2018 Quebec Open Chess Championship (July 21-28) - Blog

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 24th July, 2018, 07:00 AM

Blog # 2 (Saturday – 18/7/21) - Part I (My Blogs sometimes exceed the max words for a post)

Quebec Open Chess Championship Round 1

The Wee Hours of the Morning

Over the years (I’ve been playing tournaments since I was 20 y.o. – and I am 73 y.o. in a week), I have found that I sleep little during tournaments, and erratically (Even with my traditional afternoon 1 hr. “Siesta” sleep – which sometimes I do not take). But it is true that generally I sleep short – an average night/early morning sleep for me is less than 6 hrs.. But then I do usually have the 1 hr. aft. nap I mentioned. We’ll monitor how I do in this tournament.
I did go to sleep this morning at midnight, as I planned Friday night. But I slept sort of off and on ‘til 5:00 AM when I decided I was fully awake and got up. The room (No AC) was a bit warm – 28 C ……..this likely didn’t help (Though over-all, the heat bothers me much less than most people). I did have the fan blowing over me, and I did actually feel comfortable enough when I went to bed.

Charging into the Day

Although I have never formally “studied” chess (My very small chess library is covered in dust), in addition to analyzing my own games, I do keep a game tree for the couple of main openings and black defences I play, and integrate into it the first 10 moves of my games, to see how consistently I am choosing the best move. This is not of so great a benefit to me, since I have a medically defective memory, and so cannot really remember opening lines past the first couple of moves. But I enjoy passing the time this way, and so it is somewhat entertaining, despite the lack of practical benefit. So I am spending some time now integrating my last club game from a few weeks ago, and continued on doing that part of the morning.

On the Facebook page where I am posting this blog, you will find an international “world issues” discussion club. I started this on Jan. 1, 2017. Of my over 800 chess “friends”, over 200 are now formal members of PEERS (A Discussion Club of Equals). So I spent part of this morning adding more posts for discussion. Because of treating my personal account this way, I accept all friend requests, so anyone can join and participate.

Also this morning, I got a quick Fb message from my adult daughter, checking whether I was settled, and helping me with my long-distance calling from the residence (With my poor memory, I had forgotten my calling card PIN number [sigh]; where I had it written….recently………got lost in the wash! Forgot my tel. directory book was in a pocket of my shorts……one I seldom use). We’re now arranging to go out for dinner sometime during my stay (Also talked to my adult son last night, and we’re working out a date too).

Got a bit hungry, so had some breakfast in the room…….my wife makes the greatest from-scratch granola cereal! Nice that the residence also has the small bar fridges in each room.

I also do sections of my daily blog in advance, both the structure and some of the content in draft form. Then the current part I tend to type over the course of the day, when I can get to my laptop. So I did a bit on this blog.

At 7:30 AM, I felt a bit tired …. Didn’t think I’d sleep, but did lay down and rested for an hour – think I did doze off for a bit of it.

Later Morning

I then got up, showered, and got dressed….. added some yogurt and a banana to my breakfast.

I then returned to the Fb Discussion Club and dealt with the 79 Notifications awaiting me from the last day and some. Then I looked around for any other posts I might add. Intermittently, I also continued work adding my last club game with Erdem Daldal, into my opening tree.

To Longueuil

Before 11:00 AM, I started packing up my chess stuff to go to Rd. 1. I had not realized Longueuil was its own municipality, and not part of Montreal. My Montreal chess friend, Hugh Brodie, had kindly provided me with subway instructions to get from my residence to the playing hall (Despite the years I have been coming to Montreal, I have never tried to negotiate the many lines by myself). It is pretty cheap, and he suggested it will be faster than going by car, especially during the evening rush hour. I am going to try it on Monday.

But for today, it will be a Sat. AM drive, and I’d like to do it there and back in the daylight, since I am not so familiar with that part of Montreal and Longueuil. So I left myself lots of time in case I got lost (The bigger danger in Montreal for non-Montrealers is…of course…..construction detours!). Rd. 1 was at 1:00 PM. It is a good thing I handled it this way…I missed turn streets, took wrong exits, got back in the right area with my intuition, asked instructions, and got into the Sandman Hotel at 12:30 PM. So I still had some time to get settled in.

Pre-Round 1

When I went down the hall to the playing area, I saw my Toronto friend who was playing in my section right away, and we chatted. He nicely, and kindly, pointed out that my Day # 1 Blog had put me in the U 1800 Section, when I was playing in the U 2000 section (Now correction has been edited in).
Inside the hall, the FQE Exec. Dir., Richard Berube, whom I’ve known for years, kindly offered me the use of an FQE clock for the tournament (I still can’t set the one I have [sigh], and it is different than the FQE ones).

Then I met my USA friend, Ed Selling, just having finished playing in Quebec City in the Canadian Open. Then my Montreal chess friend, Hugh Brodie, joined us. He advised that I had better make sure I did not stay too late in Longueuil that night…….there is a big fireworks display, and they CLOSE the bridge, so people can go up on it and get a spectacular view of the fireworks down below.

Rd. 1

With the speeches and introductions, the round got underway about 1:30 PM (Start time had been for 1:00 PM). There are now 30 players in my U 2000 section.

Post-Round 1

Both I (I lost) and my USA Chess Teacher Friend in the same section, Ed Selling (He won), finished rather quickly. So we chatted outside the playing hall for a bit about our games, and then went to the hotel reception area to chat, while I had my Timmies’ Donut.

Afterwards, FQE President, Bernard Labadie, who I also have known for a number of years now, since I began playing in Quebec tournaments, came up to me at the U 2000 results board, and welcomed me once again to a Quebec tournament. I reiterated that I enjoy playing in FQE tournaments.

