Prize winners at the Harry Nelson Pillsbury Memorial, held December 10, 2017 in Marlborough, Mass.

Open Section

1st GM Alexander Ivanov 4-0
2nd-6th IM Denys Shmelov, FM Steven Winer, Ryan Sowa, Joseph Perl, Danila Poliannikov 3-1
Top Under 2110 Bernie Xu 2.5-1.5

Under 1910 Section

1st Gaetano Bompastore 4-0
2nd Rahul Kumar 3.5-0.5

Under 1710 Section

1st-2nd Cameron Buchholz, David Martin 3.5-0.5
Top Under 1510 Aaron Li, Henry He, Alexander Speicher 3-1

Under 1310 Section

1st Nikolas Praschma 3.5-0.5
2nd Prachi Dayal 3-1
Top Under 1100 Michael Pucci 2.5-1.5
Top Under 900 Suhavi Tiruveedhula 2-2
Top Unrated Gordon Chi 2.5-1.5

The tournament was directed by Nicholas Sterling, Bob Messenger, and Oleg Poliannikov
 

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

Adv. Entries for Harry Nelson Pillsbury Memorial: https://goo.gl/pgRBCt 

• Final update: as of 12/09/17 08:58 AM
• 1st update: as of 12/08/17 12:49 PM
• Original post: as of 12/07/17 05:46 PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the Third Spiegel Cup Qualifier, held December 3rd in Marlborough, Mass.

Age 14 & Under Section

1st Alan Song 4-0
2nd-5th Alex Yu, Mark Chudnovsky, Skyler Zhou, David Xie 3-1

Age 11 & Under Section

1st Kelsey Liu 4-0
2nd-5th Henry He, Lawrence Tu, Brandon Ni, Victor Feng 3-1

Age 8 & Under Section

1st-4th Paul Tompros (playoff winner), Nikolay Avdokhin, Y Luke Ji, Alexander Tran 3-1

Booster Under 1200 Section

1st Oliver Barca 4-0
2nd-3rd Emerson Walker, Amit Piryatinsky 3-1

Booster Under 800 Section

1st Rithika Kilari 3.5-0.5
2nd-5th Raeann Zhou, Kiran Weerapana, Fedor Beliav, Steven Feng 3-1

Booster Under 400 Section

1st Alex Sherman 3.5-0.5
2nd-5th Gideon Borisy, Mark Piryatinsky, Robert Walmsley Jr, Anish Sankar 3-1

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order except at noted.

The tournament was directed by Nicholas Sterling, Bob Messenger, Paul Arond, Dmitry Barash, Nathan Smolensky, Chris and Cameron Bird, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

Adv. Entry List for 3rd Qualifier: https://goo.gl/q7C9g4 

•  as of 11/30/17 10:09 PM
•  as of 12/01/17 03:30 PM
•  as of 12/02/17 01:53 PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Do not forget to register for the 3rd Spiegel Cup Qualifier and plan for future tournaments. You can find the complete list on our main page or in the Events section. In particular, note the 4th Sharon Library Free Chess Tournament for "early career" chess players organized by our friends at SENECA.

Oleg V. Poliannikov
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

Chess enthusiast and tournament organizer Matt Gosselin's email account has been hacked, and the perpetrators are using it to ask for money. Authorities have been notified. Please do not comply with any requests until further notice that is issued when MACA is confident that everything is back to normal. Thank you.

Oleg V. Poliannikov
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

Prize winners at the 2nd Spiegel Cup Qualifier, held November 5th in Marlborough, Mass.

Age 14 & Under Section

1st-2nd Vineeth Nareddy (playoff winner), Joy Cao 3.5-0.5
3rd Henry Booth 3-1

Age 11 & Under Section

1st-2nd Rafael Pashkov (playoff winner), David Katsman 3.5-0.5
3rd-6th Kevin Li, Justin Li, Aaron Li, Jonathan Traub 3-1

Age 8 & Under Section

1st Isabella Lai 4-0
2nd Sahit Kathika 2-2
3rd-4th Dattasai Kilari, Siddharth Kurup 1-3

Booster Under 1200 Section

1st-2nd Jasper Xu, Michelle Chudnovsky 3-1
3rd Eyal Zeldich 2.5-1.5

Booster Under 800 Section

1st-2nd Arnav Harve, Nang K Dang 3.5-0.5
3rd-6th Saketh Dinasarapu, Alexander Tran, Jeremy Reddy, Ryan Sun 3-1

Booster Under 400 Section

1st Arvin Venkat 3.5-0.5
2nd-4th Edward Shi, Oskar Zoffer, Sophia Tatar 3-1

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order except as noted.

