Arlington Chess Club
Est. 1954
“If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure.”
(Garry Kasparov)
“All that matters on the chessboard is good moves.”
(Bobby Fischer)
ACC is
OPEN
this
Friday
ACC Club Officers
ACC would cease to exist without the contributions of behind-the-scenes officers and chess figures, such as:
John Campbell
ACC President Emeritus
For too long in recent years, ACC was only kept alive by John's dedicated efforts. Even through several moves, John kept the club housed in quality venues. He was an "A" Player who became President in the late 1970's after joining in 1959. He was a several time Virginia Seniors Champion. He was also the long-time leader of the Arlington Argyles team of the DC Chess League. This octogenarian Texan was still going strong as ACC's inspirational leader until February 2018 when he passed away after a period of declining health. We miss our friend and leader. Recent pictures of John can be found below.
Adam Chrisney
ACC President
ACC Ladder/Tournament Director
ACC Webmaster
This "A" player helped Campbell revitalize the club in recent years. He became President in 2010 after joining the club in 2005. Monthly ACC tournaments, GM lectures and more have returned to ACC plus the website and ACC's monthly newsletter have been rejuvenated under his direction. He is a member of Morphy's Mojos (of the DCCL), Captain of the Arlington Fury and the Arlington Storm teams (of the DCCL) and an active northern Virginia player. He's a two-time Virginia State Amateur Champion (2011, 2019). He is the club's Senior Tournament Director and a FIDE National Arbiter. He was also elected President of the Virginia Chess Federation serving from September 2013 thru September 2019, and re-elected in 2023.
(Vacant)
ACC Secretary
Karl Peterson
ACC Tournament Director
This "A" player is a member of Morphy's Mojos (of the DCCL), helps run ACC's tournament and other events and teaches scholastic players as part of the Snow Chess Academy.
(Vacant)
ACC Editor
Arthur Ehle
ACC Sergeant-at-Arms Emeritus
Long-time former club member, "B" player and previous steward of the club. A former US Navy seaman, "Art" monitored and enforced decorum and etiquette at club meetings and events; amongst other club duties, he was also in charge of closing the club every Friday.
Jason Northcutt
ACC Co-Sergeant-at-Arms
Club member and co-steward of the club. A partner in a local law firm, Jason also helps monitor and enforce decorum and etiquette at club meetings and events as well as closing the club on Fridays. He is also a member of the Mojo's Reserve team in the DC Chess League.
Michael Hiban
ACC Co-Sergeant-at-Arms
Club member and co-steward of the club. A leader in a direct marketing firm, Mike also helps monitor and enforce decorum and etiquette at club meetings and events as well as closing the club on Fridays. He is also a member of the Arlington Reserve team in the DC Chess League.
Randall Henri
ACC Co-Sergeant-at-Arms
Club member and co-steward of the club. A longtime metro-DC resident, Randall helps monitor and enforce decorum and etiquette at club meetings and events as well as closing the club on Fridays. He is also a member of the Arlington Reserve team in the DC Chess League.
Membership, ladder inquiries and all other questions about ACC should be directed by e-mail to: ACCvachess@gmail.com
Also, for regular club announcements, please send an e-mail to ACCvachess@gmail.com to receive our semi-monthly newsletter ... "ACC news on-line."
NOTE: Have you read a poorly written sentence? Find a bad link? Are we missing important material? Please raise these issues with us at: ACCvachess@gmail.com.
Who's Who at ACC
The ACC membership is composed of many of the strongest players and other chess figures in the VA/DC/MD area to include former Virginia State Champions, a former Maryland State Champion, a former World Senior Champion, numerous GMs, IMs, FMs, in addition to fielding many repeat champion teams within the DC Chess League.
GM Larry Kaufman
2008 World Senior Champion (in which he earned his GM title), former Maryland State Champion, multi-year ACC Club Champion, winner of numerous local/regional events, a member of the Arlington Kings of the DCCL and long-time club member. He also helped in the development and testing of the Rybka chess engine.
NM Macon Shibut
National Master, Fide Master, 3 time VA State Champion, teacher, VCF officer and editor of the Virginia Chess Federation newsletter, chess lecturer and a long-time club member. He is a published chess author including "Paul Morphy and Evolution of Chess Theory." Macon also provides weekly lectures for Arlington senior players at a local Arlington senior center.
NM Andrew Samuelson
Another very active DC metro area player, Andy is a National Master and two-time Virginia State Champion. He is also a member of the Arlington Argyles of the DCCL and contributor to various web articles for ACC.
NM Geoff McKenna
Geoff is a four-time Virginia State Champion, a member of the Arlington Argyles of the DC Chess League and a long-time club member.
Matt Grinberg
Matt was a long time ACC Member (1970-2010), ACC TD, and founder of the Arlington Kings of the DCCL who retired from the DC Metro area in 2010, landing in New Mexico along with former ACC member Pamela Lee. Currently, Matt has submitted articles for the club newsletter, often referencing games from ACC's past.
