Blitz Tournament and Remembering History

A reporter / photographer from the local paper visited our club, snapping some pictures of our Blitz Tournament. If we are to increase membership, publicity cannot hurt. The five-minute event was won by Mark Kernighan (center).

During the event, Scott Massey and I used Fritz (projected onto the big-screen TV monitor) to analyze and discuss his famous controversy with Jason Cohen. The position was fascinating and our analysis drew a crowd. As each five-minute game ended, the players would come into the meeting room to watch.

Jason claimed a draw with 45 seconds to go on his clock (in sudden death) based on the rule of "insuffient losing chances." The TD adjourned the game to await his decision, which took three weeks (he should have resumed the game by the rules and decided the issue later). When play finally resumed after weeks of analysis, Scott was able to demonstrate that there were actually lots of losing chances for Jason, especially since he played 1...Kf4 2.Kd3? (2.Rf6+! might draw with best play) 2...h3! winning.

The complete analysis will be included as part of Mike Wojcio's excellent history of the club, which I hope to have up some time this week.