Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss (Apr. 1 - May 5/19 [Except Apr. 22]) - Blog

**Bob Armstrong** · Wednesday, 3rd April, 2019, 12:50 PM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 1 – 19/4/1

Bob's Chess Blog # 1 [ Part II of 4 parts; see Part I above]

The Bul**hit Coffee Club

At 7:30 AM, I usually head out, when I am available, to my coffee club I belong to: The Bul**hit Coffee Club (BCC). We hold it in one of my favourite local coffee shops, La Patisserie de Cignogne (Danforth Ave. & Monarch Park). I stop in for a little over an hour. If I walk very briskly, I can make it door to door in 10 min.! And I recently saw an exercise article that said a number of short bursts of exercise are more beneficial, and less hard on you, than a longer gruelling session. So the club has become my very, very modest morning exercise program.

There are a group of regulars on the 7:30 – 9:00 AM shift (It opens at 7:30 AM). It is an informal coffee club (going for a few years now; we actually formed up in another coffee shop nearby that closed; so we just moved en mass). Helen is usually the first member to arrive as soon as they open. I like to get there about 7:40 AM to give the staff a few more minutes to get open and set up. Then I like to work updating my reminder notes (I have a medically defective memory, on top of old age!; no notes.....it falls off the radar!), if Helen didn't make it that day. Most others arrive closer to 8:00 AM.

We are at the moment 8 regulars: Helen, Linda, John # 1, Joe, Darryl, Ed, John # 2, and me. We are open to having new members join. I try to be very careful about privacy of other people in my Blog (Not so concerned about my own, to the extent that I let it hang out in my blogs). I have canvassed the members about use of first names and all were fine to become infamous!! They felt it could only help the BCC to grow!! And, of course, this is seen as good from our coffee shop host's point of view. Generally, I won't use people's names in my Blog unless I've gotten a “blanket permission” to use them.....easier to remember that way, who is in, and who is out. And most people think it is kind of a hoot to end up having their names broadcast to the world!

5 of us were there today: Helen, John # 1; Darryl; Joe & me. Some of the stuff (among others) we canvassed were (It is sometimes pretty esoteric):

the time that an asteroid got caught in the gravity of Jupiter trying to get past it, and went into orbit. Apparently there is one point in going into orbit where the energy pulling on the outside, is as strong as the energy pulling the object to the planet. In this case the asteroid broke, in orbit, into 23 pieces (They know how many!!). They plummeted to the surface and apparently, despite Jupiter's dense atmosphere, photos could be taken of the scarring on the planet (Anyone feel free to “comment” on this!! LOL).;
More pedestrian – why the Toronto Maple Leafs still get “bums in seats”; the cost of NHL expansion franchises; and what Canadian cities could now enter the league (Likely none!).
That in the old days, the Toronto telephone exchanges were called by the names of trees – cherry; walnut; etc. and the importance of the old party-line telephone operator.
The province of Ontario recent cut-backs in gov't-covered drugs

Errands

At 9:15 AM I headed out to hit two banks (Not rob them!) and my drug store (Getting low on one of my Bi-Polar Disorder drugs; not a good idea to run out! LOL).

Back Home

When I got home, it took quite a while for:

my partner and I to do our periodic coordinating of schedules (Since we effectively live in three different places and go somewhat randomly back and forth during the year); and
me to update a lot of our financial information.

The Afternoon

We had lunch and then I spent some time packing my partner's pottery pieces creations into large plastic storage containers for her upcoming May sale (She is an amateur potter).

Siesta

Given that I often sleep short compared to many in the morning night, and that my partner 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 4:15 PM.

Heading Out for Rd. 1

When I got up, I then prepared a few things for going to ACC – I could not print out the current U 1800 cross-table (Used to record myself the round final results for this Blog, though the arbiters are pretty fast getting the results up on the chess website, ChessResults), since this was the first round. In this case the arbiter always prints me out the original registration sheet after the round starts.

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”.

So I went to my local favourite Starbucks on Bloor St. West. Fortunately, my friend, and ACC member, Dave Southam (Plays in the Crown section) was there. It was delightful to have company. From reading my Blogs, Dave knew about my Bi-Polar Disorder. If I wanted to talk about it, he was interested in what I could do, besides medications, to manage my depression and mania phases. So we chatted about that a bit. He also showed me some cute imojis on his phone, created by his artistic sister.

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

Pre-Round 1

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

I first chatted with Daniel Chen about whether you are ever justified in just playing for a draw (E.g. If you are extremely tired). The jury is still out on that one.

I then went into the playing hall and sat at one of the tables, and updated my rough draft of this Blog # 1.

Then I talked with Arkadiy Ugodnikov and Dave about some openings they were playing over. John Fines joined us for a bit.

Round 1

After some announcements, the round was started shortly after 7:30 PM. I was playing white against a higher-rated player from our section – amazingly, this was our first time at the club facing each other. I have turned the game into my traditional “chess game quiz” (See below).

After the game, I watched some of our section games still in progress, to get the results, and 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 home by TTC.

The Late Evening

I got home about 11:45 PM and found I was then too tired to do this Blog # 1.......so I decided to leave it 'til later in the week.

U 1800 Section Chess Report on Rd. 1 on April Fools' Day (Monday, Apr. 1, 2019).

My U 1800 Section

I am rated 1447. I am ranked # 14 out of 19 players (Just in the middle third).

