From the Editor

The month of November is homecoming month. The Stan Crowe is here!  If you haven't been in a tournament in a while, this is a great month to play in. If you've been here regularly, this is a month you don't want to miss!

Comment & critique to     Info at MetroWestChess.org 
 

Harvey Reed
Marketing Director
MetroWest Chess Club

Partners

North East Chess

Severine Wamala

Club

Calendar

Harvey Reed

Member Survey

Harvey Reed

Donations

See Mark.

Mark Kaprielian

Board Activity

No Board activity in November. At the Board meeting in October, several important motions were passed, including reinstating the Club Championship. The minutes of the meeting can be found at:

Home -> Community -> Club -> About the Club -> Governed -> Minutes -> 2003-10-09

To learn more about our governance, click here.

Mark Kaprielian, President

Anti-SPAM update

We do not SPAM you

First of all, we make sure that we do not SPAM you with too much email. For over a year now, we have consolidated all of our online communication into two channels:

• Website - You browse it when you want. Personal email addresses are NOT posted. This eliminates any possibility of you getting SPAM, ever.
• Newsletter - We publish via email once a month to "news". The "news" list is now only accessible by Webmaster, so this is an absolute barrier to SPAM. The newsletter is also archived on the website, if you wish to read it there.

We do get SPAMmed on internal lists, but never to our personal email address

We need to publish our internal lists to the public, so people can send email to "info@...", but SPAMmers got a hold of our internal email list addresses and send SPAM to that, which in turn, hidden from SPAMers, gets forwarded to volunteers. Very annoying. The internal lists are: info@, games@, etc.

How SPAM works

It used to be that you would get SPAM after you register for a free service, and they sold your email address. That is bad enough, but now, SPAMers find email addresses that are posted on web pages, like our own. As a matter of fact, they have armies of web "spiders" (programs) that automatically crawl all websites 24 hours a day looking for new email addresses. The reason for this, is that using a "spider" to snoop email addresses is practically free, and after they get a big list of email addresses (millions), all they need is one person in 10,000 to respond in order to be profitable. This is true, we're not making this up. The fun multiplies when these huge lists get sold and traded... so...

Anti-SPAM Solution!

Step One: We did this last month. We removed as many internal email list addresses as we could find to try to slow down the problem. The problem is still here, but this did buy us time to work on step two...

Step Two: Club member Trevor De Koekkoek created a form-based web page that we will make available on the website for people to contact us internally. We do not have to post our internal email list address anymore. Spiders cannot break it. We are currently testing the web page. Thank you Trevor!

Step Three: As soon as the form-based web page passes all tests, and we make it user friendly, we will immediately put it into use, and replace every internal list that we have. We will not post the new internal email list addresses to the web. Presto! No more SPAM! Ever! 

What does this mean to the average Club member?

This means two things.

First, you can volunteer at the Club, and have confidence that you will not get extra SPAM. Sorry, we can't reduce the SPAM you already get...

Second, in order to initially contact our internal email lists (like info, games, etc), you will have to use the form-based web page to send an initial email. When you get a reply from a volunteer, you will see the real internal email address, and you can save it and use it just like you do now. If for some reason, the email address is compromised (somebody leaks it to a SPAMmer) we can immediately replace that email address with another. When we replace it, and your email bounces, simply go to the form-based web page again, and send an initial email again...

But why can't a SPAM "spider" use the form-based web page like us?

Ah... Trevor, being the clever developer added a "fuzzy" graphic image with a random security word that humans can easily see, and you have to type in, but a "spider" can't easily see. Thus the "spider" can't successfully complete the form. This is the same sophisticated technology that PayPal and other high security e-commerce sites use.

Like we said, we take the SPAM issue seriously. We are committed to provide a fun and safe environment for all members and volunteers.

Harvey Reed, Marketing Director & Mark Kaprielian, WebMaster

Community

Collections

We are considering making it possible to play through the games directly from the web with a simple browser, and we have started discussions with Game Adivice (Derek) to pick a game per month to highlight somehow.

We should have a web update published before the December newsletter, and I can tell you about it then.

Eric Sonnenstuhl

Volunteers

• Trevor De Koekkoek programmed our anti-SPAM form-based web page that is currently in testing phase
• Eric Sonnenstuhl is appointed Program Director for Game Collections
• Ray Salemi is appointed as a Director on the Board of Directors. Further, he is creating and filling the role of Tournament Host and is now the official greeter for new people. He is considering development of a mentoring program that will leverage the Game Advice program with Derek.
• Robert Powell is finishing prior commitments, and will hopefully be freed up soon to help further develop the web site

We are looking for a volunteer who is PC savvy and can help us maintain our URL link collection. It is very useful and one of the best in the country. Contact Mark.

To see who the MCC Volunteers are, click here.

