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2018 Toronto Open Chess Tournament
The Day Prior
[Part I of 2]
The Tournament
It will be 6 rounds @ 2 games per day. It is being organized by the Organizing Committee of the Annex Chess Club, and held at its club location, 918 Bathurst Street (Just past the first signal light north of Bloor - Bathurst Subway Station is only a 5 min. walk away.) There will be four sections: Crown, U 2200, U 1800, U 1400. I will be playing in the U 1800 section - my CFC Standard rating is 1511 (Middle C Class). The top 2 sections will also be FIDE rated. Rounds are @ 10:00 AM & 4:00 PM. Time control is Game/90 min. + 30 sec. increment from move 1 - so the average game (40 moves and over) takes approximately 5 hrs. or a bit less. As of Thursday (Aug. 30), there were 191 pre-registered players (Sometimes there are withdrawals, and often some late on-site entries). The originally proposed prize fund totalled $ 7,000 (Based on 150 players); so likely it will now be increased, given 191 pre-registered's. There is more information on the Annex CC Website.
My Blogging
As many here on Chess Talk (CT) know, over the years I have had an arrangement from time to time with the former owner, Chess 'n Math Association, to Blog the tournaments I have been playing in (Usually longer tournaments like the Canadian Open, The Quebec Open, The Toronto International, etc.).
Under the new owner, Henry (Aka Dark Knight), we have continued this arrangement. So most recently I blogged my participation in:
1. 2018 Quebec Open - about 775 views of 5 days of blogging a 9 round tournament (New arrangement reached after tournament had started);
2. 2018 Montreal Summer Chess Classic - about 375 view of 6 days of blogging a 5 round tournament.
(Note: the CT Blog is a re-posting of the original blog I do on my personal Facebook Account for my over 800 Fb friends from around the world (I do not edit it much to re-post it here): https://www.facebook.com/bob.armstrong.9235 )
We are now extending this agreement to cover my blogging my shorter weekend tournaments from the 2018 summer to the 2019 summer. This is the first one.
My future blogs will be (Given my current schedule through to next summer):
1. The 2018 Hart House Holidays Open (Prior to Christmas);
2. The 2019 Hart House Reading Week Open (On the Family Day Holiday Weekend).
Over the years, I have had generally positive feedback, on both my Fb Account, and here on CT, to my blogging. I mainly focus on the section I am playing in (Has been U 2000 or U 1800). I feel that these class sections are often not covered by chess media, and yet, the bulk of chess tournament players are in these sections and under. And many of my viewers have actually played players about whom I am blogging (Ones I play and ones with whom I may socialize during the tournament). So this adds a bit more interest. I do also cover (Bare Bones) the top section standings each blog.
I hope my blogs will continue to provide a window onto class tournament chess, and what THIS chess player does in tournaments between rounds (A bit of my personal life); other players have totally different approaches. I have had feedback that my writing style is easy to read, and often entertaining. It is a find for all those "nosy" chess players (I think we are know for being more-than-normal nosy)!
Thanks for your prior support of my blogs - I do emphasize that I love interactivity around my blogs, and so I encourage comments, questions, observations, etc., and I try to respond to as many as I can in the time available.
I usually try to post before midnight of the next day, each of the 4 Blogs (But sometimes it does not get posted 'til the wee hours of the day following). This Blog # 1 is on schedule - posted late Friday night, Aug. 31.
I hope people continue to find my blogs informative, and somewhat entertaining.
Up for the Challenge - The Wee Hours of Friday Morning
I awoke this morning @ 5:30 AM, having had 6 hours sleep. My usual average is between 5-6 hrs.
But I have found, with Adrenalin flowing during tournaments, my chess tournament sleeping is often much shorter (Often up in the middle of the night), and erratic (I end up taking naps at odd hours). At least it is in longer tournaments, like the Canadian Open or Quebec Open, which are 1 game per day, mostly in the evening, starting @ 6:00 PM.
