Individual
event’s outcome is a huge factor in
determining Alabama’s 2017 Denker,
Barber, and National Girls Invitational
representatives; we look forward to
seeing the strongest scholastic players in
the state vie for these prestigious
positions.
Finally, as always, the Antics is
looking for new content from YOU—the
Alabama chess players. Please send games
(with or without annotations, but .pgn
format is strongly preferred), photos,
tournament reports, or full articles to the
Antics Editor at this email address:
[email protected]
Enjoy this Winter issue, and good
luck in 2017.
Kindest regards,
-Scott Varagona
What is Black’s winning move? (See the Tactics
section on p. 13 for the solution.)
ACF Membership
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Member upon the payment of annual dues of
$10.00. Regular members may enter ACF
tournaments and receive special publications or
notices from ACF as they are issued. Any chess
club seeking to become an Affiliate is
required to file the Affiliate Information Form
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dues of $25.00. Benefits of becoming an
affiliate include the right to bid to host ACFsanctioned events, such as the Alabama State
Championship, and to receive advertising
through the ACF for your tournaments.
Winter 2016
Page 3
Alabama Chess Leaderboard
Top 50 Ratings (retrieved from uschess.org on February 2, 2017)
1
FM BRADLEY J DENTON
2334 26
JEFFREY BYRD
1899
2
SCOTT VARAGONA
2281 27
WILLIAM BLACKMAN
1893
3
BILL MELVIN
2227 28
CHARLES A SMITH
1879
4
MATTHEW V PUCKETT
2177 29
GUENTHER HUBER-DELLE
1873
5
STEPHEN ADAMS
2160 30
CHARLES H ANTHONY
1866
6
REX E BLALOCK
2150 31
KENNETH W GOODMAN
1866
7
STEPHEN JAMES GRAVELING
2136 32
RHODES PEELE
1860
8
GERALD A LARSON
2133 33
TYLER C RHODES
1860
9
WCM ROCHELLE WU
2121 34
TIM BOND
1857
10
SIJING WU
2105 35
THOMAS H LAWRY
1837
11
JOSEPH H JURJEVICH
2098 36
KENNETH JIAO
1834
12
TEJAS VINAYAK THORAT
2092 37
STEVE MENGXI CHEN
1824
13
DANIEL H THOMAS
2085 38
CAESAR W LAWRENCE
1812
14
ARDEN QUINLAN MARKIN
2066 39
SAMUEL CAVETT
1802
15
JOSHUA THOMAS MCCLELLAN
2065 40
RAY DOWNS
1800
16
JOSH DIVINE
2050 41
OM BADHE
1796
17
JONATHAN RASBERRY
2036 42
DR MARIANO G RUNCO
1772
18
CHARLES L MEIDINGER
2008 43
NATHAN H SAINT
1771
19
JEFF TOBIN
1957 44
LUIS J MORENILLA
1769
20
GEORGE RUSYNIAK
1953 45
MICHAEL B GUTHRIE
1757
21
ROGER DEAN JOHNSON
1944 46
DAVID HAYES
1750
22
MILES MELVIN III
1937 47
BRIAN MCCORMICK
1738
23
CHRISTOPHER TREES
1930 48
MOHAK AGARWALLA
1738
24
KIRK D PETTY
1900 49
MARK PETERSON
1730
25
TERRENCE W EDINBURGH
1900 50
AARON DECORD
1724
Page 4
Alabama Chess Antics
Beat the Benoni: 15th Dothan Open
By Scott Varagona
S. Varagona (2267) - J. Jurjevich (2117)
15th Dothan Open, Round 3
Dothan, AL (12/17/2016)
10.e3!
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 exd5
5.cxd5 d6
After much thought, I am
convinced that this is simply a very strong
move. White reasons that putting his
pawn on e4 just makes it a target, so
instead he leaves it on e3 (where it
When you play 1.d4 against Joe
Jurjevich, facing the Benoni is practically
a given. Very annoyingly, in several
previous encounters, I had gotten a huge
advantage with the King’s Indian Samisch
sort of line (e2-e4 and f2-f3), only to
blow the games and draw in the end. One
time, I even botched the opening so
badly that Jurjevich won with Black. This
time, I had a more conservative idea in
mind, but one that still contained a lot of
hidden poison.