ACC's DC Chess League Teams
ACC has been associated with the D.C. Chess League (DCCL) since its creation in the 1950's. ACC has won more league honors than any other area club. Under the DCCL, club-sponsored teams compete against teams from other DC metropolitan area clubs. Open and Class B teams compete about once a month. This provides a local opportunity to watch high-quality chess games !!
For specific DCCL documents and links, use the following:
Main DCCL webpage;
DCCL Match Report Form;
Current Schedule;
League Rules;
League Blog;
Following are a list of ACC's teams including team captains, common players, and team photos:
Arlington Argyles
CAPTAIN: Andrew Samuelson.
MAIN PLAYERS: Danny Miller, Geoff McKenna, Wille Marcelino, Dennis Franco
Coral Kings
CAPTAIN: Milo Nekvasil.
MAIN PLAYERS: Eugene Meyer, John Meyer, Greg Acholonu, Sal Rosario, Larry Kaufman, Michael Bennett, Christian Vogler.
Arlington Fury
CAPTAIN: Adam Chrisney.
MAIN PLAYERS: Derin Goktepe, Zack Martin, Sam Shenck, Tom Beckman, Kebadu Belachew, Tom Rehle,
Konstantin Molodtsov, Marshall Kaiser and Stephen M. Miller.
Morphy's Mojos
CAPTAIN: Bill Simmons.
MAIN PLAYERS: Mustapha Diomande, James Guill, Anthony Campillo, Andrew Schechter, Peter Snow,
Adam Chrisney, Jonathan Kenny, Karl Peterson, Bill Carroll.
Potomac Beardogs
CAPTAIN: Megan Chen.
MAIN PLAYERS: Tim Paper (Co-Capt), Zach Calderon, Evan Ling, William Wang, Soham Jinsi,
Nick Thomas, Ananya Ananth, Roger Pauley, Michael Fielding, Mantra Iyer.
Dark Knights
CAPTAIN: Benjamin Tyrrell.
MAIN PLAYERS: Anish Mariappan, Arjun Srinivasan, Krish Gosh, Elvin Baim, Kent Slate, Ameya Haldankar, Mitesh Cherikuri, Devesh Cherikuri.
FOLDED - Coral Reef
CAPTAIN: Leif Karell.
MAIN PLAYERS: Eugene Meyer, John Meyer, Greg Acholonu, Sal Rosario, Stan Fink, Stephen Cheyney,
William Stokes, Xing Jian.
FOLDED - Arlington Kings
CAPTAIN: Andy Rea (& Milo Nekvasil).
MAIN PLAYERS: Larry Kaufman, Jeremy Kane, Michael Bennett, Donald Connors, Christian Vogler,
Kenneth John, Victor Guzman, Sasho Dimtchev, Robert Berger and Neel Jay.
DISBANDED - Tabiya Technology
CAPTAIN: Murray Newcomb.
MAIN PLAYERS: Phil Collier, Larry Gilden, Zachary Martin, David Slack.
DISBANDED - Ashburn Senior
CAPTAIN: Herky Del Mundo.
MAIN PLAYERS: Anton Del Mundo, Mahbub Shahalam, Andrew Tichenor, Scott Webster,
Ray Duschene and Paul Swaney.
DISBANDED - Sterling Sacs
CAPTAIN: Mark Scott.
MAIN PLAYERS: Phil Collier, Larry Gilden, Zachary Martin, Paul Yavari, David Slack.
DISBANDED - Arlington Passed Pawns
CAPTAIN: Chris Sherwin.
MAIN PLAYERS: Allan Savage, Ken Chieu, Steve Greanias, Mark Ashland, Patrick Ramsey, Tim Hamilton,
Tom Beckman, Andrew Douglas.
DISBANDED - Arlington Rooks
CAPTAIN: Steven Miller.
MAIN PLAYERS: Walter Morris, Bill Mason, Geoff McKenna, S. Webster, Peter Gould, J. Mathews.
DISBANDED - Rook & Roll
CAPTAIN: Sashka Davis.
MAIN PLAYERS: Akshay Induskar, Geoffrey Davis, Sam Schenk, Garrett Heller, Richard Tan,
Camden Wiseman, Brandon Ou and Siddhant Nair.
Arlington Storm
CAPTAIN: Adam Chrisney.
MAIN PLAYERS: Justin Pickens, William Sarrano, Jerome Lindsay,
Stephen Scala, Charles Compton, Ulrich Apel, Ben Amrany.
Chesapeake Beardogs
CAPTAIN: Megan Chen.
MAIN PLAYERS: Tim Paper (Co-Captain), Nick Thomas, Ananya Ananth, Rogey Pauley, Michael Fielding, Mantr Iyer, Sven Sinclair
Saad Al-Hariri, Jason Drotar, Thomas Yerg.
Morpy's Mojos-Amateur
CAPTAIN: Karl Peterson.
MAIN PLAYERS: Peter Snow, Jason Northcutt, Andrew Lott, Michael Hiban, Timothy Walthall.
GMU Plugz
CAPTAIN: Victor Sawhney-Duran.
