Annex Chess Club New Beginnings Swiss (Jan. 7 - Feb. 4) - Blog

[Bob Armstrong]

Annex Chess Club New Beginnings Swiss - Blog Rd. 2 - 19/1/14

Bob's Chess Blog # 1 [Part I of 3 parts]
(See Knight Logo below)

Note:

1. This Blog on my personal Facebook page is re-posted a few other places - so references refer to this platform.
2. The first sections, down to the registration history for this current tournament, are a template. I repeat them in each Blog....I cannot simply refer new readers to my prior Blog. It is too much to expect new readers to scroll down my Facebook timeline to find my most recent Blog, which by now is far down the scroll.

At the same time, the template must be here for any new readers of my Blog.

So I ask my regular readers to be tolerant, and you can skip the template parts (I will alert you immediately after the template if there are any revisions).

Template Begins

Club

Annex Chess Club, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(See logo below)
(ACC Website: http://annexchessclub.com/)
(ACC Fb Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/172335039452033/)

Bob's Blog

For a number of years now, I have been posting my chess blog:

i) on my personal Facebook Account for my almost 850 Fb friends from around the world (in English): https://www.facebook.com/bob.armstrong.9235;
ii) sometimes on the national Canadian English chess discussion board, Chess Talk [CT] (https://forum.chesstalk.com/…/chesstalk-canada-s-chess-disc…);
iii) occasionally on other chess websites, such as that of FQE (Province of Quebec's Chess Association). That time the blog was posted in both French and English.

More recently I also have been "re-posting" my Fb blog:

i) on my Fb chess discussion group, Chess Chat - A Project of Chess Companions of Caissa (https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/);
ii) my Scarborough CC tournaments Fb Blog to SCC's Fb Page (URL above)
iii) my Annex CC tournaments Fb blog to ACC's Fb Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/172335039452033/);

Henry Lam (Aka Dark Knight), the recently new owner of CT, and I have an agreement (From the summer of 2018) that I will re-post my Fb Blogs on CT for both my chess club official tournaments, and my non-club weekend (Sometimes longer; sometimes shorter) tournaments, in which I play between Summer 2018 and Summer 2019. After that, Henry and I can then renew our agreement for another year if we both so wish.

So, under this agreement, most recently I have been re-posting my current Scarborough CC and Annex CC tournaments. My future non-club weekend blogs to and including Summer 2019 will be (Given my current schedule - from time to time, though, my life schedule may change so that I fit in a tournament not on my schedule):

1. The 2018 Hart House Holidays Open (Prior to Christmas - Dec. 14-16) - Blogged;
2. The 2019 Hart House Reading Week Open (Usually on the Family Day Holiday Weekend in February).
3. The 2019 Quebec Open (July).
4. The 2019 Toronto Open (Sept.)

The National Canadian French Chess Discussion Board

Henri Hughes, a member of both the national English and French chess discussion boards (Chess Talk; Parlons Echecs), volunteers, subject to demands of his school studies, to translate my blogs into French, and post them to Parlons Echecs, also owned by Henry Lam. Thanks from all to Henri for his volunteer effort.

The Blog Focus

I mainly focus on the section I am playing in (Has been U 2000, U 1900 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 the classes under 1900. And many of my class viewers have actually played players about whom I am blogging (Ones I play and ones with whom I may socialize during the tournament, who then are mentioned in the Blog). So this adds a bit more interest for them.
I do also generally cover (Bare Bones) the top section standings; but I have to have been able to get the results before the Blog goes to press. I sometimes will cover also the lower sections, if I have the results. For both, of course, it can be a matter of the time available (I am often doing my Blog in the wee hours of the morning).

I do hope my blogs will continue to provide a window onto class tournament chess, and what THIS chess player does in the day of club tournaments, and before and between rounds for weekend tournaments (A bit of a reality show - bits of my personal life).

I know many other chess players approach tournaments quite differently than I do (E.g. - study!), and so one cannot generalize from what I do.

Blog Feedback

Over the years, and in these more recent blogs, I have had generally positive feedback on my blogging, on both of my own Fb Accounts, the SCC & ACC Fb sites, and on CT.

It has been said that my writing style is easy to read, factual, and often entertaining. It is a find for all us "nosy" chess players!

Thanks to all those who have supported my Blogging on various sites, and kept encouraging me to continue.

Joining Annex CC

Lots of room and so ACC WELCOMES all new members. You can inquire about joining at the general ACC e-mail address: info@annexchessclub.com. You can join a tournament in progress….you will get ½ pt. byes for the missed rounds (Only two). Note that the club moved at the end of 2018...see the website for new location details – not far from the old location.

The Tournament - ACC New Beginnings Swiss

This is the 1st regular swiss tournament at ACC in 2019.
It is a 5-round swiss that runs from January 7 – February 4. There are three sections: Crown; U 1800; U 1400. All sections are CFC-rated. Time control is G/90 + 30 sec. (From move 1). Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play up, and most do.

Notes:

1. The summer format: Crown (1700 +); U 1700 - where there are usually fewer players; right to play up.
2. The Club Championship has only 2 sections (so lower two sections' players get to play some different opponents): Championship (1800+); Reserves (U 1800); 1700’s have option to play up and usually do.
3. For a short time in 2017, Swisses had 4 sections: Master (2200 +); U 2200; U 1800; U 1400. Players within 100 pts. had the option to play up, and most did. It was temporarily shelved because the top two sections each had too few players; it will be reconsidered if the membership grows, and gets stronger.

Tournaments Registration History

2015

2015 Average per tournament: 54 registrations (Based on the last three tournaments of 2015 – highest yearly average since we started keeping records).

2016

Back to the Grind Swiss – 48 registrations (Peak registration for 2016)
2016 Average per tournament: 43 registrations (Down significantly from the prior year - 54).

2017

Peak registrations for 2017:

Club Championship – 60! registrants: Championship (1800+): 20; Reserves (U 1800): 40.
Summer in the City Swiss – 60! registrants: Masters 8; U 2200 – 7; U 1800 – 10; U 1400 – 12.

2017 Average per Tournament – 53 registrants (2nd highest since keeping records here)

2018

Changing Leaves Swiss - 59 registrants (Peak registration for 2018)
2018 Average per Tournament – 49 registrations (Down somewhat from the annual record of 2015: 54 registrants.

End of Template

[See Parts II & III below]

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Annex Chess Club New Beginnings Swiss - Blog Rd. 2 - 19/1/14

Bob's Chess Blog # 1 [Part II of 3 parts]

[See Part I above]

2019 (Current)

# 1 – New Beginnings Swiss – 38 registrants (So far): Crown: 7; U 1800: 17; U 1400: 14 (Down significantly from the 2018 average).