I then watched the last games finish in my section, to get the data I needed for this blog, in case for some reason the results on ChessResults got delayed.

Then at the very end, Canadian GM Razvan Preotu came into the hall, looking a bit concerned. I said “Hi” and we shook hands, and he went off. Then Arbiter Vadim Tsypin, whom I'’ve recently gotten to know a bit, came over and told me what had happened……somehow Razvan’s transportation to the tournament got screwed up and he had just arrived. A player kindly agreed to play him in the Open section (Starting 4 hrs. late), so he could play Rd. 1……and he won!

Back to the Residence

Once the last 3 games of our section that I was interested in finished, I got my trusty map instructions and headed for home. The instructions were fine……but after the Jacques Cartier Bridge, I hit a detour. I do know that area of Montreal well enough that although my instructions went out the window, I did know what direction I wanted to go. I had forgotten that left turns are impossible going north on St. Denis, and so had to go well past my spot to turn. But eventually I did arrive over at Cotes des Neiges and Cote St. Catharine, where I was headed. I remembered from 2 years ago about the Subway sandwich shop on the corner, and by then I was starved (The lone donut after breakfast hours much earlier did not quite do it). I then got back into the residence about 7:30 PM. I had spoken to reception about how to retrieve my telephone messages when I was out, and was told it would be set up. But when I asked the new receptionist, I found out that it could not be done ‘til Monday…..in the meantime, reception takes all messages and calls them up to the room later.

[Continued in Part II Below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 24th July, 2018, 07:02 AM

Blog # 2 (Saturday – 18/7/21) - Part II (My Blogs sometimes exceed the max words for a post)

Quebec Open Chess Championship Round 1

(See Part I above)

The Evening

After getting my chess bag stuff away, I settled in to do a bit more on this Saturday blog.

Then at 8:30 PM, I called my wife, at our hobby farm north of Toronto - Spirits’ Den. We don’t have AC there, and so today had been hot. But she managed to get a few tasks done, and visited for part of the time.

Then I checked my Fb discussion club and updated things; also dealt with some e-mails.

The Favourites

I initially pick the top 10 highest-rated in the section as the ‘favourites”. There are two changes from the list I gave in Blog # 1 yesterday, based on pre-registrations…..there is one new player registered in the top 10, and one of the player’s ratings increased. So here are the new top 10 and how they fared in round 1:

Won:

3. 1953 – Sylvain De LAGRAVE
4. 1923 – Claude LAUMIERE
8. 1890 – Ronald MANGAHAS
9. 1876 – Jacques MARCHAND

Drew:

2. 1996 – Marc-Andre BEAUDRY
5. 1915 – Leo RICHARD
6. 1899 – Louis MORIN

Lost:

1. 1997 – Malcolm MARCONE
7. 1895 – Nader Hadji GHANBARI
9. 1884 – Francios PARENTEAU

Besides the 4 favourites with 1 point, there are also 7 other winners from back down in the pack. I will not bring them into the “Dark Horses” Group until after Rd. 3 – we’ll see how the lower-rated one’s do against the winning favourites, and the other somewhat higher-rated ones. So after Rd. 2, we’ll have a clear set of 2-game winners to start following as well.

Note: The Chess Results has one score wrong: Marchand defeated Sharpe.

My U 2000 Rd. 1 Game

I (Rated: CFC – 1512; FQE – 1715) played on Bd. 14 of 14 (Bottom board!) against Junior Boy Joachim TURGEON (1825). I was playing White, and lost.

The game was equal out of the opening. But then I blundered on move 8 – a rather obvious blunder losing a P. On reflecting on this later, I felt quite comfortable at the board as we started. I was very pleased to be playing round 1 of 9 rounds….almost too pleased….and relaxed. When I look at it now, it seems I was so happy to be playing, I just thought my game was going to play itself, and I didn’t have to do anything! I guess I learned something!

I did get some compensation for the centre P loss, by a lead in development, and some potential for a K-side attack if Joachim went wrong.

But Joachim took his time, played carefully, and covered all the weaknesses. So I was just down a P.

Then I really blundered. Joachim offered a simple minor piece trade.

But I started off into outer space, looking at a long combinational line involving the exchange of Q’s. Not only was it a brain-dead move I ended up making, that increased Joachim’s material advantage, but my position was so bad that when the smoke cleared, I was going to continue to lose more material.
So….I guess……….that’s all she wrote folks!

Rd. 2 is a new dawn! Get the bad ones out of the system early……

My Score

0/1 pts. – Loss: 1 (Rd. 1)

My & My Opponents’ Scores

1/1 pts. – Junior Boy Joachim Turgeon (1825) – I lost in Rd. 1.
0/1 pts. – Me (1512)

The Section that may be of Interest to Some (After the U 2000 Section!): The Open Section

Here are the results on the top five boards – all top seeds won:

1. GM Romain Edouard
2. GM Victor Mikhalevski
3. GM Alexandre Le Siege
4. GM Bator Sambuev
5. GM Razvan Preotu

There are also 16 other players with one point.

The Later Evening

I’m getting a bit tired, and Rd. 2 is tomorrow morning (Sunday) at 10:00 AM. So after posting this Blog # 2, I’ll likely just enter my Rd. 1 game with Joachim, and do some analysis of it ‘til I feel it is time to hit the sack……it will be before midnight I think.

Invitation

(Repetition from Blog # 1, for those who may not have read it yet) Over the years, I have blogged officially for chess federations, and also done so personally on discussion boards, websites, Facebook, etc. On average, I used to get about 500 views of my blog, each day…..I believe that is quite high for chess. I have been told my style is easy to read, and interesting…..often there is a comment like: “…it almost makes me feel like I am there…….”.
So this encourages me, of course, to continue to inflict myself on my friends!
One part I do enjoy, is discussing anything anyone finds of interest. So I am happy to answer questions, make responses to comments, etc. This often helps make the daily blog more interesting to others.
So comment, reply, post, whatever…..jump right in with both feet….and hopefully we’ll have a fun 7 more days together.

