Your intrepid tournament director is catching up after three out-of-town trips (a work/fun trip, a vacation, a family visit) and several work deadlines. It’s now September, and high time for a quick wrap-up of what’s going on at Evanston Chess Club, not necessarily in chronological order:

• Club blitz has been drawing 10-16 people on the third Tuesday of each month. Our blitz director Michael Matek runs a round robin, G/5 no delay, as many rounds as we can fit between 7:30 and 9:00 p.m. Small prize to the winner and no entry fee. This month only: we’ll be doubling up on the blitz and holding it September 11 and September 18, as a courtesy to those of you who are celebrating Rosh Hashanah on the 18^th.
• Our ever-popular 3x3 G/65 is coming up on September 22 (that's a date change), and our guest master will be FM Kevin “the Caveman” Bachler.
• Our most recent tournament was on Bastille Day, July 14, and had 50 players. Wow! Thanks to all of you playing; that’s the highest attendance we’ve had in three years. Matthew Wilber was clear winner of the Liberté Section with 3.5 points. (That was the top section; it was Bastille Day, so we had appropriately French section names.) Ansari Aamir won all four games to come out on top of the Egalité section. Michael Feldmann won the Fraternité section with a score of 3.5. (See below for pictures.)
• Our Isaac Braswell Memorial Blitz Tournament on June 9 was a great success. Nineteen players came out for rated blitz, and we raised $360 that will go toward the Braswell Memorial Prize. We hope to repeat this event again next year.

by Maret