The Day of Rd. 2

The Wee Hours of Monday Morning

My main principal residence is in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and that is where I am posting from at the moment.

I awoke at 5:00 AM – got my now normal 6 hrs. sleep. (But during weekend tournaments, I often sleep less than this).
So I got up, went and got my morning coffee, and went to my home office (I am retired) and fired up my old laptop.

As those who have read my blogs before know, I have a kind of morning routine I follow, whether I am playing chess tournaments or not (Again this is a normal template, and regular readers can skip down to the next section):

Start of Template

1. Check for e-mails (for myself and my wife) and Fb messages (Me only);

2. Check new posts/comments on CT;

3. Check my Twitter feed to see what had been happening in the world (I follow numerous mainstream media from countries around the world, such as CBC, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, France 24, China Daily, Al Jezeera (English), Japan Times, Sputnik News, The Guardian, etc.)

4. Update my company's Fb page, Canadian Life Consulting (CLC) - https://www.facebook.com/Canadian-Li...lting-16406543…/. I do this by checking some of my Fb friends timelines for posts to "share", my Fb newsfeed, and my Twitter inbox for articles to re-post onto CLC.

5. Update the discussion group formed under my company page, called Canadian Life Consulting Cooperative Supporters' Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2042495809374373/. I update it by sharing some more discussable of the posts now on the CFC page.

6. Update this Fb world events/politics discussion group that I have created here on my own personal Fb account, called PEERS (A Discussion Club of Equals) - Fb URL above. I do this by also sharing some of the CLC page posts. But I also share some of my sources' posts directly to this discussion club.

7. I have another retiree project besides my Facebook one. Chess is a passionate hobby of mine, as you know. But I have never really studied seriously.
But what I do do, is I enter all my games, and annotate them, to try to learn something - Grandmasters do recommend this often. In addition, I integrate the opening (the first 10 moves) into an opening/defence tree I have for the opening/defence played. The value of this is pretty uncertain, given my inability to remember lines - but I do develop general impressions of how the opening can go. So on my own time, I go back and forth between my Facebook project and my chess hobby project.

8. I share at least one chess post per day to my Fb Chess Chat group, formed under my personal Fb account - see Fb URL above.

9. When I find them, I share discussable religious posts to my religious Fb Group, Theist Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1052227598173591/. Sometimes these also appear in PEERS.

Sometime during this process, I usually get my breakfast and eat it at the computer, if my wife is not yet up.

My 25/35 System

As well, I go back and forth between my routine items above and my own personal life tasks to be done that day. But I have a somewhat unique system for doing this.

Recently I found that I was spending a lot more time on my two retiree projects than my normal life tasks - don't we all spend more time on what we enjoy!

But I was falling behind in "life" while keeping up in the "Fb/chess" projects. So I did have to deal with this issue.

So I came up with the "25/35 System". What this is: When I am at home, I spend 25 min. on my 2 retiree projects (Facebook & Chess), and then 35 min. on the rest of my life; I even set the alarm! And I try very hard to religiously stop when I am to change phases.

This has actually worked out well....I am still abysmally behind in "Life", but not nearly as much as I used to be! LOL

End of Template

Charging into Monday Morning

My wife belongs to an exercise studio about 35 min. walk from our place, so often I walk her there. But she was ill last week, and so I drove her there today.

I usually would head then for my favourite local coffee shop, La Patisserie de Cignogne, where I stop in for a while on the exercise studio mornings, before going home. There are a group of regulars on the 7:45 – 8:30 AM shift, and we sort of have an informal coffee club going.

But my wife was doing a short exercise shift this morning, and I had to return to pick her up, so I just went to the closer Coffee Time, which I also frequent.

I then went and picked up my wife. Then it was off to our local COSTCO for a few sale items, and then home.

The Later Morning

At 9:30 AM, I went to have a coffee visit with my cousin (We meet about every 2 months during the year). We talk family and politics and have a great time solving the worlds problems and betting on how things are going to unfold in the world.

I then went and checked out a few restaurants on north Avenue Rd. for our “World-Wise Lunch Club” to hold its inaugural meeting in late April or early March – it is me and two of my chess friends! – Undriadi Benggawan and Toy Kwan. It may be open to expansion in the future.

Lunch

I got home about 12:30 PM and we had a close friend of some 50 years over for lunch. We reminisced, talked family, and she told us about her new condominium home.

When she left, I returned to my routine on my 25/35 schedule.

Given that I often sleep short compared to many in the morning night, and that my wife and I are both over 70 y.o., we have found that the European/Latin American practice of a siesta time in mid-afternoon works really well (We usually set the alarm and do not sleep more than 1 hour). So, I crashed at 3:00 PM for an hour.

When I got up my adult daughter who normally resides in Montreal, Quebec, but who has been living with us for the last number of weeks, returned home from her school, and so she and my wife prepared an early dinner and we ate.

I then went back to my laptop for a short while.

Heading Out for Rd. 2

I then prepared a few things for going to ACC – I printed out the current U 1800 cross-table so I could record myself the Rd. 2 results for this Blog.

At about 5:20 PM I headed downtown by TTC . The club is really very quick to get to, door to door. Where I was driving to the old location, I likely now will just always come by TTC......it is likely even faster for me than driving. And I won't have to deal with trying to find free parking close to the club ....it is a very busy area on Bloor St.

On the way out of the subway, I met ACC member Josh Guo (Plays in Crown Section), whom I've know for years now. And so we chatted and walked together to the club. He and his wife have a son, now 1 year old, and they are, like many, having to figure out logistics when both parents work.

[See Part III below]

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Annex Chess Club New Beginnings Swiss - Blog Rd. 2 - 19/1/14

Bob's Chess Blog # 1 [Part III of 3 parts]

[See Parts I & II above]

Pre-Round 2

I got to ACC about 30 min. before the round started, and I socialized a bit.

Josh and I kept talking and we got into how I had purchased my hobby farm about 3 hrs. drive away in the Southern Georgian Bay region. I confirmed that indeed it was a terrible “business” decision – I have Bi-Polar Disorder, and at the time of buying was somewhat hyper-manic....this can affect the soundness of my judgment. And at the time, we did not know that I had this mental illness.....I only realized this in hindsight. Josh, who has known me a long time, was unaware of this and somewhat surprised, because I had always acted quite normally..........I confirmed that I can to a high degree, even if I am severely depressed, or even psychotic-manic.

But fortunately, from a family "quality of life" point of view, the hobby farm has been a wonderful addition.

John Fines then joined the conversation, and then we decided to go have John show us his round one game against Dave Southam (Now the sole leader after 2 rounds). A few other people gathered round as they analyzed, and later Dave came in and tossed in his ideas.

I was a bit tired, and so went off to the side a bit and watched from afar, and relaxed.

