Erie City Chess Club Speed Championship

On May 1, the Erie City Chess Club had its annual Speed Chess Tournament at Barnes and Noble.  Also, we gave out prizes for the Erie City Championship that was played during March and April.

Here are the winners from the Erie City Championship:

At the left is Luka Glinsky, the overall winner.  He is a homeschooled high school senior and he has been both Junior and overall champion in the past.  In the middle is Noyakh Grinberg, the Senior Champion.  To the right is Ian MacKenzie, the Junior Champion.  He is a homeschooled high school junior.  I was unfortunately not among the winners, but our family contributed to their success:  between Christopher, Joshua, and me, we scored 0 wins and 4 losses against these 3 players.

Here is Christopher playing speed chess against Ian’s younger brother:

In the Speed Chess tournament, each player has 5 minutes to make all of his moves in the game.  That means you get 5-10 seconds per move.  The game has a lot of psychology, because precise calculation is much harder.   Playing with confidence is sometimes as important as playing well, and steering your opponent into a position where he has to think gives you an advantage.  I have been playing at a much slower pace lately (usually 3 days/move on chess.com), so playing quickly did not go well.  I was 2-5 overall in the top section.  Christopher played with the lower rated players, and he also scored 2-6. 

Luka Glinsky won the top section.  Ian Mackenzie played in the lower section and won it.