Bob A

**John Brown** · Tuesday, 24th July, 2018, 08:54 PM

Is there a link to the Quebec Open? the CFC seems to have a virus.

**Vadim Tsypin** · Tuesday, 24th July, 2018, 08:58 PM

Originally posted by John Brown View Post

Is there a link to the Quebec Open? the CFC seems to have a virus.

Hello John,

This is the link to the tournament files.

**Vadim Tsypin** · Tuesday, 24th July, 2018, 09:06 PM

Exciting news from Sunday night.

**Bob Armstrong** · Wednesday, 25th July, 2018, 06:44 AM

Blog # 3 (Sunday – 18/7/22 - with blog for Monday morning/afternoon when I was able to get to it)

Quebec Open Chess Championship
Rounds 2 & 3

The Wee Hours of Monday Morning (18/7/23)

Amazingly, I did get about 6 hrs. sleep, though I did wake a couple of times.....so .... I am doing better so far than usual.

Charging into the Day

I spent the first few hours in war with Goliath (Microsoft) - having problem accessing my Microsoft Account, which prohibits me using my M- Office suite of programs I believe I purchased ages ago, before they started renting. So far....I'm just losing.

I also spent some time integrating my rd. 1 game with Joachim into my opening tree for the opening we played....he played a novel line I have not faced before.

Got a bit hungry, so had some breakfast in the room again today…….my wife's from-scratch granola cereal, plus some yogurt!

Usually I also do sections of my daily blog in advance, both the structure and some of the content in draft form in my word program. Then the current part I tend to type over the course of the day, when I can get to my laptop. But for the moment this is not available - Goliath has said "NO"! So I had to wait 'til this afternoon to start this original Fb blog post.

Later Morning

I then returned to the Fb Discussion Club I monitor/administer and dealt with about 100 Notifications awaiting me from the last time I dealt with my Fb Account. Then I looked around for any other posts I might add.

Early Afternoon

Another problem I'm having (Think I may have mentioned it in Blog # 2) is with the telephone in the U of Montreal residence where I am staying. I wanted to retrieve my voice mail messages. But it was not set up for the room - and they couldn't do it on the weekend. And there was at least one message (I expect responding to an email I sent my son who lives here in Montreal). So I checked with reception today (The reception had said it would be set up today). But as I say partly: "Life is a struggle....". What the new receptionist tried did not work. So they brought in their more techie guy. He tried, and it wasn't working......he came to my room to see what he could do from my end....didn't work. So he had to contact an actual technician they use, but he was on lunch late. So I left it with them and said they had my permission to come into the room if they needed access to my phone....he assured me it would be working tonight when I returned from going out.

Round 2 on Sunday

Sometimes, when players take byes, there are an uneven number of players in the section. So one player will not get a game. The protocol for this is that the lowest scoring player with the lowest rating does not get the game. As compensation, however, they are given a scoring point of 1 pt.. This allows that at least they will meet stronger opposition in future rounds, than if they got zero points, or even a 1/2 pt. bye (Given when a bye is requested by the player).
In short, that was me.....so I stayed home in the morning, and had a nice leisurely time, and walked the 15 min. down to the commercial strip on Cotes des Neiges for breakfast.....only problem was that I got caught in the rain returning (No umbrella)....but it was at least nice and cooling.

Round 3 on Sunday

Being a weekend, I got from the residence to the Sandman Hotel in only 1/2 hr. The round started at 4:00 PM. I lost.

Post-Round 3

Nader (Almost 1900) kindly asked if I'd like to analyze the game in the analysis room, and I readily agreed. My part-time chess teacher friend from New York, Ed Selling, who also plays in our section, joined us. Nader showed me that there was plenty of play in our positions, and that at one point, if I had attacked, rather than passively defended, he had a very difficult game. It was a most enjoyable hour.

Then it was back to the residence.

Later Evening

I called my wife up at our hobby farm in central Ontario and we chatted a bit....both of us were tired and we were going to bed early.

I couldn't work on my blog for Sunday because of Microsoft and so did go to bed at 11:00 PM - quite early for me, even normally.

The U 2000 Section Leaders (After 3 rounds)

There were three tied with 3 pts. (Won all games), and two of them were from our group of favourites:

Claude Laumiere (1923)
Jacques Marchand (1882)
Junior Boy David Craciun (1879)

The Favourites

Here is how the rest of them stood:

2 Points

Malcom Marcone (1997)
Leo Richard (1915)
Nader Ghanbari (1895)
Ronald Mangahas (1890)

1 1/2 Points

Marc-Andre Beaudry (1996)
Sylvain De Lagrave (1953)

1 Point

Francois Parenteau (1884)

1/2 Point

Louis Morin (1899)

My Score

1/3 pts. – Losses: 2 (Rds. 1 & 3); Bye: 1 (Director's 1 pt.)

My & My Opponents’ Scores

2/3 pts. - Nader Ghanbari (1895) - I lost in Rd. 3.
1.5/3 pts. – Junior Boy Joachim Turgeon (1825) – I lost in Rd. 1.
1/3 pts. – Me (CFC 1512)

The Section that may be of Interest to Some (After the U 2000 Section!): The Open Section

Here are the 4 leaders after 3 rounds – all won all 3 games:

1. GM Romain Edouard
2. GM Alexandre Le Siege
3. GM Razvan Preotu
4. FM G.V. Sai Krishna

Invitation

A part of blogging I do enjoy is discussing anything anyone finds of interest. So I am happy to answer questions, make responses to comments, etc. This often helps make the daily blog more interesting to others.
So comment, reply, post, whatever…..jump right in with both feet….and hopefully we’ll have a fun 6 more days together.