Before the round started I also chatted with Evgeny Kalmenson, who has the option of playing in either the middle or lower section....this tournament he decided to play in the U 1400 Section.

Round 2

After some announcements, and again wishing all the members a Happy New Year, and welcome to our new digs in the basement of 459 Bloor St. West, the round was started shortly after 7:30 PM.

After my game I watched the games in my section and the top section until I had all the results for the U 1800 Section. I like to get my section results before going home, for this blog, though the club gets the results up on ChessResults quite quickly after the round ends.

I then headed back home on TTC – Now, from door to door, as I said, public transit is faster than driving for me.

The Wee Hours of Tuesday Morning

I got home about 11:30 PM and then talked to my wife for about an hour (She was still up). Then I came and did some updating on my Fb project, but was then too tired to do this Blog # 1.......so I decided to leave it 'til later in the day to complete.

U 1800 Section Chess Report on Rd. 2 on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019.

My Section – U 1800 Section

I am rated 1569. I am ranked # 10 out of 17 players (In the middle third).

Rating Spread

1600’s – 7
1500’s – 5 (my rating is here)
1400’s – 3
1300’s - 2 (Playing up)

Total - 17

U 1800 Standings After Rd. 2

There were 7 boards in the section (The actual number of boards may have playing fewer than the total no. of players, due to byes, withdrawals, suspensions, etc.).

The leaders are:

1st – 2/2 pts. (Won all games) – Jr. Boy Sihao (Daniel) Chen (1691).

2nd/6th – 1.5/2 pts. – Bharath Ramesh (1640); Matthew Furrow (1632); Jr. Girl Lucy Gao (1601); Michael Saltat (1584); Robert Wagner (1560); Colton Belanger (1447).

My Round 2 Game

Here is my game, with a few light annotations, to show some of what I was thinking as I played (No analysis engine yet):
Chandra,Ambarish (1310) - Armstrong,Robert J. (1546) [B27]

Annex CC New Beginnings (U 1800) (2), 14.01.2019
[Armstrong, Robert J.]

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 c5 Modern Defence 4.c3 Qa5 5.Bd2 Breaking the pin on the c3P 5...Qb6 6.Qb3 Nc6 7.d5 Ne5 8.Nxe5 Bxe5 9.Na3 Qxb3 I decided to give Ambarish the doubled P. 10.axb3 Bg7 I want to develop my K-side N; but I do not want to have to retreat my B to the Q-side if Ambarish plays f4. But I missed Ambarish's strategy on the Q-side. I am now losing a P. 11.Nb5 what I had missed.....the fork threat is a pain. But worse than that, it is a double attack on a7 as well. 11...Kd8 there goes my castling 12.Rxa7 Ambarish goes up a P 12...Rxa7 13.Nxa7 Nf6 14.Bd3 d6 15.Nxc8 when up material, exchange pieces; also generally good to exchange an N for a B. 15...Kxc8 16.h3 Kc7 17.0–0 Ra8 18.c4 Nd7 19.Bc3 Bxc3 20.bxc3 Ne5 21.Bc2 Ra2 my compensation for being down a P is that I have the active R. As well, the extra P is doubled, which makes it somewhat less dangerous. 22.Rc1 Rb2 23.f4 Nd7 24.Kf2 Now Ambarish has to tread carefully - the B is now pinned. And the R is pinned to defending the B. So Ambarish will have trouble getting some plan rolling to use his extra P. 24...e5 I will put my P's on dark squares, since Ambarish's B is the light-squared one. 25.dxe6 [25.fxe5 dxe5 I would need to try to keep the K back by controlling the f4 square.] 25...fxe6 26.g4 e5 27.f5 Nf6 I blockade Ambarish's passed P 28.Ke3 g5 again - P's onto dark squares. 29.Kf3 h6 30.Bd1 b6 I cannot let Ambarish penetrate into my position with his R 31.Ra1 Kb7 Ambarish offered a draw (Without moving - illegal). I waived the illegality since all I can do is draw if he makes no mistakes. So I just accepted the draw offer (And didn't enforce that he had to move first and then offer a draw). ½–½

My Score

1/2 pts. (50%): Draw: 1 (Rd. 2); Bye (1/2 pt.): 1 (Rd. 1).

My Opponents' & My Scores

1/2 pts. - Me (1574)
- Ambarish Chandra (1310) - I drew in Rd. 2.

The Other Less Important (!!) Sections:

i) Crown (1800 +) - 7 players; 3 boards

1st – 2/2 pts. (Won all games) – David Southam (2130 -– National Master).

ii) U 1400 - 14 players; 6 boards

1st – 2/2 pts. (Won all games) – Jr. Boy Zichen (Roger) Zuo (1109);

Full Results
See ChessResults website (Canada): http://chess-results.com/fed.aspx?lan=1&fed=CAN

Invitation


I am most happy to interact with readers re anything about which I have posted.....so react, comment, reply, post, etc. - both favourable comments and constructive criticism....I will do my best to respond to everyone, so long as I am where I have access to the internet.

And if some of the players, or non-players, wish to post something to supplement the blog, you are encouraged to do so.

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

Bob A

[Hans Jung]

Nice to hear of Josh Guo. He was in the 1995 Canadian Cadet Championship that me and Todd (Dave's brother) organized in London. He stayed with us. A fine young man and back playing chess. Thanks for the news Bob!

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Hans: Josh and I have been chess friends for some time now - used to play at the Scarborough CC. Now we are meeting up again at the Annex CC. I agree totally with your observation!

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Annex Chess Club New Beginnings Swiss - Blog

Rd. 3 - 19/1/21

Bob's Chess Blog # 3 [Part I of 3 parts]
(See Knight Logo below)

Note:

1. This Blog on my personal Facebook page is re-posted a few other places - so references refer to this platform.
2. The first sections, down to the registration history for this current tournament, are a template. I repeat them in each Blog....I cannot simply refer new readers to my prior Blog. It is too much to expect new readers to scroll down my Facebook timeline to find my most recent Blog, which by now is far down the scroll.

At the same time, the template must be here for any new readers of my Blog.

So I ask my regular readers to be tolerant, and you can skip the template parts (I will alert you immediately after the template if there are any revisions).

Template Begins

Club

Annex Chess Club, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

(See logo below)
(ACC Website: http://annexchessclub.com/)
(ACC Fb Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/172335039452033/)

Bob's Blog

For a number of years now, I have been posting my chess blog:

i) on my personal Facebook Account for my almost 850 Fb friends from around the world (in English): https://www.facebook.com/bob.armstrong.9235;
ii) sometimes on the national Canadian English chess discussion board, Chess Talk [CT] (https://forum.chesstalk.com/…/chesstalk-canada-s-chess-disc…);
iii) occasionally on other chess websites, such as that of FQE (Province of Quebec's Chess Association). That time the blog was posted in both French and English.