The tournament was directed by Nicholas Sterling, Bob Messenger, Oleg Poliannikov, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

Adv. Entries for 2nd Spiegel Cup Qualifier as of Fri, Nov 3, 2017 at 6:54 PM: https://goo.gl/NjGT1p 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Adv. Entries for 2nd Spiegel Cup Qualifier as of 11/02/17 08:26 PM PM: https://goo.gl/VfJ61t 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the Massachusetts Junior Open, held October 29th in Marlborough, Mass.

Championship Section:

1st Gershon Gilman 3.5-0.5
2nd Skyler Zhou 2.5-1.5
3rd Victor Feng 2-2
Top Under 1800 Thomas Ha 2-2

Under 1600 Section:

1st Aaron Li 3.5-0.5
2nd Eric Chang 3-1
3rd Saanvi Tiruveehula 2-2
Top Under 1400 Riya Kanury 2-2

Medals: Isabella Lai, Ansh Yadawad 2-2

Under 1200 Section:

1st Prachi Dayal 4-0
2nd Suhaas Katikaneni 2.5-1.5
3rd Fitch Perkins 2.5-1.5
Top Under 1000 Ronan Doherty 2.5-1.5

Under 800 Section:

1st Sam Parsi 4-0
2nd Armaan Mehta 3-1
3rd Eyal Zeldich 3-1
Top Under 600 Kiran Weerapana 3-1

Medals: Jeremy Reddy, Meghana Kunamneni 3-1

Under 400 Section:

1st Nikolay Avdokhin (playoff winner) 4-0
2nd Siddharth Kurup 4-0
3rd Dattasai Kilari 3-1
Top Under 200 Mark Piryatinsky 2-2

Medals: Sophia Tatar, Vir Mehta, Adrian Paez 3-1,
    Yan Barash, Sabrina Li 2-2

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order except as noted.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Dmitry Barash, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Adv. Entries for Mass Jr. Open: https://goo.gl/a6vuHz

• Final update: as of 10/28/17 01:18 PM 
• 2nd updat:  as of 10/27/17 06:47 PM
• 1st post: as of 10/26/17 01:36 PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the 84th Greater Boston Open, held October 15th in Marlborough, Mass.

Open Section

1st FM Steven Winer 3.5-0.5
2nd-4th GM Alexander Ivanov 3-1
2nd-4th/Top Under 2300 Sherif Khater, Rajesh Shanmugasundaram 3-1

Under 2100 Section

1st-2nd Timothy Bromley, Ian Dudley 3.5-0.5

Under 1900 Section

1st Donna Alarie 4-0
2nd Carl Hess 3.5-0.5
Top Under 1750 Michael Corrigan, Mark Kaprielian, Kevin Liu, Kelsey Liu, Lydia Shen 3-1

Under 1600 Section

1st-4th Krishna Prabhakar 3.5-0.5
1st-4th/Top Under 1400 Riya Kanury, Thomas King, Joseph McGaffigan 3.5-0.5

Under 1200 Section

1st Prachi Dayal 4-0
2nd Vishnu Mandepudi 3-1
3rd Daniel Cohen 3-1
Top Unrated Ravi Dasari 3-1
Top Under 1000 Arjun Dasari 2-2
Top Under 800 Apollo Fung 2-2
Top Under 600 Kiran Weerapana 1.5-2.5

Players in the Under 1200 Section are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Paul Arond, Oleg Poliannikov, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

https://goo.gl/UG5gGJ

Final post: Adv. Entries for 84th GBO as of 10/14/17 08:41 AM

2nd post: Adv. Entries for 84th GBO as of 10/13/17 02:52 PM

1st post: Adv. Entries for 84th GBO as of 10/12/17 04:13 PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the First Spiegel Cup Qualifier, held October 1st in Marlborough, Mass.

Age 14 & Under

1st Bernie Xu 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Joy Cao, Kerry Huang 3-1

Age 11 & Under

1st Thomas Ha 4-0
2nd-4th Kelsey Liu, Eric Fang, Rafael Pashkov 3-1

Age 8 & Under

1st-4th Eric Chang (playoff winner), Riya Kanury, Maya Figelman, Isabella Lai 3-1

Booster Under 1200

1st Arjun Dasari 3.5-0.5
2nd Joanne Zhou 3-1
3rd-4th Hrishikesh Vedula, Evan Gao 2-2

Booster Under 800

1st Jasper Xu 4-0
2nd-3rd Meghana Kunamneni, Felix Hentschel 3-1

Booster Under 400

1st Svanik Gaddipati 4-0
2nd-5th Siddharth Kurup, Maksim Orlovskii, Sophia Tatar, Nikolay Avdokhin 3-1

The tournament was directed by Nicholas Sterling, Bob Messenger, Dmitry Barash, Oleg Poliannikov, and Steve Frymer
 

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

Adv. Entries for 1st Qualifier as of 09/30/17 02:54 PM: https://goo.gl/qKrbbh  

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Adv. Entries for 1st Qualifier as of 09/28/17 10:16 PM: https://goo.gl/qKrbbh 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the 2nd Massachusetts Senior Open, held September 16-17 in Marlborough, Mass.

