Hackettstown (NJ) Summer Holland tournament
Angelo DePalma
The Hackettstown, NJ Chess Club is holding their traditional Summer Holland
tournament, which lasts from June 2 until the week before Labor Day. We play
one game per week on Monday eveningss.
Our club has improved dramatically over the past year. We have one regular
expert, about 7-8 A players, a bunch of B's, C's and D's too. Our last
tournament had 20 participants.
The Summer Holland has a unique format: A five-round swiss preliminary,
followed by a two- or three-section round robin final. You can pre-register
by calling Harold Darst (see below) or show up on Monday, June 2, at 7:00 pm
for registration. We also accept late registrations up until the beginning
of the finals (usually mid-July).
Our group is very friendly. Take it from me, you can't get this much fun for
the $14 entry fee anywhere else!!
Our Hackettstown Chess Club meets on Monday nights except Holidays. We
begin at 7:30pm at the Hackettstown Community Center, 293 Main St,
Hackettstown, NJ. Director: Harold J Darst, 111 Moore St, Hackettstown, NJ
07840-2233. (908)852-5925.
-- Angelo DePalma
Angelo DePalma
P.S. You may be wondering: Where is Hackettstown? It's in western NJ on Rte
46: About 45 miles west of NYC, a short drive from Parsippany, Morristown,
Sparta, Dover.
Angelo
Eric Mark
Just to clarify, this is not spam. Angelo, for all his faults, makes
no money at this. Nor does anyone, actually; that's one of the good
things about this club.
No cash prizes and no sudden death time controls. (They use 40/90,
30/60). There's even an adjournment once or twice a year, and all
entry fees go towards expenses or get donated to local charities.
The reason for this is tradition, plus the fact that the director, Mr.
Darst, who has run the club for about 30 years, has philosophical
objections to both.
It's a throwback, mostly in a good way. Anyone within an hour's drive,
rated under 2200, who wants good slow games in a reasonable setting,
should check it out. It's exactly an hour's drive from NYC, BTW.
The biggest downside, and the reason I very seldom play there these
days, is that the club runs 3 very long events from February through
November; a spring round robin, a summer Holland, and a fall team
tournament, about 12 to 14 rounds each. (There are shorter events in
December and January, which I try to attend.)
A lot of players, including me, cannot commit to that many consecutive
Mondays, due to work and other factors. Again, it's a throwback to
another, simpler time, when everyone worked hard all day in the
sunshine, then had nothing else to do after evening prayers but
traipse down to the chess club once each week....