More recently I also have been "re-posting" my Fb blog:

i) on my Fb chess discussion group, Chess Chat - A Project of Chess Companions of Caissa (https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/);
ii) my Scarborough CC tournaments Fb Blog to SCC's Fb Page (URL above)
iii) my Annex CC tournaments Fb blog to ACC's Fb Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/172335039452033/);

Henry Lam (Aka Dark Knight), the recently new owner of CT, and I have an agreement (From the summer of 2018) that I will re-post my Fb Blogs on CT for both my chess club official tournaments, and my non-club weekend (Sometimes longer; sometimes shorter) tournaments, in which I play between Summer 2018 and Summer 2019. After that, Henry and I can then renew our agreement for another year if we both so wish.

So, under this agreement, most recently I have been re-posting my current Scarborough CC and Annex CC tournaments. My future non-club weekend blogs to and including Summer 2019 will be (Given my current schedule - from time to time, though, my life schedule may change so that I fit in a tournament not on my schedule):

1. The 2018 Hart House Holidays Open (Prior to Christmas - Dec. 14-16) - Blogged;
2. The 2019 Hart House Reading Week Open (Usually on the Family Day Holiday Weekend in February).
3. The 2019 Quebec Open (July).
4. The 2019 Toronto Open (Sept.)

The National Canadian French Chess Discussion Board

Henri Hughes, a member of both the national English and French chess discussion boards (Chess Talk; Parlons Echecs), volunteers, subject to demands of his school studies, to translate my blogs into French, and post them to Parlons Echecs, also owned by Henry Lam. Thanks from all to Henri for his volunteer effort.

The Blog Focus

I mainly focus on the section I am playing in (Has been U 2000, U 1900 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 the classes under 1900. And many of my class viewers have actually played players about whom I am blogging (Ones I play and ones with whom I may socialize during the tournament, who then are mentioned in the Blog). So this adds a bit more interest for them.

I do also generally cover (Bare Bones) the top section standings; but I have to have been able to get the results before the Blog goes to press. I sometimes will cover also the lower sections, if I have the results. For both, of course, it can be a matter of the time available (I am often doing my Blog in the wee hours of the morning).

I do hope my blogs will continue to provide a window onto class tournament chess, and what THIS chess player does in the day of club tournaments, and before and between rounds for weekend tournaments (A bit of a reality show - bits of my personal life).

I know many other chess players approach tournaments quite differently than I do (E.g. - study!), and so one cannot generalize from what I do.

Blog Feedback

Over the years, and in these more recent blogs, I have had generally positive feedback on my blogging, on both of my own Fb Accounts, the SCC & ACC Fb sites, and on CT.

It has been said that my writing style is easy to read, factual, and often entertaining. It is a find for all us "nosy" chess players!

Thanks to all those who have supported my Blogging on various sites, and kept encouraging me to continue.

Joining Annex CC

Lots of room and so ACC WELCOMES all new members. You can inquire about joining at the general ACC e-mail address: info@annexchessclub.com. You can join a tournament in progress….you will get ½ pt. byes for the missed rounds (Only two). Note that the club moved at the end of 2018...see the website for new location details – not far from the old location.

The Tournament - ACC New Beginnings Swiss

This is the 1st regular swiss tournament at ACC in 2019.

It is a 5-round swiss that runs from January 7 – February 4. There are three sections: Crown; U 1800; U 1400. All sections are CFC-rated. Time control is G/90 + 30 sec. (From move 1). Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play up, and most do.

Notes:

1. The summer format: Crown (1700 +); U 1700 - where there are usually fewer players; right to play up.
2. The Club Championship has only 2 sections (so lower two sections' players get to play some different opponents): Championship (1800+); Reserves (U 1800); 1700’s have option to play up and usually do.
3. For a short time in 2017, Swisses had 4 sections: Master (2200 +); U 2200; U 1800; U 1400. Players within 100 pts. had the option to play up, and most did. It was temporarily shelved because the top two sections each had too few players; it will be reconsidered if the membership grows, and gets stronger.

Tournaments Registration History

2015

2015 Average per tournament: 54 registrations (Based on the last three tournaments of 2015 – highest yearly average since we started keeping records).

2016

Back to the Grind Swiss – 48 registrations (Peak registration for 2016)

2016 Average per tournament: 43 registrations (Down significantly from the prior year - 54).

2017

Peak registrations for 2017:

Club Championship – 60! registrants: Championship (1800+): 20; Reserves (U 1800): 40.

Summer in the City Swiss – 60! registrants: Masters 8; U 2200 – 7; U 1800 – 10; U 1400 – 12.

2017 Average per Tournament – 53 registrants (2nd highest since keeping records here)

2018

Changing Leaves Swiss - 59 registrants (Peak registration for 2018)

2018 Average per Tournament – 49 registrations (Down somewhat from the annual record of 2015: 54 registrants.

End of Template

2019 (Current)

# 1 – New Beginnings Swiss – 46 registrants (So far): Crown: 10; U 1800: 18; U 1400: 18 (Down slightly from the 2018 average).

[See Parts II & III below]

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Sorry - deleted Part II in error - I think those who were going to read it already have some time ago.

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Annex Chess Club New Beginnings Swiss - Blog

Rd. 3 - 19/1/21

Bob's Chess Blog # 2 [Part III of 3 parts]
(See Knight Logo below)

[See Parts I & II above]

Pre-Round 3

I got into ACC and settled about 20 min. before the round started; so I socialized a bit.

I joined Erik Malmsten, Dave Southam and John Fines who were discussing Erik's fine showing in the last ACC “quick/active” tournament, where he had come sole first, knocking off a master or two on the way!

John Fines and I then continued chatting when they left. Somehow we got onto our university alma maters. I advised that I had a BA in Philosophy from Western University, and a Masters in Philosophy from U of Toronto. He advised that his BA was in philosophy (!) and psychology. I then added that I also had Carlton University in Ottawa as an alma mater, as I had subjects from there in theology, taken at a satellite college in London, Ontario..... I have the equivalent from my theology and philosophy of a Masters of Divinity (I had been accepted into the PhD Theology program at The University of St. Michael's College [Associated with U of T], but then went to U of T Law School instead). I confirmed that I had been in a London, Ontario diocesan Catholic Seminary when studying the theology. John said that he had done a major paper on morality......and how we should purse what we “"ought”" to do. This led to an interesting discussion on whether one pursues happiness as a “"goal"” in life, or whether we pursue other “goals” (Like doing the “"ought”"), and happiness is the "bi-product" of trying to achieve our own personally-set goals. We would have been off and running on this for years, but the pairings went up for Rd. 3.......we agreed it was a future conversation!

