NORTH ADAMS -- While most North County residents probably stayed
home on Sunday, wrapping themselves in warmth and watching football games,
others braved the weather to test their intellectual prowess.
They were seven dedicated men and one woman from the Northern Berkshire
Chess Club, taking part in the annual club championship tournament at the
Holiday Inn on Main Street. The games started at 8:30 a.m. and a victor
wasn't declared until around 6:30 p.m.
"We do these things all day," said club president Raymond Gaudette.
"We have a ball. We really have a ball. It's an addiction. Most of the
folks in our club are die-hard chess players."
The tournament is mostly to decided rankings in the club for the next
year, a survival-of-the-fittest event to pick the top five players for
the club team. Those five will fight against other clubs teams in meets.
Club champion gets the top dog position at "board one" and some bragging
rights, but little else.
The tournament consists of four rounds, each lasting about an hour and
a half.
The tournament room is profoundly quiet, with all eight players assiduously
staring at their boards, rarely looking up to view their opponent, waiting
patiently for something on the board to tell them, "Yeah! Do that! That'll
nail 'em for sure."
One younger player rocks his leg incessantly as he ponders the board,
making his whole body shake. His bald, elder opponent is like an iguana,
nearly immobile -- then suddenly, deliberately moving a chess piece, punctuating
his decision by tapping the timer.
The younger player starts shaking his head from side to side as he continues
to shake up and down -- his queen is in jeopardy, and so is he.
Daniel Johnson, the 2004 club champion, took off of work and
walked about 20 minutes in the snowy weather from [North Adams] to play
in the tournament.
"I've got to defend my title, you know," he says.
His main competition is Jeff Brassard, the Tiger Woods of Northern Berkshire
chess tournaments. Brassard held the championship spot for the past few
years, until Johnson took it away from him.
Brassard ended in second last year, and he was not too happy about that.
When asked if he was concerned he was missing the Philadelphia Eagles
football game, Johnson said, "Never. I don't watch any sports. I don't
watch any television."
After two rounds, Johnson is riding high, luckily avoiding a near tie
in the last [second] round, garnering a record of two wins, no losses.
His recent opponent, Michael Shakar, comes over, lamenting his bungle,
"I snatched defeat from the jaws of evenness."
Johnson and Shakar quickly move into an autopsy of the game played,
dissecting where things went wrong and what might have been done differently.
Shakar then starts talking about Gaudette and their long friendship.
Johnson blurts out, "Those two have been geeks for 52 years."
"Fifty-two years of geekhood," Shakar echoes.
Shakar walks away and Johnson starts to discuss his chess philosophy.
"As strange as it sounds, chess is reflex -- mostly. When you're in
trouble you start using your brain. People don't use their brains well,"
he jokes. "The goal is to get used to as many situations as possible. It's
like riding a bike."
Gaudette, while taking time away from his game against Brassard, talks
about how he sees the game. He says it's like painting -- developing ideas
in your mind and watching them come to fruition, but instead of on a canvass,
the masterpiece flows onto a checkered board.
As Gaudette explains his theory, Brassard paces impatiently in the hallway.
"He's eager to do me in," Gaudette says.
Gaudette, like most others in the club, says he plays online chess very
regularly.
"I play daily, under the handle of Surok. He's the father of modern
Vulcan philosophy. If you're a "Star Trek" fan, that's obvious to you,"
he says.
To prepare for the tournament, Gaudette perused his library of about
60 chess books, practiced openings and looked over grandmasters' games.
He's been the club president for 10 years and has played chess and run
tournaments for 35 years, he said.
Brassard and Gaudette end up tying their game, and the players stop
for lunch midway through the tournament at around 1:30 p.m. Johnson is
in place to be champion yet again.
It was just as the NFC Championship game headed into half-time at 5
p.m. that the fourth and last round of the tournament began. At that point,
Gaudette and Brassard had two wins, one tie, no losses. Johnson and one
other player had two wins and a loss.
The tournament room was as hushed as ever, with the ticking of timers
being the only sound heard in the room. Some had their faces in their hands;
it had been a long day.
In the end, Brassard took out Shakar in the last round to regain his
position as club champion, ending the tournament with three wins, one tie,
no losses. Gaudette made it into second place with two wins, two ties.
Johnson got third place with two wins, a tie and a lose. Three others tied
at fourth place. Shakar was fifth place.
Gaudette was smiling, "Best club tournament we've had so far."
As Gaudette cleaned up, several other players crowded around Shakar
and Brassard and their board, excitedly discussing the gameplay.
Asked how he felt about winning the tournament, Brassard said, "Better.
Better than last year. I was waiting to come back and play again, because
Mr. Johnson took me out last year."
"He's a humble champion," Gaudette joked.
The Northern Berkshire Chess Club meets from 6:00 to 9:30 p.m. on the
first floor of Building 10 at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary
Art. Membership is free and new players are welcome to join.
For more information, call Ray Gaudette, at 413-458-8395.