Open Section

1st GM Alexander Ivanov 4-0
2nd-6th David Carter 2.5-1.5
2nd-6th/Top U2210 FM John Curdo, Timothy Sage, Michael Carey 2.5-1.5
2nd-6th/Top U2210/Top U2010 Frederick Pearson 2.5-1.5

Under 1810 Section

1st Barry Magda 3.5-0.5
2nd-5th Stephen Shea, Bill Stein, Marvin Moss, Thomas Sifter 3-1
Top U1610 Roland Booker III 2-2
Top U1610/Top U1410 Robert Oresick, James Beyer 2-2

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

MASSACHUSETTS CHESS ASSOCIATION 2017 ELECTION

Voting Results

            President

            Vice President

Treasurer

            Clerk

            Director (8 positions)

Officers-elect and directors-elect took office at the end of the annual MACA meeting (May 29).

Dr. Jeffery L. Caruso

Chairman, MACA Election Commission

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

Prize winners at the 86th Massachusetts Open, which was held May 27-29 in Marlborough.

Championship Section

1st Lawyer Times (state champion) 5-1
2nd-3rd WFM Carissa Yip, Farzad Abdi 4.5-1.5
Top Under 2300 Ryan Sowa, Libardo Rueda 4-2

Under 2100 Section

1st Ilya Figelman 5-1
2nd-3rd Derek Meredith, Carlos Avalos, Anton Barash 4.5-1.5
Top Under 1950 Scott Didham 4-2

Under 1800 Section

1st Joseph Bennett 5.5-0.5
2nd Christopher Estremera 5-1
Top Under 1650 Tianna Wang 4.5-1.5

Under 1500 Section

1st Ranjan Dey 5.5-0.5
2nd Cameron Buchholz 5-1
Top Under 1350 Edward Morris 4.5-1.5
Top Under 1200 Brandon Ni 4-2

Massachusetts Blitz Championship

1st Farzad Abdi 8-2
2nd-3rd Sinclair Banks 7.5-2.5
2nd-3rd/Top Under 2200 Atul Kannan 7.5-2.5
Top Under 2000 Nathan Smolensky 6.5-3.5
Top Under 1200 Samson Rao 5-5

Scholastic Sections:

K-12 Under 1500

1st Timmy Guan 4-0
2nd-3rd Brandon Ni, Andrew Trias 3-1

K-12 Under 800

1st-2nd Evan Li, Apollo Fung 3.5-0.5
3rd-5th Michelle Chudnovsky, Alexander Tran, Alvin He 3-1

K-6 Under 1400

1st Jonathan Traub 4-0
2nd-3rd Eli Traub, Eric Chang 3.5-0.5

K-6 Under 600

1st-2nd Jacob Barshteyn, Eyal Zeldich 3.5-0.5
3rd-5th Stephen Canavan, Oliver Romanovsky, Jacob Furman 3-1

K-3 Under 1200

1st Kurt Amber 4-1
2nd-3rd Eric Chang, Michelle Chudnovsky 3-1

K-3 Under 400

1st Alexander Tran 4-1
2nd-5th Declan Walsh, Alex Sherman, Jayden Newland, Brandon Li 3-1

Tied players in the scholastic sections are listed in tiebreak order.

The chief tournament director was Bob Messenger for the Championship to Under 1500 sections and the blitz championship, and Ben Swiszcz for the scholastic sections. Assistant directors were Frank Vogel, Jeff Caruso, Paul Arond, Dmitry Barash, Oleg Poliannikov, Nathan Smolensky, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Advanced Entry List for 86th Mass Open: https://goo.gl/lWqHQd 

Final post:  5/26/17 4:07PM

4th post: 5/25/17 1:47PM

3rd post: 5/24/17 7:19 PM

2nd post: 5/23/17 1:46 PM

1st post: 5/22/17 7:55 PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the Massachusetts Girls Championship, held May 7th at the Boylston Chess Club in Cambridge.

