Boylston Chess Club
Ben's first MACA tournament was the 1996 Mass. District Singles, where he scored 1-3 against a strong field.
Major props to Tom O'Brien (rated 714) for not pulling through against me that day. Otherwise I most likely would have retired from chess directly after that tournament instead of February of 2009.
Ben,
Thanks for not retiring from chess. At least you have stuck out it all these years. Those guys you played in that Mass. Singles championship (high school division of Southeast district) 13 years ago gave up rated chess quickly thereafter. I guess Mike Seltzer, Tom O'Brien (your only victim), Chris Maloof and Ryan Boinay couldn't hack it. Keep playing! Your goal is to become a master and you've beaten quite a few in your career.
Ben Goldberg's heroic performance at club level notewithstanding, how about reports on Ivanov's first place in NH this weekend or Krasik's first in Las Vegas?
Logic,
How about you submit such reports to us? and then we'll gladly consider posting it. We report what we know.
If Logic - or anybody else for that matter - wants reports about Ivanov's first place in NH this past weekend and Krasik's first in Las Vegas, all he has to do is go to the MACA Web site and click on News. The reports are there. They were posted very quickly. And if one is looking for some of Ivanov's games from the Mass Open, e.g. Ivanov-Kelleher, Ivanov-MacIntyre, Ivanov-Vigorito, one needs to get a copy of the July-September issue of Chess Horizons - on sale at Harvard Square for those who are not current MACA members. The issue will be on the newstands in two weeks or so. Smart players are those who keep their MACA membership current. Getting Vigorito's column, among other things, is well worth the price of membership.
I wholeheartedly agree with George that Dave's column is a major plus for Chess Horizons.
Although Dave's still got a huge mountain to climb to surpass Joe Shipman's openings columns from years ago, at least with respect to my tournament arsenal.
It just seems hallarious that out of all events posted on Masschess.org the blog selected to report on a mundane Saturday tournament at the BCC. I guess the argument could be that it is the BCC blog after all and BCC events take precedence, then of course I would ask why we dont get such reports after every saturday tournament.
I have deep respect for people who hide behind cute handles and talk trash over the internet.
I have deep respect for the vituperations of people with a first grade lexicon.
I have deep respect for anyone who calls himself "Logic" and wonders why the Boylston Chess Club Blog would be reporting the results of Boylston Chess Club members in events taking place AT the Boylston Chess Club, as opposed to the results of non-members who degrade and put down the BCC on the other side of the country.
I am sure the Illustrious chess career of Ben Goldberg is something everyone needs to start celebrating. I have no doub that Ben, represents the epitome of a great chess player we should all strive to be. By the way, who are these so-called non-members who degrade and put down BCC on the other side of the country, who are these infidels, just curious Ben??
Actually it is good to see the BCC blog reporting on events at the BCC. It's a great shame they had to get that particular report from "MACA Chess News" rather than someone at the club reporting on it themselves.
Jason,
Isn't the entire idea behind you moderating comments to keep non-entities with nothing better to do like John Valentine and others of his ilk from instigating people? I'm doing my very best not to lower myself to the level of this overgrown baby.
Ben "Kenobi" Goldberg,
We cross paths again on this blog, something we seem not fated to do in real life since I don't normally attend the weekend tournaments at the club which you attend. I have joined Jason in moderating the comments. I consider he and I are on the same page about moderating comments, but we operate independently, like masters alternating moves giving a simul. I would certainly defer to his judgment if he feels I approved something which I shouldn't have. He also has deleted one which he'd previously approved after I brought it to his closer attention (that was before I'd joined him on moderation).
Now off to approve my own comment....
And Ben,
Apparently my 4-0 first tournament as an adult sowed far worse chess strength results than your 1-3 start as a kid, since I have never been able to get beyond (low) Class A. Indeed, I've been pounding the Class B beat for years now.
Ben is a good chess pllayer, he doesn't suck. I don't understand all the hating... Why can't we all be friends. Gens unos sumus!
Chris, well put. BCC could report on their own events, but yet they've chosen to just copy MACA chess' short paragraph. In that sense, it made sense for the poster to wander why Ivanov's win in NH also wasnt copied from MACA.
There's a palpable fear in the air that this may have been Ben's breakthrough tournament. I've always noted that, although chess has many good points, fostering petty jealousy is one of its drawbacks.
Hi Ben,
I've been getting some help on the moderation, and I guess some things are slipping through, but we have deleted and banned many worse comments in recent weeks.
If the nay-sayers would like to hear about other chess news, just send it to us and we'll consider posting it. We would LOVE for there to be more reports of every tournament. But someone needs to write it every week for free.
Instead of creating content, people would like to be disagreeable.
Finally, for those questioning our traffic being down since we've moderated the blog-- we actually are still averaging 1000 unique visitors a week, thank you very much. We just get less "You're a jerk, no I'm a jerk," pointless idiot comments these days.
Three points as my 2 cents in this thread.
1. Ben is an expert level chess player whose personal frustration is being at the threshold of the master title, but not yet a master. From my point of view, being at the expert level is a very high level of achievement. That is has not yet achieved master status indicates to me how difficult it is to get to the next level in chess.
2. As Jason said, we would like more input by club members, especially about club events.
3. George is a BCF member.
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