KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

[Hans Jung]

KW Team Championship at Kitchener City Hall, Learning Room, Saturday ,June 20th. Open to teams of 4 players from any club, company or region. Entry $40 per team. Registration: 10 am, Active Rated, CFC membership required. TD: Ed Thompson Full details at www.chess.ca - Tournament Listing Rumour is that the Windsor team is coming to defend their title.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

That is an accurate rumour.

Vladimir Drkulec

[Hans Jung]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

I believe we have at least 10 teams so far. Windsor, London, Brantford, Mississauga, and a mixed team from across Ontario. How about Toronto? Hamilton? Guelph? Its not too late to form a team. Hope to see you there!

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

Hamissauga is ready to rumble.!

No wings please.?

[Hans Jung]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

Checking my emails this morning I noticed that Sudbury fielded a team. That means they'll probably have to get up at midnight just to make it on time.

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

A little known fact about this team tournament is that some of the teams don't get constituted until saturday morning. So if you want to play, but can't twist enough arms to get a full team together, you should consider just showing up anyway. No guarantees, but it's likely there will be others looking for team mates also. What better way to make new friends!

Or email the organizers or myself at robertgillanders@rogers.com , and we'll try and hook you up.

Bob

[Rob Gashgarian]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

The Brantford Club is sending one full team and we have two other players interested in playing as well.
Please contact me by email ( brantchess at primus dot com) if you are interested in combining players for a second team.
We have players ranging from 1200 to 2000 available.
Rob Gashgarian

[Mavros Whissell]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

Hi Hans

Yes Sudbury has arranged for 2 teams of 4 to go down. We will be there Friday night at the Hojo. Which Hojo I dont know-jo. Also we have some stragglers who went as independants (2) and I think they are going to put together another team. That means we sent 10 players in total. Theres no way I'd travel from that early of a time in the morning, good luck to those who do. Looking forward to competing!

Mavros

[Hans Jung]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

Great Mavros! It is very impressive to have that many players coming from Sudbury (what we here in spoiled SW Ontario consider the Far North). Hope you enjoy yourselves while you are here.

[Mavros Whissell]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to Ed Thompson for running a terrific team tournament. I've never had the chance to play in them and it was fun - and exhausting! I tip my hat to the Kitchener/Waterloo team of Hans, William, Dan and Sean who took it down! Also a very nice game in the last round by one Kari Nurmi who crushed me badly.

The Sudbury A-team was dissatisfied with 3.5/5, losing only one match with Kitchener and drawing with Egorov's team. Kiviaho and Dumontelle both did really well with 4/5. Bob is looking for revenge against the only player to best him in the tournament (see you soon Hans). He will be even sharper next time as we have informed him that there are now digital clocks in the world!

Thanks again for the terrific tournament

Mavros

[John Coleman]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

I'm surprised there is no report on this event anywhere. If you take the trouble to attract teams from out of town, it would be nice to have a report from the organisers.

This is the report, from the Windsor point of view, on our website http://home.cogeco.ca/~windsorchess/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We didn't win. That's all you need to know. We won last year, but we didn't win this year. End of story.

The Windsor team consisted of Vladimir Drkulec, former Windsorite Brian Profit, Alan Baljeu, and Brendon Lee. The happy times ended in round one. In the words of our belovéd leader: "We were upset in the first round when we went 2-2 against a lower rated team (my fault, I played the opening carelessly and got out of the trouble only to blunder when I fell behind on the clock). We were even more upset when we were informed that we had lost the first round despite the 2-2 score because of the tie break system. Extremely odd." The detailed results were Vlad lost, Brian and Alan drew, and Brendon won.

After that inauspicious start, things went better. We won rounds 2, 3, and 4, and in the 5th round played Kitchener, which had gone 4-0 so far. We needed a win, but it wasn't to be. Kitchener's Hans Jung caught Vlad in an opening he was unfamiliar with, one down. Brian lost on board 2. Alan won on board 3, and then it was up to Brendon on board 4. I gather that "Brendon could have had a draw, but played for a win, but flagged".

