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Aurora Spring Open 2019 – Blog
Rds. 1 & 2 - 19/3/30 (Saturday)
Bob's Chess Blog # 1 [Part I of 3 parts]
(See Knight Logo below)
Tournament
Name: Aurora Spring Open
When: Mar. 30 – 31
Format: 5-round swiss
Sections: 4: Master; U 2100; U 1700 ; U 1300 (There was also a separate 1-day (Sat.) Junior U-1000 tournament).
Rating: a. All sections are CFC-rated.
b. The top 3 sections are also FIDE rated.
Time Control: G/90 + 30 sec. (From move 1).
Playing Up: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play up, on paying a "playing up fee ($ 30)", and some do.
Registration: 119 ( Master - 19; U 2100 - 28; U 1700 - 38; U 1300 - 39)
Blog Note:
This Blog on my personal Facebook page is re-posted a few other places - so references here refer to this Fb platform.
The Day of Rds. 1-3
The Wee Hours of Saturday Morning
I woke up at 6:45 A.M. (Went to bed Fri. night @ 11:00 PM). So I got more than my normal approx. 6 hrs. sleep/rest.
I felt quite refreshed. So.... I got up, dressed, and went and got my morning coffee.
Usually I would then head for my home office (I am retired + unemployed – life is fine except for my slave-driver company, Canadian Life Consulting Cooperative [Quite a mouthful, but simply put: CLCC], where I must volunteer my work time for free!) and fire up my old laptop.
The Daily Routine
As those who have read my blogs before know, I have a kind of routine I usually follow, whether I am playing chess tournaments or not (The next part below is a normal template reproduction from blog to blog, and regular readers have read it before, and can skip down to the "End of Template" heading):
START OF TEMPLATE
1. Check for my e-mails and Fb messages;
2. Check new posts/comments on ChessTalk (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, Toronto Star, National Post, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, France 24, China Daily, Al Jezeera (English), Japan Times, Sputnik News, The Guardian, etc.). I post the most relevant...see below.
4. My little company (Not legally registered yet) is called, as said above, Canadian Life Consulting Cooperative (CLCC). So I update my company's Fb page, Canadian Life Consulting (CLC) - https://www.facebook.com/Canadian-Li...ing-16406543…/. I do this by checking my Twitter inbox for articles to re-post onto CLC. I then also check my Fb newsfeed and some of my Fb friends timelines for posts to "share".
5. Update one of the discussion groups formed under my company page, called Canadian Life Consulting Cooperative Supporters' Group (Or CLCC Supporters) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2042495809374373/. I update it by sharing some more discussable of the posts now on the CLC 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) – https://www.facebook.com/bob.armstrong.9235. 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.
8. I share at least one chess post per day to my Fb chess discussion club, Chess Chat, formed under my personal Fb account - https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/.
9. When I find them, I share discussable religious posts to my World Religions discussion club Fb Group, Theist Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1052227598173591/.
Sometimes these also appear in PEERS.
10. I have another retiree project besides my own Facebook Project “Job # 1”(My company) + my Fb Project “Job # 2” (My own personal interests).
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 projects and my chess hobby project.
Sometime during this process, I usually get my breakfast and eat it at the computer.
My 35/25 System 2
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 three 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 bite the bullet and I spend 35 min. on my life tasks, which I think of as “working for myself”; I even set the alarm! Then I reward myself with 25 min. on my 3 retiree projects (Facebook [2] & Chess). 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 Saturday
But this morning I had to take the TTC to Kennedy station, where my friend, Omar Shah (Acting as a “floater” at the tournament) was to pick me up at 8:00 AM. So I had not time to fall into my routine 'til the evening, after I got home.
I met Omar, and then we drove to our friend's in Markham, Toy Kwan. Omar parked his car there for the day, and we all went to Newmarket in Toy's car. We got there about 8:45 AM.
Pre-Round 1
On entering the nicely renovated Newmarket Old City Hall, I first met the Chair of the organizing committee, Chris Tapping. He was pleased with the registration for both tournaments. We noted that there are now more chess clubs (Including Junior Ones) and weekend tournaments in the Greater Toronto Area than there used to be.....and the Aurora tournaments are still holding their own.
Then Toy and I met Mahmoud Mussa from Scarborough CC. He had played at SCC for a short time years ago, and had just returned. At SCC two Thursdays back, Toy and I had told him about the Aurora tournament. Mahmoud had never played a weekend tournament. So we encouraged him to take the plunge, and he did!
We went up to the playing hall, and I met my former SCC friend, Pino Verde. He is still playing top level correspondence chess, since stopping club play a few years ago. He also gave me a chess book for me to read, and then donate to our SCC Bellomo Little Library. I then met Undriadi Benggawan from our World-Wise Lunch Club, and also Steve Douglas, former SCC'er.
I then chatted briefly with the two other members of the Aurora Organizing Cttee, Egis Zermoskis (Also chief Arbiter) and Bernie Prost.
And then just before the round started, I saw my young friend, Lucy Gao, who, like me, also belongs to both Scarborough CC and Annex CC. I also said “Hi” to my friend, Mario Moran-Venegas, former SCC'er.
Round 1
As scheduled, announcements started at 9:15 AM dead on, and the round started right at 9:30 AM.
I played a young junior player. I have turned our Game into a “Chess Game Quiz” (See below).
Lunch
After my game was over, I watched numbers of other games, mostly in our section, and then Toy, Mario and I went out for sushi for lunch. There we met SCC'er Mark Bercovici and he joined us.
We got back to the hall just a bit before the start of Rd. 2 @ 2:00 PM.
Round 2
The round started on time. Again, I have made our game into a chess quizz.
