The65thSquare The Second Anniversary of The65thSquare
The65thSquare is two years old!

Its been a hard day's night... So goes the popular refrain from the song made popular by the Beatles so long ago. Over here at the club, we have come a long way from our humble beginnings back in March of 2000. At that time, I merely took the club to be an informal setup that would allow chessplayers from around the world to socialize.

Today, we are a huge club that is nearly 2000 strong, represented by people from around the world. We ask that you represent your country in our 65 AROUND THE WORLD PROJECT, of which we already have volunteer representatives from 5 continents. Please send your email address, state and country to The65thsquare

Our website has been online for more than a year, with libraries of OPENINGS from the Alapin to the Italian Opening, with more being added every week. In addition to this, we have sections on chess NEWS and EDITORIALS.

We also get online articles from the kNights Of Square Table (NOST), an organization with a long history of chess in the United States. Every year, NOST has a NOSTvention meet in a city in the United States, and members of the65thsquare who are interested in attending may email me for the contact in NOST.

The club has benefited a lot from the voluntary work of USchess and MarkW5. Both are accredited TDs of the USCF. USchess operates the ARBITER section on the website, drawing from his years of experience in tournament and the rules of chess to answer your questions. He also writes for Chess magazines in the USA.

Mark was instrumental in getting our affiliation with the USCF through, making us the first virtual chess club to do so. This does not mean that the club is an American club. It means that the USCF recognises and rates the games we choose to play under their rules, and rates the players involved whether they are US citizens or not. The membership costs USD 40 a year the last time I checked, and since we are a non-profit organization, any voluntary assistance should be directed to Mark so as to renew that affiliation for another year.

Unacanta is one of the most indispensable members of the club, and he has his hands full with numerous games that need to be put into the database. Delilah is also busy with her weekly chat sessions. You should drop by to say hello one of these days :)

We are also interested in affiliation to other countries, so please email the65thsquare@graffiti.net if you have a solid proposal for affiliation with another Chess Federation. The65thSquare is, and always should remain, an international chess club for everyone from around the world.

We are partners with the Chess gamesites SOUNDCHESS and GLOBALCHESS, and I am now working with Latvian Gambit to bring his revolutionary chess analysis software into our circle of partner websites. There are so many things for us to do, and it is not easy as we are all working for a living in the real world. As always, we welcome any constructive offers and feedback on the club and website, and also people to offer their services for us to work with.

We're also talking to many other Yahoo! Clubs and Organizations to increase the value of our webring, and we hope that everyone here will be able to bring something to the club in their own special way.

We support our fellow chess clubs and organizations if they are willing to share website content and be proactive in all things chess. It is the view of the65thsquare that we are better off with sharing information on the massive library of chess information, and that will leave us with more time to practice the game of chess instead of merely paying lip service.

Here are the highlights of 2001 at the club:

  • Website was launched, and a lot of chess content was added; including editorial stories, puzzles, opening libraries, diagnostic tests, and a live news section.
  • We ran five internal club tournaments successfully. Unacanta and Troyes organized a couple of splendid events at Chessworld.net, which I still believe is ongoing. Myron is still TDing the USCF-rated club event which we started in January 2002.
  • The Club went from 1000 members last March 12 to nearly 2000 members this year. We got recognised by the USCF and can now organize USCF correspondence tournaments on the Internet. The club captain this year is RQL of the USA, assisted by Muleyone (USA) and Troyes (France).
  • We made a lot of inroads into other chess sites on the internet, linking up with various gamesites and clubsites. Weekly tournaments were started by Harm, Troyes and Spidey, and weekly chat sessions were started by Delilah. Delilah is also responsible for the mentor program that we setting up now.
  • September 11 2001 was a date that would be remembered by people from around the world. The entire club rallied around our American friends in this event. We held the International Memorial Tournament as a team event in a show of solidarity against violence in any form. This event will be repeated in September 2002.
  • We also showed our support for club members whose loved ones underwent medical attention for various ailments, from places as diverse as Florida, USA to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
  • We thought of our friends in places such as Britain and Turkey when natural disasters struck those places. We had friends in Pakistan when war was declared in neighboring Afghanistan. Friends in India still work with us today even after the attack on the Indian parliament by sources still unconfirmed.
  • We had players from Argentina and Brazil playing in our tournaments, even had new friends from Africa as the last bastion of Internet development and we welcome them to the international community for chess.
  • All over the world, the international brotherhood/sisterhood of chess players observe the happenings in all the different countries. Some of us are directly affected by them, but we all put our many differences aside as we come together over the Internet to play chess.

Arguably, Chess is one of the greatest unifying factors in the world today. People of all religions, racial backgrounds, ages, sex and countries play this great game of intrigue. You can buy expensive sets in affluent countries, or use cheap substitute sets in poorer countries, but the game is played the same all over the world, and a strong player will play well no matter what chess set he or she uses.

May we keep it that way forever, and may we continue to enjoy the fellowship of the squares for a long time to come, always remaining thankful to the invention of the Internet that has helped us to come closer to one another as all men should be.

To all the men and women who have helped out in this agenda over the past year, I salute you! I urge the rest of the club to speak out now in support of this, that those who have given so much of their time know that their efforts are appreciated by the club's members.

Eric Suderman, wherever you are, if only you could see what the club has become from the initial planning stages we spent so much time on. Pony and I still remember the early days.

Faithfully yours,
65

PS: Please help the club, and send the link of this page to all your chess playing friends. It was by active recruitment that we ended up with a large pool of volunteers to organize various events, provide opinions and a wider pool of knowledge and information on the Internet. Your help in spreading the word will enable us to spend more time on adding value to our club and website.

Comments from our friends around the world:

It is amazing how big your site has gotten after two years. Almost 2000 users. Congrats!!! the65thsquare seems like a true dedication for the game of chess.
Checkalot (USA)

The Chess Openings club Saturday tournaments were originally started by Harm and myself, supported by Jimzowich and Mybadbeard. Since I haven't really found the time to get involved in those tournaments, so I left all the responsability to Harm. When Spidey came back to play a few games (or should we say win a few games lol) he kindly helped. Also noticed should be Unacanta's reports on those tournaments. He has to be thanked as well. Just wanted to give credit to all those people.
Troy (France)

Well done to everyone who has contributed to this club over the last two years. I have only been a member for about six months and am the grateful recipient of all your hard work.
Fastgameeddie (UK)

Actually, it was Spidey who started the tournaments, back when the 65th club had some competition from the Pawns to Queens club and the King of games club. When the KOG club got deleted (twice!) Spidey was so disappointed in Yahoo, he quit his good work. Troyes came up with the idea to hold a tournament for old times sake, and Craig agreed to stand in for him as TD. When Craig had to go to college, I agreed to step in for him, and Mybadbeard agreed to step in for me, if I wasn't able to TD. Jimzo has been been a great help, by promoting the activities in his own club. So, allthough I take all the credits, I played only a small part.
Isn't life great?
Harm (Holland)

There was an article in the Independent last month about chess in Afghanistan...interesting it certainly was. The Taliban outlawed it because it was a form of gambling (!) but despite that, thousands of chess players over the country played. I guess the closest thing to that is alcohol at the time of Prohibition.
Its good to see that despite the horrors of the world, people can still do as they wish...well try to.
James M (Kenya)

Discuss the game of chess at The65thSquare You will be assured of finding a friend who will understand your obsession with chess.
Contact the committee Monday, 01 April, 2002
Tell us what you think! © 2000, the65thsquare