11.20.18 Lloyd Lombard, Secretary and Treasurer of the Nova Scotia Chess Association and Editor of the NSCA Newsletter shares with us another edition of this informative publication. Also included in this post is Lloyd's cover letter which is itself chock full of interesting chess-related material. We hope you enjoy the Newsletter and we encourage you to get on Lloyd's email list.

Nova Scotia Chess Association Newsletter November 2018

Hi everyone,

Please find attached the Nova Scotia Chess Association Newsletter in both Wordperfect and PDF format (sorry, I don't have Word).

The West Annapolis Chess Club will be meeting on November 22, 2018 at the Annapolis Royal Legion. Please bring your chess sets and clocks if you have one.

If you're receiving this e-mail, you're one of 249 chess players currently on the list. If you'd like your name removed, please respond and I'll do so.

The intent is to create an e-mail which will encourage chess in the Atlantic Provinces although we have chess players from U.S.A., and throughout Canada receiving this e-mail.

As I've noted many times, and continue to note, this newsletter was created in the hopes of sending the message out to our chess players in Atlantic Canada that we have a number of Chess Clubs in the region and for an easily accessible information link for those who travel in the region. On that basis, I wanted to note that our Club was happy to a player from Moncton, New Brunswick, a Mr. Cliche, join us last Thursday night indicating that he had seen our Chess Club coordinates in the Newsletter, hopefully this has happened for other Chess Clubs as well. We also had two new local members join this week and another new member joined us two weeks prior to that, and today, another local "brand new", with only cursory chess experience, paid to play in our Winter Chess Tournament with the hopes of learning more about the game as the Winter progresses, so chess is alive and well in Atlantic Canada !

Chess Articles; Game Analysis, etc. - I'm looking for any chess article contributors or game analysis which I can include in this newsletter.

Chess Links: There are numerous websites online however one of the keys to improving your chess is the use of tactics in your games. Chess tactics is defined as a sequence of moves that a player uses to gain either material or a positional advantage. "Tactics" are used in the "immediate" part of the game (for example a "combination") while "strategy" is more like long-term planning of where you want your pieces after another 10 moves and how you'd like the game to progress. Many chess players do tactics every day to maintain their tactics skills. A good tactics practice link is Chess OK where you practice tactics from level 1 to 5, here's the link: http://chessok.com/?page_id=359

The Remembrance Day Open - Congrats to Alvah Mayo (2156) and Roger Langen (2084), the co-winners of this year's Remembrance Day Open which was held November 9 to 11, 2018 in Halifax. Third: Paulo Ferreira (1838), 3.5 points, prize: $80; U1700: Ken Cashin (1688), Conrad MacNeil (1677), and David Bardsley (1627), 3 points, prize: $20 each; U1400: Nathan MacLellan (861) and Richard Peloquin (unr.), 3 points, prize: $20 each

The link to the NSCA tournament page is: http://www.nschess.ca/?p=1455

Poll - I'm intending to put out a poll every newsletter. If you have any ideas for a poll, please send it along for consideration.

Poll (mark an "X" and reply to this e-mail): I would prefer if chess tournaments were held on long weekends: ; I would prefer if chess tournaments were held on weekends other than long weekends:
(Results will be posted in next Newsletter); I would be OK with having about 1/2 on long weekends and 1/2 on weekends other than long weekends

Christmas Gifts: I'd remind everyone that Christmas is coming around the corner. It's an opportunity to point out your favourite chess book, chess clock, or chess set to your better half. If you have children, then please consider giving them a chess set for Christmas (they should also have a chess book with it). I would suggest that triple weighted sets are a better value than the non-weighted sets and they're much more fun to play with. Even better, wooden sets are nice. You can either order direct from any number of chess suppliers or I'll place an order after I receive a minimum $100.00 of orders.