 Mark Kaprielian 

Beyond the Club

Larry Eldridge recently published "Forty Years at the Top" in the Skittles Room of Chess Cafe. This is a historical retrospective of Club member John Curdo. His article can be viewed in PDF at: http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles214.pdf

John Curdo won the Massachusetts State Champion 17 times between 1948 to 1985. In 1994 he won his 500th tournament, I hear he has over 600 now, and he still sits on the top boards in the Club. Four US Senior victories, and many other victories later, John is publishing three electronic books through Chess Cafe:

• Chess Caviar #1: http://store.yahoo.com/chesscafe/1634.html
• Chess Caviar #2: http://store.yahoo.com/chesscafe/1635.html
• Chess Caviar #3: http://store.yahoo.com/chesscafe/1636.html

Howard Goldowsky will have a lengthy interview with Paul Hoffman posted to the Skittles Room at ChessCafe.com on Wednesday November 5th. Paul Hoffman is a science writer, a former science and technology correspondant for TV, a former editor of Discover magazine and Scientific American, and has recently begun writing about chess for magazines like the New Yorker and Smithsonian. He will be joining Yasser Seirawan as a TV commentator for ESPN's coverage of the upcoming Kasparov-Fritz3D match in NYC. The interview is a sort of preview for the match. We currently have no URL to point to the article.

Howard Goldowsky also has a past interview with Mig on Chess Cafe (Oct 19, 2002) at: http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles190.pdf

 Harvey Reed 

Official Merchandise

 Mark Kaprielian 

Books and Equipment

I will be at the club on Round 1 Tuesday November 4 with new goodies. I will have new Everyman and Gambit books. I have the 2004 Woman's Olympiad Calendars and Donna Alarie's new kids calendar. I will have the new USCF Rulebook. I will also have a special selection of autographed books for sale.

I can accept PayPal at my email address.  

Please email me at StateLineChess at Hotmail.com  for more info. 

Randi Macuit, Stateline Chess

Compete

Monthly Tournaments

James Krycka

Club Championship / Class Championship

At the October meeting, the MetroWest CC Board of Directors voted to:

·         Establish an annual Club Championship event.

·         Establish an annual Class Championship event.

The annual Club Championship has been re-instated.  It will be held in the spring of each year as a closed 5-RR section run in parallel with the other sections.  The six participants will be the top six Club members on the championship points list (who accept the invitation).  Players earn points during the previous calendar year by placing 1^st-2^nd-3^rd in the Open section, 1^st-2^nd in the Upper section, and 1^st in the next highest section on a graduated scale based on the section level and number of rounds.  For example, for November 2003, there will be 140 points available in the Open seciton, 45 in the Upper section, and 10 in the next section for the top placements.  In addition, players have to be Club members and need to play in at least 4 events during the year in order to have their championship points count towards qualification.

To jump start the qualification process for 2003, championship points will be awarded for performance in the Jan-Dec events for 2003.  For this year only, anyone who is a member at the end of the year will be considered a member for all of 2003 for the purpose of earning qualification points.

The leaders in the championship point standings using Jan-Oct 2003 results are:

As you can see, the first three on the list will undoubtedly finish in the top six, but there is a lot of competition for the remaining three slots.  Ivanov and Desmarais are the wildcards:  both need to play in the last two tournaments of 2003 to meet the 4-event minimum requirement.  If they do, they may bump others from the top six qualifying spots.  Also, any Club member who does very well during November or December of this year may still be able to qualify!

In addition to the overall Club Champion, MetroWest CC will crown a Class Champion.  The Class Champion will be the highest placing club member rated U2000 in the Open section of the month in which the closed Club Championship is held.  For 2004, these Championship events will occur in March.  A class player who qualifies for the closed Club Championship has the option of playing in that event or in the Class Championship (the Open section that month).  Any U2000 club member can compete for the title of MetroWest CC Class Champion, that is, there is no qualification process for this event.

Good Luck!

For more info, contact me at Info at MetroWestChess.org

James Krycka

Scholastic Tournaments

The Scholastic Tournament schedule for summer 2004 is proposed and in review phase. Watch this space for final date announcement.

If you are interested in volunteering for front-line or backup work, let me know!

For more info, contact me at Info at MetroWestChess.org

John Bottini

Team Email Matches

MCC-2 games are almost done. I will update the game PGNs sometime in November.

You can view the MCC-2 live games by following the link from the pairing page (near top), or just click here. The games are the current position minus 3 moves, to discourage accidental analysis with the players.

James Krycka

Special Events

No special events scheduled.

Mark Kaprielian

Learn & Improve

Weekly Group Lessons

For the month of November, the traps continue!

Week 2: Traps in the Sicilian
Week 3: Traps in Queen Pawn Openings
Week 4: Traps in the Indian Defences
Week 5: Traps in flank openings

I hope to see you in class!
 

John Chamberlain

Chess School

Class ended Thursday October 16, 2003 .

You will be receiving a member survey to fill out. An important part of the survey are a few questions about the future direction of the Chess School. If you have an interest in Chess School, please complete the member survey.

I enjoyed facilitating the Chess School this year, it was very enjoyable, and I trust the Chess School will continue in some form.

Thank you!

Howard Goldowsky

Game Advice

Derek Slater

Library

The several dozen books donated last month have been catalogued and are now available. Among them are the classics "My 60 Memorable Games" by Bobby Fischer and "The Oxford Companion to Chess." Check them out!

The MetroWest CC Library is the featured program for the month of November, so watch for information all month. As always, email the library (address below) or see Matt Phelps on Tuesday's for any questions or suggestions for the MetroWest CC Library.

If you have questions or comments, please email Library at MetroWestChess.org or see me on Tuesday nights.

Matthew Phelps