The Pioneer Valley Chess Journal

The Pioneer Valley Chess Club was once one of the most active clubs in the area for tournaments. Every week something would be going on. Some weeks it would be a last minute blitz event, other's it would be a quad or two of quick chess. With Sean Tobin around there was always one thing you could count on. Lots of chess! Yes, those were the good old days.

I was doing some cleaning today and I happened to come across some old papers. I know, if you were actually to come look inside my house you probably wouldn't believe a word of what I'm saying. Cleaning, bah! But I happened to come across the one, and unfortunately only, issue of the Pioneer Valley Chess Journal. As I glance over it I can't help but think that it had a lot of potential. I was acting as the Publisher and Editor, with Sean acting as the Associate Editor. We had contributors that included the likes of Stan Targonski, Charles Hertan, and other members of the PVCC.

It also brought back memories of all the great things Sean did to help promote chess in the area. Always trying to get people involved and make things happen. Even though it usually led to my doing something that, if left to my own devices, would never happen, still it was a good time. I think that so much of who you are is based upon your life experiences and the people that you are lucky (or unlucky) enough to meet. I've been lucky enough to meet a lot of great people over the course of my life, and I hope to meet many more in the future.

Now I'm going to share a game with you all from that special issue of The Pioneer Valley Chess Journal. It was playing at "The Tobin Memorial Game/25" on April 21st of 1996. At the time Sean was already an A-Player rated 1851, and I was still a Class C player struggling at 1490. Truth be told, I just like to think that my rating took 10 years to catch up with me. I'm pretty sure I'll want to close my eyes as we go through this game, but don't let that take away from your enjoyment of it.

[White: Tobin, Sean]
[Black: Borowski, Ed]
[The Tobin Memorial G/25]
[April 21, 1996]
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 d6 4.d4 Be7 5.f4 O-O 6.Nf3 c5 7.d5 exd5 8.exd5 Bg4 9.Bd3 Re8 10.O-O Nbd7 11.h3 Bxf3 12.Qxf3 Bf8 13.g4 Kh8 14.g5 Ng8 15.Qh5 g6 16.Qg4 f5 17.Qg3 Bg7 18.h4 Qe7 19.Bd2 Qf7 20.Nb5 Qe7 21.Rae1 Qf8 22.Nc7 Rxe1 23.Rxe1 Bd4+ 24.Kg2 Rc8 25.Ne6 Qf7 26.b3 Re8 27.Bc2 Nf8 28.Bc3 Nxe6 29.dxe6 Rxe6 30.Bxd4+ cxd4 31.Rxe6 Qxe6 32.Qd3 Qe3 33.Qxe3 dxe3 34.Kf3 Ne7 35.Kxe3 Nc6 36.a3 a5 37.Bd1 Kg7 38.Bf3 Kf8 39.Bxc6 bxc6 40.Kd4 Ke7 41.b4 axb4 42.axb4 Kd7 43.b5 Kc7 44.Kc3 draw agreed

I was right, better with the eyes closed. Even now I feel lucky to have drawn that game. In addition to The Pioneer Valley Chess Journal, I also found my copy of the greatest chess tournament ever played! That's right, Linares 1994. Karpov's greatest victory. It was a special issue of Inside Chess magazine that included all 91 games from the tournament. Now that's another magazine that I miss! I never did manage to play through all the games even though I remember planning to so many years ago. Maybe it's time for another shot!

On that note...

Thanks for the memories!

Ed.