West Annapolis Winter Chess Club Tournament: We have a record number of chess players this year who are participating in the tournament where one of our participants has only learned how to move chess pieces and another is in the beginning stages of learning the game. Again, the Winter Chess Tournament is a great way to get introduced to chess as it's only about a game a month and you and your opponent pick when and where you want to play. Anyone else who wants to play in the Winter Chess Tournament are reminded that I'll be collecting Tournament dues ($10.00 per player) until this Thursday, November 22nd when I'll be making up the divisions (there won't be any more extensions). Please make sure you pay me your $10.00 in advance of November 22nd. Again, you'll play about a tournament game a month over the Winter months. It provides an opportunity to play some chess for those who don't get to play. Remember, it doesn't matter if you lose all your games, meet other chess players, and importantly, it's an opportunity for you to play and hopefully to learn a bit more about the game which automatically assist you to improve your game. Everyone from beginner to the World Champion learns something new on a regular basis from the games they play. If you know of someone who wants to learn how to play, please encourage them to join us at the Club.

New Chess Club: A new Chess Club is starting up in Nova Scotia ! The Clare Chess Club is restarting after an almost 30 year closure. See the Newsletter for details and contact information.

Note: All Club Directors, please recheck the information in the attachment and let me know ASAP of any changes.

Nova Scotia Chess Association Chess Score Books - Many of you will have a new scorebook. Just a reminder for those who don't have one, the NSCA is selling Chess Score Books as a fund raiser for the Association at $15.00 each at each of the NSCA Tournaments, but in my view, are well worth the $15.00. They can be viewed at: http://www.nschess.ca/?p=1230 The books have the following attributes:

- The front cover has the NSCA Logo;
-:Games Played: From To so you can easily keep track of the time period the games were played.
- Each game has 100 moves (increase from the current 80 moves)
- Each page is numbered from 1 to 100 so you can coordinate the game # with the Index on the back cover
- The back cover has a Games Index from 1 to 100 so you can go back and find any game you've played in the book easily.
- This newly published edition also has a place for Round and Board # plus a place to write down the duration of the game and the time left on each of White and Black's clocks.
- There's also a place to mark down whether White or Black won or if it was a Draw.

The Association has also purchased carbonless score sheets for boards 1 and 2 so the NSCA can have a copy of the players' best games, so look forward to seeing some of the better games posted online.
I can take orders if anyone is interested in purchasing a scorebook. In reading chess books, you'll see that all Grandmasters recommend that the "best" way to improve your game is by going over it again or even better, going over it and getting comments from a stronger player.

The Nova Scotia Chess Association & Marketing Plan - As noted in the September 1st newsletter, the Nova Scotia Chess Association is in the process of reassessing its mandate and direction where I anticipate that we're going to see good things happening in the coming years. I also again note that "all" Nova Scotia chess players are encouraged to assist in promoting chess in Nova Scotia (there are many ways to do so).

Marketing Plan - The Nova Scotia Chess Association is wondering whether anyone on this mailing list has a marketing background who would volunteer their time in assisting the Association in creating a marketing plan for the promotion of chess in the Province. If you're interested, please reply directly to me by replying to this e-mail. The Association is currently looking at ways of how to promote chess in Nova Scotia. If you have any ideas, please reply to this e-mail and I'll pass them on to the Board of Directors and especially, to the Committee Chairs.

The Nova Scotia Scholastic Chess Association [NSSCA] - The NSSCA has a new Board of Directors and is actively pursuing the promotion of youth chess in the province. Please see the attached newsletter for details.

In this Newsletter, you will find:

1. List of chess clubs in Atlantic Canada and contact information (if you're travelling in Atlantic Canada, you should be able to find a Chess Club to have a game or two). Note that in Nova Scotia, we have a new Club that has started up in Weymouth and we're advised that another is soon-to-start on November 21st in Clare, Digby County. We'll keep you posted.
2. Chess Tidbits - This week's Chess Tidbits deals with the "False Guard".
3. Game of the week - Featured this week is a game between Ponomariov and Carlsen where Ponomariov takes advantage of Carlsen's "False Guard".
4. Chess in the Library - The next Sunday of Chess in the Library is December 16, 2018.

Hope you find someone to play a game of chess with today,

Lloyd Lombard
Editor
Secretary/Treasurer NSCA
CFC Voting Member