Round 3

After some announcements, the round was started shortly after 7:30 PM. I played white against the club secretary, George Supol. We have played a number of times over the last 3 years.

Our game was hard-fought, and we were the 2^nd last game in the hall to finish (The last was Bd. 3 1 in the Crown Section: Dave Southam vs Erik Malmsten). I had all the results for the U 1800 Section (I like to get my section results before going home, for this blog, though the club gets the results up on ChessResults quite quickly after the round ends), and so I headed to the TTC to go home.

The Wee Hours of Tuesday Morning

I got home about 11:45 PM and then talked to my daughter for about a half hour;– my wife had hit the sack earlier. She was packing to leave on the Tuesday 8:00 AM bus for Montreal. She was then going on the 10-day Vipassana. I offered to give her a ride in the morning, and she said she might just take transit, but would let me know if I was up...I said I'd get up anyway, and she could then decide.

Then I went up to my home office and did some updating on my Fb project. But I was then too tired to do this Blog # 2.......so I decided to leave it 'til later in the day to complete.

U 1800 Section Chess Report on Rd. 3 on Monday, Jan. 21, 2019.

My Section – U 1800 Section

I am rated 1569. I am ranked # 10 out of 18 players (In the middle third).

Rating Spread

1600’s – 7
1500’s – 5 (my rating is here)
1400’s – 4
1300’s - 2 (Playing up)

Total - 18

U 1800 Standings After Rd. 3

There were 7 boards in the section (The actual number of boards may have playing fewer than the total no. of players, due to byes, withdrawals, suspensions, etc.).

The leaders are:

1^st/3^rd – 2.5/3 pts. (Undefeated) – Bharath Ramesh (1640); Matthew Furrow (1632); Robert Wagner (1560).

My Round 3 Game

Here is my game, with a few light annotations, to show some of what I was thinking as I played (No analysis engine yet):

Armstrong,Robert J. (1569) - Supol,George [A40]

Annex CC New Beginnings (U 1800) (3), 21.01.2019
[Armstrong, Robert J.]

1.d4 g6 Love to see George playing "my" Modern Defence! 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 e6 4.e4 c6 5.Be3 Ne7 6.g4 Maybe a tad aggressive! 6...d5 7.cxd5 exd5 Now, in many lines, by g4P is going to be left hanging......felt it best to push it to solve that problem......my over-the-board prepared opening is already showing cracks! 8.g5 dxe4 9.Nxe4 Nf5 10.Nf3 Nxe3 11.fxe3 Lots of players don't like playing with the connected, but isolated centre P's - but I find the games become quite interesting often. 11...0–0 George decided there was no attack in fact, just the appearance. So safe to 0–0. 12.Qd2 My whole opening plan was to castle long.....again, my opening showed flaws that made this impossible, IMHO. 12...Re8 attacking the hanging N but also pinning the eP. 13.Nf2 Be6 prohibiting castling long til I solve the lost a2P problem 14.Bd3 Qb6 pins my Q to the b2P and prevents my e4. 15.0–0 George said this move "freaked" him....he thought I had to be going from the fryingpan into the fire! 15...Qd8 16.h4 Qd6 17.Ne4 Qd8 18.Nc5 Qc7 19.Qf2 Can't let George get his Q to g3 19...Bh3 20.Rfe1 b6 21.Nb3 Be6 22.Nbd2 b5 The game has now shifted from my non-attack on the K-side to a P battle on the Q-side. But George's backward c6P is a target. 23.b4 Nd7 24.Rac1 a6 If George plays Bxa2, I play Bxb5! 25.a3 Bd5 The game now shifts again to fighting in the centre. 26.e4 Qb6 threatening to pin my Q against my K by his B. 27.Kh1 Be6 28.e5 Bd5 29.Ne4 Bf8 Keeps my R out of c5. 30.Kg1 I was uncomfortable with one of my N's being pinned, once I moved the other N. 30...a5 31.h5 Now it is a race......will George win P's on the Q-side? And if so, will I get to his K before he can queen one of his P's? 31...Be7 32.hxg6 fxg6 33.Nf6+ Bxf6 34.gxf6 Bxf3 I am down an N temporarily; if I take the B, Qxd4+ and my game falls apart. 35.f7+ Kxf7 36.e6+ 36.Qxf3+ is not as fancy, but likely better..... 36...Kg7 37.exd7 I am down a P, but have some positional compensation. 37...Rf8 38.Re7+ Kg8 39.Qe3 Qc7 I felt I was ahead to some degree here, despite being down a P. 40.Qe6+ Kh8 41.Qh3 Bh5 42.Rce1 Qf4 George comes up with a last minute counter-attack 43.Re8 A collossal blunder - I saw the danger of ......Qf2+ and told myself "You can't let that happen....." but then I decided to see if I had any forcing chances........and I promptly forgot about the danger I absolutely had to counter......it was fatal not to........sigh 43...Qf2+ 44.Kh1 Bf3+ 45.Qxf3 Qxf3+ 46.Kg1 Qg4+ My B is not important.......George correctly goes for the win of the crucial d7P. 0–1

My Score

1/3 pts. (33%): Draw: 1 (Rd. 2); Loss: 1 (Rd. 3); Bye (1/2 pt.): 1 (Rd. 1).

My Opponents' & My Scores

1.5/3 pts. - George Supol (1422) – I lost in Rd. 3.

1/3 pts. - Me (1569)
- Ambarish Chandra (1310) - I drew in Rd. 2.

The Other Less Important (!!) Sections:

i) Crown (1800 +) - 10 players; 4 boards

1^st – 3/3 pts. (Won all games) – David Southam (2130 – National Master).

ii) U 1400 - 18 players; 6 boards

1^st – 3/3 pts. (Won all games) – Jr. Boy Zichen (Roger) Zuo (1109);

Full Results

See ChessResults website (Canada): http://chess-results.com/fed.aspx?lan=1&fed=CAN

Invitation

I am most happy to interact with readers re anything about which I have posted.....so react, comment, reply, post, etc. - both favourable comments and constructive criticism....I will do my best to respond to everyone, so long as I am where I have access to the internet.

And if some of the players, or non-players, wish to post something to supplement the blog, you are encouraged to do so.

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

Bob A

[Hans Jung]

Was that Brescia College?

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Hans:

At my time, the two Catholic Colleges associated with Western University (Then U of Western Ontario) were:

- Brescia College (I believe only females were attendees at that time), and
- King's College (Mixed by then I think, but not sure - I know residence was only males).

But though I was in residence at King's College, a number of us there were not registered at King's, but on the normal main campus (I was in the first year section designated Pre-Medicine - Maths & Sciences).