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Wednesday, 25th July, 2018, 06:51 AM

Blog # 4 (Monday – 18/7/23 - for Monday morning/early afternoon, see Blog # 3 for Sunday; it is included there)

Quebec Open Chess Championship
Round 4

Mid-afternoon Monday (18/7/23)
[Picking up where we left off on the Sunday, Rds. 2 & 3 Blog, which didn't get posted 'til the middle of the day Monday)

After creating & posting my Blog # 3 at mid-afternoon on Monday, I then decided to pack up and leave for Longueuil. It was too late for me to try to go by subway (I have instructions, but have never actually used the Montreal subway on my own, and I know getting lost would be part of the learning curve). I've been told that the rush hour could as much as double the normal time it takes by car from my U of Montreal residence where I am staying. So I wanted to beat the rush hour.......I left our parking lot at 3:20 PM.....it took me the same length of time as it had on the weekend (1/2 hr.) ....going early if driving is clearly the ticket!

In the Municipality of Longueuil

When I had gotten lost going the first time on Saturday, I discovered the huge mall right near the Sandman Hotel and the Longueuil Metro station. So since I was early, I went for a late lunch at the mall's Subway sandwich shop. I had lots of time, and so also updated my "Life Reminder Lists" - I have a terrible memory because of some medical treatments, and so have to write down what things are outstanding, so they don't just fall forever below the radar (And then become huge headaches).

I found there was a big IGA there, and so I shopped there, saving myself a trip on Tuesday to the Cote des Neiges Metro.
I still had some time, so I walked around the mall - it was exceptionally clean and bright, and quite large. I found a reasonably priced bar/restaurant where my 2 chess friends in my section and I could go for late lunch on Tuesday.

Then I headed for the hotel. On the way I got a coffee at Tim Horton's to help me get through the coming challenge.

Pre-Round 4

I just grabbed one of the chairs in the pairings posting area, and settled in to relax.....I was somewhat tired, and caught myself almost dozing off.........wouldn't that be great ........ a time forfeit, because I slept through the start of the round outside the playing hall!!

Round 4 (on Monday) - U 2000 Section

The round started close to 6:00 PM. My opponent, playing white, was Francois Chevalier (1782). My CFC rating is now only 1512 - so I am looking at Francois having a 270 point advantage .... tough!

My Rd. 4 Game

The opening seemed quite simple and straightforward, but somehow I got a wonderful position by the middle game. My goal had been to wrest the initiative from Francois, which I did. My second strategy was to give hiim no counter-play, and to cramp his pieces on his own side of the board. In this I was also successful, as Francois could do nothing but defend, and try to hold his position, and not lose a P. I refused exchanges that opened lines to make his pieces active. In the post-mortem later, Francois commented that I had outplayed him quite a bit in the early and middle parts of the game, and he was concerned he could well lose.

I played then for an ending, believing my superior position had to lead him to eventually crack......but he kept finding ways of keeping my R's out! At one point, he offered an exchange of Q's before going into the ending.....this was a good decision. I should not have exchanged, since I had a clear win of his backward cP if I did not exchange.

After that, it seemed that Francois started to take the initiative in the ending, and numbers of times I saw lines where I could lose if I erred.

But I was able to harass Francois' K and threaten a weak P, and he had to keep repeating the position.....so I offered a draw. Francois accepted, saying he felt he had dodged a bullet in this game.

Post-Round 4

Francois and I, as I have said, then went and happily analyzed for about an hour, and one of his friends joined us. It will be interesting to see if the analysis engine makes it clearer where Francois went wrong in the opening, and I went wrong (I think) in the ending.

I then arranged for Ed Sellars (From New York; in our section) and I to go to late lunch together Tuesday.....we will meet in the hotel lounge @ 3:30 PM. Then I advised my chess friend from Toronto (Also in my section), and he might join us.

Then I watched the last games on the top boards in our section, to get the data for this blog, in case it didn't get to Chess Results fast enough.

While watching, I chatted a bit with John Upper (Who was still playing), editor of the CFC Newsfeed. I had not yet had a chance to say "Hi". He had come to my Fb Account to see the Blog, but at that time the most recent one was well down the scroll.....he went a ways, but not far enough. I told him my one for Sunday was now right at the top of the timeline.

Then, when the games finished, it was back to the residence.

Later Evening

I got back into the room about 11:45 PM. I then purposely set about creating and posting this Monday Blog # 4 (It got posted in the wee hours of Tuesday morning).

The U 2000 Section Leaders (After 4 rounds)

1st - 4 pts. - Won all games - Junior Boy David Craciun (1879) (One of the Dark Horses - not one of the top 10 rated, but have risen to the occasion!)

2nd - 3.5 pts. - Jacques Marchand (1882 - one of the favourites)

3rd/6th - 3 pts. - 2 of the 4 are "Favourites"; 2 are "Dark Horses" -

Malcom Marcone (1997)
Leo Richard (1915)
Ellis Steinberg (1801)
Alexis Demers (1686)

The Favourites

Here is how the original favourites, who are not among the leaders, are doing:

2.5 Points

Marc-Andre Beaudry (1996)
Sylvain De Lagrave (1953)
Nader Ghanbari (1895)

2 pts.