Rating Spread

1600’s – 4
1500’s – 7
1400’s – 5 (my rating is here)
1300’s - 2 (Playing up)
1000's – 1 (Allowed up to give a game to the lowest rated player - an odd number of players, given who had shown up)

Total - 19

U 1800 Standings After Rd. 1

There were 8 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/7^th – 1/1 pts. (Won first game) – Salim Belcadi (1621); Junior Boy William Gao (1617); Deol Gagan Deep (1615); Arkadiy Ugodnikov (1568); Lorne Schwartz (1557); me (1447); Chandra Ambarish (1307).

[See Parts III & IV below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Wednesday, 3rd April, 2019, 12:55 PM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 1 – 19/4/1

Bob's Chess Blog # 1 [ Part III of 4 parts; see Parts I & II above]

My Round 1 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):

Player W - Player Bl [E11]

Annex CC April Fool's (U 1800) (1), 01.04.2019
[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

Questions:

1. What is Player W's rating?

What is Player Bl's rating?
Which player am I?
Who might be the other ACC member I played?

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ Bogo-Indian Defence 4.Bd2 Qe7 5.a3 Bxd2+ 6.Qxd2 b6 7.Nc3 Bb7 8.Qc2 Wanting to fight for the centre 8...0–0 9.e4 White has a pretty classically strong opening 9...e5 10.d5 d6 11.Be2 It is not only that Bd3 makes little sense, locked in behind the eP, but also in the upcoming P-sac line, the Nf3 needs to be defended to take away one good defence line Bl would have. 11...Nbd7 The position looks pretty classically quiet. 12.g4 W aggressively offers a P-sac to open lines to the Bl K. 12...c6 Bl declines to take the sac, and instead continues with classical Bl play in this structural position 13.h4 W is determined to attack, and again offers the P-sac. 13...cxd5 For the second time, W declines the P-sac to play his/her game on the Q-side 14.cxd5 Rfc8 Move to take control of open files with the R's. 15.Nd2 Because Bl has ......Nc5, and W wants to push his/her P's on the K-side, it makes sense to over-protect e4. Also, W now withdraws the P-sac offer. Lurking in the background, as well, is the fact that in a number of lines, W is hobbled by the c3N being pinned against the Q. 15...Nc5 16.g5 White has a rather slow attack, and needs some time to break through.......it depends whether Bl gives W any "free" moves. 16...Ne8 17.0–0–0 W wants the second R to be available 17...Ba6 Bl is determined to force W to come back to play on the Q-side, and stall his/her K-side attack. 18.Bxa6 Nxa6 19.Kb1 Got to get out from under the "double pin". 19...Qd7 20.Qd3 Nc5 21.Qg3 W is trying to be the first to break-through, and draw Bl back from his/her Q-side play. 21...Na4 Player Bl seems not worried about this amassing of force against his/her lone K behind the pawn-wall. S/he still wants to attack on the Q-side, now that W has 0–0–0. 22.Nxa4 Qxa4 23.Rc1 W begrudgingly admits s/he must deal with the Q-side threats before continuing the W K-side attack. 23...Rxc1+ 24.Rxc1 Qd7 25.Rc6 setting up to get a passed P; the K-side attack "seems" finished. 25...Rc8 26.Qc3 Rxc6 27.dxc6 White now has a deadly passed cP. I am unsure whether W has a better ending if 27.Qxc3 and the Q's get exchanged, as part of W creating a passed cP. 27...Qe7 Bl moves to control c7 to keep the passed cP from ever advancing.........and it never does! 28.Nf1 heading to d5 28...Nc7 now actively blockading the passed cP 29.Ne3 Kf8 The additional help of the K is needed if Bl is ever to "win" the passed cP. 30.Nd5 Qd8 looking pretty hard now for W to make progress with his/her passed cP, though Bl is cramped and the Q is now tied to the c7N protection. 31.h5 Since the Q-side is now all tied down, W returns to his/her K-side attack theme....it has been slow! 31...Qc8 32.Qf3 putting pressure on f7 32...Ne6 33.g6 one-move mate threat 33...hxg6 [33...f6 34.gxh7 Kf7 35.Qf5 Qh8 36.c7] 34.hxg6 one-move mate threat 34...f6 35.Qh3

1–0Questions:

What is Player W's rating?
What is Player Bl's rating?
Which player am I?
Who might be the other ACC member I played?

Answers

W - Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1447)
Bl - Wagner, Robert (1578)

My Score

1/1 pts. (100%): Win: 1 (Rd. 1)

My Opponents' & My Scores

1/1 pts. - Me (1447)

0/1 pts. - Robert Wagner (1578)

Full Results

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

[See Part IV below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Wednesday, 3rd April, 2019, 12:57 PM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 1 – 19/4/1

Bob's Chess Blog # 1 [ Part IV of 4 parts; see Parts I, II & III above]

Some History

Blog Note:

The next 2 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 – Toronto (Prior to Christmas - Dec. 14-16/18) - Blogged;
2. The 2019 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February 16-18 – Only one short blog – having manic phase).
3. The 2019 Quebec Open – Longueuil (Next to Montreal) (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.

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 slightly from the annual record of 2015: 54 registrants).

2019 (Current)

# 1 – New Beginnings – 51 registrants: Crown: 11; U 1800: 22; U 1400: 18 – Down slightly from the annual record since keeping stats here: 54 registrations (2015).

# 2 – Club Championship - 50 registrants: Crown: 12; Reserve (U 1800): 38

Average per Tournament (So far) – 51 (Slightly up from 2018's 49)

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

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 9th April, 2019, 03:34 PM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 1 –- 19/4/8

Bob's Chess Blog # 2 [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/

Tournament # 3

Name: ACC April Fools' Swiss (3rd regular swiss tournament in 2019).