But with weekend tournaments, the two games per day is tiring (Though at 73 y.o., I feel I do handle them quite well.......sometimes a bit tired during the ending of the last game). We'll see what happens with this tournament. I do admit that now I have institutionalized a normal 1-hr. afternoon siesta time daily - my short sleeping seems to now require it.
The Early Morning
I am retired for some time now. So I have my own daily routines, like many of us.
So I first go to my laptop and check for e-mails and Facebook (Fb) messages to be dealt with. When my wife is away, I usually also check her e-mails, since she is not always so faithful to doing it.....I alert her when we call each other later in the day to anything needing response. I follow Chess Talk quite faithfully, checking for new posts a couple of times per day. As many of you know, I am also not too bashful about starting topics with original posts (Though I am told, MUCH less than when younger and active in chess politics! LOL). I gave notice here of the coming of this Blog on 18/8/22 (Over 250 views to date).
As a retiree, to occupy myself, and try to keep myself out of trouble, I have a number of Fb projects. A number of them will be referred to during this Blog # 1.
One Fb Project is re Chess......Under my personal account, some years ago, I started a Fb Chess Discussion Group - posts chess news and discusses it and international chess issues. I turned over management of it to a 4 person company I created (with another Canadian, a Ghanaian, and a guy from USA) - the company (Unincorporated) is Chess Companions of Caissa. We call the project "Chess Chat - A Project of Chess Companions of Caissa (https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/)". The original group, that had to be terminated due to some Fb regulations had over 5,000 members; the second successor group had over 3,000 members; the current project is the third successor group. I feel that this is somewhat of a community contributory activity for me, to the international Fb chess community who are members.
So I regularly check (And did today) to see if there are any new applications to join the group, to be processed. Also, during the day, I post some of the chess articles I come upon in Twitter or on Fb (And I have today). I also re-post there, sometimes, my chess blogs originally posted on my own personal account. So I will re-post there this Fb Blog for the Toronto Open.
A second Fb project I have is that I have morphed my own personal account into a World Events/News/Life Discussion Group, called "PEERS (A Discussion Club of Equals)" - https://www.facebook.com/bob.armstrong.9235 [Same as originally given at the start of this Blog above]. One might say I consider this group my main altruistic community-contribution activity. I gather articles from wherever I can, group them into topic threads, and facilitate and monitor discussion. It is the project I spend the most time on in a day. Some former friends have "unfriended" me because they found my posting too prolific; others just do not get notifications; some just come to my timeline from time to time, to see what havoc I am trying to create. But for this type of somewhat unique Fb account, it is important to keep up with breaking news, and you need a wide variety of posts to appeal to all the Fb friends I have (Over 800 from around the world). In a year, at least 200 of them will show themselves and be named to the club, by posting, commenting or replying or reacting.
On the left sidebar of a Fb account are 9 pictures of friends with whom you seem to have more interaction...and when they have posted on their own timelines, the number of posts is shown over their photo. So clicking on the photo takes me to their timeline......then I can share to PEERS any relevant posts they have made. Behind these 9 photos there are pictures of other friends who have made posts since the last time I was checking, and they come up sequentially as well. So a good number of posts come to PEERS via my checking by this method.
So I now did this for a while, and made a number of new posts, and comments on existing topics, from my friends' posts. You can go check my timeline if you have a personal Fb account. Otherwise, when you follow my PEERS link I have given, you will be asked to open your own Fb account, before they will let you access mine.
Breakfast
At 8:00 AM, I took a break and got myself some breakfast. We have a lovely deck and backyard (Some say the view from the deck is like looking out into a little park, with all the trees, bushes and plants). So I sat there for a while, and re-grouped.
Then I put out our recyclable pollution (Compost & the Recycle Container). I then washed up some dishes from the day before, made some coffee, and brought my tumbler up to my home office to help me get through the morning!
