Vermont Scholastic Championship Vermont State Scholastic Championship Results: The 39th Annual John Balch Memorial Vermont State Scholastic Chess Championships were held on Saturday, March 29th at the Lemoille Union High School in Hyde Park. Two scholastic players we know from Lyndonville Cobleigh Library Chess were there. St. Johnsbury Academy's Misha Cherkov won two games finishing tied with others in 5th place in the 9th-12th Grade Section. Riverside School 6th Grader, and new Cobleigh chess player, Devin Albritton won three of her games finishing tied for fourth place in the Sixth Grade section. Congratulations to both of them!! Full results can be found here: https://vermontchess.org/events/39th-annual-state-scholastic-chess-championships/
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Passing of the Dutch "Hippie" Grandmaster Jan Timman One of the late 20th Century greats of international chess, GM Jan Timman, passed away Wednesday, February 18th at the age of 74. At one point he was ranked third behind Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. He edited and wrote for New In Chess magazine and was a guest on the New In Chess podcast last November discussing endgame studies. For those not yet of a certain age, I highly recommend this short documentary from 1979 that features a quite youthful Timman along with fellow Durch players Hans Ree and Hein Donner. How many empty packs of cigarettes does Donner collect from the chess table after drawing a tournament game with Timman? I counted four... The Love for Wood (1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E48r-JTSAVM&t=304s More on Timman's career and passing can be found at the following links. https://en.chessbase.com/post/jan-timman-1951-2026 https://www.newinchess.com/blog/post/in-...
Tata Steel 2026 Results The results are in for both the Masters and Challengers sections of what is the first major classical chess tournament of 2026. The Masters Final Standings: "Official" Third Place ?: The organizers decided that this year tie break games would only be used if there was a tie for first place between two or more players. Ties for all other places were to stand with placings and prize money to be shared equally. However, at the closing ceremony the organizers declared their countryman GM Van Foreest the "Official" third place finisher based on his having won the Masters event in 2021. There is no apparent provision in the published event regulations for this determination. https://tatasteelchess.com/en/format A bit of nationalistic chauvinism? Inquiry has been made to the organizers. No response yet. Stay tuned for any update... The Challengers Section was won outright by fifteen year old US Grandmaster Andy Woodward. GM Woodward...
Cobleigh Library Slow Tournament Begins Round One Players in Cobleigh's Main Reading Room The first round of the five round Cobleigh Library, one game per month tournament was held in the main reading room at Lyndonville's Cobleigh Library. Rounds are held on the third Thursday of the month. Game timing is G45+10. Standings after Round One can be found below. Round Two will be held on Thursday, February 19th. All rounds begin at 6 PM.
Hastings 1895 Hastings Christmas Chess Congress Tournament Will See Its 100th Running Later This Year Arguably, the first chess super tournament was held in the UK at Hastings in 1895. It was won by Massachusetts native Harry Pillsbury from a field of twenty-two players. The field included Lasker, Steinitz, Chigorin, Gunsberg, Tarrasch and Janowski. Later in 1895, Pillsbury went on to finish third at Tsar Nicholas II’s sponsored tournament in St. Petersburg after leading the tournament before intense headaches caused his performance to fall off. Eventually finishing third, it has been speculated that his headaches were caused by syphilis contracted prior to the tournament. Pillsbury would not be at the first Hastings Christmas Chess Congress in 1920-21 having died of the disease in 1906 at the young age of 33. The First Hastings Christmas Chess Congress (1920-21) was a small, round robin affair won by Yates from three other UK players. By the Th...
St, Johnsbury Academy Returns to the Scholastic Chess Wars Misha Cherkov, Mariia Korol and Russell Desjardins A welcome return to competition. Despite a Thanksgiving Sunday snowstorm that made travel treacherous at times, Tom Viles got his chess team to Stowe where three Academy students finished in the top ten of the high school section of this four round G-30d5 event. Of the eighteen students in this section Misha Chirkov and Mariia Korol finished in a five way tie for 4th place. Russell Desjardins was a mere half point behind them in tenth place. I'm told that the Academy placed second as a team to S. Burlington. More information to follow...