For my BA, though, I took my subjects at St. Peter's Catholic Diocesan Seminary (Next door to King's College), and they were associated for undergraduate philosophy with King's & Western.

So my BA (Phil) is formally from Western University, via King's College (As far as I know. If someone knows this is not right, then let me know! I think arts degrees earned at King's were actually granted by Western through the association of the two).

Bob A

[Hans Jung]

Hi Bob, I have many fond memories of Kings College and St. Peters. Circa 1974-76 I played many match games there and many analysis and speed chess sessions. The perfect setting - absolute quiet. I was a high school student but my opponents who always wanted a piece of me (and often I obliged - pardon the pun) were students there. After and sometimes between play I would head down the river bank all the way to the Motherhouse, one of my favourite walks (and still is)

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Hans: Yes King's and St. Peter's Seminary had a very nice natural setting nestled back a ways into the subdivision, off Richmond Street.

London used to be called: The City of Trees!

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Annex Chess Club New Beginnings Swiss

Blog Rd. 4 - 19/1/28

Bob's Chess Blog # 3 [Part I of 3 Parts]
(See Knight Logo below)

Club

Annex Chess Club, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(See logo below)
(ACC Website: http://annexchessclub.com/)
(ACC Fb Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/172335039452033/)

The Tournament - ACC New Beginnings Swiss (This is the 1st regular swiss tournament at ACC in 2019).

# 1 – New Beginnings Swiss – 47 registrants (So far): Crown: 10; U 1800: 19; U 1400: 18 (Down slightly from the 2018 average of 49).
It is a 5-round swiss that runs from January 7 – February 4. There are three sections: Crown; U 1800; U 1400. All sections are CFC-rated. Time control is G/90 + 30 sec. (From move 1). Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play up, and most do.

Section Notes:

1. The summer format: Crown (1700 +); U 1700 - where there are usually fewer players; right to play up.
2. The Club Championship has only 2 sections (so lower two sections' players get to play some different opponents): Championship (1800+); Reserves (U 1800); 1700’s have option to play up and usually do.
3. For a short time in 2017, Swisses had 4 sections: Master (2200 +); U 2200; U 1800; U 1400. Players within 100 pts. had the option to play up, and most did. It was temporarily shelved because the top two sections each had too few players; it will be reconsidered if the membership grows, and gets stronger.

Blog Note:

This Blog, on my personal Facebook page, is directly re-posted a few other places - so references here refer to this Fb platform.

The Day of Rd. 4 (19/1/28)

The Wee Hours of Monday Morning

I awoke at 4:00 AM (Went to bed at 10:30 PM Monday – earlier than usual for me) – got 5 1/2 hrs. sleep (Close to my normal 6 hrs. sleep - But during weekend tournaments, I often sleep quite a bit less than normal).

So, as usual (Victim of Routine), I got up, went and got my morning coffee, and went to my home office (I am retired) and fired up my old laptop.
As those who have read my blogs before know, I have a kind of morning/daily routine I follow, whether I am playing chess tournaments or not (This is a template I always include, for new readers, and regular readers can skip down to the next section, to “End of Template”):

Start of Template

1. Check for e-mails (for myself and my wife – I alert her if there is something to deal with; she then deals with them later in the day) and Fb messages (Me only);
2. Check new posts/comments on CT;
3. Check my Twitter feed to see what had been happening in the world (I follow numerous mainstream media from countries around the world, such as CBC, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, France 24, China Daily, Al Jezeera (English), Japan Times, Sputnik News, The Guardian, etc.), for the purpose of up-to-the-date news postings (See below).
4. Update my company's Fb project – it has a “page”, Canadian Life Consulting (CLC) - https://www.facebook.com/Canadian-Li...lting-16406543…/. I do this by checking some of my Fb friends timelines for posts to "share", my Fb newsfeed, and my Twitter inbox for articles to re-post onto CLC.
5. Update one of the two discussion groups formed as part of the company project, under my company page, called Canadian Life Consulting Cooperative Supporters' Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2042495809374373/. I update it by sharing some more discussable of the posts now on the CFC page.
6. Update My Own Fb Project - this Fb world events/politics discussion group that I have created here on my own personal Fb account, called PEERS (A Discussion Club of Equals) - Fb URL above. I do this by also sharing some of the CLC page posts. But I also share some of my sources' posts directly to this discussion club.
7. I have another retiree project besides my Facebook one. Chess is a passionate hobby of mine, as you know. It is part of what I call my “Interlude Living”.
But I have never really studied seriously.
But what I do do, is I enter all my games, and annotate them, to try to learn something - GrandMasters do recommend this often. In addition, I integrate the opening (the first 10 moves) into an opening/defence tree I have for the opening/defence played. The value of this is pretty uncertain, given my inability to remember lines - but I do develop general impressions of how the opening can go. So on my own time, I go back and forth between my Facebook project, my company's Fb Project, and my chess hobby project.
8. I share at least one chess post per day to my Fb Chess Chat group, a chess discussion group, formed under my personal Fb account - see Fb URL above.
9. When I find them, I share discussable religious posts to my second Fb group under my own account, my “religion/spirituality” discussion club, Theist Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1052227598173591/. Sometimes these also appear in PEERS.

Sometime during this process, I usually get my breakfast and eat it at the computer, if my wife is not yet up.

My 35/25 System

As well, I go back and forth between my routine items above and my own personal life tasks to be done that day. But I have a somewhat unique system for doing this.

Recently I found that I was spending a lot more time on my two retiree projects than my normal life tasks - don't we all spend more time on what we enjoy!
But I was falling behind in "life" while keeping up in the "Fb/chess" projects. So I did have to deal with this issue.

So I came up with the "35/25 System". What this is: When I am at home, I start by spending 35 min. on “working for myself” - doing my life tasks; then I get a prize of 25 min. on my 3 retiree projects (My Facebook project, my company's Fb project & Chess)! I even set the alarm! And I try very hard to religiously stop when I am to change phases.

This has actually worked out well....I am still abysmally behind in "Life", but not nearly as much as I used to be! LOL

End of Template

Charging into Monday Morning

Before I started my routine this morning, I dealt with some of my wife's business dealings, as we generally work together on them.

Then I started in on my normal daily routine for a short while, and had my breakfast at the computer.

As my regular readers know, my wife belongs to an exercise studio about 35 min. walk from our place, so often I walk her there. But she was ill last week, and it was pretty cold, so at 10:00 AM I drove her there today once she was up and around.

I usually would head then for my favourite local coffee shop, La Patisserie de Cignogne, where I stop in for a while on the exercise studio mornings, before going home. There are a group of regulars on the 7:45 – 8:30 shift, and we sort of have an informal coffee club going.

