Former West Orange Chess Club member and two time Club Champion (1987 & 2003) National Master Herb Hickman has passed away at the age of 92. As strong as he was over the board he was even a stronger correspondence player, reaching the title of Correspondence International Master.

Here is a link to his obituary from the Newark Star Ledger: obits.nj.com/us/obituaries/starledger/name/herbert-hickman-obituary?id=54119802.

Herb will be missed.

In a Garden State Chess League match which concluded on December 22nd West Orange and Perth Amboy played to a 2-2 draw.

Here are the results:

Board #     White                                                        Black

1                 David Grasso (PA) 2214     0-1     Haari Muthukumar (WO) 2200

2                 Pete Radomskyj (WO) 2200     1-0     Timothy Hall (PA) 2000

3                 Michael Berrios (PA) 1902     1-0     Mark Kogan (WO) 1826

4                 Devina Shah (WO) 1385     0-1     Mina Awad (PA) 1527

Each score above is formatted W-B.

Open Section

1st Place:  Timothy Xie and Harry Heller – 3 1/2 points

Best Under 1900:  Mark Kogan – 3 points

Advanced Section

1st Place:  Jonathan Lu – 4 points

2nd Place:  William Culbertson – 3 1/2 points

3rd Place:  Murray Burn, Jim Castellano, Kian Zarineh, Colin Hu – 3 points

Intermediate Section

1st Place:  Emma Hovsepyan – 4 1/2 points

2nd Place:  Sam Wang, Lily Xing, Rafael Lampon, Srinivasan Padmanabhan, Patrick Conti – 3 1/2 points

Beginner Section

1st Place:  Naitik Patel – 4 points

2nd Place:  Alexander Wu – 3 1/2 points

Congratulations to each section winner and all other prize winners!

Official United States Chess Federation Tournament Report: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202311213272.0-20020149

On November 7th in the Garden State Chess League West Orange defeated Center Squares/Hamilton by a score of 2 1/2 – 1 1/2.

Here are the results:

Board # White Black

1 Haari Muthukumar (WO) 2223 1-0 Andrew Kelemen (CS/H) 2159
2 Simon Thomson (CS/H) 1991 1-0 Pete Radomskyj (WO) 2200
3 Mark Kogan (WO) 1826 1-0 Charles Miller (CS/H) 1700
4 Ed Sytnik (CS/H) 1700 1/2-1/2 Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay (WO) 1304

Each score above is formatted W-B.

In the first match of the 2023-24 Garden State Chess League Season on October 3rd West Orange drew newcomer Seton Hall 2-2.

Here are the results:

Board # White Black

1 Harry Heller (SH) 1801 1-0 Pete Radomskyj (WO) 2200

2 Andy Chan (WO) 2150 1-0 Shawn Ikokwu (SH) unrated

3 Ray Forbes (SH) unrated 0-1 Mark Kogan (WO) 1826

4 Devina Shah (WO) 1385 0-1 Andy Yang (SH) unrated

Each score above is formatted W-B.