Dates: April 1 – May 6

Rounds: 5

Sections: 3: Crown; U 1800; U 1400.

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.

Registrations: 40 registrants (So far): Crown: 9; U 1800: 17; U 1400: 14 [Down from the 2019 average (So far) of 51]. ACC tournaments often accrue players as the tournament progresses.

Rating: Both sections are CFC-rated.

Playing Up Option: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above may choose to play up, and most do. No playing up fee.

Time Control: G/90 + 30 sec. (From move 1)

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: The club moved from Bathurst Street to Bloor St. W at the end of 2018...see the website for new location details – not far from the old location, and close to the Walmer Street exit of the Spadina Subway Station.

Blog Note:

This Blog, here 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. 2 (19/4/8)

The Wee Hours of Monday Morning

I awoke at 7:00 AM (Went to bed at 10:00 PM Sunday) – got much more than my normal 6 hrs. sleep (But during weekend tournaments, I often sleep quite a bit less than normal). The reason may be that I am at my sister-in-law's, with my partner, at her farm in the Southern Georgian Bay region, about 3 hrs. drive north-west of Toronto.

Our hobby farm, Spirits' Den, is about 5 min. drive from hers, and we had come up on Saturday to bring some things to our farm, and to get some dogwood, and other, branches, to help decorate the retail store for my partner's upcoming pottery sale (She is an amateur potter).

Heading out to Spirits' Den

At 9:30 AM my partner and I headed back over to our hobby farm to pick up some things going to the city. We left there at 10:25 AM

Homeward Bound

On the way back to Toronto we had to drop in to our accountants, to drop off the 2018 tax year documentation, and for me to sign a few financial papers. Then we hit the Markham COSTCO for something that is not generally sold at our local COSTCO. We arrived home about 3:00 PM.

Settling In

We got unpacked and all settled and then had an early dinner about 3:30 PM.

As those who have read my blogs before know, I have a kind of circular 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

Victim of Routine

I went up to 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 all day long, 24/7, when available!); I then fired up my old laptop.

My Daily Company/Personal Project Tasks

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. Fb Project # 1 (My Company's) - 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-Life-Consulting-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".

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.

Fb Project # 2 (My Own): 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.

7. 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/.

8. 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.

I have another retiree project besides my 2 Facebook Projects.

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 the 2 Facebook projects and my chess hobby project.

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 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

After spending the day on “"working for ourselves”", I took a long “"My own personal/company time” phase"; so I dealt with outstanding e-mails and Fb messages, posted to my company and my Fb projects and checked out ChessTalk.

[See Parts II & III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 9th April, 2019, 03:39 PM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 1 -– 19/4/8

Bob's Chess Blog # 2 [Part II of 3 parts; see Part I above]

Heading Out for Rd. 2

I then prepared a few things for going to ACC – I printed out the current U 1800 cross-table (Used to record myself the round final results for this Blog, though the arbiters are pretty fast getting the results up on the chess website, ChessResults).

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 when I haven't eaten), relax before the game, and update my “Reminder Lists”.

So I went to my local favourite “Green Beanery” on Bloor St. West at Bathurst St. (Closer to where ACC used to be located). I don't mind walking down that far beyond the club's new location when the weather is amenable.

But tonight I didn't do my “Reminder Lists”.

I am a bit overwhelmed at the moment with the sheer number of tasks I'm allegedly to complete for my many projects and life tasks. I feel like I have sort of lost my way.........somehow I have to prioritize better to make progress again. So I sort of sipped my coffee, and contemplated my navel for about 3/4 hr. And...eureka!........I found myself absolutely no further ahead on the issue!

Oh, well.............

At 7:00 PM I just headed east to the club..... I shelved the issue, and decided chess came first!

Pre-Round 2

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

I chatted with Junior Boy Daniel Chen about the fact that he was playing too quickly, and in a good game, then missing tactics that he should normally see, and losing. I showed him the poster on the wall with Emmanuel Lasker's famous quote (I may not have it perfect): When you find a good move...........look for a better one! I suggested that when he knew a position was critical, he sit on one of his hands to remind himself to “slow down”! Not sure what he thought of that, but he did go over and ponder the Lasker poster.

I then went into the playing hall and sat at one of the tables by myself, since I was still sort of pensive about my own life situation, and what I needed to do as a “next step”.

Round 2

After some announcements, the round was started shortly after 7:30 PM. As usual, I have turned the game into my traditional “chess game quiz” (See below).

After the game, I watched some of our section games still in progress, to get the results for my own print-out, and then I headed home by TTC.

The Late Evening

I got home about 11:50 PM and found I was then too tired to do this Blog # 2.......so I decided to leave it 'til Tuesday morning.

U 1800 Section Chess Report on Rd. 2 (Monday, Apr. 8, 2019).

My U 1800 Section

I am rated 1463. I am ranked # 14 out of 19 players (Just in the middle third).

Rating Spread

1600’s -– 4
1500’s -– 7
1400’s -– 5 (my rating is here)
1300’s - 2 (Playing up)
1000's –- 1 (Allowed up to give a game to the lowest rated player - an odd number of players, given who had shown up – just played one round)

Total - 19

U 1800 Standings After Rd. 2

There were 8 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 – 2/2 pts. (Won all games) -– Arkadiy Ugodnikov (1568); Lorne Schwartz (1557); me (1463).

4^th/7^th – 1.5/2 pts. (Undefeated) -– Junior Boy William Gao (1617); Deol Gagan Deep (1615); Junior Girl Lucy Gao (1578); Jevtic Dragan (1538).