Open Section

1st Joy Cao 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Sandra Shur, Kerry Huang 3-1

Under 1000 Section

1st Joanne Zhou 3.5-0.5
2nd Sree Dasari 3-1
3rd Suhavi Tiruveedjula 2.5-1.5
1st U600 Monisha Kathika 2-2
2nd-3rd U600 Raeann Zhou, Emilia Shen 1.5-2.5

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Andrew Hoy.
 

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

Advance Entries for 2017 Mass Girls Championship (as of 05/04/17 7:54PM): https://goo.gl/qhg6CO 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

The 2017 Massachusetts Girls Championship will take place on May 7, 2017 at the Boylston Chess Club in Cambridge. There will be two sections: Open and U1000. Trophies will be awarded to top 3 in each section, and top U600 and Unrated finiahers in the U1000 section. Medals will be awarded to players scoring 3+ points and not winning a trophy. The Open section winner will be MA representative at the 2017 National Girls Tournament of Champions.

Click here for full tournament details and to enter online.

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

Prize winners at the 27th Massachusetts G/60 Championship, held April 23rd in Marlborough.

Open Section

1st-3rd GM Alexander Ivanov, IM David Vigorito 3.5-0.5
1st-3rd/Top U2400 Farzad Abdi 3.5-0.5
Top U2200 Timothy Bromley, Ian Dudley 2.5-1.5

Under 2000 Section

1st-2nd Nowell Sheinwald, Frederick Pearson 3.5-0.5

Under 1800 Section

1st-2nd Ryan Wang, Eric Feng 3.5-0.5

Under 1600 Section

1st-2nd Hermenegildo Neto, Elias Issa 3.5-0.5

Under 1400 Section

1st Jeffrey Liu 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Ansh Yadawad, Vaishnavi Vaijaeepay 3-1

Under 1200 Section

1st Benjamin Holderness 4-0
2nd-6th Sujith Yeruva, Ian Van Hulle, Michael Bernier, Vishnu Mandepudi 3-1
2nd-6th/Top U1000 Isabella Lai 3-1

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Paul Arond, and Oleg Poliannikov.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Adv. Entry (as of 04/19/17 09:30 PM) for Massachusetts G/60 Championship https://goo.gl/D1QspJ. 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

The 27th Massachusetts Game/60 Championship will be held Sunday, April 23rd, 2017 at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough.  There are six sections: Open, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400 and U1200, with $2,500 in projected prizes, $2,000 guaranteed.  The advance entry fee is $34; $24 in the U1200 section.  Click here for full tournament details and to enter the tournament online.

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

Prize winners at the Hurvitz Cup, the Massachusetts scholastic team championship, which was held April 9th in Boxborough.

Grades 9-12 Section

1st Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School (Michael Isakov, Eric Feng, Sandeep Shankar, Jesse Sun, Greer Fried) 4-0
2nd Lexington High School (Zubin Baliga, Jonathan Hsu, Patrick Zhang, Joshua Weiss) 3-1
3rd Commonwealth School (Evan Meyer, Max Sunog, Siddarth Simon, Jonathan Boardman, Charlie Kip) 2.5-1.5
Top Booster Team (U1200/Unr) Boston University Academy (Duncan Peckham, Daniel Plotkin, David Giliver, David Pu),
      Newton North B (David McCabe, Andrew Trias, Flynn Zhi, Amos Fennell) 2-2

Medals: Samuel Burnham (Newton South B) 4-0
      Nicholas Komarovsky (Newton South A) 3.5-0.5
      Max Bennett (Newton North A), Anton Barash (Boston Latin School) 3-1

Grades 6-8 Section

1st F. A. Day Dragons Team A (Benjamin Fauman, Duncan Naylor, Philip Adams, Javier Bonilla) 12.5
2nd F. A. Day Dragons Team C (Max Zuckernik, Boyu Liu, Dominic Iafrate) 4.5
3rd F. A. Day Dragons Team B (Fernando Riedewald, Desmond FitzGerald-Lara, Jack Tsai) 3.0

Grades K-5 Section

1st Hastings - Lexington (David Zhou, Alan Lu, Raymond Xu, Ram Godbole) 4-0
2nd-3rd Bowen Bishops - Newton (Aaron Lu, Isaac Gordon, Jared Mi, Eyal Zeldich),
      The Learning Project "Foygel" (Jack Tompros, Oliver Barca, Jude Cannon, Edgar Torres Jr) 3-1
Top Booster Team (U400/Unr) Tenacre Tigers (Christian Haas, Jayden Levin, Liam Carter, Aidan Moore) 2-2

