UPDATE ON RECENT EVENTS:

SIMULTANTEOUS EXHIBITION – We had a wonderful turnout for this event, 26 challengers in all.  Many played extremely well in this event, I was very impressed!  Two played exceptionally well and simply outplayed me, Greg Stricklin and Holly McRoberts.  Great job to them and others who managed to best me.  A special thanks to Tony Schroeder, who set everything up and provided the snacks.  That guy truly is a great individual.  Also, thanks to Smith’s for allowing us to have it at their store.  I have never had an event like that before, and I appreciate everyone’s participation. 

G/15 & BLITZ CHAMPIONSHIPS-  Our 2013 and 2014 G15 Champion Eric Stuart has looked pretty unbeatable at that TC over the past two years; but Saturday was not our quick King’s day.  Congratulations to Mark Schwarman, he is the new NM G/15 Champion.  Also, congratulations to Jesse
Vicario he took first place in the Blitz!  Congratulations to the rest of the winners and thank you to everyone who participated. 

On a side note, I was asked by several people, why do I hold quick and blitz events?  Especially, because on my website I say playing too much of either is bad for your chess.  Well it’s true, playing too much of either is bad for your chess, but playing none of either is equally bad for your chess.  I used to great at both, I remember when I was in high school and I was rated maybe 1500, I got two draws against Master Cline which were the only two blemishes on his record for the day a blitz tournament a few decades back, and I remember beating Master Kensek in a blitz game when I might have been rated 1400 during a blitz tournament at the Sandia Chess Club.   So I’d say I played far above my rating in blitz.  After beating master Kensek in blitz, the next week I played him a serious game, and well, I was humiliated my name was attached to that game.  He controlled every aspect of the game, our difference strengths were apparent.  I made some very bad opening mistakes, (which in blitz I did as well, but he didn’t have the time to exploit these mistakes of mine and it granted me a huge initiative), and he basically put me in a sleeper hold and just waited for me to fall asleep.  So I just beat the man, yeah it was some serious luck but how could I lose so quickly?  Well, in blitz and in quick chess anything can happen.  Beating him the week before reinforced a bad habit of moving too quickly and just moving if everything looks okay; which led to my rapid demise the week after.  Dang.  So that’s why you shouldn’t play too much blitz and quick, but if you don’t play any, especially if you don’t play any regularly, if you find yourself in time trouble in one of your regular rated games.  You will panic, and you will probably lose.  I have a friend, who I have seen lose repeatedly in simply winning games where his has monstrous positions that I feel like infant could win in his sleep, because the moment the clock hits 20 minutes he starts to freak out.  He would honestly be a hundred points higher rated if he played 10 blitz games a week.  You have to train your brain to be great at thinking at slow chess, and good at making quick decisions when time is low.