[See Parts II & III below]
Bob A
Rds. 1 & 2 - 19/3/30 (Saturday)
Bob's Chess Blog # 1 [Part I of 3 parts]
(See Knight Logo below)
Tournament
Name: Aurora Spring Open
When: Mar. 30 – 31
Format: 5-round swiss
Sections: 4: Master; U 2100; U 1700 ; U 1300 (There was also a separate 1-day (Sat.) Junior U-1000 tournament).
Rating: a. All sections are CFC-rated.
b. The top 3 sections are also FIDE rated.
Time Control: G/90 + 30 sec. (From move 1).
Playing Up: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play up, on paying a "playing up fee ($ 30)", and some do.
Registration: 119 ( Master - 19; U 2100 - 28; U 1700 - 38; U 1300 - 39)
Blog Note:
This Blog on my personal Facebook page is re-posted a few other places - so references here refer to this Fb platform.
The Day of Rds. 1-3
The Wee Hours of Saturday Morning
I woke up at 6:45 A.M. (Went to bed Fri. night @ 11:00 PM). So I got more than my normal approx. 6 hrs. sleep/rest.
I felt quite refreshed. So.... I got up, dressed, and went and got my morning coffee.
Usually I would then head for my home office (I am retired + unemployed – life is fine except for my slave-driver company, Canadian Life Consulting Cooperative [Quite a mouthful, but simply put: CLCC], where I must volunteer my work time for free!) and fire up my old laptop.
The Daily Routine
As those who have read my blogs before know, I have a kind of routine I usually follow, whether I am playing chess tournaments or not (The next part below is a normal template reproduction from blog to blog, and regular readers have read it before, and can skip down to the "End of Template" heading):
START OF TEMPLATE
1. Check for my e-mails and Fb messages;
2. Check new posts/comments on ChessTalk (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, Toronto Star, National Post, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, France 24, China Daily, Al Jezeera (English), Japan Times, Sputnik News, The Guardian, etc.). I post the most relevant...see below.
4. My little company (Not legally registered yet) is called, as said above, Canadian Life Consulting Cooperative (CLCC). So I update my company's Fb page, Canadian Life Consulting (CLC) - https://www.facebook.com/Canadian-Li...ing-16406543…/. I do this by checking my Twitter inbox for articles to re-post onto CLC. I then also check my Fb newsfeed and some of my Fb friends timelines for posts to "share".
5. Update one of the discussion groups formed under my company page, called Canadian Life Consulting Cooperative Supporters' Group (Or CLCC Supporters) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2042495809374373/. I update it by sharing some more discussable of the posts now on the CLC 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) – https://www.facebook.com/bob.armstrong.9235. 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.
8. I share at least one chess post per day to my Fb chess discussion club, Chess Chat, formed under my personal Fb account - https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/.
9. When I find them, I share discussable religious posts to my World Religions discussion club Fb Group, Theist Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1052227598173591/.
Sometimes these also appear in PEERS.
10. I have another retiree project besides my own Facebook Project “Job # 1”(My company) + my Fb Project “Job # 2” (My own personal interests).
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 projects and my chess hobby project.
Sometime during this process, I usually get my breakfast and eat it at the computer.
My 35/25 System 2
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 three 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 bite the bullet and I spend 35 min. on my life tasks, which I think of as “working for myself”; I even set the alarm! Then I reward myself with 25 min. on my 3 retiree projects (Facebook [2] & Chess). 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 Saturday
But this morning I had to take the TTC to Kennedy station, where my friend, Omar Shah (Acting as a “floater” at the tournament) was to pick me up at 8:00 AM. So I had not time to fall into my routine 'til the evening, after I got home.
I met Omar, and then we drove to our friend's in Markham, Toy Kwan. Omar parked his car there for the day, and we all went to Newmarket in Toy's car. We got there about 8:45 AM.
Pre-Round 1
On entering the nicely renovated Newmarket Old City Hall, I first met the Chair of the organizing committee, Chris Tapping. He was pleased with the registration for both tournaments. We noted that there are now more chess clubs (Including Junior Ones) and weekend tournaments in the Greater Toronto Area than there used to be.....and the Aurora tournaments are still holding their own.
Then Toy and I met Mahmoud Mussa from Scarborough CC. He had played at SCC for a short time years ago, and had just returned. At SCC two Thursdays back, Toy and I had told him about the Aurora tournament. Mahmoud had never played a weekend tournament. So we encouraged him to take the plunge, and he did!
We went up to the playing hall, and I met my former SCC friend, Pino Verde. He is still playing top level correspondence chess, since stopping club play a few years ago. He also gave me a chess book for me to read, and then donate to our SCC Bellomo Little Library. I then met Undriadi Benggawan from our World-Wise Lunch Club, and also Steve Douglas, former SCC'er.
I then chatted briefly with the two other members of the Aurora Organizing Cttee, Egis Zermoskis (Also chief Arbiter) and Bernie Prost.
And then just before the round started, I saw my young friend, Lucy Gao, who, like me, also belongs to both Scarborough CC and Annex CC. I also said “Hi” to my friend, Mario Moran-Venegas, former SCC'er.
Round 1
As scheduled, announcements started at 9:15 AM dead on, and the round started right at 9:30 AM.
I played a young junior player. I have turned our Game into a “Chess Game Quiz” (See below).
Lunch
After my game was over, I watched numbers of other games, mostly in our section, and then Toy, Mario and I went out for sushi for lunch. There we met SCC'er Mark Bercovici and he joined us.
We got back to the hall just a bit before the start of Rd. 2 @ 2:00 PM.
Round 2
The round started on time. Again, I have made our game into a chess quizz.
[See Parts II & III below]
Bob A
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