[Continued in Part II Below]
Bob A
The Day Prior
[Part I of 2]
The Tournament
It will be 6 rounds @ 2 games per day. It is being organized by the Organizing Committee of the Annex Chess Club, and held at its club location, 918 Bathurst Street (Just past the first signal light north of Bloor - Bathurst Subway Station is only a 5 min. walk away.) There will be four sections: Crown, U 2200, U 1800, U 1400. I will be playing in the U 1800 section - my CFC Standard rating is 1511 (Middle C Class). The top 2 sections will also be FIDE rated. Rounds are @ 10:00 AM & 4:00 PM. Time control is Game/90 min. + 30 sec. increment from move 1 - so the average game (40 moves and over) takes approximately 5 hrs. or a bit less. As of Thursday (Aug. 30), there were 191 pre-registered players (Sometimes there are withdrawals, and often some late on-site entries). The originally proposed prize fund totalled $ 7,000 (Based on 150 players); so likely it will now be increased, given 191 pre-registered's. There is more information on the Annex CC Website.
My Blogging
As many here on Chess Talk (CT) know, over the years I have had an arrangement from time to time with the former owner, Chess 'n Math Association, to Blog the tournaments I have been playing in (Usually longer tournaments like the Canadian Open, The Quebec Open, The Toronto International, etc.).
Under the new owner, Henry (Aka Dark Knight), we have continued this arrangement. So most recently I blogged my participation in:
1. 2018 Quebec Open - about 775 views of 5 days of blogging a 9 round tournament (New arrangement reached after tournament had started);
2. 2018 Montreal Summer Chess Classic - about 375 view of 6 days of blogging a 5 round tournament.
(Note: the CT Blog is a re-posting of the original blog I do on my personal Facebook Account for my over 800 Fb friends from around the world (I do not edit it much to re-post it here): https://www.facebook.com/bob.armstrong.9235 )
We are now extending this agreement to cover my blogging my shorter weekend tournaments from the 2018 summer to the 2019 summer. This is the first one.
My future blogs will be (Given my current schedule through to next summer):
1. The 2018 Hart House Holidays Open (Prior to Christmas);
2. The 2019 Hart House Reading Week Open (On the Family Day Holiday Weekend).
Over the years, I have had generally positive feedback, on both my Fb Account, and here on CT, to my blogging. I mainly focus on the section I am playing in (Has been U 2000 or U 1800). I feel that these class sections are often not covered by chess media, and yet, the bulk of chess tournament players are in these sections and under. And many of my viewers have actually played players about whom I am blogging (Ones I play and ones with whom I may socialize during the tournament). So this adds a bit more interest. I do also cover (Bare Bones) the top section standings each blog.
I hope my blogs will continue to provide a window onto class tournament chess, and what THIS chess player does in tournaments between rounds (A bit of my personal life); other players have totally different approaches. I have had feedback that my writing style is easy to read, and often entertaining. It is a find for all those "nosy" chess players (I think we are know for being more-than-normal nosy)!
Thanks for your prior support of my blogs - I do emphasize that I love interactivity around my blogs, and so I encourage comments, questions, observations, etc., and I try to respond to as many as I can in the time available.
I usually try to post before midnight of the next day, each of the 4 Blogs (But sometimes it does not get posted 'til the wee hours of the day following). This Blog # 1 is on schedule - posted late Friday night, Aug. 31.
I hope people continue to find my blogs informative, and somewhat entertaining.
Up for the Challenge - The Wee Hours of Friday Morning
I awoke this morning @ 5:30 AM, having had 6 hours sleep. My usual average is between 5-6 hrs.
But I have found, with Adrenalin flowing during tournaments, my chess tournament sleeping is often much shorter (Often up in the middle of the night), and erratic (I end up taking naps at odd hours). At least it is in longer tournaments, like the Canadian Open or Quebec Open, which are 1 game per day, mostly in the evening, starting @ 6:00 PM.
