On April 10, the CSCC had 16 members in attendance. In the USCF-rated ladder game (G90), Josh Bloomer blew out Dean Brown. Most of the participants played in the round robin, bughouse tournament (G5). Bughouse is a chess variant where a two-man team, playing opposite colors on two separate boards, challenges another two-man team, and one partner can use the other’s captured pieces. Therefore, once one partner captures a piece, the other partner can now drop that piece onto any vacant square (as long as it is not a pawn onto the eighth rank) of his board in lieu of making a regular move. The partners can advise each other regarding moves or captures, and either partner can win to gain the point for the team. Here are the results:

Team Score
Buck Buchanan & Kathy Schneider 7.0*
Joe Pahk & Fred Eric Spell 7.0
Paul Anderson & Matthew Anderson 6.0
Bill Weihmiller & Gerry Sunderland 6.0
Jerry Maier & Kirsten Maier 3.0
Renae Delaware & Linda Anderson 1.0

* won the tiebreaker

This week’s game came to me at the beginning of the season. Back then, my stockpile consisted of several games that related to some theme weeks I had started as a result of having too many submissions for a couple of Game Of The Week ideas, Al Ufer and Father’s Day. The rest of the stockpile was from Tim Brennan, who sends me a database file of all his games from a single tournament. I was able to publish one game (http://home.att.net/~cs.chess/newsletter/Tue_Apr_18_v1.html) last year, but I ended up saving all the rest. So, with over half of the stockpile being Tim Brennan games, I figured I needed a new theme week: The Tim Brennan Week. Last year’s game from Tim went out on April 18th, so I held on to his submissions until about the same date to make the Tim Brennan Week seem more official and something chess players could look forward to year after year. I even talked the IRS into giving taxpayers an extra day to file returns in honor of Tim Brennan Week. Tim was a little nervous about his game choice as he was probably recalling the last time I published a 10-move game (http://home.att.net/~cs.chess/newsletter/Mon_May_03_v1.html) and how it ended the chess-playing career of the vanquished. But part of the problem might have been my choice of title for the game. I was trying to be clever by combining the name of the opening with the fact that the game was a miniature and not a description of any of the participants in the game. So, with that in mind, I tried to avoid any title that could possibly be taken any other way than a reference to a miniature chess game during this most joyous time of the year, Tim Brennan Week. If anyone does find offense with the title, then I have only one thing to say, “God bless us all, everyone!”

"Good to have you back! I had a pretty funny game on Sat at Billy Willson's Regis tournament. I checkmated a kid in 10 moves with the grob. The cool thing was that it was kind of a "smothered mate." In the previous game, he has beaten JC MacNeil in a pretty huge upset. JC did something like hanging his queen on move 6. I told JC that I would avenge his loss. I said to myself, in the psychotic dark voice of the Marvel comic’s antihero, The Punisher, "It's not REVENGE. It's PUNISHMENT." I proceeded to punish my opponent severely! Of course, I should have won since he was only rated 1199, but it was fun to win in such a manner. :-) It is probably not cool to punish a victory over someone that you are almost 600 points higher than, but at the same time, people always post their upset victories! Why can't I publish my non-upset victory! So if you need some filler feel free to use this game. :-) Remember, you can't stop the grob. You can only hope to contain it! Cheers,Tim"

Tiny Tim (Click this link to view the game on your web browser)

(86) Brennan,Tim (1769) - Massey,Eric (1373) [A00]
REGIS JESUIT GRAND PRIX #6 Aurora, CO (3), 24.02.2007
[Fritz 8 (60s)]

A00: Irregular Openings
1.g4 e5 2.c4 last book move 2...c6 3.Bg2 d5 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Qb3 Ne7 [Worse is 5...Bxg4 6.Qxb7 Nd7 7.Qxd5= ] 6.h3 g6 [6...Nbc6!?-/+ ] 7.Nc3 Now all is on d5 7...e4 [>=7...Nbc6!?= deserves consideration] 8.d3+/= d4 [8...f5!? should be examined more closely 9.Bg5 Nbc6 10.dxe4 dxe4+/- ] 9.Nxe4+/- Nbc6?? sad, but how else could Black save the game? [>=9...Nec6+/- ] 10.Nf6# 1-0

4/17 Juniors vs Seniors match. 2 games, G/30, CSCC
4/18,25 Poor Richard's Book Store April Open Final Rounds, CSCC
4/21-22 Colorado Chess Festival, Colorado Scholastic Closed Starts, CSCA
4/24 Quads: 4-RR, G/30 if USCF rated, G/20 if not, CSCC
4/28 Boulder Quick Championship, BCC
5/1 Speed Handicap tournament, CSCC

Colorado Springs Chess Club: CSCC (http://springschess.org/)
Denver Chess Club: DCC (http://www.denverchessclub.org/)
Boulder Chess Club: BCC (http://www.geocities.com/boulderchessclub/)
Colorado State Chess Association: CSCA (http://colorado-chess.com/)