Claude Laumiere (1923)
Ronald Mangahas (1890)
Francois Parenteau (1884)

1 1/2 Points

Louis Morin (1899)

My Score

1.5/4 pts. – Draw: 1 (Rd. 4); Losses: 2 (Rds. 1 & 3); Bye: 1 (Director's 1 pt.- Rd. 2)

My & My Opponents’ Scores

2.5/4 pts. - Nader Ghanbari (1895) - I lost in Rd. 3.
1.5/4 pts. – Junior Boy Joachim Turgeon (1825) – I lost in Rd. 1.
- Francois Chevalier (1782) - I drew in Rd. 4.
– Me (CFC 1512)

The Section that may be of Interest to Some (After the U 2000 Section!): The Open Section

Here are the 4 leaders after 4 rounds:

1st - 4 pts. - won all games - GM Razvan Preotu (2495)

2nd/4th - 3.5 pts. - Undefeated -

GM Alexandre Le Siege (2517)
FM Krishna G.V. Sai (2388)
IM Raymond Kaufman (2201)

Invitation

A part of blogging I do enjoy is discussing anything anyone finds of interest. So I am happy to answer questions, make responses to comments, etc. This often helps make the daily blog more interesting to others.

So comment, reply, post, whatever…..jump right in with both feet….and hopefully we’ll have a fun 5 more days together.

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Wednesday, 25th July, 2018, 09:02 AM

Blog # 5 (Tuesday – 18/7/24) - Part I (Of 2 Parts)

Quebec Open Chess Championship

Round 5

The Wee Hours of Tuesday Morning

This morning I went back to my more usual chess tournament sleeping schedule - 4 hrs. I had been creating and posting my prior Blog # 4 into this morning, and got it posted about 1:30 AM and then hit the sack.

I had set the alarm for 7:00 AM because I was going this morning to visit my son, and play with my 2 1/2 y.o. granddaughter. But, as is usual in tournaments, I just woke up at 5:30 Am. So I turned off the alarm, and set my agenda for the day.

Charging into the Day

I had been asked by a few people whether I was willing to re-post this blog somewhere more accessible, after I did it here on my Fb Account (Some don't want to open Fb accounts for various reasons, and so Fb won't give them access to my account).

I had, in a number of prior years, had the consent of Larry Bevand, of Chess 'n Math Association, to post my blog on their Chess Talk. It is now under a new owner, Henry (Aka Dark Knight). So I had asked him if he would consent to me posting my blog once again on the new Chess Talk. He very kindly agreed, and was even most encouraging for me to do it. So I spent some time updating the relevant Chess Talk threads, to let everyone know about my coming re-posting on Chess Talk.

My schedule was busy this morning, and I thought I couldn't do any of the re-posting 'til Wednesday. But I managed to scrounge enough time to actually post Blogs # 1 & # 2.

I then dealt with a few of my e-mails. Also did some updating on my Fb Life Discussion Club.

Then I tried to retrieve my voice mail messages on my residence landline - readers of my blog know this has not been going well. I was assured on Monday, that all would be working when I came home Monday night. So.....with not high expectations, I pushed the little red flashing button showing I had a telephone voice mail message - beep, beep, beep....and then a busy signal......just like from the day I came into residence (Sigh). But my day was too full to again start dealing with reception and the techies on this. Of course, the whole problem here is that I am a dinosaur - I mean - who hasn't got a cell phone - who still uses a landline - you guessed it - yours truly. No one asks to retrieve residence land line phone messages because everyone calls them on their cell!! But I do have to deal with this...I am here 'til Aug. 4, because I am next going to play in Vadim Tsypin's small Montreal Summer Chess Classic Round-Robin/Swiss tournament.

I also continued spending some time integrating my rd. 1 game with Joakim into my opening tree for the opening we played....I got slowed down because I found I had left a prior entry unfinished, and so had to deal with it, and never got to my game with Joakim.

Got a bit hungry, so had some breakfast in the room again today…….I had some cold cereal (a change from my wife's from-scratch granola cereal), plus some .... butter tarts (YIKES!).

I then e-mailed my son that I was up, had my act together, and would be at his place before 9:00 AM.

Lastly, I checked the directions from Verdun to Longueuil, since I was going to go straight to the hotel after visiting, to meet Ed Selling, my USA friend in our section, for a late lunch. It seemed pretty simple (Kiss of death!).

Later Morning

At 8:00 AM I happily headed out to see my son, and play with my granddaughter. Getting there, amazingly for Montreal, was a piece of cake - I got into Verdun about 8:30 AM.

Now my son's street is now under construction for new sewer and water lines. So I have to park the next street over, and then walk through the alley, and then beside all the construction to his apartment. When coming down the street on which I park, at the top intersection of my son's street, when I went by, there was a firetruck and lights flashing. He is further east on the street so I didn't think about it much.

I get out of the car, and go to the alley - there is a police tape across it, as well as the normal construction tape. So I ask the restaurant employee outside at the back taking a smoke - "What's Up?". He said the hydro went off on my son's street earlier in the morning, and there was a gas leak (Apparently before they had started work this morning). So I ducked under the police no entry tape (Chess players only follow chess rules, right? Not life rules!) At the other end of the alley, on my son's street there are police cars at the corner, numbers of firetrucks on the torn up street, some Montreal Gas Company trucks, policeman, fireman, etc. So I ask the one fireman - How do I get up the street, just east of the gas leak, to get to my son's apartment. "Oh, he won't be there - he's supposed to have been evacuated!" Great! And he then says I have to go down to the corner to wait.... the leak is now fixed and they'll be going in about..... 1/2 hr (sigh). So I dutifully go down to the corner....now the police have tapes across the main cross-treet and are allowing no one through. So sure enough a policeman comes up to inquire why I, a civilian, am standing inside the no-go zone. I explained. He said you have to go down to the street corner where your car is parked and wait there.....yup, I dutifully go where he says.

Well eventually they all go and I go to the apartment.

