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State of the Club address thing

Most of you should already know the stuff I'm writing here, but I'm
writing it down officially anyway. Top seven just scroll to the
bottom.

For some reason there has been a dramatic increase in the number of
people at chess club. If you would, current members (that means you),
please get them to talk to me. I feel silly knowing only half the
names of the people going to club. And they aren't getting this
email, so give me their emails too.

There exists a chess library in P20 that is definitely worth looking
through (kudos to Jane for organizing it). There are books - and
videos!! - on all kinds of stuff. Go take a look.

You have probably noticed a general lack of boards and/or complete
sets to play with. We will be buying about ten new, pretty sets for
club use. While we're at it, if you want us to order one for
yourself, they're $20 each. Just let me know. I think we'll order at
the end of next week or so (12/3).

I'm just going to copy + paste the flyer I sent around here:
-----
Chess Club this year has been functioning with aging clocks, boards,
and pieces bought or contributed by members of past years. As you
know the few clocks we own are starting to fail, and we have less
than ten playable sets, most of which are made of mismatched plastic
pieces. That’s bad.

In order to obtain quality sets and equipment, we are asking for a
donation from each member of 5 to 15 dollars.

Donation is completely voluntary. No one will be banned or prevented
from playing or any silliness like that for not donating. However,
please consider that 15 dollars is not a large amount for you to pay
for good chess sets and reliable clocks that will last your entire
term at Gunn. Any excess money will be put into a club fund for
maintaining and/or upgrading Chess Club equipment.

Please return this sheet at your earliest convenience. (Checks
payable to GUNN CHESS)

Thank you.
-----

Alrighty, now to the fun stuff.

**CHALLENGES**
The days of the spoils system are gone, and meritocracy is in! There
is now an official Gunn Chess Club Ladder. That means the people who
play official matches now have to earn their places.

How a challenge works:
-First I need to know you exist. Then I'll put you on the ladder.
Naturally you'll enter at the bottom of the ladder.

-Once on the ladder you can only challenge people up to two ranks
higher than you. For example, I (ranked 7th) cannot challenge Arnav
(ranked 2rd). This is to prevent 10th board from challenging, say,
1st board. Cause that makes no sense at all.

-A challenge consists of three games in 30 (minutes each). Players
swap colors each game, with the higher ranking person getting to
choose which color to start with. No need for notation. Needless to
say, no kibitzing.

One point for winning the game, zero points for losing, and .5 each
for a draw. If a challenge ends 1.5-1.5, then it goes to the defender
(no change in rank).

-Once a person has been challenged, then that person cannot be
challenged for another two weeks. You can accept the challenge, but
if you earn a rank, you should get to keep it for a while.

For example, Justin (8) challenged me (7) last week. He cooked me,
then I beat him, then a stalemate (thank goodness). 1.5-1.5 means I
stay (7) and he stays (8). I cannot be challenged for the next two
weeks, though Justin can be.

-Top seven people play in interschool matches.

I believe current rankings are:
1. Ben L.
2. Arnav S.
3. Curtis L.
4. Oren G.
5. Zack C.*
6. Sam W.*
7. Chris L.
8. Justin H.
9. Geoff S.
10. Dan L.
11. Derek W.
12. Anupama K.
13. Jane H.
14. Calvin C.
15. Vir C.
16. Eric O.
17. Alex L.

*Not currently active?
---
Fremont @ Gunn match has been postponed indefinitely. I'll let you
guys know.

Wed. 12/1 Gunn @ Monta Vista
Yeah, we have to travel again. Current lineup is the ladder above.
I'm assuming Zack and Sam aren't playing so Geoff, you're 7th. Anyone
know they can't make it, let me know. People who can give rides,
definitely let me know.

That's all for now. Happy Turkey Day!

-Chris

Hey all,

I made a mistake; Leigh is actually ranked 5/7 in the division (6th being Fremont, 7th Paly).