So, Vlad "I played horribly" scored 2/5, and so did Brian. Alan scored 4½/5 on board 3, and Brendon scored 3½/5 with some bad luck.

Next year...

[Hans Jung]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

You can thank John Coleman for this reply. After the team championship (and the slugging of setup and teardown) I took time off for Father's Day. After almost 48 hours away from the computer (my punishment was severe twinges of withdrawal) I moved this report to top priority of my Monday morning duties. First of all I want to list all the things I was impressed by. Ed Thompson (although TDing for 30 years) handling all registration details, pairing details, and TDing basically on his own (the entering of stats on the computer for 13 teams and substitutes (keeping both individual scores and team scores and board points separate) and doing a smooth job of running the tournament. 13 teams showed up!! (it could have been as many as 15 if some individuals wanting to play had showed up before noon - first round was 11am) despite last minute (ok a couple of days) organization on several teams. The games, despite the 25 minute and 10 second time control, were close and the teams very competitive. London, Brantford, and Sudbury fielded 2 teams. I was very impressed with Sudbury fielding two complete teams despite the 5 hour drive (thanks Mavros!), and the return of Bob Kiviaho after a 10 yr absence!! Bob, in his mid 50's and with a 25 minute and 10 second increment time control (with which he was totally unfamiliar) played long endgames!! (try it some time at active time controls) in most of his games. He won a long ending that I saw (single rooks and equal pawns, although the pawn structure was unbalanced) against Michael Humphreys (who is now of master strength) and in my game despite facing my h3 Sicilian for the first time he missed good drawing chances in an ending in severe time pressure. Very impressive! Also impressing was Kari Nurmi of Brantford. What most players dont realise is that Kari keeps in shape as long time sparring partner of brother Peter (formerly one of the most talented players in Canada) They play many regular speed matches together. Keith Wight came without a team so he became first board of a team with three youth stars from Kitchener, Steven, Cristian, and Sasha. They called the team Keith plus Kids Extra. Thanks Keith.
The KW Chess Club used the inspiration of Bill Klarner (the former co-founder of our club) returning this year from Germany (where he had much experience in the Bundesliga) to win the team championship with a 5-0 score (although the games were much closer than the final result would indicate). This win relieved an embarassment of the home club. What other club would host a team event for many years and watch other teams win and not win it themselves?? Well that embarassment is now over. (Readers might be confused because Kitchener has won it a few times in the past but that would be Kitchener Concordia - the oldest and strongest club in Kitchener (but not anymore!) Thanks to all the teams for their enthusiam and sportsmanship and hopefully you will all be back again next year PS. Mavros keep Bob in the loop. He makes a good impression on the young players. (it helps having a grandmaster play in a team event)

[Hans Jung]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

Alan Baljeu from Windsor had an incredible tournament. He was top scorer for the whole event! Very impressive!! If I didnt know Vlad and Brian well I would say that Windsor put a ringer on 3rd board. Maybe Alan you should train with the rest of the team and come back prepared next year! - and John, seeing as you have so much interest - maybe you could come back next year as team captain.

[Hans Jung]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

Congratulations to Tim's Maulers led by the resilient Tim Knechtel and 2 John's and Mei. They upset Windsor (the defending champions) and were overall very competitive.

[Alan Baljeu]

Re: KW Team Championship in Kitchener (Ontario) Sat. June 20th

Thanks Hans. I'd like to credit my performance to Ray Stone who thoroughly trounced me in successive games on Thursday.

Also full credit to Mei on game 1. I think I played a decent game that first round, but I missed a zwischenzug midgame and she took advantage. I fought back, but she also found the key endgame tactic to hold a draw. On paper she shouldn't have had a chance that game, but on the board she had a good position throughout.

Nevertheless, after drawing her, I felt impelled to play more spiritedly in subsequent games, and it paid off.