Medals: Curtis Ying (Conant Stars - Acton) 4-0
      Achyuta Rajaram (The Sage School), Alan Song (Hardy Elementary - Wellesley) 3.5-0.5
      Noah Brauner (Cabot Elementary), Rishi Ponnapalli (Cottage Cougar - Sharon), Cherry Hu (Cabot Elementary),
          James Levitan (Fiske Elementary - Lexington) 3-1

Grades K-3 Section

1st-2nd The Learning Project "McCord" (Paul Tompros, Sam Parsi, Milan Kapasi, Teddy Choe).
      Carlisle Huskies (Charles Mastromarino, Thomas Zhang, Jesse Dahlberg, Nate Seeley) 3.5-0.5
3rd The Learning Project "Krewson" (Oliver Ginnis, Natu Yesehak, Julian Schmitt, Andrew Shope),
      Ward Kings - Newton (Zachary Beaver, Eric Zhang, William Giunta, Griffin Kirby) 3-1
Top Booster Team (U150/Unr) Sprague Elementary - Wellesley (Kiran Weerapana, Ethan Harmon, Anish Sankar, Aidan Abazaj),
      The Learning Project "Hajj" (Lucas Werning, Abigail Louissaint, Rahni Patel, Matthew Williams, Tomas Werning) 2-2

Medals: Kaja Laybourn (Tenacre Girls) 4-0
      Jesse Campbell (Carlisle Huskies Too) 3.5-0.5
      Peter Zhou (Nixon Elementary 3 - Sudbury), Ethan Wen (Nixon Elementary 3 - Sudbury),
          Aaron Xia (Cottage Eagle - Sharon), Jai Dhingra (Hardy Elementary - Wellesley),
          Brooks Carter (Tenacre First Grade) 3-1

Teams are listed in tiebreak order. The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Paul Arond, and Dmitry Barash.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Advance Entries for 2017 Hurvitz Cup (as of 04/07/17 09:38 AM): https://goo.gl/sj7tWX 

• 1st Post: 4/7/17 09:38 AM
• Final: 4/8/17 01/11 PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

The Hurvitz Cup, Massachusetts state scholastic team championship, will be held on Sunday, April 9th at the Boxborough Regency. Teams of four players, plus one or two optional alternates, from the same Massachusetts school (or a feeder school - see the tournament rules) compete in four sections: Grades 9-12, 6-8, K-5 and K-3. There are trophies for the top three teams plus the top booster team in each section: a big trophy for the school and smaller trophies for the four top players on each team, plus medals for players who score three or more points and don't win a trophy. The averaging rating cutoff for the booster prize in each section will be determined by the tournament director at the event.

The entry fee is $80 in advance, $100 at the door for each team, with a $10 discount for each new player on a team (maximum discount is $40). After entering a team, send email to info@masschess.org with the name of the school and a list of the players on the team in rating order.

Important note

New hotel management has requested the following:

1. No outside food consumed inside the hotel. Please consume food brought from home outside the premises. Alternatively, the hotel restaurant will be open extended hours.
2. Please also refrain from sitting in the hallways.

 
Click here for more information and to register a team online.

Click here for the Hurvitz Cup tournament rules.

List of recent Hurvitz Cup champions
High School
Middle School
Elementary School
Primary School

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

Paul Arond, candidate for Director (incumbent)

Make MACA great again? No, MACA is alive and well but there is always room for improvement. In my two years of service on MACA's board, I believe the chess community has been well served in scholastic and adult competitive opportunities with healthy participation and growth. Social media is an increasing presence and vehicle for marketing and communications, while educational outreach projects are on the horizon. I will continue to support and help facilitate these and other activities, and be a voice for positive change, growth, and diversity in the chess community and beyond.

Dmitry Barash, candidate for Director (incumbent)

I’m chess player (2300), parent (Anton Barash is one of top kids in MA chess), tutor (teaching kids for 30 years), director, sponsor, member of Scholastic Committee, and Board member.

You can see more details on scholastic chess in MA on my page https://sites.google.com/site/scholasticchessinma/

After my three years on MACA board I’m glad to see increased interest in scholastic chess, higher level of play of top kids, and increased number of kids playing chess (see statistics page on my site).

Jeff Caruso, Candidate for Director (incumbent)

Improving MACA begins with solid governance, and as chair of the Elections Commission I’ve dedicated myself to transparency, service and absolute fairness. You saw it in last year’s smooth and honest election. You’ve seen it in the election reminders. You will see it as we move to a new election platform. I am a Massachusetts native, long-time player and tournament director.  Please elect me to a third term so I can continue to serve you!

