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N.J. Guardsman wins championship
Photo and story by Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs

FORT MYER, Va. – First Lieutenant Arthur Macaspac won his second crown in the All- Army Chess Championships on May 11-16 at the Fort Myer Community Center in Arlington, Va.

Macaspac, 34, who is assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 113th Infantry, 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, won 10 matches and settled for a draw in his final game to win the six-day tournament. He was scheduled to represent the Army in the 2008 Armed Forces Chess Championships June 9-13 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

First Lieutenant Arthur Macaspac
1st Lt. Arthur Macaspac plays to a draw against Sgt. Darryl West of Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, in their final match of the 2008 All-Army Chess Championships May 16 at the Fort Myer (Va.) Community Club. Macaspac posted 10 victories and one draw to win his second All-Army crown.

Macaspac also won the Army Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command-sponsored tournament in 2006 and finished runner-up to seven-time All-Army champion Staff Sgt. Rudy Tia Jr. in 2007.

“Practice was the key to winning here,” Macaspac said. Macaspac, who is scheduled to deploy to Iraq in September, also finished second in the speed-chess competition.

“Arthur is a very solid player,” said runner-up Sgt. Chris Drake of Fort Bragg, N.C., whose only loss in the tournament came at the hands of Macaspac. “If you make a small mistake, he’s going to take advantage of it and punish you for it.”

Macaspac thought Drake played right into his game plan.

“He played passively,” Macaspac said. “He could have defended a pawn, but I think he overlooked it, and then I managed to grab a pawn. Normally, if I have a pawn advantage, I’m able to convert it to a winning game. It was just a small mistake on his part, but it was critical for me to win the game.”

Drake agreed: “I made a slight error. I put my rook on the wrong square, and he punished me for it.”

Macaspac said that this may be his last tournament. “Well, it depends,” he added. “We keep saying ‘last year,’ but because we love the game, we keep coming back."

Cadets raise bar during competition
Photo by Ryan Morton, Fort Dix Public Affairs Office

Wil Donaldson (right) of the New Jersey National Guard ChalleNGe Youth Program, pushes himself to the limit during the shuttle run at the 17th Annual Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) Joint Military Service Commanders’ Cup Competition hosted by Pemberton High School, JROTC on May 8 at Fort Dix.

Cadets came in from other high schools in places such as Medford, Camden, New Brunswick, Philadelphia, Pa., Long Island City, N.Y., and the New Jersey National Guard’s ChalleNGe Youth Program to compete in five different physical fitness events to qualify for the cup.

This competition also gives the cadets the opportunity to earn the National Fitness Award and prestigious Presidential Physical Fitness Award.

The top three finishers were Long Island City, Philadelphia Military Academy, Pa., and N.J. ChalleNGe Youth Program taking third place.

 

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Volume 34 Number 2 Staff / Information
     
(c) 2008 NJ Department of Military and Veterans Affairs
http://www.nj.gov/military