Scarborough Chess Club Spring into Summer Swiss (May 30 - June 27) - Blog

[Bob Armstrong]

Scarborough Chess Club Spring into Summer Swiss – Blog

Rd. 2 - 19/6/6 (Thursday)

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

Club

Scarborough Chess Club, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

See logo below
SCC Website: http://www.scarboroughchessclub.ca/
SCC Fb Page: https://www.facebook.com/ScarboroughChessClub/

Tournament

Name: Spring into Summer Swiss (# 6 [Final] of the 2018-9 Season - runs from Sept. to June – Closed July-August)

When: May 30 – June 27.

Format: 5-round swiss

Sections: 4: The regular SCC Swisses have 4 sections 1800+; U 1800; U 1400 – Jrs. Only; U 1000 – Juniors Only [playing up within 100 pts. allowed ($ 30 fee)].

Notes re sections:

1. The Club Championship has only 2 sections: Championship; Reserves.
2. The regular SCC Swisses, in the past, used to have three sections 1800+; U 1800; U 1400, with playing up within 100 pts. allowed (No fee); no “Juniors Only” sections.

Rating: a. All sections are CFC-rated.

b. The top section is also FIDE rated.

Time Control: Bottom 3 sections: G/70 + 15 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: 110 (So far) ( 1800+ - 28; U 1800 – 42; U 1400 (Jrs. Only) – 14; U 1000 (Jrs. Only) - Slightly below this season's average per tournament so far: 118.

Joining: Lots of room and so SCC WELCOMES all new members. You can inquire about joining at the general SCC e-mail address: info@ScarboroughChessClub.ca. You can join a tournament in progress; you will get ½ pt. byes for all the missed rounds.

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 Rd. 2 – The Wee Hours of Thursday Morning

I woke up at 5:00 AM. (Went to bed @ 11:00 PM Wednesday). So I got my normal approx. 6 hrs. sleep/rest (during weekend tournaments, I usually sleep much less than normal). I also usually take a 1 hr. siesta at some point during the day.

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” down 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;

1. 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 Company/Personal Projects' 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".

1. 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.

1. Fb Project # 2 (My Own): Update this Fb world events/issues 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 other 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.

1. 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 Thursday

So this morning I comfortably settled into my daily routine, though just for a short time. One additional thing I did was to deal with my wife for a while on an important family finance matter.

[See Parts II & III below]

Bob A.

[Bob Armstrong]

Scarborough Chess Club Spring into Summer Swiss – Blog

Rd. 2 - 19/6/6 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 1 [Part II of 3 parts; see Part I above]

Errands

At 9:00 AM I headed out to go to 2 banks, and to shop at our local green grocers on Danforth Ave., at Logan Ave. After doing my tasks, I stopped at Starbucks for coffee and a pastry, and to update my Reminder Notes.

Back Home

At 11:30 AM, when I got home, I put away the groceries. My wife was home, and my daughter was visiting (Living in Toronto while attending school). So we all chatted for a while.

Lunch

My partner is having a problem with her ankle, and so had to go lie down with ice on it. My daughter cooked the dinner (Hot meal) and I did my Sous-Chef routine.

At 2:00 PM, my daughter and I took her osteopathy table from our place (She had been treating some of our friends) to her own apartment (She had a client there tomorrow). Then she brought back some pain medication for my wife's ankle. She then stayed, and slept over in the guest room. I went back to my daily projects routine from 4-5 PM.

Heading Out for Rd. 2

I then prepared my stuff to go to SCC for Rd. 2 (I forgot to print out the cross-tables – sigh – old age). I prepared my materials for the SCC Display Table (I do this as a member volunteer job).

At 5:15 PM I finally headed out by TTC for SCC (I am voluntarily no longer driving for the moment – has to do with July 2018 amendment of the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario, which affects drivers who have Bi-Polar Disorder, as I do). It takes me about an hour by TTC (Subway & the Brimley Bus) to get to my favourite Timmies at Ellesmere & Brimley. There I relaxed before the round, and again updated my "Reminder Lists" – had time to do a major job! I had a very light dinner, and I then got the needed caffeine to go into battle. At 7:00 PM I walked back to the club (about 10-15 min. away).

Pre-Round 2

I got in and set up the display table and put out the cross-tables. Then I had to go to the pairings room to get me to print out the standings for the four sections for the display table. Then I talked to former member Dinesh Dittani; he and another former member (Doug Gillis) were off this weekend to Ottawa for the Eastern Ontario Open (Same weekend at the Mississauga Golden Horseshoe tournament). Then I briefly chatted with my friend, Toy Kwan.

Round 2

After a few announcements, the round started almost on time.

As usual, I have turned my Game into a “Chess Game Quiz” (See below).

After the game, I packed up my display table materials, and headed for home, again by TTC (Toy often gives me a lift to the Midland LRT station nearby on his own way home).

The Later Evening

I got home about 11:15 PM. First I took a bit of time to follow my routine for my own projects. I then went to bed. I was tired, and had to leave the blog for writing/posting on Friday morning.

My U 1800 Section Report - Rd. 2 - Thursday, June 6/19.