Guess what.....no son or granddaughter! Where are they? Did they go to a park, since they had to wait? Anyway, I settled in as usual, and then went to talk to the neighbour across the street who I now consider a friend (My wife and I have come to Montreal from Toronto every 6th week since Feb., 2016 - my son's apartment is now our third home!) Then I went to the grocery store to get a few things.

Apparently my son and granddaughter came home just after I left, and they were there when I returned from the grocery store.....It was all pretty exciting for my granddaughter - they have a front porch at the street, and she watches all the construction machines, yells down "Hello" to all the workers walking by - big dump trucks, big machine shovels, track vehicles with scrapers and scoops....WOW!

So we played having tea, made things with playdough, went out on the porch from time to time when we heard a dump truck, got out her play tool box and fixed the riding truck, went and searched for the toy vacuum cleaner when she decided she needed to clean the livingroom rug, etc....you get the picture.

My son then prepared a nice lunch for the three of us. After lunch, I was exhausted, and had to go for my normal afternoon siesta hour nap, while my son put her down for her nap.

Then at 3:00 PM I left and headed for Longueuil.

To Longueuil

Well.....Montreal.......I come to the corner where I turn to take Hwy # 15 Sud.....BARRE! The detour to get onto Hwy 15, you wouldn't believe! After a few wrong turns, and then catching myself before I got into trouble, I finally got onto Hwy # 15 Sud, and then it was a piece of cake - I got into Longueuil about 3:25 PM.... right when I was supposed to meet Ed.

Continued in Part II Below

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Wednesday, 25th July, 2018, 09:04 AM

Blog # 5 (Tuesday – 18/7/24) - Part II (Of 2 Parts)

(See Part I above)

Quebec Open Chess Championship
Round 5

Late Lunch

We went to the restaurant/bar in the mall. It was fine, and the waitress and I got through it OK with her broken English and my broken French.

Ed reminded me that it was in 2007 in Ottawa at the Canadian Open that we first played and met. And we've been meeting off and on since then at either CO's or Montreal FQE tournaments....Ed thoroughly enjoys playing in Canada.

The two of us have fairly similar progressive views on life, despite very different career paths. So we happily solved all the problems of family life and the world for a bit over an hour. Then we went to the hotel.

Oh yeah......guess who we are facing in Rd. 5 this evening....EACH OTHER! So we agreed it would definitely be a gladiator match, but a bit friendly.

Round 5

The round started at 6:00 PM. I lost. Here is the blow-by-blow description.

Ed is much higher rated than me (And won in 2007!). So I played an unusual first move to get him out of book. He happily rose to the challenge of a novel game.

My opening was miserable. First I dropped a centre pawn, and then totally missed an obvious N-fork, losing the exchange (Move 23).

I considered just resigning. But then I thought......I am here to play chess.... plus I still have pieces....plus I have some compensation that he is way behind in development and his Q-side B and R are still on their original squares and kind of locked in for a while. So I decided to play on and see if I could set any traps that Ed might miss (Though likely not).

Well, I managed to get a trap set, using a monster knight, and an N-sac leading to mate. Ed saw it, and dutifully kept eliminating the option, and I would find a different way to keep it alive.

Well, we make time control (Move 40), and I am still alive (Down the exchange and a P still) and still have my trap set! Ed said he got tired of all this, and so decided to neutralize me finally by sacking a P, and then sacking back the exchange. This plan was excellent.....it led to me having to sack my Q for one of his Rooks, so I then resigned.....on move 53! Ed thanked me for making him work so hard to win a won game.......NOT!

Post-Round 5

Ed and I then went and analyzed the game for about an hour....I was actually satisfied with the game, given how I played the 2nd half, when the first half was a disaster. Ed said he could not believe that I kept posing all these problems for him.....and all he could do was carefully try to unwind my position to try to neutralize it.

After that I joined my Montreal chess friend, Hugh Brodie, in the hotel lobby and we just visited for about three-quarters of an hour. Hugh travels a lot, but I am not a traveler, so it was interesting to hear about some of his travels. We talked chess and other things. We arranged to go to dinner one of the nights I am playing in the Montreal Summer Chess Classic.

I then watched games in my section until they finished, and then I went home. I got into the residence about 11:30 PM, did my Blog # 4, and posted it about 12:30 AM today.

The U 2000 Section Leaders (After 5 rounds)

1st - 5 pts. - Won all games - Junior Boy David Craciun (1879) (One of the Dark Horses - those not one of the top 10 rated, but who have risen to the occasion!)

2nd - 4 pts. - Alexis Demers (1686) (One of the Dark Horses)

3rd/5th - 3.5 pts. - 2 of the 3 are "Favourites":

Marc-Andre Beaudry (1996)
Sylvain De Lagrave (1953)
Jean-Philippe Robillard (1819)

The Favourites

Here is how the original favourites, who are not among the leaders, are doing - I have noted over the years I have been blogging, the Favourites who start poorly, often make a come back and are often spoilers in the last round:

3 Points

Malcom Marcone (1997)
Leo Richard (1915)
Nader Ghanbari (1895)
Ronald Mangahas (1890)
Francois Parenteau (1884)

2.5 pts.

Louis Morin (1899)

2 pts.

Claude Laumiere (1923)

Withdrawn

Jacques Marchand (1882) - had 3.5 pts. after 4 rounds. Then withdrew after rd. 4.

