1 NOVEMBER 2016 Chess News and Chess History for Oklahoma Frank K. Berry Premiering the New “OCM” Our New Publication to Promote and Conserve the Sport of Chess in In This Issue: Oklahoma and the Surrounding Region • Memories of This publication is the first edition of the Frank Berry “Oklahoma’s Traditional Chess successor to the late Frank K. Berry’s long- • Bulletin Covering Oklahoma Chess running Oklahoma Chess Quarterly (OCQ). The Steve Wharry on a Regular Schedule Since 1982” • format and the look are different, but the Timur Gareyev mission is the same: to cover and conserve for Blindfold the future the traditions of quality tournament http://ocfchess.org • chess in Oklahoma — in an entertaining and Oklahoma Chess Pioneer Chess educational way. Foundation League Register Online for Free • Unlike most state chess publications, the Istvan’s Chess Quarterly was more than just a place to give Editor: Tom Braunlich Diversions summaries of who won a tournament and some Published the 1st of each month. • annotated games. Frank wanted to preserve Plus the details of our chess activities, like a Send story submissions, News Bites, historian would. He believed in publishing the tournament reports or tournament crosstables for others to view in announcements etc., to the G.O.T.M., th Puzzles, the future, and in researching and reviving editor by the 15 of the Recent Games, long-forgotten stories from our chess past, previous month. Top 25 List, stories which are surprisingly numerous in the and more. Sooner State and surrounding areas. ©2016 All rights reserved. 23 What to Expect OCF archives and for a couple of libraries We will be carrying on that tradition. We that stock the OCQs in their collections. will have feature articles and fun stories, plus stuff of immediate interest to players You Can Participate (full tourney reports, annotated games, top Although this format is more efficient, that rating lists, monthly puzzles, etc.) We will doesn’t mean it is easy to edit. Putting have several columnists and guest writers, together any publication like this is a and I invite you to submit story ideas or challenge, and one thing that can help us chess news information to me. keep it vibrant is participation from you. Have an idea for an article? Contact me. The New Format — Have an upcoming tournament you want us Why a Monthly Online? to help promote? Send us the info. Know of Frank’s traditional printed news bulletin anything going on in Oklahoma chess that format was terrific, but for those of us others would be interested in, or a recent wanting to carry on this tradition following story published in a local newspaper? Send his untimely passing that format had a me the link. number of problems. First of all, it was time-consuming to produce. Each issue The Okie Database required meticulous editing, working with a Closely related to the OCM is FKB’s other printer, and maintaining an up-to-date long-running production, the Okie Chess address list of players. Frank himself put Database. It is a collection he developed of the address labels on every issue. He had games from Oklahoma’s chess history— the time for that, unlike the rest of us! many of which he researched himself— dating back 100 years. Over the last 15 The online format also allows us to take years he steadily added to this database as advantage of the Internet’s capabilities. many “Okie” games as he could get his For example, some of the games will be hands on, pestering all of us to send them playable online. Many of the articles can in whenever we had a tournament. have embedded hyperlinks you can click on for more information. Best of all, it is This is another tradition we are continuing. much easier and cheaper to edit and At the OCF website where you downloaded publish. No cumbersome address lists are this OCM you can also download the Okie needed. Players simply register to be an Database. It is available in ChessBase OCF member and access the downloads. format (the preferred format, requiring you to have the ChessBase program) or in Missing the printed format? Some people standard PGN format, which can be viewed like to have a printed copy for their with ChessBase Light or any of the many collection. We plan to offer that as well in free PGN game viewers available on the the form of an annual printed edition that Internet. you can order. Now instead of four separate issues to keep track of (I never We also need help keeping the Okie was able to find an efficient way to store Database current. Whenever you have a all of mine), you’ll be able to buy an tournament, I’m going to pester you (like annual version of all 12 issues bound just Frank always did) to enter the games and like a book that fits easily on the shelf. This is done through the magic of on- demand printing. When we are ready to do Also be sure to see the that, an announcement will be made here announcement of the new and you’ll be able to order one for yourself “Pioneer Chess League”, just like ordering a book from Amazon. page 30. Several such annuals will be made for the 2 45 email them to me, or at least provide me here, and how hard it would be to replace with the handwritten (legible!) scoresheet the loads of time and effort he expended copies. Also, if you play a tournament game supporting the sport of chess in Oklahoma. out of state in a big tournament, please send that in as well. If you have a good I wrote a formal “tribute” style obituary for game, why not annotate them as you send Frank that appeared in the August 2016 them in? It may be used in the OCM. issue of Chess Life magazine, and also on Chess Life Online The “OCM” — First Day of Each Month (https://new.uschess.org/news/frank-kim-berry-1945-2016- tribute-to-a-chess-conservationist/) If you haven’t read it yet I refer you to it This monthly publication is a big now for a basic bio on his fascinating life, undertaking. As the editor, I enjoy it, but as I don’t want to repeat that here. (And my time is not unlimited. I will try to hit be sure to read the interesting comments that deadline every month, and with your posted after the article by players who help we can have a fun publication to knew him over the years, including GMs which we can all look forward. So check Kaidanov and Kudrin, and veteran our website when you turn the calendar “legends” John Curdo of Massachusetts and page over, and we will see you here! Jon Jacobs.) It speaks of his dedication to the game the past 50 years, his unique style and oddball sense of humor, and his insistence that chess is a worthy sport with a history that merits preserving, even in places like Oklahoma that are relatively far from the major chess centers of the USA. I called him a “Chess Conservationist” and I think this legacy he started is worth trying to continue. … And I mentioned how he had once played Caruana and, “rolled him up like a burrito,” as he liked to say—not mentioning that the young prodigy was only an expert- rated kid at the time. Well, at Frank’s funeral ceremony the final position of this game was set up on the board with Frank Berry at the RRSO. (Photo: Rebecca Rutledge) scoresheet and clock on the table, as if the game had just finished… More Memories of Still, there are many things I didn’t have the space to include in that tribute which Frank Kim Berry are worth recounting now. 1945-2016 By Tom Braunlich “Remember, not all trappers When Frank Berry passed away suddenly wear fur hats…” and surprisingly last June it soon became — Frank K. Berry clear how much this hard-working chess enthusiast had meant to our community 3 67 The FKB Library Collection archives. He was an amateur historian, and it shows in the care and thoroughness For one thing, FKB’s chess library was impressive. of this work. From this he wrote some NM Pete Karagianis, whose article “The Stillwater interesting articles for the OCQ, and was Effect” was in the same August 2016 issue of able to fill in some of the missing holes in Chess Life, called it “probably the chess history in Oklahoma; the rest was simply Email exchange in early September with John Donaldson, captain of the archived U.S. Chess Team who were then in the lead at the Chess Olympiad: information suitable for Braunlich: “We are all following the USA teams and how well they are research. doing in Baku, John. Keep up the good work! J TOM” Chess and the Donaldson: “Thanks Tom. Two more rounds to go. When I see Fabiano Searchable every day it reminds me of a certain Okie who beat him when he was a Newspaper kid. / John” Archives — PS … the USA won the gold medal. A few months most impressive personal before he passed away, Frank contacted collection I have ever seen.” Among the me with the exciting news that several many books on the ceiling-high shelves are many major newspapers in OKC and Tulsa had exotic or odd chess books as well as many recently upgraded their old newspaper autographed by the authors and famous players.