Steven Frymer, candidate for Director (incumbent)

Incumbent chair scholastics committee for last several years;
Incumbent coordinator Living Memorial Chess Fund for last several years;
Incumbent coordinator for prison chess for over 20 years;
Former prez, vice prez, treasurer and secretary during 50 years of service.

I endorse newcomers Oleg Poliannikov and Steve Winer.

Oleg Poliannikov, candidate for Director (incumbent)

As a chess player, chess parent, and recent interim MACA Board member, I have been deeply involved in Massachusetts chess from all sides for a long time. I am running to bring new blood to MACA Board, help with many superb ongoing programs, bring to light public concerns that have not been fully addressed in the past, and propose and implement effective solutions. Specifically, I would like to focus on further improving our chess tournaments to ensure a wider involvement from currently underrepresented towns, convenient year-around tournament schedule, section variety from beginners to masters, online registration, and timely round beginnings.

Stephen Dann, candidate for Director

Dear potential MACA voters,

Please note who attends BOD meetings. In the 33 years I was a board member, I attended 95% of those scheduled no matter the weather--that's at least 250 meetings.

I not only founded Chess Horizons in 1969 when I was just 18, but worked with dozens of subsequent editors and major volunteer contributors. In addition, I wrote a column in the Worcester Sunday Telegram for 40 years (1975-2014)

My LinkedIn.com network of 4,800 connections includes 2,000+ chess educators, organizers and premiere hobbyists.

Please also support new candidates like Larry Gladding of the Wachusett CC.

Lawrence Gladding, candidate for Director

Lawrence Gladding - continuous member with the USCF since 1979. Currently, I attend the Wachusett CC, as a player and as Chief Assistant TD, (Senior TD). I'm running for Director, in order to be involved, with chess at the state level, and to be able to give something back to the game. I have gained experience and knowledge, from being involved with chess for 45 years, which would be an asset to MACA. I ask for your vote, so I may be of service to the MACA membership, and to the chess community at the state level.

Francis John Hogan, candidate for Director

I have studied the History of Chess, the Art of Chess, the Biographies of Famous Chess Players, and the Tournament Play and Board Strategies of countless memorable and historic Chess Matches.

My truest, inner personal gifts often find outward expression in the joys and pleasures experienced through the fair standards and shared play of the game; from the unique personal interactions commonly found between those playing across the board from each other.

Chess needs to be remain fair and fun; simply to achieve the broader goal of reaching beyond it's traditional boundries.

MACA strives to promote and protect the game.

Robert E. King, candidate for Director

It is important to vote for those that have a history of MACA service, in particular my past service as director and president make me uniquely qualified to be beneficial for MACA.  Investing the idle money of MACA was a good idea that I put forth.  The stock market is doing great.  And as for the  shares of SCCO (Southern Copper Corp.) stock is selling above $36.00 and above what MACA would have paid for it.  Dividends would have been made by MACA.

Steven Winer, candidate for Director

FM who has held master titles for almost 20 years

Trainer of many Massachusetts chess players

Seeking to more directly serve the Massachusetts chess community 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners in the Barry S. Spiegel Cup, which is the Massachusetts state scholastic championship for individuals. The tournament was held in Marlborough, Mass. on March 19th.

High School Section

1st Andrew Liu 4-0
2nd Alon Trogan 3.5-0.5
3rd-7th Michael Isakov, Nithin Kavi, Eric Feng 3-1
3rd-7th/Top Under 2000 Anton Barash, Zubin Baliga 3-1
Top Under 1600 Samuel Gloss, Andrew Trias, Vishnu Ranganath, Shoumik Sompally 2-2

Age 14 & Under Section

1st Brandon Wu 4-0
2nd Danila Poliannikov 3-1
3rd-7th WFM Carissa Yip, Jason Tang, Michael Mi, Alan Song, Suraj Ramanathan 2-2

Age 11 & Under Section

1st-2nd Dustin Liang, David Zhou 3-1
3rd-4th Derek Jin, Nicholas Belous 2.5-1.5

Age 8 & Under Section

1st-3rd Kelsey Liu, Victor Feng, Alexander Meng 3-1

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order. Players tied for first are co-champions for that age group.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Paul Arond, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Adv. Entry for the 2017 Spiegel Cup State Championship: https://goo.gl/9S45rK 

• First post:  As of 3/17/17 3:50 PM
• Final update: As of 3/18/17 7:27 PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

 The Barry S. Spiegel Cup finals, the Massachusetts state scholastic championship for invididuals, will be held Sunday, March 19th at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlboro. The High School section of this tournament is open to all Massachusetts residents and students in grades 9-12 or aged 15-19 and in grades K-12, while the Age 14 & Under, Age 11 & Under, and Age 8 & Under sections are invitational, open only to players who qualify.