Leigh is new to our league this year, so I don't know how good their players are. None of them have USCF ratings. Their results so far:

Fremont       4.0-3.0 (we did 5-2)
Monta Vista   1.5-5.5 (4-3)
Saint Francis 2.5-4.5 (4-3)
Los Altos     2.0-5.0 (6-1)

and 7-0 against Paly.

You can check individual records on the division site but it hasn't been updated since we beat St. Francis. Go figure. Against Los Altos last week Leigh's 6th and 7th boards won. So Justin and Calvin, beware!

Once again the match will be held in the library. Preliminary lineup is:

Ben/Arnav/Oren (I dunno, what do you guys want?)
""
""
Curtis
Chris
Justin
Calvin
(Jane)

Questions, comments, complaints...tell me sooner than later.
---
So the reason everyone's getting an email is regarding cleanup. I know I've been pissy about this at club, but when you are done with a clock and/or set, PUT THEM BACK INTO THE CARDBOARD BOXES. Cause when you leave, and when I leave, poor Oren needs to put everything you didn't away.

The reason everyone's been having trouble finding pieces and plastic boxes to put them in is because of poor cleanup. We used to have 9 full sets, now we have around 6, and one of the clock boxes has become piece storage. That's bad, and I don't want it to get any worse. So please...no leaving before you clean up your set.

(Which reminds me: players on Wednesday, you might have to bring in your personal sets if I can't account for seven club ones. I'll let you know.)

Oh yeah. Cross Country has a meet this Tuesday, so I won't be at club. Please don't get us thrown out of the batcave or anything ;)

-Chris

David Lai has suggested to have post-match summaries, and so we shall!

September 15, 2004
PALY @ GUNN
0 - 7 (Forfeit)

Not much to say here. Good job team.

September 22, 2004
GUNN HAS BYE

September 29, 2004
GUNN @ LOS ALTOS
6 - 1

A pleasant surprise for us - that is, Chris was actually competent enough to organize rides there and back. A clear victory, which is good considering only Oren (1), Curtis (5), and Chris (6) played last year, and last year we got pwned. Go new people! Arnav (3), you really freaked out your opponent by moving so quickly, I kid you not. And I shall forever be known as Chris "hung a rook" Lay.

October 6, 2004
GUNN @ FREMONT
5 - 2

Yeah, the Fremont High on Fremont Ave. in Cupertino/Sunnyvale. Go figure. Derek (7) had a nice easy game. Kudos for abiding by touchmove, I'm proud of you. Bad Derek for letting that rook go free. Curtis establishes himself with a 3-0 and a permanent 5th board spot - he insists his opponent was worse than Chris' (6), even though his opponent only sacked a bishop for a pawn where Chris' lost his queen for free. Congrats to Oren (1) and Ben (2), also 3-0 now. Zack takes a loss. And Arnav (3): win the game, then do your homework.

---
Sorry these descriptions are biased toward lower boards, but that's where I am, so...

-Chris

RE: Wednesday, October 13

Hello everyone,

Most of you will still be getting an email with every message posted.
You can disable that by going into Members and changing your options.
I recommend "Daily Digest" or "Special Notices Only".

If you go "No Email", don't forget to check back here periodically.
Or you can check out the Xanga site. I will be posting my messages
there as well. The Chess Club URL is - you guessed it:

www.xanga.com/gunnchessclub

Results for Western Division are at:
http://www.geocities.com/scvwestchess/

As for current business!
Match vs. Monta Vista on Wednesday, October 13 at Gunn. This is our
first home match. We'll likely meet first in the Bat Cave then move
to one of the science rooms. I'll let you know on that.
Mr. Herreshoff will be our faculty supervisor for the day. Starts at
4:00, as usual.

For reference Monta Vista is 2-2-0. One of their wins is Paly...

This is the first opportunity for any new people to see how things
work, if you want to stick around. If you haven't already talked to
me about an interest in playing on a board, email me.

The current lineup is
1. Oren
2. Ben
3. Arnav
4. Zack
5. Curtis
6. Dan
7. Jane

Any conflicts, concerns, can't make it, anything - email me.

And that's it.
-Chris