A chance to take on a master
01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 26, 2009
By John Hill
Journal Staff Writer
PAWTUCKET — David Griego got into it with seven guys in a basement in Pawtucket Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t much of a fight. He won.
As part of the run-up to the Blackstone Chess Center’s annual festival this weekend, Griego, a senior master with 10 Rhode Island and 3 New England chess championships to his name, took on seven players simultaneously.
They were in the center’s new location in the Grant Building at 250 Main St., in the lower level where small studios have been carved out of the space along the walls. The brightly lit chess center is painted white and still has an old pressed-tin ceiling. One wall was lined with orderly displays of chess books, boards, boxes and sets of pieces.
Griego’s exhibition was the set-up for this weekend’s 2009 Blackstone Chess Festival, with events on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, starting at 7:30 p.m., Griego and senior masters Jorge Sammour-Hasbun and Denys Shmelov will hold an open-to-the-public Masters Blitz, playing games in which each has only seven minutes total for all their moves.
On Saturday, starting at 10 a.m., the festival opening will be held, with two sections, one for players ranked under 1700 in the national chess ranking system and the other open to all comers. Registration, fee and prize information is available at the center’s Web site: http://blackstonechess.com/event98t.htm.
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Thanks for posting this.
Wish Mr. Griego would return to competitive chess. I remember he split 2 blitz games with Susan Polgar during the Boston Blitz tournament in Boston 1993.