6.Nf3 a6 7.a4 g6 8.h3 Bg7 9.Bf4 0–0
NM Joseph Jurjevich: a five-time state
champion, a fierce fighter, and an
Alabama chess legend.
Winter 2016
Page 5
controls important dark squares, by the
way). This means Black has very limited
counterplay. Meanwhile, the Bf4
combined with Nf3-d2-c4 will put
infuriating pressure on the d6 pawn,
giving White a nice advantage.
I first saw this plan in SokolovShabalov 2012 (World Open); in that
game, Sokolov blew Shaba right off the
board in nineteen moves. That alone
should tell us something!
10...Re8 11.Nd2 Nh5 12.Bh2
Of course, having this retreat
square is the reason White played h2-h3
earlier.
12...Be5
This is definitely NOT a move
that Black wants to make. The g7-bishop
is the pride of the Benoni player’s
position. However, something had to be
done in the face of the upcoming ...Nd2c4xd6, and having to play ...Bf8 would be,
frankly, disgusting.
In the Sokolov game, by the way,
Shabalov must have sensed the trouble
brewing because he tried the much more
aggressive 12...Qg5!?. After 12...Be5, this
game takes a much more positional turn,
which really favors White.
13.Bxe5 Rxe5 14.Nc4 Re8 15.Be2 Nf6
16.a5
Black’s pieces are really stressed
out. Of course, Nc4-b6 will be super
annoying, but the defense ...Nbd7 can’t
be played because it would hang the d6
pawn.
16...Ne4 17.Nxe4
Although 17.Na4 would have
been reasonable (to add to the pressure
on b6), I decided the knight on e4 was a
little too active and should be removed.
17...Rxe4 18.0–0 Qc7 19.Nb6 Ra7
20.Ra4
I don’t like trading off pieces
when I have a space advantage, but in
this case I hope to trade off the only
good pieces Black has. Either way, all of
my pieces will soon be stronger than their
counterparts. Just playing simple moves,
White got a big positional advantage.
What did Black do wrong?... I mean,
aside from playing the Benoni? ☺
Page 6
Alabama Chess Antics
20...Re8 21.Qb3!?
There are tactical tricks in the
background here, like 24...Ne5? 25.Qb6!,
which would win material for White.
24...Ra8 25.Qa4
At the time, I thought this move
was strongest as it solidifies b6. However,
for some inhuman reason, the computer
insists that 21.b4! was best. Perhaps
White can get an accelerated version of
the kind of queenside play he actually got
later on in the game.
What did Black do
wrong?...
21...Nd7 22.Rc1 Qd8 23.Nc4 Qc7
24.Raa1
In the time it takes Black to get his
a7-rook out of the gutter, I will be able to
rearrange my pieces and go for b2-b4.
Black would love to break out
with 25...b5, but of course that would
lose immediately thanks to the
unprotected e8-rook.
25...Rb8 26.b4 Rd8 27.bxc5 Nxc5
28.Qa3
Black’s cramped position is finally
starting to collapse. The threat is simply
Nxd6 followed by Rxc5.
28...Ne4 29.Bd3 Qe7 30.Bxe4! Qxe4
31.Nb6
A diagram is worth a thousand
words: With the Kasparovian “octopus”
entrenched on b6, the c-file is
permanently under my control and all of
Winter 2016
Page 7
Jurjevich’s pieces will be dominated.
Black is busted.
35...Re8 36.exf5 Qxf5 37.Ra1 Re2
38.Rc8+ 1–0
31...Bf5 32.Rc7 h5 33.Qc3 Qh4 34.Ra4
Qg5 35.e4!
To top it all off, White wins a piece.
One of the best positional games
of my chess career. It is so very nice
when the computer only finds fault with a
few of your moves. And again, this 10.e3!
plan used by Sokolov is really something.