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):

Player W - Player Bl [B00]

Annex CC April Fools' Swiss (U 1800) (2), 08.04.2019
[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

Questions:

What is Player W's rating?
What is Player Bl's rating?
Which player am I?
Who might be the other ACC member I played?

1.e4 a6 St. George's Defence 2.c4 fighting over the b5 square 2...c6 3.Nc3 Qa5 Bl is intent on playing ...b5 4.d4 White now has a classical opening centre; and we could well ask what Black is up to??? 4...b5 Black achieves his/her goal.......but is it worth it? 5.Nf3 Bb7 6.Bd2 Qc7 getting out of the discovered attack 7.Rc1 setting up a possible discovered pin in front of the queen, depending on future exchanges 7...b4 8.Na4 a5 9.c5 W wants to sink his N into b6 9...d6 6 P-moves by black in the first 9 moves 10.Bf4 pinning the dP 10...Nd7 11.d5 introducing the discovered attack on the Q on the c-file into the calculations 11...Rc8 12.Nd4 Ne5 13.Bxe5 dxe5 14.Nxc6 Bxc6 15.dxc6 Qxc6 Bl has played 15 moves, without moving a K-side piece! Crazy?? I hope Black is not promoting this to juniors! 16.Bd3 Nf6 Bl begrudgingly caves and starts his K-side development 17.Qe2 threatening to pin the Q against the K! 17...Rb8 18.Nb6 major blunder 18...Rxb6 the cP is pinned; Bl goes up an N. 19.cxb6 Qxc1+ 20.Qd1 Qxd1+ Being up material, Bl is delighted to see the Q's come off the board 21.Kxd1 e6 22.Ke2 Bc5 23.Rc1 W gives up on the passed P too quickly [23.b7] 23...Bxb6 Bl is up N + P 24.Rc6 Bd8 25.Rc5 Nd7 26.Bb5 Ke7 27.Bxd7 W decides to exchange a pair of minors, to win back his/her P. 27...Kxd7 28.Rxe5 Bl is up a B 28...Bb6 29.g3 Rc8 going for the open c-file 30.Rb5 Rc6 31.Kd3 Kc7 32.Rg5 g6 33.f4 Rd6+ 34.Ke2 f6 drives W's R out of play 35.Rg4 Rd4 36.Ke3 Rd1+ Bl will now win the Q-side P's//

0–1

Questions:

1. What is Player W's rating?

2. What is Player Bl's rating?

3. Which player am I?

4. Who might be the other ACC member I played?

Answers:

W - Junior Boy Sihao (Daniel) Chen (1668)

Bl - Bob Armstrong (1463)

[See Part III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 9th April, 2019, 03:41 PM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 1 –- 19/4/8

Bob's Chess Blog # 2 [Part III of 3 parts; see Parts I & II above]

My Score

2/2 pts. (100%): Wins: 2 (Rds. 1 & 2)

My Opponents' & My Scores

2/2 pts. - Me (1463)

.5/2 pts. - Junior Boy Sihao (Daniel) Chen (1663)

0/2 pts. - Robert Wagner (1578)

Full Results

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

Some History

Template Note:

The next 2 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

Some Blogging History

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 – Toronto (Prior to Christmas - Dec. 14-16/18) - Blogged;
2. The 2019 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February 16-18 – Only one short blog – having manic phase).
3. The 2019 Quebec Open – Longueuil (Next to Montreal) (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.

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 slightly from the annual record of 2015: 54 registrants).

2019 (Current)

# 1 – New Beginnings – 51 registrants: Crown: 11; U 1800: 22; U 1400: 18 – Down slightly from the annual record since keeping stats here: 54 registrations (2015).

# 2 – Club Championship - 50 registrants: Crown: 12; Reserve (U 1800): 38

Average per Tournament (So far) – 51 (Slightly up from 2018's 49)

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

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 16th April, 2019, 07:44 AM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 3 – 19/4/15

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/

Tournament # 3

Name: ACC April Fools' Swiss (3rd regular swiss tournament in 2019).

Dates: April 1 – May 6

Rounds: 5

Sections: 3: Crown; U 1800; U 1400.

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.

Registrations: 39 registrants (So far): Crown: 8; U 1800: 19; U 1400: 12 [Down from the 2019 average (So far) of 51]. ACC tournaments often accrue players as the tournament progresses.

Rating: Both sections are CFC-rated.

Playing Up Option: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above may choose to play up, and most do. No playing up fee.

Time Control: G/90 + 30 sec. (From move 1)

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: The club moved from Bathurst Street to Bloor St. W at the end of 2018...see the website for new location details – not far from the old location, and close to the Walmer Street exit of the Spadina Subway Station.

Blog Note:

This Blog, here 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. 3 (19/4/15)

The Wee Hours of Monday Morning

I awoke at 8:00 AM (Went to bed at 11:00 PM Sunday; the lengthy sleep, beyond my normal 6 hrs. sleep, is due to my going into moderate depression Sunday afternoon – my interest in doing things wanes, and my body knows it just doesn't want to bother getting up!) I've noted before that, surprisingly, during weekend tournaments, I often sleep quite a bit less than normal. I do usually supplement my night sleep with an afternoon 1-hr. Siesta.

Template Note:

The are sections of this blog that are a standard template which I repeat in each Blog.

The template must be here for any new readers of my Blog.

So I ask my regular readers to be tolerant. If you have read the template part previously, you can skip from “Start of Template” to “End of Template” (I will alert you immediately after the template if there are any revisions).

