Michael Yip recently played in Hungary

[Wayne Mendryk]

After reading his blog at http://michaelchessyip.blogspot.com/...in-canada.html, I am not sure if Michael Yip is still a permanent resident of Canada, however I noticed in Mark Crowther's The Week in Chess issue 754, that Michael played in a First Saturday Chess Event in Budapest, Hungary from April 4th-17th. For those of you not familiar with First Saturday tournaments, they are chess tournaments which have been created to enable chess players to gain GM and IM norms and also enable a participant to gain an ELO rating if the person does not have one. These events are played in Budapest, Hungary, and the organizers have a website at http://www.firstsaturday.hu/

According to TWIC 754 Michael participated in the First Saturday April Federation Master section , and he finished in sixth place with a score of 4 points (3 wins and 2 draws) in the nine round tournament. Here is the final crosstable:

FSFMA April Budapest (HUN), 4-13 iv 2009
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
1. Teglas, Balazs HUN 2133 * ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 7 2314
2. Bodrogi, Laszlo HUN 2050 ½ * 0 1 1 0 1 ½ 1 1 6 2228
3. Mayer, Istvan f HUN 2124 ½ 1 * ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 5½ 2175
4. Schenkerik, Csaba HUN 2215 0 0 ½ * ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 5 2128
5. Heyl, Thomas GER 2051 ½ 0 1 ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 4½ 2103
6. Yip, Michael CAN 2067 0 1 0 0 ½ * 0 ½ 1 1 4 2058
7. Vargyas, Zoltan HUN 2146 0 0 0 0 ½ 1 * 1 ½ 1 4 2050
8. Borda, Lajos HUN 2118 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 * 0 ½ 3½ 2016
9. Vaarala, Eric SWE 1959 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 * ½ 3 1988
10. Torok, Tamas Titusz HUN 2120 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ * 2½ 1929

I do not know what score was required to gain an FIDE FM norm. Michael, I wish you well in all of your chess and wordly endevours.

[Stephen Wright]

Re: Michael Yip recently played in Hungary

If you check the Archive section of the First Saturday website you'll find Michael also played there in February and March.

P.S., FM norms don't exist anymore, you just have to achieve a FIDE rating of 2300 at some point.

[Michael Yip]

Re Thanks

I just got back to Vancouver last friday. I am planning to travel again soon.

I played 3 round robins (and their 3 active tournaments which are on the saturday before each tournament) and the Spring Festival Open of March. March was a long hard month as I played 20 games in 21 days.

It was exhausting and in the middle of this run I got sick too which affected my play.

I did a report on the Feb tournament (chessbase text) for Larry some time ago but it never got posted.

I had a great time but as expected after almost 3 years in China, I was not really ready to play real chess.

Thanks
Michael Yip

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Michael Yip recently played in Hungary

Did you think of taking up Xianqi (Chinese chess not checkers) or Go while in China?

[Michael Yip]

Re: Go and Xianqi

Hello

When I had the time and will power I tried to learn Mandarin. This took all my spare energy.

Someone tried to teach me Go a few years ago but I was not that into it. I did like the way the Canadian Go Association website/membership worked. It was so simple to join and cheap as I remember.

Chinese chess requires that you be able to read the characters which I cannot do but when I was younger I played a bit.

Chess remains my primary game fascination which I am getting interested in again.

Michael Yip

[Erik Malmsten]

Re: Report

I just got back to Vancouver last friday. I am planning to travel again soon.

I did a report on the Feb tournament (chessbase text) for Larry some time ago but it never got posted.

Thanks
Michael Yip

You can always send your report to the CFC for the online magazine.