Scarborough Chess Club Howard Ridout Memorial Swiss (Sept. 13 - Oct. 25) - Blog

[Bob Armstrong]

Scarborough Chess Club Howard Ridout Memorial Swiss - Blog

Rd. 7 (Final) - 18/10/25 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 5 (Part III of 3 parts)

[For Parts I & II see above]

The Less Important (!!) Sections - Winners:

i) 1800+ - 20 players; 6 boards.

1st - 5.5/7 pts. (Undefeated) - Jr. Boy Jeffrey Xu (2245)

2nd/5th - 4.5/7 pts. - Dave Southam (2083 - former club champion); Jr. Boy Aahil Noorali (2023); Jr. Boy Eric Ning (1942); Jr. Boy Youhe Huang (1869).

ii) U 1400 Juniors - 19 players; 7 boards.

1st - 6.5/7 pts. (Undefeated) - Luka Granic (1121).

2nd - 4.5/7 pts. - Nathan Zian Wang (1218).

3rd/5th - 4/7 pts. - Daniel Odoemelam (1242); Ben [Gabriel] Smolkin (1169); Tristan Li (998).

iii) U 1000 Juniors - 27 players; 11 boards

1st - 65/7 pts. (Undefeated) - Daniel Esson (975).

2nd/4th - 5/7 pts. - Junior Boy Kaison Wang (969); Aiden Chartrand (951 - Undefeated); Girl player Mathusha Jeyakumar (838); Lazim Ullah (Unrated).

Scarborough CC Games - Top Section

The games of the top section can be played over by going to the SCC Website (URL above), and the tab for "Results". Then after the link to the 1800+ section standings, is "Round x Games". Click on that and you get a game board/score, and you can play over the game right there and then!

Invitation

I am most happy to interact with readers re anything about what I have posted.....so react, comment, reply, post, etc. - both favourable comments and constructive criticism....I will do my best to respond to everyone (When I am not residing in my computer/internet - free hobby farm north of Toronto).

So jump in with both feet, and we'll all enjoy the blogging adventure!

Bob A

[Toy Chack Kwan]

hi Bob (and all)...

thanks to Bob for expediting confirmation of my membership in this forum, I am now able to throw in my 2 cents worth on his blogs and musings,

as one of Bob's newer chess friends from the Scarborough Chess Club and Annex Chess Club, I'll try to contribute an alternative (perhaps Rashomon-esque) viewpoint to his blogs;

last night's (2018-10-25) 7th round game was typical, with Bob finishing his game early and wandering over to check on the progress of my own game; I am usually one of the 4-5 last games to finish as I generally refuse to accept or offer draws until I have under 5 minutes on the clock, and even then, I try to play on if the position is unclear to me (and more often than not, I end up losing the game in the time scramble), treating it as another learning experience;

I was on the White side of an Advanced French vs youngster Michael G Wang (1580); after the opening, I had the initiative and attacking chances on the kingside spearheaded by my e5 pawn; but later, a careless re-capture on d4 with my c3 pawn instead of my f3 Knight allowed wholesale major exchanges on the c file and defusing into an equal game; but as per my usual over enthusiasm I later over pressed in a pawn ending and should have lost; somehow we both missed that Black could have intercepted my a pawn from queening (my d4 and e5 pawns 'blocked' the way) while Black's g pawn was unimpeded...we both queened and a draw resulted;

...my rating is currently languishing , though 'floundering' may be more apropos, in the low 1500s, though I still have 'high' hopes of climbing back up to the 1800s, my rating from 1971 when I last played;

p.s. if anyone is not yet aware, there is a weekly chess podcast by Ben Johnson where he does hour long interviews with well known, and some less known, folks such as Andy Soltis, Nigel Short, H Nakamura, etc

https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/

[Bob Armstrong]

Thanks to my friend Toy for sharing your saga at SCC's final round of the Howard Ridout Memorial - Toy and I are in the same section.

I'd invite other SCC'ers to share their experience (Maybe post their game in pgn?), to supplement my blogs. It needn't be long - a couple of sentences will be interesting to viewers.

This would make it more interesting for all readers.

I do keep some stats, and for the Howard Ridout Memorial, I did 5 Blogs. 3 days after posting the blog, there were an average of 77 viewers per blog - it seems interest in SCC as a club is high! Also of some note is that Blog # 5, which reported on the winners of the tournament in each section, got 145 views after 6 days!!

Thanks to all who participated in the HRM Swiss Blog, commenters and viewers.

I will now be blogging our next SCC tournament, the Falling Leaves Swiss (Nov. 1 to Dec. 13).

Bob A