START OF TEMPLATE

Victim of Routine

So, as usual, I

a. got up;

b. went down to the kitchen and got my morning coffee;

Then went back up to 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 all day long, 24/7!); and

d. finally fired up my old laptop.

My Daily Personal Project Tasks

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. Fb Project # 1 (My Company's) - 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-Life-Consulting-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".

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.

Fb Project # 2 (My Own): 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.

7. 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/.

8. 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.

I have another retiree project besides my 2 Facebook Projects.

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 the 2 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

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

[See Parts II & III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 16th April, 2019, 07:49 AM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 3 – 19/4/15

Bob's Chess Blog # 3 [ Part II of 3 parts; see Part I above]

Charging into Monday Morning

I only had a short time after breakfast to get into my routine. Some of the extra things I got done this morning were:

Started my rough notes draft for this Blog # 1.
Started the typed rough draft.

Errands

At 9:00 AM I and my partner headed out to:

Go to our lawyers office to deal with 3 related personal matters;
Go to my partner's potters' studio, to deliver pussy willow branches, and, coloured dogwood and willow branches. The cooperative transforms its workshop into a retail store for their upcoming May sale, and they use the branches to decorate. My partner is an amateur potter.

Back Home

When I got home, we prepared and had lunch. Then I went back to my routine.

For my 35-min. Work for myself phase, I washed the kitchen dishes, got the compost together and out, cut some meat for my partner who was cooking up a storm, and straightened the kitchen. Then I filed some of my pile of family bills and papers in the large folder labelled (To be filed......whenever!).

Then I just rested in bed for about 1/2 hr. 'til the air conditioner dealer came over.

At 3:30 PM the air conditioner dealer arrived and my partner signed a contract for a new air conditioner (Ours conked out at the end of the 2018 summer). They will install it Wednesday. He left about 4:30 PM.

Heading Out for Rd. 3

When he left, I dealt with the finances re the new air conditioner, as well as some financial matters re my investments. Then I dealt with getting my summer tires put on next Monday at our local mechanics where our farm is located. Finally I tried to help my partner with a flyer for her pottery sale that had been sent......a link. Of course, I didn't have the program to open it......and I am quite non-techie, except for what I need to do..... so: Computer 1 - 0 Bob!

I then prepared a few things for going to ACC, though I had, yesterday, printed out the current U 1800 cross-table (Used to record myself the round final results for this Blog, though the arbiters are pretty fast getting the results up on the chess website, ChessResults).

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, when I haven't eaten a late lunch at home), relax before the game, and update my “Reminder Lists” (Medically defective memory as well as just old age).

So I went to my the Annex Food Hall on Bloor St. West, across from the club. I enjoy the Thai place's mango salad. Then I went down the street to enjoy the evening sunshine and to get a coffee at the Green Beanery, to sustain me through the evening battle.

Pre-Round 3

I got into ACC about 7:20 PM and got settled before the round started. So I used the time to socialize a bit.

I first chatted with Evgeny Kalmanson – he congratulated me on my blogs, and we discussed who might be reading them, and what I get out of doing it.Then I discussed the difference in forfeit rules under CFC and FIDE with Javier Dixon. ACC, on a no-notice default, follows FIDE and does not rate the game. The loser gets a 0-pt. Bye. The winner just gets the 1 pt. for scoring purposes. On the other hand, Scarborough CC follows the CFC protocol, and the forfeiter loses rating points, and the winner gains them.

Round 3

After some announcements, the round was started shortly after 7:30 PM. I was playing on first board in our section against another player in the 3-way tie for first. I have turned the game into my traditional “chess game quiz” (See below).

After the game, I watched some of our section games (And some top section games) still in progress, to get the leader results, and when I had enough 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 home by TTC.

The Late Evening

I got home about 11:35 PM and made myself a midnight snack. Then I continued working on the blog # 3 drat. But I found I was then too tired to do this Blog # 3.......so I decided to leave it 'til tomorrow, or maybe it might be later in the week.

U 1800 Section Chess Report on Rd. 3 (Monday, Apr. 15, 2019).

My U 1800 Section

I am rated 1463. I am ranked # 16 out of 21 players (Just in the bottom third).

Rating Spread

1600’s –- 6
1500’s -– 7
1400’s – - 5 (my rating is here)
1300’s - 2 (Playing up)
1000's – - 1 (Allowed up to give a game to the lowest rated player - an odd number of players, given who had shown up)

Total - 21

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 – 3/3 pts. (Won all games) -– Arkadiy Ugodnikov (1568).

2^nd/3^rd – 2.5/3 pts. (Undefeated) -– Junior Girl Lucy Gao (1578); Lorne Schwartz (1557).

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). You will see the Questions to be answered:

Player W - Player B [B07]

Annex CC April Fools' (U 1800) (3), 15.04.2019
[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

Questions:

What is Player W's rating?
What is Player Bl's rating?
Which player am I?
Who might be the other ACC member I played?

