Middletown >> The Middletown Chess Club (MCC) announces two tournaments — the MCC inaugurals Summer Marathon Double Round Robin and the ongoing MCC Ladder.
The club meets Thursdays from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Middletown Library Community Room, 21256 Washington St. Membership is free and there’s no charge to enter the tournaments.
Come to the club and sign up for the double round robin. Be prepared to trade phone numbers with other members to arrange to play games outside of the club if they can’t get them in during regular meetings. Participants will play two games with each of the other players, one game with white pieces and one with black. It’s called a marathon because it takes two or three months to finish all the games. For Round Robin games there will be 30 minutes on each clock.
The ladder tournament never ends. Players start on the “bottom rung” and every week they challenge upward one or two rungs. The loser drops a rung and the winner jumps up to the rung above. In the ladder, players draw pawns to see who gets which color pieces and the defender chooses the time control — 30 to 60 minutes on each clock. Every July and January, MCC figures out who spent the most time on the top three rungs and issue prizes.
Winners “take a dip” into the MCC prize pool, which has a selection of chess books for players at every level. Occasionally there are some chess videos, software or even some chess equipment.
For more information, call 987-0166.
Keith Halonen is the Middletown Chess Club manager