But with weekend tournaments, the two games per day is tiring (Though at 73 y.o., I feel I do handle them quite well.......sometimes a bit tired during the ending of the last game). We'll see what happens with this tournament. I do admit that now I have institutionalized a normal 1-hr. afternoon siesta time daily - my short sleeping seems to now require it.
The Early Morning
I am retired for some time now. So I have my own daily routines, like many of us.
So I first go to my laptop and check for e-mails and Facebook (Fb) messages to be dealt with. When my wife is away, I usually also check her e-mails, since she is not always so faithful to doing it.....I alert her when we call each other later in the day to anything needing response. I follow Chess Talk quite faithfully, checking for new posts a couple of times per day. As many of you know, I am also not too bashful about starting topics with original posts (Though I am told, MUCH less than when younger and active in chess politics! LOL). I gave notice here of the coming of this Blog on 18/8/22 (Over 250 views to date).
As a retiree, to occupy myself, and try to keep myself out of trouble, I have a number of Fb projects. A number of them will be referred to during this Blog # 1.
One Fb Project is re Chess......Under my personal account, some years ago, I started a Fb Chess Discussion Group - posts chess news and discusses it and international chess issues. I turned over management of it to a 4 person company I created (with another Canadian, a Ghanaian, and a guy from USA) - the company (Unincorporated) is Chess Companions of Caissa. We call the project "Chess Chat - A Project of Chess Companions of Caissa (https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/)". The original group, that had to be terminated due to some Fb regulations had over 5,000 members; the second successor group had over 3,000 members; the current project is the third successor group. I feel that this is somewhat of a community contributory activity for me, to the international Fb chess community who are members.
So I regularly check (And did today) to see if there are any new applications to join the group, to be processed. Also, during the day, I post some of the chess articles I come upon in Twitter or on Fb (And I have today). I also re-post there, sometimes, my chess blogs originally posted on my own personal account. So I will re-post there this Fb Blog for the Toronto Open.
A second Fb project I have is that I have morphed my own personal account into a World Events/News/Life Discussion Group, called "PEERS (A Discussion Club of Equals)" - https://www.facebook.com/bob.armstrong.9235 [Same as originally given at the start of this Blog above]. One might say I consider this group my main altruistic community-contribution activity. I gather articles from wherever I can, group them into topic threads, and facilitate and monitor discussion. It is the project I spend the most time on in a day. Some former friends have "unfriended" me because they found my posting too prolific; others just do not get notifications; some just come to my timeline from time to time, to see what havoc I am trying to create. But for this type of somewhat unique Fb account, it is important to keep up with breaking news, and you need a wide variety of posts to appeal to all the Fb friends I have (Over 800 from around the world). In a year, at least 200 of them will show themselves and be named to the club, by posting, commenting or replying or reacting.
On the left sidebar of a Fb account are 9 pictures of friends with whom you seem to have more interaction...and when they have posted on their own timelines, the number of posts is shown over their photo. So clicking on the photo takes me to their timeline......then I can share to PEERS any relevant posts they have made. Behind these 9 photos there are pictures of other friends who have made posts since the last time I was checking, and they come up sequentially as well. So a good number of posts come to PEERS via my checking by this method.
So I now did this for a while, and made a number of new posts, and comments on existing topics, from my friends' posts. You can go check my timeline if you have a personal Fb account. Otherwise, when you follow my PEERS link I have given, you will be asked to open your own Fb account, before they will let you access mine.
Breakfast
At 8:00 AM, I took a break and got myself some breakfast. We have a lovely deck and backyard (Some say the view from the deck is like looking out into a little park, with all the trees, bushes and plants). So I sat there for a while, and re-grouped.
Then I put out our recyclable pollution (Compost & the Recycle Container). I then washed up some dishes from the day before, made some coffee, and brought my tumbler up to my home office to help me get through the morning!
[Continued in Part II Below]
Bob A
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