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 Often an indication W is wanting to 0–0–0 4...Nf6 Pirc Defence 5.f3 a6 Trying to discourage 0–0–0 6.Qd2 b5 7.a3 c6 to be able to push a5 without losing the bP 8.Nge2 a5 9.Bh6 0–0 10.Bxg7 Kxg7 11.g3 Bb7 now allowing b4 without losing the R 12.Bg2 seems like W has lost the desire to 0–0–0 12...Nbd7 13.0–0 h5 Black goes on the attack right away 14.Rae1 Rh8 15.f4 Qb6 16.h4 Stopping a Bl K-side attack....but at the risk of the gP becoming a target. 16...e5 17.Kh1 exd4 18.Nxd4 Rhe8 admitting that the battle must now shift to the centre 19.b4 a4 20.Nf3 attacking the dP 20...c5 21.Nd5 a mistake 21...Bxd5 22.exd5 Ne4 threatening to win the targeted gP and then the exchange. 23.Rxe4 If s/he is going to lose the exchange anyway, at least save the gP 23...Rxe4 Bl goes up the exchange; likely now has a "clear" advantage. 24.Ng5 Re7 Bl does have to be concerned about f7 25.Qc3+ Kg8 26.Bh3 W is maneuvering to be able to play the quite dangerous Qf6 26...Rae8 27.Bxd7 Rxd7 28.f5 Qd8 working to keep the WQ out of f6 29.fxg6 fxg6 30.Ne6 this N is a monster, and the key to a number of possible W attack lines. 30...Rxe6 Bl decides the risk of attack is too high; he returns the exchange 31.dxe6 Material equality and W now has a passed P 31...Re7 32.Rf6 pressure on g6 32...Qe8 33.bxc5 Rxe6 34.Rxe6 Qxe6 35.c6 W now has a new dangerous passed P; can Bl get a draw?? 35...Qe2 36.Kg1 Qd1+ 37.Kf2 Qg4 38.c7 Qc8 39.Qc6 W will now win the ending 39...d5 A blunder that doesn't matter//

Questions:

1. What is Player W's rating?

2. What is Player Bl's rating?

3. Which player am I?

4. Who might be the other ACC member I played?

Answers

W- Arkadiy Ugodnikov (1568)

Bl - Robert (Bob) J. Armstrong (1463) 1–0

[See Part III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 16th April, 2019, 07:50 AM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 3 – 19/4/15

Bob's Chess Blog # 3 [ Part III of 3 parts; see Parts I & II above]

My Score

2/3 pts. (66 %): Wins: 1 (Rds. 1 & 2); Loss: 1 (Rd. 3).

My Opponents' & My Scores

3/3 pts. - Arkadiy Ugodnikov (1568) – I lost in Rd. 3.

2/3 pts. - Me (1447)

1.5/3 - Junior Boy Sihao (Daniel) Chen (1663) – I won in Rd. 2.

0/3 pts. - Robert Wagner (1578) – I won in Rd. 1.

Full Results

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

Some History

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 – Toronto (Prior to Christmas - Dec. 14-16/18) - Blogged;
2. The 2019 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February 16-18 – Only one short blog – having manic phase).
3. The 2019 Quebec Open – Longueuil (Next to Montreal) (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.

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 slightly from the annual record of 2015: 54 registrants).

2019 (Current)

# 1 – New Beginnings – 51 registrants: Crown: 11; U 1800: 22; U 1400: 18 – Down slightly from the annual record since keeping stats here: 54 registrations (2015).

# 2 – Club Championship - 50 registrants: Crown: 12; Reserve (U 1800): 38

Average per Tournament (So far) – 51 (Slightly up from 2018's 49)

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

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 30th April, 2019, 11:54 AM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 4 – 19/4/29

Bob's Chess Blog # 4 [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/

Tournament # 3

Name: ACC April Fools' Swiss (3rd regular swiss tournament in 2019).

Dates: April 1 – May 6

Rounds: 5

Sections: 3: Crown; U 1800; U 1400.

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.

Registrations: 51registrants (So far): Crown: 10; U 1800: 26; U 1400: 15 [Right on the 2019 average (So far) of 51]. ACC tournaments often accrue players as the tournament progresses.

Rating: Both sections are CFC-rated.

Playing Up Option: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above may choose to play up, and most do. No playing up fee.

Time Control: G/90 + 30 sec. (From move 1)

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: The club moved from Bathurst Street to Bloor St. W at the end of 2018...see the website for new location details – not far from the old location, and close to the Walmer Street exit of the Spadina Subway Station.

Blog Note:

This Blog, here 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 (19/4/29)

The Wee Hours of Monday Morning

I awoke at 5:30 AM (Went to bed at 12:00 AM). This is close to my average morning/night sleep of 6 hrs. I've noted before that, surprisingly, during weekend tournaments, I often sleep quite a bit less than normal. I do usually supplement my night sleep with an afternoon 1-hr. Siesta.

Template Note:

The are sections of this blog that are a standard template which I repeat in each Blog.

The template must be here for any new readers of my Blog.

So I ask my regular readers to be tolerant. If you have read the template part previously, you can skip from “Start of Template” to “End of Template” (I will alert you immediately after the template if there are any revisions).

START OF TEMPLATE

Victim of Routine

So, as usual, I

a. got up;

b. went down to the kitchen and got my morning coffee;

Then went back up to 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 all day long, 24/7!); and

d. finally fired up my old laptop.

My Daily Personal Project Tasks

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. Fb Project # 1 (My Company's) - 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-Life-Consulting-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".

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.

Fb Project # 2 (My Own): 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.

7. 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/.

8. 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.

I have another retiree project besides my 2 Facebook Projects.

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 the 2 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

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 Monday Morning

Some of the extra things I got done this morning were:

e-mail catch-up after being at our hobby farm in Southern Georgian Bay region for almost 2 weeks
had a number of personal financial matters I had to get moving again after being away

[See Parts II & III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 30th April, 2019, 11:57 AM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 4 – 19/4/29

Bob's Chess Blog # 4 [Part II of 3 parts; see Part I above]

The Bul**hit Coffee Club

At 7:20 AM, I got dressed and as usual, when I am available, headed out to my coffee club I belong to: The Bul**hit Coffee Club (BCC) – see Template below re some history/facts.