Benoni players, be afraid! ■
Dothan Open 2016:
Top Performers
1st place (4 points):
Scott Varagona (2267)
How often do you get to take a photo with Gandalf!?... Thanks to
Dothan Fanatix for serving as the tournament venue. Left to right:
Scott Varagona (Dothan Open 2016 winner); Dan Williams
(Dothan Chess Club President).
2nd place (tied at 3 points):
Joseph Jurjevich (2117)
Tejas Thorat (2090)
Benjamin Chen (1607)
Page 8
Alabama Chess Antics
Snapshots from the Magic City Classic
Game submitted by Stephen Adams; notes by Scott Varagona (with Stephen Adams)
S. Adams (2154) - T. Thorat (2090)
Magic City Classic IX, Round 4
Birmingham, AL (12/30/2016)
1.b3 Nf6 2.Bb2 e6 3.e3 d5 4.Nf3 Be7
5.c4 c6 6.Be2 0–0 7.0–0 b6 8.Nc3 Bb7
9.Rc1 Nbd7 10.d4 c5 11.Ne5 Nxe5
12.dxe5 Ne4 13.Bf3 Nxc3 14.Rxc3 Qd7
15.cxd5 exd5 16.Rd3 Rfd8 17.Bxd5
building up slowly with 18.e4.
18...Bxd5 19.Rxd5 fxe6
Now White’s advantage has been
minimized.
20.Qg4 Bf6?
17…Qc7?
Surprisingly, Black could have
gotten away with 17...Bxd5! 18.e4 Bxb3!
19.Rxd7 Bxd1 20.Rfxd1 Rxd7 21.Rxd7
Rd8!, with equality.
18.e6?
An over-hasty move that Stephen
regrets; White would have been better off
This defense seems less than ideal,
because now 21.Rxd8+! Qxd8 22.Qxe6+
and Bxf6 gives White a slight pull in the
ending. However:
21.Qxe6+?! Qf7 22.Qxf7+ Kxf7 ½–½
Although Black is a pawn down,
23.Rxd8 Rxd8! leaves Black in full control
of the d-file, which makes a draw very
likely.
Winter 2016
Page 9
The 2016 Magic
City Classic Novice
Section winners.
(Photo by Mary
Lowery.)
The 2016 Magic City Classic
Reserve Section winners. Left:
Aaron DeCord, 1st place. Photo
submitted by Ethan Smith
(center), who took 2nd place. ■
Magic City Classic 2016: Top Performers
Premiere Champions (3 points): Tejas Thorat (2090), Stephen Adams (2154)
Reserve Champion (4 points): Aaron DeCord (1611)
Amateur Champion (4 points): Mariano Runco (Unrated)
Rook Champion (5 points): Hayden Harding (1130)
Novice Champion (5 points): Abigail Graveling (Unrated)
Page 10
Alabama Chess Antics
“The Rest of the Story”
By Charles Anthony
Back in the March 2015 article in
Chess Life entitled “The Pin is Mightier
Than the Sword,” I submitted a game
from the 5th and final round from the
1982 Queen of Hearts tournament, held
in the historic capital city of
Montgomery, Alabama. In the epilogue
to that game I alluded to the 4th round
game, in which I left the board during the
game and took my wife and young
daughter to the Sunday morning church
service nearby. After returning to the
board an hour later, there was still
enough time to eke out a win in 59
moves. In that article, I said that the
story of that game was another story for
another day. So today I sat down to tell
the rest of the story. The moral of this
story might be that when faced with a
situation where you know that you may
end up in time trouble, play an opening
that you are familiar with...and pray!
played this system for some time and I
would be able to play the opening moves
very quickly, saving time for the
middlegame and endgame after I got back
from church. 2...Nf6 3.Bd3 Aiming at h7
and fighting for control of e4. 3...g6
Immediately cancelling the Greek Gift
sacrifice at h7. 4.f4? Better is Nd2,
preventing the black knight from
occupying e4. 4...Bg4 5.Nf3 Heading for
e5 as soon as possible. 5...Nbd7 6.0–0 c6
(A plan with ...c5 would be much more testing.
-Ed) 7.Nbd2 Finally securing e4.