I am rated 1xxx (Part of the contest below). I am in the 2nd of the 4 sections. My section rating spread is effectively, from the 1600's to about 1000. I am in the middle third of the section.

Post-Rd. 2 – U 1800 Leaders

There are 42 players in our section; there were 19 boards (The actual number of boards may have playing fewer than the total no. of players, due to byes, suspensions, withdrawals, etc.); here are the leaders:

1st/3rd - 2 Pts. - Umang Dwivedi (1693); Arkadiy Ugodnikov (1595); Victor Xu (1405).

My Round 2 Game: The Chess Game Quiz

I have provided some of my own light annotations (No engine analysis yet) to explain a bit of what I was thinking as the game went on. Now your part; you must answer 4 questions as you go through, and after playing over, the game (See game below).

Player W - Player Bl [E87]

Scarb. CC Spring into Summer (U 1800) (2), 06.06.2019

[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

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?

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 King's Indian Defence 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 Samish Line 5...0–0 6.Be3 Nbd7 7.Nge2 e5 8.d5 All a major book line to here 8...Nh5 Black decides to play aggressively against the uncastled White K. 9.g4 Not worried about 9.....Qh4+ 9...Nf4 Bl decides to sac a P to open lines to the W K 10.Nxf4 exf4 11.Bxf4 W goes up a P 11...Qf6 12.Qd2 Ne5 trying to build an attack before W gets to castle 13.Be2 h6 Bl thought he was offering to trade his hp for the W f3P, but s/he miscalculated 14.h4 now hard for Bl to protect his/her hP 14...Qe7 15.Bxh6 W goes up 2 P's 15...f5 16.Bxg7 Kxg7 17.gxf5 gxf5 Suddenly, now W has counter-attack possibilities 18.0–0–0 fxe4 19.fxe4 Nf3 Down 2 P's, Bl should not be offering to trade off pieces 20.Bxf3 Rxf3 21.Rhg1+ Kf7 22.Qg5 W follows the classical principle - when up material, trade everything and win the ending. 22...Qxg5+ 23.Rxg5 Bh3 24.Rdg1 classical principle - take control of an open file by doubling R's on it. 24...Rf1+ again - Bl should not be seeking to trade; and in this case if is also a bad blunder...... 25.Rxf1+ Bxf1 26.Rf5+

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:W - Bob (1503); Bl - Alexander Mates (1108)

My Score

1.5/2 pts. - Win: 1 (Rd. 2); 1/2 Pt. Bye: 1 (Rd. 1)

My Opponents' & My Scores

1.5/2 pts. - Me (1503)

.5/2 pts. - Alexander Mates (1107) – I won in Rd. 2.

Scarborough CC Games - Top Section

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

[See Part III below]

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Scarborough Chess Club Spring into Summer Swiss – Blog

Rd. 2 - 19/6/6 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 1 [Part III of 3 parts; see Parts I & II above]

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

2013-4 Season

Jack Frost Swiss (3rd tournament) - 131 - peak registration for the season.

2014-5 Season

Club Championship Swiss (5th tournament of the season) - 126 - peak registration for the season

Season average registration (for the 6 tournaments) - 117

2015-6 Season

Club Championship (5th tournament of the season) - 141! (1800+: 35; U 1800 - 106) - Peak for the season & the current RECORD for recent times!

Season average registration (for the 6 tournaments) - 131

2016-7 Season

Jack Frost Swiss (3rd Tournament of the season) - 139 - 1800+: 32; U 1800: 35; U 1400: 72. - Peak Registration for the season

Season Average Registration (for 6 tournaments): 133! (Highest Seasonal Average since keeping records here).

2017-8 Season

Howard Ridout Memorial Swiss (1st tournament of the season) - 130 (1800+: 27; U 1800: 46; U 1400: 57) - Peak Registration for the season.

Season Average Registration (for 6 tournaments): 122. Below the 2016-7 Season Average of 133. 7

2018-9 Season (Current)

# 1 - Howard Ridout Memorial Swiss (1st tournament of the season) - 123 (1800+ - 20; U 1800 - 57; U 1400 Jrs. Only - 19; U 1000 Jrs. Only - 27).

# 2 - Falling Leaves Swiss (2nd tournament of the season) - 112 (1800+ - 17; U 1800 - 51; U 1400 Jrs. - 20; U 1000 Jrs. - 24)

# 3 – Jack Frost Swiss (3^rd tournament of the season) - 122 ( 1800+ 20; U 1800 - 52; U 1400 Jrs. - 24; U 1000 Jrs. - 26)

# 4 – Winter Swiss (4^th tournament of the season) - 115 (1800+ - 19; U 1800 - 49; U 1400 Jrs. - 21; U 1000 Jrs. - 26)

# 5 – Club Championship (5^th tournament of the season) – 137 (Championship - 31; Reserves - 106) – Substantially above the season's average so far of 122.

Season Average Registration (So far): 122 (Slightly above the 2017-8 Season Average of 121).

END OF TEMPLATE

Invitation

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

Also, if any SCC member, or other reader, wishes to add in a supplementary post on their own game, or as a comment, please feel free to supplement my blog.

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

Bob A