Larry Storch, President of the Central Florida Chess Club (CFCC), became the Club’s champion chess player at it’s annual championship event held this year at the Orlando Chess & Game Center (OCG). The defending champion, Daniel Ludwig, now attending college in Texas, could not attend, but sent his 9-year old brother John to battle for him. The event held over the February 27-28th weekend attracted a light crowd, but all battled hard to earn a piece of the guaranteed prize fund and to earn a title and plaque which they would be able to admire for years.
Besides Storch (2200) and Ludwig (1552), the event attracted Yilmer Guzman (1975) who won the CFCC Championship three years ago; Yevgeny Postrekhin (2018) who is OCG’s “protector” against all who enter their turf; two more preteen prodigies who like Ludwig play much stronger than their ratings might indicate … Amy Tsai (1479) and James Barrick (1497), who is trying to stay ahead of his fast rising 5-year old brother Stephen; but no other members of the CFCC Board.
Larry Storch wins his 4th CFCC Championship
Another player, Wayne Strickland (1770), a CFCC member that has become very active in chess tournaments started out by beating two of these preteen prodigies and drew against Ludwig as well as Storch. But Storch had beaten Ludwig so going into the last round was a ½-point ahead of Strickland, who had become a member of the CFCC Board at their annual elections held between the last two rounds. Storch’s last round match would be against Postrekhin, and he built up to a superior game as he watched Strickland’s game. As soon as that game was decided as a draw, that was all Storch needed to guarantee his 4th CFCC title, so he peacefully settled with Postrekhin. Meanwhile, Ludwig won his last round game finished with a performance rating of 1997 to tie with Strickland for 2nd.
This would be the fourth time that Storch would have his name on the CFCC Championship trophy, each in a different decade, and that would take the last spot on the 24-year old trophy. A new one would be created and the future will decide what names would be attached to it, as the century continues.
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