MAIN PLAYERS: Liam Nicholsen, Advay Janardhan, Joshua Reardon, Klevin Zhang, Andrew Kastner, Brandon Landers.
DISBANDED - Knight's Watch
CAPTAIN: Lev Bagramian
MAIN PLAYERS: Mark Hyland, Thomas Shupe, Timothy Paper, and Brian Curren.
DISBANDED - Arlington Blitzkrieg
CAPTAIN: Aleksey Bashtavenko
MAIN PLAYERS: Murray Newcomb, Alex Emmons, Bryan Milian, and Thomas Erickson.
DISBANDED - Arlington Bishops
CAPTAIN: Jerome Lindsay.
MAIN PLAYERS: Hashim Murtuza, Tom Hoopengardner, Tom Saunders and James K. Williams.
FOLDED - Mojos Reserve
CAPTAIN: Karl Peterson.
MAIN PLAYERS: Franco Basti, Robert Aguirre, Win Persina, Jason Northcutt, Andrew Lott,
Andrew Haskell, Terry Berman.
FOLDED - Arlington Reserve
CAPTAIN: Andy Rea.
MAIN PLAYERS: Ian Turner, Brenan Nierman, Franco Basti,
Michael Hiban, Steven Chen, Michael Zelina.
History of ACC
A Brief History of Arlington Chess Club
Six Decades of Chess in Arlington
By John T. Campbell (updated by Adam Chrisney)
Arlington Chess Club (ACC) was founded in 1954 and is currently the longest continuously meeting club in the D.C. area. When it began, that honor belonged to the Washington Chess Divan, which had its origins in the late 19th or early 20th century. The Divan closed for good in the early 1980's, leaving ACC to carry on the chess tradition in the Washington metropolitan area. Arlington Chess Club is not only one of the largest clubs in the area and the country, it has the distinction of having possibly the longest continuing weekly ladder tournament in the U.S. - and that streak is currently over 3100 weeks!
When I moved from Texas to Arlington in 1959, the President and guiding force of the club was Col. John D. Mattheson. He was active in Virginia Chess of the mid 1930's and was State Champion in 1936. He was a founder of the Armed Forces Championship, held annually in the D.C. area. He passed away in the late 1990's and is greatly missed. In the interim, other significant ACC Presidents included Bob Dudley (then owner and editor of Chess Enterprises, Inc.), Jules Zell (known for his enthusiastic support of chess at all levels), and that most persistent of Presidents, yours truly ... John Campbell! Most recently, Adam Chrisney became President in 2009 after joining the club in 2005 (He was also President of the VA Chess Federation 2013-2019, 2023-present and VA State Amateur Champion 2011). Many features of the club were rejuvenated during his tenure, including tournaments, a new website, a beefed-up format for the newsletter, GM lectures and more.
During Mattheson's reign, the strongest player in the club was Columbia University educated psychologist Eliot Hearst. He had a plus score against the likes of Hans Berliner (former World Correspondence Champ) and Herb Avram, several times Maryland State Champion. Another strong player of this era was several time Virginia State Champion Irvin Sigmund. Unfortunately, his career ended early when he died at the age of 45 from Leukemia. Home grown FM Craig Van Tilbury represented the Virgin Islands in one Olympiad. Other notables include Fred Turin, David Eisen, Jack Mayer and NM Eugene Meyer.
More recently, notable ACC members have included GM Lawrence Kaufman (recent World Senior Champion), USCF Board Member and International Arbitor Mike Atkins, and NM Macon Shibut and NM Andrew Samuelson.
ACC Club membership has been as high as 400, though with the advent of the Internet it now hovers at about 250. The club holds regular Action, Blitz and Club Championship tournaments as well as a variety of lectures to maintain the scope of activities available to its members. ACC actively supports chess in the school system and has had several juniors, including Kevin Wang, Andy Huang, Yang Dai and others, highly ranked within the national age-group lists.
The club has sponsored annual simultaneous exhibitions with some of the strongest players in chess history. These players include GMs Svetozar Gligoric, Larry Christiansen, Roman Dzindzihashvili, Lev Alburt, Alexander Onishuk, Gregory Kaidanov, John Fedorowicz, Vladimir Epishin, and Michael Rohde and IM's Eugene Meyer and Jack Peters.
The club has also produced more than its fair share of Virginia State Champions, including Macon Shibut, Bill Mason, Walter Morris, Geoff McKenna, Irvin Sigmund and Andrew Samuelson. ACC has also had Virginia State Amateur Champions, including James Guill, current ACC President Adam Chrisney, Murtuza Hashim and Walden Lambert.
A version of this article first appeared in the May 26, 1995 edition of the Arlington Chess Club News. Republished here by permission of the original author, ACC President Emeritus John T. Campbell.
ACC Club Pictures
Below and in the attached web-page you can find a series of pictures of the ACC Friday meeting, ACC tournaments and of ACC members in action in other large chess tournaments and other chess events.
Want to contribute to our album? Please send pictures with brief descriptions to: ACCvachess@gmail.com.
ARCHIVES: Older photos have been moved ... Here.