C. Anthony (1661) - Paul White (1657)
Queen of Hearts, Round 4
Montgomery, AL (2/14/1982)
1.d4 d5 2.e3 This move has certain
disadvantages, as we will see as the game
plays out. I am headed toward a
Stonewall Attack, a system recommended
for White in I.A. Horowitz and Fred
Reinfeld’s book “How to Think Ahead in
Chess.” The advantage is that I had
7...Qc7 8.c3 e6 9.Qc2 Unpinning the
knight and offering support to the whitesquared bishop. 9...Bd6 10.b4 Beginning
the queenside expansion that will prove
to be the difference in the game. (A
creative approach, although I feel 10.Ne5! is
more natural. -Ed)
Winter 2016
Page 11
abandoned. Black can also undouble his
pawns, while White’s backward e-pawn is
a definite liability. 15.exf6 Ndxf6 16.h3
Nh6 17.Ng5 Ne4 18.Nxe4 dxe4? In my
mind, this capture opens the door to a
queenside assault, since White now has
the pawn advantage and the initiative
there. 19.a4 Nf7 The short-stepping
knight is now at a disadvantage against
the long-range White bishop. 20.Bb2
Ng5 21.c4 We now have two decidedly
different plans—to attack on opposite
sides. Black’s uncastled King may soon
become a liability.
10...Bf5 Forcing a swap of White’s most
active bishop. 11.Bxf5 (I get the feeling this
trade helps Black more than White. I
recommend 11.Ne5 followed by e3-e4, with some
advantage to White. –Ed) 11...exf5 Probably
better is gxf5 to open a file to the White
king, but Black does not want to have an
isolated h-pawn, I suppose. (From another
point of view, ...exf5 could make White’s
backwards e-pawn vulnerable to attack. -Ed)
12.Ne5 Bxe5 13.fxe5 Ng4 14.Nf3 f6!
The White outpost at e5 has to be
21...Qg3! Pinning the g-pawn and
attacking the backward e-pawn. 22.Kh1
Qxe3 Black temporarily takes the lead in
material, but is about to have his
queenside pawns isolated. 23.d5!
Continuing the strategy of queenside
expansion, while clearing the long
diagonal for the bishop. 23...Rf8 24.dxc6
bxc6 25.Rad1 Nf7 The square d8 will
become a very important point of
contention. 26.Rf2 Nd8 27.Rfd2 Rf7
28.Rd6 Qb6 29.Qd2 Intensifying the
Page 12
pressure along the d file, while protecting
the b-pawn.
Alabama Chess Antics
is whether or not the plan will work.
39...Rc7 An indirect double attack on the
c-pawn, but Black’s king is vulnerable.
40.Qa8+ Gaining time to defend the cpawn. Those three pawns on the
queenside look decisive. 40...Kg7 Not
willing to exchange queens. 41.c5 e3
42.Qd5 Re7 Now allowing the exchange
of queens. 43.Qxf7+ Kxf7 44.Kg1 Kf6
45.b5 Passed pawns must be advanced.
45...Rc7 46.c6 e2 Forcing the rook off
the d file, but now the black pawn has no
support. 47.Re1 a6 48.Rxe2 axb5
49.axb5 h6 50.Rd2
29...Qc7 30.Bf6 Driving the knight from
d8. 30...Nb7 31.Re6+ Kf8 32.Qd4 Kg8
33.Bg5 Qc8 34.Qe5 Qf8 35.Re7 Going
against general principles (exchanging
when behind in material), but it is
necessary to complete the queenside
assault. 35...Rxe7 36.Bxe7 Qf7 37.Qc7
Re8 38.Qxb7 Rxe7 39.Qxc6
Material is now equal. The question now
The black king is cut off from the
defense of the queenside. As a
grandmaster might say, “It is now just a
matter of technique.” 50...Ke6 51.Kf2
Ke7 52.Ke3 Rc8 53.Rd7+ Ke6 54.Kd4
f4 55.Kc5 Rb8 56.b6 Rc8 57.Rd6+ Kf7
58.c7 h5 59.Rd8 Black resigns (1–0). The
game had essentially been over since the
queens came off the board, but at the
amateur level many games are played out
to the bitter end. And THAT is the rest
of the story. ■
Winter 2016
Page 13
Winter Chess
Tactics
(See below for solutions.)