But my wife was doing a short exercise shift this morning, and I had to return to pick her up, so I just went to the closer Coffee Time, which I also frequent.

I then went and picked up my wife.

The Later Morning & Early Afternoon

Though my wife and I often use a 40/20 system when working together on tasks, sometimes you just have to take the time they need.

So we tackled a long “work for ourselves” shift of a few hours:

1. Off to Winners to return something and to shop. The females in my family have agreed that for some surprising reason, unexplainable, I have good taste in women's clothes.....a number of them often ask my opinion.....they say that my odds are good, but when I'm wrong it is usually a real lemon. So my wife shopped for a while, while I was a sounding board.
2. We love COSTCO, and they just opened a new one in the Thornecliffe Park area. So off we went with another return item, and to stock up the pantry (It was really snowing – later I found that Toronto set a new snowfall record for the day – 26 centimeters).
3. Off to Food Basics to get some things not available at COSTCO and some sale items.

On returning home about 3:00 PM, we then had to deal with getting stuff into the refrigerator and the refrigerator freezer – this is a challenge – we do not have any stand-alone freezer in our Toronto home; it is at our hobby farm home in Southern Georgian Bay region.

Late Thursday Afternoon

At 3:30 PM my wife and I prepared, and had, lunch. On my chess club days, I like to not eat too close to the start of the round.......can make one a bit sluggish at the start of the game.

I then went back upstairs to continue my routine.

Given that I often sleep short compared to many in the morning night, and that my wife and I are both over 70 y.o., we have found that the European/Latin American practice of a siesta time in mid-afternoon works really well (We usually set the alarm and do not sleep more than 1 hour). And so I crashed at 4:00 PM for an hour.

Heading Out for Rd. 4

I then prepared a few things for going to ACC – I printed out the current U 1800 cross-table so I could record myself the Rd. 4 results for this Blog.

At about 5:30 PM I headed downtown by TTC . The club is really very quick to get to, door to door – 35 min. generally.

I get downtown early in order to go have a coffee (Sometimes a light dinner), relax before the game, and update my “Reminder Lists” (I have a medically defective memory, in addition to old age, and so need to keep my tasks written down so they don't fall below the radar).

So I went for the first time, on the advice of long-time chess friend and ACC member, Erik Malmsten, to Kensington Natural Bakery west of the club on Bloor St.

At 7:00 PM I headed east to the club.

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Annex Chess Club New Beginnings Swiss - Blog

Rd. 4 - 19/1/28

Bob's Chess Blog # 3 [Part II of 3 Parts]

[See Part I above]

Pre-Round 4


I got into ACC and settled about 20 min. before the round started; so I socialized a bit.

I first talked to Bharath Ramesh of our section, and we commented on the recently concluded Tata Steel tournament in India, won by Magnus Carlsen (Norway), current World Chess Champion. Then my friend Dragan Jevtic of our section joined us. Bharath wandered off, and then Dragan and I compared farming years ago in Serbia and in Ontario (As I mentioned, my wife owns a hobby farm - we've now had it for over 18 years). We agreed to go to dinner sometime at the Country Style restaurant west of the club, before the club meeting, when he had decided not to go home first.

As I said, the snowstorm by night time was getting brutal – there were 9 draw requests out of 19 players this night in our section alone!

Round 4

After some announcements, the round was started shortly after 7:30 PM. I was playing black against Charlie Grisar (Who had defeated me the last time we played). But after a few minutes he had not shown yet, so I went to Marcus Wilker, our club adjudicator. He said Charlie had called, and was on his way, delayed a bit by the storm. I asked Marcus to just reset our clocks equally with some time reduction for starting late, and he agreed. Charlie arrived about 1/2 hr. late, and Marcus just re-set the clock. I saw no need for me to get a time advantage because of a freak snow storm.

After the game, I watched two of our section games still in progress, to get the results, and the Bd. 1 game in the 1800+ section (The ONLY game that night in that section!). When I had all the results for the U 1800 Section (I like to get my section results before going home, for this blog, though the club gets the results up on ChessResults quite quickly after the round ends), I headed out into the still-continuing snow storm to the TTC to go home.

The Wee Hours of Tuesday Morning

I got home about 11:45 PM and then talked to my wife for about a half hour.
Then I went up to my home office and did some updating on my and my company's Fb projects. But I was then too tired to do this Blog # 3.......so I decided to leave it 'til later in the day to complete.

U 1800 Section Chess Report on Rd. 4 on Monday, Jan. 28, 2019.

My Section – U 1800 Section
I am rated 1569. I am ranked # 10 out of 19 players (In the middle third).

Rating Spread

1600’s – 7
1500’s – 5 (my rating is here)
1400’s – 5
1300’s - 2 (Playing up)

Total - 19

U 1800 Standings After Rd. 4

There were 4 boards in the section (The actual number of boards may have playing fewer than the total no. of players, due to byes, withdrawals, suspensions, etc.).

The leaders are:

1st/4th - 3/4 pts.– Junior Boy Daniel Chen (1691); Matthew Furrow (1632); Robert Wagner (1560); Lorne Schwartz (1501).

3 players are 1/2 pt. back tied for 5th.

My Round 4 Game

Here is my game, with a few light annotations, to show some of what I was thinking as I played (No analysis engine yet):

Grisar,Charles (1472) - Armstrong,Robert J. (1569) [A40]

Annex CC New Beginnings (U 1800) (4), 28.01.2019
[Armstrong, Robert J.]

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.c4 c5 Modern Defence 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.d5 Nd4 6.Nc3 d6 7.Bf4 Qa5 8.Bd3 Nxf3+ 9.Qxf3 Bxc3+ 10.bxc3 Qxc3+ I go up a P 11.Ke2 h5 White has 4 pieces developed (If you count that the R's are now connected) and I have 1 piece. Am I going to pay for this? 12.h3 Qf6 13.Qe3 Qb2+ 14.Kf3 f6 15.Rhb1 Qd4 the Q's fifth move in this opening??? 16.Qxd4 cxd4 Charlie has 4 pieces developed (If you include the K) and I have all 5 of my pieces still on their home squares......this has got to be courting danger? 17.Rd1 g5 18.Bh2 g4+ 19.Kg3 h4+ 20.Kf4 gxh3 21.gxh3 Bxh3 I go up 2 P's (the hP now being passed). 22.Bc2 Nh6 23.Rxd4 I am up 1 P 23...0–0–0 24.Rd3 Bd7 25.f3 Nf7 re-positioning to a nice outpost in the middle. 26.a4 Charles is hoping now for a Q-side attack 26...Rdg8 27.Bg1 h3 For some reason I was totally blind to the fact that my aP was hanging......but in retrospect, it is probably a good sac for the purpose of advancing the passed P another square. 28.Bxa7 Material equality (But my passed hp on the 3rd rank should be decisive) 28...h2 29.Rh1 Rh4+ 30.Ke3 Rg1 31.Rd1 Rg2 I was now not so sure how I was going to queen my hP. 32.Rd2 Rxd2 33.Kxd2 Ne5 the N finally gets to the centre, and will win a P. 34.Ke2 Nxc4 I go up a P again (My passed hP) 35.Bf2 Rh3 36.f4 Bg4+ The B is headed for f3 to force the R to be sacked for the hP 0–1

My Score

2/4 pts. (50%): Win: 1 (Rd. 4); Draw: 1 (Rd. 2); Loss: 1 (Rd. 3); Bye (1/2 pt.): 1 (Rd. 1).