The most regular 6 of us (Of 8 members) were there today: Helen, Linda, Darryl, John # 1, Joe & me. Some of the stuff (among others) we canvassed were:

flooding in Bracebridge and Ottawa, Ontario and in the province of Quebec
the upcoming October Canadian federal election
my wife's Thursday Pottery Sale at her cooperative studio (She is an amateur potter)

We broke up about 9:00 AM.

START OF BCC TEMPLATE

We hold the BCC in one of my favourite local coffee shops, Patisserie la Cigogne [Stork] (Danforth Ave. & Monarch Park). I stop in for a little over an hour. If I walk very briskly, I can make it door to door in 10 min.! And I recently saw an exercise article that said a number of short bursts of exercise are more beneficial, and less hard on you, than a longer gruelling session. So the club has become my very, very modest morning exercise program.

There are a group of regulars on the 7:30 – 9:00 AM shift (The coffee shop opens at 7:30 AM). It is an informal coffee club (going for a few years now; we actually formed up in another coffee shop nearby that closed; so we just moved en mass). Helen is usually the first member to arrive as soon as they open. I like to get there about 7:40 AM to give the staff a few more minutes to get open and set up. Then I like to work updating my reminder notes (I have a medically defective memory, on top of old age!; no notes.....it falls below the radar!), if Helen didn't make it that day. Most others arrive closer to 8:00 AM.

We are at the moment 8 regulars: Helen, Linda, John # 1, Joe, Darryl, Ed, John # 2, and me. We are open to having new members join. I try to be very careful about privacy of other people in my Blog (Not so concerned about my own, to the extent that I let it hang out somewhat in my blogs). I have canvassed the members about use of first names and all were fine to become infamous!! They felt it could only help the BCC to grow!! And, of course, this is seen as good from our coffee shop host's point of view. Generally, I won't use people's names in my Blog unless I've gotten a “blanket permission” to use them.....easier to remember that way, who is in, and who is out. And most people think it is kind of a hoot to end up having their names broadcast to the world!

END OF BCC TEMPLATE

Errands

At 9:00 AM I headed out to one bank to get some cash, and to do a few things with my financial advisor at another bank. It has taken some time to get my affairs in the position I'd like them to end up in......still trying.......

Back Home

When I got home, I went back to my routine. And during the “35 min. Work for myself” phases, I dealt with some bank matters, and did our family April Budget Month End statement......my partner is always pleased to see we are running a deficit!! LOL I also put away dried dishes, straightened the kitchen, and put out some recycles.

Lunch

About 1:00 PM my partner and I prepared and had lunch. Then I returned to my routine. As “work for myself”, I had to photocopy a package of materials on my Bi-Polar Disorder, since I am in the search for a new psychotherapist (My one of almost 25 years is retiring). As part of my routine, I started a rough typed draft of this Blog # 4.

Siesta

Given that I usually sleep short compared to many in the morning night, and that my partner 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 3:30 PM. I got up at 4:30 PM with my alarm.

Heading Out for Rd. 4

When I got up I did a few more routine things, and then prepared to go to ACC. I printed out the current U 1800 cross-table (Used to record myself the round final results for this Blog, though the club arbiters are pretty fast getting the results up on the chess website, ChessResults).

At about 5:15 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, when I haven't eaten a late lunch at home), relax before the game, and update my “Reminder Lists” (Medically defective memory as well as just old age).

So I went to the Annex Food Hall on Bloor St. West, across from the club. I enjoy the Thai place's mango salad. I still had some coffee in my tumbler for dinner, and for the ensuing evening battle.

Pre-Round 4

I got into ACC about 7:15 PM and got settled before the round started. So I used the time to socialize a bit.

I chatted with Javier Dixon and Dragan Jevtic (Of my section) about the recent winning of the Canadian Closed Championship by former Russian GM, Evgeny Bareev. Then we discussed how amazing it is that our junior boys and girls are playing such good chess, and that we are often going down to defeat! Dave Southam kindly asked whether I hadn't been blogging recently because of my depression phase, and I admitted it does slow me down sometimes, and if there is a time problem, then I sometimes have to just abandon the blog. But in this case it was that I was up at our hobby farm in the Southern Georgian Bay region for 10 days.

Round 4

After some announcements (New club library started), the round was started shortly after 7:30 PM. I was in a big tie for 4^th. I have turned the game into my traditional “chess game quiz” (See below).

After the game, I watched some of our section games (And some top section games) still in progress, to get the leader results, and when I had the leader results for the U 1800 Section (I like to get my section results before going home, for this blog), I headed home by TTC.

The Late Evening

I got home about 11:45 PM and made myself a midnight snack. Then I was then too tired to do this Blog # 4.......so I decided to leave it 'til tomorrow (I try to post it by the next morning usually).

U 1800 Section Chess Report on Rd. 4 (Monday, Apr. 29, 2019).

My U 1800 Section

I am rated 1463. I am ranked # 16 out of 26 players (Just in the middle third).

Rating Spread

1600’s – 7
1500’s – 10
1400’s – 5 (my rating is here)
1300’s - 3 (Playing up)
1000's – 1 (Allowed up to give a game to the lowest rated player - an odd number of players, given who had shown up)

Total - 26

U 1800 Standings After Rd. 4

There were 10 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 – 3.5/4 pts. (Undefeated) – Arkadiy Ugodnikov (1568).