My Score

1.5/5 pts. - Draw: 1 (Rd. 4); Losses: 3 (Rds. 1, 3 & 5); Bye: 1 (Director's 1 pt.- Rd. 2)

My & My Opponents Scores

3 pts. - Nader Ghanbari (1895) - I lost in Rd. 3
2.5 pts. - Ed Selling (1845) - I lost in rd. 5.
1.5 pts. - Junior Boy Joachim Turgeon (1825) - I lost in Rd. 1.
- Francois Chevalier (1782) - I drew in Rd. 4.
- Me (CFC 1512)

The Section that may be of Interest to Some (After the U 2000 Section!): The Open Section

Here are the leaders after 5 rounds:

1st - 4.5 pts. - Undefeated - GM Razvan Preotu (2495)

2nd/4th - 4 pts. -

GM Romaine Edouard (2638)
GM Alexandre Le Siege (2517)
FM Olivier-Kenta Chiku-Ratte (2197)

Invitation

A part of blogging I do enjoy is discussing anything anyone finds of interest. So I am happy to answer questions, make responses to comments, etc. This often helps make the daily blog more interesting to others.

So comment, reply, post, whatever....jump right in with both feet, and hopefully we will all have a fun 5 more days together.

Bob A

**Vadim Tsypin** · Wednesday, 25th July, 2018, 01:34 PM

Originally posted by Bob Armstrong View Post

Blog # 3 (Sunday – 18/7/22 - with blog for Monday morning/afternoon when I was able to get to it)

Sometimes [...] there are an uneven number of players in the section. So one player will not get a game. The protocol for this is that the lowest scoring player with the lowest rating does not get the game.

Bob, the statement I highlighted in red is not true. This is one of the old urban myths that persists. :-) Let's work together on educating chess players of all levels about the FIDE Swiss system rules.

**Bob Armstrong** · Wednesday, 25th July, 2018, 03:33 PM

This is an excellent comment Vadim - it is what I hope will happen with my blog - we will all LEARN something new.

I have never paired in 50 years of chess, so my knowledge is just that of the average player. And I am afraid, I do make mistakes in my Blog from time to time. I rely on my readers to catch me out, and post corrections.

Could you post the proper FIDE protocol on a Director Bye here, so we all can learn something. I know you are helping as arbiter for the tournament, but when you get a moment.

Thanks.

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Thursday, 26th July, 2018, 09:33 AM

Blog # 6 (Wednesday – 18/7/25) - Part I (Of 3 Parts)

Quebec Open Chess Championship

Round 6

The "WOW" Day!

The Wee Hours of Wednesday Morning

This morning I again had my more usual early morning chess tournament sleeping schedule - 4 hrs. (12:30 AM - 5:30 AM - I just woke up!)

So I created and posted my prior Fb Blog # 5. Then I posted on Chess Talk, Blogs #3, #4 & # 5 (I was having to catch up).

I had breakfast in my room - cold cereal (No granola today), and, of course, butter tarts!! (Not so good - I am diabetic!)

Then I called my wife up at our Ontario hobby farm - she had our handyman/friend there to help her out today with some gardening and landscaping, so we didn't chat long.

Charging into the Day

At 9:30 AM, I went to work updating my Fb Life Discussion Club (PEERS).

I felt a bit tired after 1/2 hr. So I decided I would lie down and see if I would nap - likely not.... WOW! - I went out like a light for 2 3/4 hrs.!

Early Afternoon

I then went back to working on the Fb life discussion club.

I also have a "chess discussion group" on Fb called Chess Chat (https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/). So I welcomed a new member, and made a post there.

I decided I'd just have a late lunch in Longueuil this afternoon before the Rd. 6, and so was ready to leave at 3:00 PM

The Neanderthal Telephone Problem

As you know from prior blogs, the ZUM hotel (U of M residence) has not been able to set up my landline so I could get my voice mail messages, ever since I registered last Friday. But they were working on it.

So, lo and behold, there is a knock on my door.....it it the residence staff member, Juan......he proudly announces he now knows how to set it up.

WOW! He did know. I now have a nice message on the machine for those calling in, and I have now the code to retrieve my messages! So I finally got to my son's obsolete message of days ago......but no complaining......I'm now golden!

To Longueuil

So at 3:50 PM I set out for Longueil.....I was nervous that I was now too late and would hit rush hour at the Jacques Cartier bridge. The cars were backed up from Ontario, about 1/2 the way to Sherbrooke. But the cars moved fast (3 bridge lanes open), and I got to the Longueuil Mall in my traditional 1/2 hr.....that is not bad at all! WOW!

I went to my now favourite Subway Sandwich Shop in the complex. Then on to my now favourite IGA in the mall. Since I'm letting it all hang out in this blog, want to know what is in my cart?? OK....since you asked:):

Healthy - bag of grapes (On sale)
Neutral - Egg Salad Sandwich (White Bread) for later in the week.
Unhealthy (I admit it) - Chocolate Chip Cookies; potato chips (Get 2 & they are on sale).

It was raining cats and dogs when I finished in the Mall, so I waited a bit (Of course, my raincoat is in my chess bag....in the car {That's helpful}). It did let up and I got to the car and went to the hotel. For some reason, the pay gate was not working, and we all were getting in to park free ... WOW!

It was again pouring, so I peacefully sat for a few minutes contemplating, and then went inside.

My Section: U 2000

There are now 31 players in the section. I am the lowest rated if you use my CFC rating (Which FQE was doing for some reason I don't understand - My FQE rating is 1715). So on the bottom (# 31) is me at 1512, and next up, # 30, is 1634. The top rated is 1997.

Rd. 6

It is hard to believe we are already past the half way point of the tournament. My opponent was Sang Kay. He reminded me that we had played in the semi-rapid tournament in Montreal when I was here in 2016!

My U 2000 Rd. 6 Game.

The game got wild immediately. Sang sacked his B for 2 P's. then there was a possibility of winning a third P. But it was a poisoned P.....he took it and then ended up giving up a R for a 4th P. So then I was up R + B vs 4 P's (But he had a solid phalanx of 8 connected P's. How were my R's to deal with this slowly advancing, all protecting each other, wall of P's?