My Opponents' & My Scores

2/4 pts. - Me (1569)
- George Supol (1422) – I lost in Rd. 3.
1/4 pts. - Ambarish Chandra (1310) - I drew in Rd. 2.

The Other Less Important (!!) Sections:

i) Crown (1800 +) - 10 players; 1 board

1st – 4/4 pts. (Won all games) – David Southam (2130 – National Master).

ii) U 1400 - 18 players; 6 boards

1st – 3/4 pts. – Jr. Boy Zichen (Roger) Zuo (1109);

Full Results

See ChessResults website (Canada): http://chess-results.com/fed.aspx?lan=1&fed=CAN

[For Part III see below]

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Annex Chess Club New Beginnings Swiss - Blog

Rd. 4 - 19/1/28

Bob's Chess Blog # 3 [Part III of 3 Parts]

[For Parts I & II see above]

Some History: My Blogging & ACC Tournaments

Blog Note:

The next sections, down to the end of the tournament history are a template. I repeat them in each Blog.
The template must be here for any new readers of my Blog.
So I ask my regular readers to be tolerant, and you can skip the template parts and go to “End of Template” (I will alert you immediately after the template if there are any revisions).

Template Begins

Bob's Blog

For a number of years now, I have been posting my chess blog:

i) on my personal Facebook Account for my almost 850 Fb friends from around the world (in English): https://www.facebook.com/bob.armstrong.9235;
ii) sometimes on the national Canadian English chess discussion board, Chess Talk [CT] (https://forum.chesstalk.com/…/chesstalk-canada-s-chess-disc…);
iii) occasionally on other chess websites, such as that of FQE (Province of Quebec's Chess Association). That time the blog was posted in both French and English.

More recently I also have been "re-posting" my Fb blog:

i) on my Fb chess discussion group, Chess Chat - A Project of Chess Companions of Caissa (https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/);
ii) my Scarborough CC tournaments Fb Blog to SCC's Fb Page (URL above)
iii) my Annex CC tournaments Fb blog to ACC's Fb Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/172335039452033/);

Henry Lam (Aka Dark Knight), the recently new owner of CT, and I have an agreement (From the summer of 2018) that I will re-post my Fb Blogs on CT for both my chess club official tournaments, and my non-club weekend (Sometimes longer; sometimes shorter) tournaments, in which I play between Summer 2018 and Summer 2019. After that, Henry and I can then renew our agreement for another year if we both so wish.

So, under this agreement, most recently I have been re-posting my current Scarborough CC and Annex CC tournaments. My future non-club weekend blogs to and including Summer 2019 will be (Given my current schedule - from time to time, though, my life schedule may change so that I fit in a tournament not on my schedule):

1. The 2018 Hart House Holidays Open (Prior to Christmas - Dec. 14-16/18) - Blogged;
2. The 2019 Hart House Reading Week Open (February 16-18 – already registered).
3. The 2019 Quebec Open (July 21-7).
4. The 2019 Toronto Open (Aug. 31 – Sept. 2)

The National Canadian French Chess Discussion Board

Henri Hughes, a member of both the national English and French chess discussion boards (Chess Talk; Parlons Echecs), volunteers, subject to demands of his school studies, to translate my blogs into French, and post them to Parlons Echecs, also owned by Henry Lam. Thanks from all to Henri for his volunteer effort.

The Blog Focus

I mainly focus on the section I am playing in (Has been U 2000, U 1900 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 the classes under 1900. And many of my class viewers have actually played players about whom I am blogging (Ones I play and ones with whom I may socialize during the tournament, who then are mentioned in the Blog). So this adds a bit more interest for them.

I do also generally cover (Bare Bones) the top section standings; but I have to have been able to get the results before the Blog goes to press. I sometimes will cover also the lower sections, if I have the results. For both, of course, it can be a matter of the time available (I am often doing my Blog in the wee hours of the morning).

I do hope my blogs will continue to provide a window onto class tournament chess, and what THIS chess player does in the day of club tournaments, and before and between rounds for weekend tournaments (A bit of a reality show - bits of my personal life).

I know many other chess players approach tournaments quite differently than I do (E.g. - study!), and so one cannot generalize from what I do.

Blog Feedback

Over the years, and in these more recent blogs, I have had generally positive feedback on my blogging, on both of my own Fb Accounts, the SCC & ACC Fb sites, and on CT.
It has been said that my writing style is easy to read, factual, and often entertaining. It is a find for all us "nosy" chess players!

Thanks to all those who have supported my Blogging on various sites, and kept encouraging me to continue.

Joining Annex CC

Lots of room and so ACC WELCOMES all new members. You can inquire about joining at the general ACC e-mail address: info@annexchessclub.com. You can join a tournament in progress….you will get ½ pt. byes for the missed rounds (Only two). Note that the club moved at the end of 2018...see the website for new location details – not far from the old location.

Tournaments Registration History

2015

2015 Average per tournament: 54 registrations (Based on the last three tournaments of 2015 – highest yearly average since we started keeping records).

2016

Back to the Grind Swiss – 48 registrations (Peak registration for 2016)
2016 Average per tournament: 43 registrations (Down significantly from the prior year - 54).

2017

Peak registrations for 2017:
Club Championship – 60! registrants: Championship (1800+): 20; Reserves (U 1800): 40.
Summer in the City Swiss – 60! registrants: Masters 8; U 2200 – 7; U 1800 – 10; U 1400 – 12.
2017 Average per Tournament – 53 registrants (2nd highest since keeping records here)

2018

Changing Leaves Swiss - 59 registrants (Peak registration for 2018)
2018 Average per Tournament – 49 registrations (Down somewhat from the annual record of 2015: 54 registrants.

End of Template

Invitation

I am most happy to interact with readers re anything about which I have posted.....so react, comment, reply, post, etc. - both favourable comments and constructive criticism....I will do my best to respond to everyone, so long as I am where I have access to the internet.

And if some of the players, or non-players, wish to post something to supplement the blog, you are encouraged to do so.

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

Bob A