The winner of the High School section wins an invitation to play in the Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions, while the top player in grades K-8 in the Age 14 & Under section wins an invitation to play in the Dewain Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions. Both of these tournaments will be held in Norfolk, VA from July 29th to August 1st. This year the top finisher in each tournament receives a $5,000 scholarship which can be used at any college or university. In addition, the winner of the Denker tournament will be invited to play in the US Junior Championship and the winner of the Barber tournament will be invited to play in the US Cadet Championship.

Click here for more information about the Barry S. Spiegel Cup finals and to register for the High School section.

There is no registration for the Age 14 & Under, Age 11 & Under, and Age 8 & Under sections. Instead, players who qualify to play in those sections will receive invitations. The invitee list can be found here.

Please contact Steve Frymer to confirm your participation.

List of recent Spiegel Cup champions:
High School
Age 14 & Under
Age 11 & Under
Age 8 & Under

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

 If anyone is missing a pair of glasses or an iPad/iPhone charger from the 4th Spiegel Qualifier, please contact Steve Frymer.

Edward Chiu
MACA Board Member

Prize winners at the 4th Spiegel Cup Qualifier, which was held March 5th in Marlborough, Mass.

Age 14 & Under Section

1st-2nd Michael Mi (playoff winner), David Zhou 3.5-0.5
3rd Ryan Wang 3-1

Age 11 & Under Section

1st Eddie Wei 3.5-0.5
2nd-8th Nang T Dang, Aaron Lu, Nicholas Belous, Alexander Meng, Eli Traub, Skyler Zhou, Aaron Lu 3-1

Age 8 & Under Section

1st Evan Wei 3.5-0.5
2nd Kelsey Liu 3-1
3rd-4th Y Owen Li, Isabella Lai 2.5-1.5

Booster Under 1200 Section

1st-2nd Priyanshu Arora, Holden Chalfant 3-1
3rd-4th Ivan Shabalin, Advait Bhowmik 2-2

Booster Under 800 Section

1st-2nd Jared Mi, Shikhar Gupta 3.5-0.5
3rd-5th Jonathan Safran, Nang K Dang, Avni Nagaraj 3-1

Booster Under 400 Section

1st Aidan Tan 3.5-0.5
2nd-5th Jude Cannon, Y Luke Li, Sam Parsi, Saverio Palaia 3-1

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order except as noted.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Chris Bird, Jeff Caruso, Paul Arond, and Steve Frymer.

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

Adv. Entries for 4th Qualifier: https://goo.gl/uZByQo 

• Updated 03/03/17 9:55 PM
• First Post as of 03/02/17 08:54 PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

The Fourth Spiegel Cup scholastic qualifier will be held Sunday, March 5th at the Best Western Royal Plaza in Marloborough.  There are qualifier sections for Age 14 & Under, Age 11 & Under, and Age 8 & Under, and booster sections for players rated Under 1200, Under 800 and Under 400. 

We suggest that players rated under 1200, or under 600 for age 8 & under, play in booster sections. However, all players are allowed to play in qualifier sections for their age group or older. Only players in qualifier sections can win invitations to the Spiegel Cup finals or earn Spiegel Cup Series (SCS) points. Qualifier sections are restricted to Massachusetts residents and students while the booster sections are open to players from all states. The winner of each of the qualifier sections will be invited to play in the Spiegel Cup finals on March 19, 2017.

The advance entry fee is $20 for the qualifier sections and $15 for the booster sections, with a special $5 entry fee for players in the booster sections playing in their first USCF-rated tournament. 

Click here to register for the 4th Spiegel Cup Qualifier.

Edward Chiu
MACA Promotions Committee Chair

The Massachusetts Chess Association is now accepting nominations for the annual election of its 12-member board, to serve from June 2017 to June 2018. Members may stand for election for one of its 4 officer positions (President, Vice President, Treasurer or Clerk) or 8 Director positions. The submission deadline for nominations is February 15, 2017. In order to be eligible to run, MACA memberships must be valid through the end of the upcoming term (June 2018). 
 
For more information, please review MACA's bylaws.
 
Please e-mail nominations and questions to Jeff Caruso. 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the Winter Team Challenge, held January 22nd in Boxborough, Mass.

