CAPTAIN ANCHOVY CC’S THIRD BLITZ TOURNAMENTBy Kerry Lawless
When the Captain Anchovy Pizza Parlor first opened in Palma Plaza (136th & East 14th) in the fall of 1977, it was only two blocks from where I lived. Naturally I approached the owner and asked him whether I could setup a chess club there. He not only agreed to let us play till midnight, but offered to donate prizes to any events we might have. Since I was already running the Monday night San Leandro Chess Club, most of its members migrated to the Wednesday night Captain Anchovy CC as well. I ran several free blitz tournaments with pizza prizes which were very well received. For the 3rd blitz tourney, I decided to widen the playing field and invited players from San Francisco and Berkeley. The tournament was held on Wednesday, February 8, 1978. The entry fee was $1. Before the tournament started, Hollywood expert Bruce Foreman said he was of master strength and should be paired with a 2200 rating instead of 2067 … Dennis Fritzinger objected. As it was a round robin and was irrelevant, I wrote down both ratings which pleased both.
The 1st prize of $7.50 and a large pizza went to Joe Tracy. The 2nd prize of $4.50 and a medium pizza went to Bruce Foreman. The 3rd prize of $3.00 and a small pizza went to NM Dennis Fritzinger. Mike Arne’s 4th place showing came as no surprise to anyone; he’d been having solid expert results and his rating hadn’t caught up. Joe Tracy’s 1st place showing, however, was a surprise. Seems that he’d been hanging around with the Whitehead brothers and playing thousands of speed games … definitely underrated! All three winners shared the pizza with everyone and a good time was had by all.
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