1. Ethan Smith – Christian Friedman
Magic City Classic, 2016
White to Play.
2. B. Chen – S. Varagona
Dothan Open, 2016
Black to Play.
3. Joshua Shepherd – Mariano Runco
Magic City Classic, 2016
Black to Play.
4. J. Rasberry – S. Varagona
MLK Classic, 2017
Black to Play.
Answers: 1. White wins with 1.Bd5!. 2. Black wins the Exchange with 1...Ng1+. 3. The solution is 1...Bc5!, since 2.Qe5 Ng4! wins material. 4. In the game, Black played
1...Nb8? and the game was eventually drawn, but 1...Qb6!! (with the possible idea of ...Nb4) wins material in all variations, as shown by the computer. (Not obvious, is it?)
Page 14
Alabama Chess Antics
“Breaking Up” with an Opening Gone Bad
by Scott Varagona
I used
Defense…
to love
the French
The French was my front-line
defense against 1.e4 for the first few years
of my chess career. It worked like a
charm in scholastic tournaments where
many of my young opponents—who
studied mainly for 1…e5 and 1…c5—
had no idea of the strategic subtleties
involved. My biggest success with it came
in the year 2000, when I used the French
to win three key games in that year’s
Alabama State Scholastic Individual
Championship, and became the Alabama
representative to the Denker. Then, all of
a sudden, things went sour:
M. Begala (1540) – S. Varagona (1867)
Vulcan Open, Round 2
Birmingham, AL (5/27/2000)
We find ourselves in an
unconventional sideline (please don’t ask
how my knight ended up on c7) of the
French. I had pushed my g-pawn
forward, which apparently violates one of
Nimzovich’s French Defense guidelines,
namely: “Don’t push your g-pawn
forward.” Now the dark squares,
especially f6, are hopelessly weak. My
opponent came up with a good plan, i.e.,
breaking through on the kingside and
invading via f6 and the h-file. I failed to
sense the danger. 19...Kd8? It is beyond
me what I was thinking; I could have
simply castled. Well, being young (and
rather foolish), I guess I had a sort of
romantic fascination with king walks.
20.Ne3 Kc8 21.g4! hxg4? Even 21…
h4!?, sacrificing a pawn to keep White’s
knight at bay, was probably better than
this. 22.Nxg4 Ne8 23.Rh7 a5? 24.0–0–0
b5 25.Rdh1 Ra7
Winter 2016
Black is reduced to complete passivity: a
nightmare for the fighting French player.
26.Rh8 Qe7 27.R1h7 Ng7 28.Qf6 Rxh8
29.Rxh8+ Ne8 30.Qxe7 Rxe7 31.Nf6
Kd8 32.Kd2!
And just to add insult to injury: I’m in
zugswang! 33…b4 33.axb4 axb4 34.c3
b3 35.Kd3 c5 36.dxc5 Kc7 37.Rxe8
Rxe8 38.Nxe8+ Kb7 39.Kd4 Kc6
40.Nf6 Kb5 1–0
Okay, so my play in that game
certainly could have been improved. Still,
sometimes a traumatic game can leave
such a bitter taste in your mouth that you
just can’t stand to play that opening any
more. I’d had enough of the French.
Maybe it was for the best: that summer,
before heading to the Denker, I spent
many weeks learning the ins and outs of
the Caro-Kann instead—and the Caro
remains my “soul mate” to this day.
(Eventually, I would find it in my heart to
play the French again, but only on rare
occasions.)
Page 15
The Closed Catalan used to be a
great friend, too. That is, until I lost four
dreadfully painful games with it (against
Stephen Graveling and Matthew Puckett)
in 2016. I almost lost a fifth (to Kirk
Petty) as well. Of course, I would never
accuse the Closed Catalan of being
unsound—Carlsen and Kasparov have
both played it—but even so, this terrible
turn of events left me agonizing for a
long time about whether another
“breakup” was in order.
