Chess For Life at Panera

At the Panera today in Montclair New Jersey, the new organization Chess for Life! hosted a chess demonstration. They had a a vendor area where they were selling chess books and t-shirts. They also had a quasi-blindfold simultaneous, where a local master and expert each played four boards. I say quasi-blindfold, because the simul-givers were actually writing down the moves of each board. I don't know what the final score was.

Also, a section of Panera was devoted exclusively to chess where members of the West Orange Chess Club were playing and giving mini-lessons -- in fact, my son was showing his skills against an 1800, and was doing pretty well.

Chess for Life! is an organization that gives chess lessons in the schools, arranges private instruction, and so forth. It is run by Damon T. Garrett, a personable and dynamic guy who had a cadre of genuinely friendly and helpful assistants.

As for me, I played a five-minute game against someone (of whom I did not get the name) -- and they game was pretty equal. Ended with me dropping two pawns and getting into a hopelessly lost endgame. Typical!

They are doing another exhibition on Saturday August 29 at the Panera in West Orange, NJ.

New Jersey Knockouts have a new manager...

... and that would be me.

Details forthcoming, but it's true; I'm the new manager of the New Jersey Knockouts of the United States Chess League.

That means that I will be cutting down on the amount of USCL-related stuff that I had been doing the past couple of years. I will be continuing the USCL ratings, but I will discontinue the power rankings, the top board honors, and being a part of the prediction contest... unless I can figure out a way to make all of those 100% automated. It's possible, but I also have a life outside of the USCL.

Major Storm Next Week

Major storm next week in the Northeast.

"A major spring Nor'easter with the capability of causing damage equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane may develop Sunday off the U.S. East Coast. A storm system currently crossing the Pacific coast near British Columbia is expected to dive southeastward across the U.S... we have the potential for a very serious flooding event. If the worst case scenarios of the models come true, the Tax Day Storm of 2007 could cause extensive moderate to severe coastal flooding, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. The areas at highest risk appear to be New Jersey, New York (especially New York City), Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts."

Read the rest here.

Now we will see if the waterproofing in our basement actually works.

UPDATE: The waterproofing did not work. The outflow of the pump was going into the sewer, which I understand is either illegal or severely frowned upon. Of course, everyone else's pumps were also going into the sewer, so the sewer got full, and the water went where it could -- up through the slop sink and onto the floor of the basement. Six inches of water later, we came up with another system of getting it out. They fixed the pump system so now it drains into the street, as it should. What a mess.

New Jersey Knockouts

The United States Chess League (USCL) will be starting its third season in the fall. It is an online league - all games are played over the internet on the Internet Chess Club.

One of the two new expansion teams is the New Jersey Knockouts (NJKO). I have volunteered to write for the team. Stay tuned for updates!