We are taking registrations for those CCC members who want to participate in the 2016 CCC Championship.  Free entry is being offered to current CCC members and a reduced club dues of $15 applies to those signing up for the tournament.  With enough entries, we will try to have our traditional Upper and Lower Sections with 1st place and Runner Up trophies, accordingly.  This a your chance to play USCF-rated chess at regular time controls (Game 90;delay 5 sec) and at a schedule of one game a week.  If you haven’t done so, come check out our new site at The Church of the Holy Cross on Daniel Island and sign up to play.  Hope to see a good turnout!

Update:  We had only 4 players for the Upper Section (above 1500 rating) signup and play in the 1st round!  If any other players above 1500 would like to join in, we will take their registration on Wednesday, 5/25/16, and play another 1st round, then merge the two groups into the 2nd round on June 1.  The good news is that twelve players are signed up for the Lower Section and played their 1st round Wednesday night.  Their 2nd round will be played next Wednesday, 5/25/16. 

Our new meeting site at The Church of the Holy Cross on Daniel Island brought out some old members that have not attended in years.  Expert Lindsey Blanks and Michael Gorlitsky dusted off their sets and came ready to play.   It was good to see them again and we welcomed them back.  Overall, we had nearly a dozen attendees and our hosts invited us to continue using their facilities in the future.  With our new meeting site secured, our officers will now propose plans for our club championship and other chess activities.  Hopefully, our returning old members will join us in our future competitions.  For those that missed the first meeting at our new site, we look forward to them turning out and enjoying our new location.

On May 4th, our temporary new meeting site will be located on Daniel Island at the Church of the Holy Cross.  The address is 299 Seven Farms Dr., Daniel Island, SC, 29492.  Turn left at the corner when you see the church and park behind in the parking area.  We will be in one of the meeting rooms in the back building.  This is a temporary meeting site as a trial to see if it is adequate for our needs and chess friendly, i.e. space, noise level, etc.  If anyone knows of another adequate site for us to check out, let us know.

Due to the closing of the Park Circle Presbyterian Church, we will be looking for a new site for our meetings.  We encourage our members and guests to give us input so that we can make this transition as easy as possible.  Check the website often for updates so that you will know of any changes in our location, temporary or permanent.

UPDATE:  The Park Circle Presbyterian Church has told us that we can use their facility through the end of April.  We are still searching for a potential new site and want to remind everyone about our annual meeting on April 6 at the current location.  We can elect officers and discuss new site ideas with everyone.  Try to make this very important meeting.

The 42nd Snowstorm Special will be held this Saturday at Park Circle Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall.  This year’s version will be a one-day, 4 round, G/45;delay 5, open tournament with cash prizes for places and top Under scores.  Check out “Upcoming Tournaments” at the right to go to the USCF TLA for the tournament.  Entry fee is just $25 and you can either sign up at the club meeting on Wednesday or at the site from 8-9:15am on Saturday.  Round 1 will begin at 9:30am.  This is an excellent opportunity to play in one of our annual tournaments without giving up the whole weekend!  Hope to see our players there!

UPDATE:  Fifteen avid players showed up for play with one overall winner, a four-way tie for 2nd, and other Under prize winners.  Check out the following link for the USCF final cross table:

42nd Snowstorm Special Cross Table

Check out our “Club Calendar” for upcoming Wednesday night activities in January, 2016.

Fellow CCC member and TD, Dennis Dawley, rounded up most of our blitz players and held a double round robin tournament at last Wednesday’s meeting. After the smoke cleared, David Causey took top place in the Upper Section Quads with a 6-0 score, while Robert Webb survived to win the Lower Section round robin followed closely by James Falkner and Colby Wright. Check out the results by clicking the link below:

Christmas Blitz

Dennis announced that he would plan another blitz tournament in January, possibly the third meeting night. Join us if you missed the December tournament and try your luck at blitz chess. A small entry fee of $5 is required to play, but most all the money is paid out in prizes.

Our 2015 CCC Champion, Elijah Neumann, held his own against strong competition at last weekend’s S.C. Championships held in Columbia.  Facing some of the best players in our state, Elijah scored 3-2, with two wins, two draws (against one master and one expert), and a lone loss against an expert, and was rewarded with the Top U2000 prize.  His rating jumped from 1968 to 1987, now nearly expert strength.  Congratulations, Elijah, and, as we always say, “Show us your games!”

You can still register for the S.C. Championships at the CCC meeting this Wednesday night and get the early entry reduced fee.  Check out “Upcoming Tournaments” by clicking on the right side of the main page to get all the details about the tournament.  Any questions about the tournament can be posed to David Causey at this week’s meeting.  SCCA memberships are also available through David since he is the SCCA Treasurer.

Elijah Neumann and Zach Darga repeated their championship ways by winning the 2015 CCC Championship Upper and Lower Sections, respectively.  Both sections were decided by using a double round robin format with Elijah scoring 1.5-.5 against both Stephen Welt and David Causey in the Upper Section (over 1500) and Zach scoring 3-0 against all his opponents in the Lower Section (under 1500).  Congratulations to both our champions!

Elijah Neumann, 2015 CCC Champion

Zach Darga, 2015 CCC Lower Section Champion