2^nd/6^th – 3/4 pts. – Vinorth Vigneswaramoorthy (1671); Junior Boy William Gao (1617); Junior Girl Lucy Gao (1578); me (1463); Ambarish Chandra (1307).

[See Part I above; see Part III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Tuesday, 30th April, 2019, 12:00 PM

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss - Blog

Rd. 4 – 19/4/29

Bob's Chess Blog # 4 [Part III of 3 parts; see Parts I & II above]

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). You will see the Questions to be answered:

Player W - Player Bl [E12]

Annex CC April Fools' (U 1800) (4), 29.04.2019

[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

Questions:

1. What is Player W's rating?

What is Player Bl's rating?
Which player am I?
Who might be the other ACC member I played?

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 Queen's Indian Defence 4.e3 Bb7 5.Bd3 c5 6.0–0 cxd4 7.exd4 Be7 8.Nc3 d5 9.b3 0–0 10.Bb2 dxc4 11.bxc4 Nc6 12.Rc1 Rc8 13.Bb1 A calculated P-sac? - if so wrongly calculated. W may have expected, for giving up the cP, to either get a K-side attack and get a P back, or win the N.........wrong. 13...Na5 14.d5 I now realized that to get the best attack, I'd now have to sack 2 P's.........oh well......it is that or lose the ending...... 14...Nxc4 Bl goes up a P 15.Ba1 Ba3 16.Rc2 Nxd5 Bl is up 2 P's. 17.Nxd5 Qxd5 18.Qe2 Rfd8 19.Rc3 Bb4 20.Rd3 Qc6 Bl keeps the pin on the f3N - if it moves, it is mate unless it goes to h4. 21.Rfd1 Rxd3 22.Qxd3 threatening a K-side attack; there is no back-rank mate....... .....Bc8 solves the problem. 22...f5 23.Qd7 W realizes that he must now somehow win an ending.... down 2 P's. 23...Qxd7 24.Rxd7 Ne5 25.Rxg7+ W sacs the exchange + getting a P compensation (But he is already down 2 P's) 25...Kxg7 26.Bxe5+ Bl is up the exchange + P 26...Kf7 27.Ng5+ Kg6 28.Bf4 e5 29.Be3 The fP cannot advance; it is pinned. 29...Rd8 threatens back-rank mate 30.Bc2 Bc5 31.Ne6 Re8 32.Nxc5 bxc5 33.g4 using the pin on the fP 33...e4 34.gxf5+ Kxf5 35.f4 Now using the pin on the eP 35...Rg8+ 36.Kf2 Kg4 37.Bxc5 Bl is up the exchange, but W's 2 B's are deadly on the mostly open board. 37...a6 38.Bb3 Rd8 39.Be3 h5 40.Be6+ Kh4 41.f5 White misses a mate in two (And there is only one delaying R-sac)! [41.Ke2 Rd2+ 42.Kxd2 Bd5 43.Bf2#] 41...Bc8 42.Bc5 threatening an e7+ double attack 42...Re8 43.Bxc8 Rxc8 44.Be7+ Kg4 45.f6 the P is unstoppable - Bl will have to sac the R for it. 45...Rc2+ 46.Ke3 Rc3+ 47.Kxe4 Bl is up the exchange, but W has a P compensation (And is going to queen) 47...Rf3 48.Ke5 Kh3 49.Ke6 Kxh2 Black is up the exchange.......and is lost. 50.f7 Rxf7 51.Kxf7 W is up B vs P 51...Kg3 52.Ke6 Kf4 53.a4 Ke4 54.a5 Kd4 55.Kd6 Kc4 56.Kc6 Kd4 57.Bh4 Kc4 58.Bf2 Kb4 59.Kb6 Kc4 60.Kxa6 W is up a B and will win 60...Kd5 61.Kb7

1 - 0

Questions:

1. What is Player W's rating?
2. What is Player Bl's rating?
3. Which player am I?
4. Who might be the other ACC member I played?

Answers

Player W: Bob Armstrong (1463)
Player Bl: Gagan Deol (1615)

My Score

3/4 pts. (75 %): Wins: 3 (Rds. 1, 2 & 4); Loss: 1 (Rd. 3).

My Opponents' & My Scores

3.5/4 pts. - Arkadiy Ugodnikov (1568) – I lost in Rd. 3. He is in sole first, 1/2 pts. ahead of 6 players.

3/4 pts. - Me (1463)

2/4 - Junior Boy Sihao (Daniel) Chen (1663) – I won in Rd. 2.

- Gagan Deol (1615) – I won in Rd. 4.

.5/4 pts. - Robert Wagner (1578) – I won in Rd. 1.

Full Results

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

Some History

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 – Toronto (Prior to Christmas - Dec. 14-16/18) - Blogged;
2. The 2019 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February 16-18 – Only one short blog – having manic phase).
3. The 2019 Quebec Open – Longueuil (Next to Montreal) (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.

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 slightly from the annual record of 2015: 54 registrants).

2019 (Current)

# 1 – New Beginnings – 51 registrants: Crown: 11; U 1800: 22; U 1400: 18 – Down slightly from the annual record since keeping stats here: 54 registrations (2015).

# 2 – Club Championship - 50 registrants: Crown: 12; Reserve (U 1800): 38

Average per Tournament (So far) – 51 (Slightly up from 2018's 49)

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

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss (Apr. 1 - May 5/19 [Except Apr. 22]) - Blog

Annex Chess Club April Fools' Swiss (Apr. 1 - May 5/19 [Except Apr. 22]) - Blog

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