It is a problem that every player
must face: how do we adjust our opening
repertoire over time, in response to
victories and defeats? Despite my story
about the French, it is important not to
get carried away by one bad experience if
years of good results came just before it. I
am reminded of Kasparov and his
relationship with the King’s Indian
Defense: he used this opening to achieve
many smashing victories in the 80s and
90s until Kramnik handed him a few
devastating defeats, and then Kasparov
practically gave up the opening
altogether. Okay, against Kramnik, the
K.I.D. may have been a bad choice, but
why give up playing it against the rest of
the world? Far be it from me to criticize
Kasparov, but this repertoire decision
does mystify me.
My philosophy is this: if you are
considering dropping an opening you’ve
been playing for a long while, try to be as
objective about the decision as possible.
Keep a running tally of your games and
look at your statistics: how many games
with this opening have you won? How
Page 16
Alabama Chess Antics
many have you lost? If you lost a bunch,
do you think it was partly because the
opening didn’t suit your style? Or did you
lose the game for some other reason? If
you’re like me (i.e., a stubborn mule), you
will typically have to lose a lot with one of
your pet openings before you seriously
consider making a change. Yet being
open-minded enough to make such a
change can pay huge dividends. (I don’t
think it’s an accident that I finally made
master soon after giving up the Czech
Benoni, for example.)
One thing’s for sure: if an opening
you play starts consistently letting you
down, don’t keep playing it just because
“it’s what I’ve always done.” Life is short,
so give yourself the chance to try out
other openings. Even if you don’t find
“true love,” you might at least stumble
upon a good surprise weapon—and
maybe even “break your opponent’s
heart” in the process. ■
Winter Photo Gallery
Madison City Chess League players participated in the National K-12 Chess Championship in Nashville on
December 16-18, 2016. MCCL Executive Director Ranae Bartlett (far right) wrote a wonderful report on the
various players’ achievements; this report can be found at https://madisonchess.com/blog/madison-competes-atnational-k12-chess-championship-in-nashville. (Photo credit: Scott Wilhelm.)
Winter 2016
Page 17
Above: Jonathan Rasberry (center, making a move) assists with coaching players from the Madison City Chess League.
(Photo credit: Scott Wilhelm.)
Bottom right: Alabama chess is booming! This is the crowd in the tournament hall before the 2017 MLK Classic in
Montgomery, AL, at Frazer UMC. (Photo by Antics Editor.)
Bottom left: TD Caesar Lawrence stands with MLK Reserve Section winner (and Blink-182 fan) Aaron DeCord.
(Photo by Antics Editor.) ■
ALABAMA
CHESS
ANTICS
Email:
Alabama.Chess.Editor
@gmail.com
Upcoming Tournaments
See www.alabamachess.org for details on these and other events.
February 11-12
Queen of Hearts XLV
Montgomery, AL
February 25
Tom Nard Memorial III
Montgomery, AL
March 4
Alabaster Scholastic IX
Birmingham, AL
March 11-12
Alabama State Scholastic
Madison, AL
Chess Championship
www.alabamachess.org
March 25
Montgomery Challenge
April 8
Huntsville Challenge
Montgomery, AL
Huntsville, AL
The Alabama Chess Federation (ACF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
corporation and the United States Chess Federation affiliate for the
state of Alabama. Our goal is to promote chess in this area for the
benefit of all Alabama players. Toward that end, we provide advertising
and other assistance for rated tournaments, as well as support for
scholastic chess programs around the state.
ACF OFFICERS
To submit articles, pictures and
games to the Antics, email the
Antics editor at
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Games in .pgn format are
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Please contact
[email protected]
if you are interested in helping with the
Alabama Chess Federation.
Alabama Chess
Federation
All chess diagrams in this issue were produced
using Fritz, a program by ChessBase.
President:
Neil Dietsch
Vice-President:
Charles A. Smith
Secretary & PR:
Michael Ciamarra
Treasurer:
Paul Nager
Education VP:
Nancy Johnson
Scholastic VP:
William Nash
Antics Editor:
Scott Varagona
Webmaster:
Neil Dietsch
Member Admin:
Jonathan Rasberry
Tourn. Reports:
Caesar Lawrence