I was able to force a trade of Q's, and so now I just had to deal with all these P's. Fortunately, Sang missed a pin, and I won a P - if he took my B, he lost his remaining R. Once I had an open file, Sang was finished.

We both played quickly - Sang resigned on move 32. He had used 22 min.. I had used 10 min.!

WOW! My first win!!

[Continued in Part II Below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Thursday, 26th July, 2018, 09:36 AM

Blog # 6 (Wednesday – 18/7/25) - Part II (Of 3 Parts)
[See above for Part I]

Quebec Open Chess Championship

Round 6

Post Rd. 6

Sang and I went and analyzed the game for about 3/4 hr.

Then I went and spoke with my Montreal chess friend, Hugh Brodie. I mentioned to him that I had now reached my goal for the tournament - one win! And in fact I had already exceeded my goal, since I have a WIN + a DRAW (WOW!). Now some may say it helps setting LOW goals. But when you see my rating, compared to the average rating in the section (Which is likely in the 1800's, and that my chess game has (Sigh) somewhat deteriorated with age (I do have a CFC Class A Certificate, and had a peak rating of 1911 years ago), then what is a reasonable expectation? Do I have a 25% chance of winning against these higher rated players?? Less?? I really don't know - all I do know is that over the years, I have found that higher-rated players bring out the best in me - I work harder and play better.....over the years, when I am in the bottom third, I average a win of about 20 rating points per tournament! So I keep playing up, despite some friends asking if the opponents may be getting too strong for me now, when I play up.....I know that day is coming....but for now.....GAMBLE!

Then I chatted with Ed Selling and his young highschool opponent, Hou Zang (Hou won). I had watched his games and feel he is stronger than his 1770 rating. He said he had not played much for a few years because he was focused on school. But he likely still was a bit stronger than his rating.

Then Hou left and my Toronto friend from our section joined Ed and I (He had lost). We discussed the fact that because in rd. 2 I had to take the 1 point Director's Bye, I was in fact facing stronger opponents than I really should, given my actual score. But I said that was fine with me....that's why I play up .....to play the strongest U 2000 players I can.....I am still capable, more by luck than good management, to put together a good game from time to time!

Back to the Residence

I then dealt with a few of my e-mails. Also did some updating on my Fb Life Discussion Club. I checked for any comments on my Blogs on Fb and Chess Talk.

I was too tired to do this Blog # 6 so went to bed about 1:00 AM.

The U 2000 Section Leaders (After 6 rounds)

1st - 6 pts. - Won all games - Junior Boy David Craciun (1879) (One of the Dark Horses - those not one of the top 10 rated, but who have risen to the occasion!). I saw him at the results board and congratulated him. I advised him about Bobby Fischer's winning of all his match games in one play-down to the world championship match - they called his perfect score a Picket Fence. So I encouraged David to go for the Picket Fence - he smiled and said something to the effect of he'd see what he could do....seems like a very nice young junior chess player.

2nd - 4.5 pts. - Marc-Andre Beaudry (1996)(One of the Favourites)

3rd/8th - 4pts. - 3 of the 5 are "Favourites":

Malcom Marcone (1997)

Sylvain De Lagrave (1953)

Leo Richard (1915)

Ellis Steinberg (1801)

Alexis Demers (1686) (One of the Dark Horses)

(See below for Part III)

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Thursday, 26th July, 2018, 10:15 AM

Blog # 6 (Wednesday – 18/7/25) - Part III (Of 3 Parts)
[See above for Parts I & II]

Quebec Open Chess Championship

Round 6

The Favourites

Here is how the original favourites, who are not among the leaders, are doing - I have noted over the years I have been blogging, the Favourites who start poorly, often make a come back and are often spoilers in the last round:

3.5 Points

Louis Morin (1899)
Nader Ghanbari (1895)

3 pts.
Claude Laumiere (1923)
Ronald Mangahas (1890)
Francois Parenteau (1884)

Withdrawn
Jacques Marchand (1882) - had 3.5 pts. after 4 rounds. Then withdrew after rd. 4.

My Score

2.5/6 pts. - Win: 1 (Rd. 6); Draw: 1 (Rd. 4); Losses: 3 (Rds. 1, 3 & 5); Bye: 1 (Director's 1 pt.- Rd. 2)

My & My Opponents- Scores

3.5 pts. - Nader Ghanbari (1895) - I lost in Rd. 3
2.5 pts. - Ed Selling (1845) - I lost in rd. 5
- Francois Chevalier (1782) - I drew in Rd. 4.
- Me (1512)
1.5 pts. - Junior Boy Joachim Turgeon (1825) - I lost in Rd. 1.
- Sand Kay (1687) - I won in Rd. 6.

The Section that may be of Interest to Some (After the U 2000 Section!): The Open Section
Here are the leaders after 5 rounds:

1st - 5 pts. - Undefeated - GM Razvan Preotu (2495)

2nd/8th - 4.5 pts. -

GM Romaine Edouard (2638)
GM Victor Mikhalevski (2583)
GM Alexandre Le Siege (2517)
FM Olivier-Kenta Chiku-Ratte (2197)
Jim Zhao (2169)
Eric Beaulieu (2129)
FM Qiuyu Huang (2108)

Invitation

A part of blogging I do enjoy is discussing anything anyone finds of interest. So I am happy to answer questions, make responses to comments, etc. This often helps make the daily blog more interesting to others.

So comment, reply, post, whatever....jump right in with both feet-.and hopefully we'll have a fun 3 more days together.

Bob A

2018 Quebec Open Chess Championship (July 21-28) - Blog

2018 Quebec Open Chess Championship (July 21-28) - Blog

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