Grades K-12 Section:

1st Newton South A (Alan Sikarov, Yifan Xu, Nicholas Komarovsky, Samuel Burnham) 4-0
2nd-3rd Patriots (Vineeth Nareddy, Vital Ranganath, Adithya Sharma, Anirudh Gopalan),
    Elementals (Concord-Carlisle Chess Club) (Alexander Erlich-Herzog, Lucas Kamon,
        Henry Booth, Daniel Erlich-Herzog) 3-1

Medals: Alex Fauman (Newton North A), Amy Lei (Amazing Four), Kaifan Wang (Newton North B) 4-0
    Patrick Zhang (Lexington H.S.), Jonathan Hsu (Lexington H.S.), Krishna Mutnuri (Rook and Roll),
    Joshua Bornstein (Newton South B) 3-1

Grades K-6 Section:

1st ChessMinds (Kelsey Liu, Sophia Rosenholtz, Sai Yerra, Saanvi Tiruveedhula) 4-0
2nd Day Dragons (Ben Fauman, Duncan Naylor, Desmond FitzGerald-Lara, Luca Guzza) 3-1
3rd-4th Chess Royale (Rohil Saxena, Advay Goel, Prakul Saxena, Curtis Ying),
    Bowen Bishops (Aaron Lu, Isaac Gordon, Eyal Zeldich, Jared Mi) 2.5-1.5

Medals: Isabella Lai (Knightmares of the Square Table), Alexander Shih (Andover Chess Club B),
    Ryan Greenwood (Andover Chess Club A), Advaith Rajesh (Bay State Chess Kings) 3-1

Grades K-3 Section:

1st Rook and Roll (Dylan Jiang, Riya Kanury, Ansh Yadawad, Suhavi Tiruveedhula) 4-0
2nd Andover Chess Club A (Bryan Henroid, Tristan Pritchard, Edmund Pritchard, Hari Palaniyappan) 3-1
3rd Conant Challengers (Manas Kontham, Jonathan Lobo, Srikrishna Nuvvula, Chirag Katragadda) 2.5-1.5

Medals: Eric Zhang (Tigers), Jeffrey Yin (Dragons) 3-1

Tied teams are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Chris Bird and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

2017 Winter Team Adv. Entry: https://goo.gl/SpRfrC 

Final Update: as of 01/21/17 08:06 PM

First Update: as of 01/20/17 03:35 PM

First Post: as of 01/19/17 08:12 PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

Prize winners at the Gus Gosselin Grade Championship, held January 15th in Boxboro, Mass.

Grades 8-12 Section:

1st-3rd Alex Fauman, Michael Isakov, Gershon Gilman 3-1
Top 9th Grade Bharath Heggadahalli, Vishnu Ranganath, Shoumik Sompally 2.5-1.5
Top 8th Grade Sravan Mandepudi 2.5-1.5

Grade 7 Section:

1st Arjun Girish 3.5-0.5
2nd Vittal Ranganath 3-1
3rd Vineeth Nareddy 2.5-1.5

Grade 6 Section:

1st Benjamin Fauman 3.5-0.5
2nd Anirudh Gopalan 3-1
3rd Arnon Kuzmin 2.5-1.5

Grade 5 Section:

1st Jack Tompros 4-0
2nd Holden Chalfant 3-1
3rd Pritam Sompally 2.5-1.5

Grade 4 Section:

1st Adithya Sharma 4-0
2nd-6th Ryon Das, Jacob Snell, Ryan Xia, Ani Perl, Joseph Mussalli 2-2

Grade 3 Section:

1st Jeffrey Liu 4-0
2nd Y Owen Ji 3-1
3rd-6th Brandon Ni, Raeann Zhou, Luca Conigliaro, Connor Grieg 2-2

Grade 2 Section:

1st Jonathan Traub 3.5-0.5
2nd Isabella Lai 3-1
3rd Riya Kanury 2.5-1.5

Grades K-1 Section:

1st Eric Chang 4-0
2nd-3rd Maya Figelman, Kurt Amber 3-1
Top Kindergarten Risha Vishwashankar 2-2

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Andrew Hoy, Bob Messenger, and Steve Frymer.
 

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

Updated: 01/14/17 09:47 AM (should be final)

Updated: 01/13/17 03:42 PM

First post: 01/12/17 09:26 PM

Adv. Entry for 2017 Gus Gosselin / Massachusetts Grade Championship https://goo.gl/MtKwUy 

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

To vote, MACA membership must be valid as of February 28, 2017. For frequently asked questions, such as registering junior members, and any other concerns, please go to https://goo.gl/Shozhk

Jeff Caruso, Chair of the Elections Commission

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster