Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

[Paul Bonham]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

Paul,

That's not what Jean said.

I'm not sure if you understand what Modus Tollens means. It is used very commonly in classical logic: If A then B; Not B therefore Not A.

Jean didn't say that if you put up demo boards then there would be spectators. He said there were no demo boards, therefore there could not be any spectators.

Do you understand the difference?

Jordan

Jordan, thanks, I'm not sure if you know what a question mark means. A question mark looks like this: "?" and it means the statement is a question. My statement was asking Jean if he was meaning to say that if you put up demo boards, then there would be spectators. I was not STATING that this was what he meant.

Do you understand the difference? :)

I then extrapolated that if this was indeed what Jean meant, he might be correct, in a ratio of about 1 demo board to 1 spectator.

By the way, there's a definite logic error that Jean used against Ron Livshits. Ron posted that "I think Hal organized a very good tournament in a short period of time", and he later in the same paragraph wrote that "Hal is one of the few organizers who consistently organizes top notch tournaments year in and year out." Notice that Ron NEVER wrote that the Closed was a top notch tournament.

But Jean twisted Ron's statements, by transferring the "top notch" description onto Ron's description of the Closed. I notice he did this on another occassion in the continuing threads between them:

Originally Posted by Ron Livshits:
Hal indeed made a mistake at the beginning with the time control, he quickly acknoledged this and changed. I didn't especially like the snacks that were offered or the lack of coffee but that was not so terrible. There was plenty of room, it was quiet to play and no incidents occured.

Reply from Jean Hebert:
So now we have your definition of a "top notch" event: plenty of room (low attendance makes up for the extra room..)., quiet (also related to low attendance...) and no incidents (related to the good behaviour of the participants). Did I get you right ? Or is it that after some thought, your "top notch" has been downgraded to "acceptable" ?

As you can see, Jean has totally and incorrectly transformed Ron's original statements, making Jean's entire argument bogus.

Why do you point out a logic error that never was and ignore a more blatent one that kept repeating? Is it possible because you are not being objective, but have been blinded to Jean's logic errors by his charm and smooth talk?

Just so you know, that bit about charm and smooth talk was SARCASM.

[Benoit St-Pierre]

Pow ! Pow !

What a blatant personal attack on the CFC !

Disclaimer : english is my second language.

[Vlad Dobrich]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

Victor,
We have not always agreed in the past but here I believe you are totally right. Mr Hebert should apologize. His words are not worthy of a Canadian Champion!
By way of explanation, he may have been drawn into ChessTalk mudslinging initiated by the regular rude people on this site. And possibly his choice of words was a result of English being his second language. I am not apologizing for him, only he can do that.
As for the discussion of the tournament conditions, this should be left to the players themselves, not to regular snipers who were not even there.
As someone who was not there, the only objection I can make is There were no live online games of the event That was a truly shocking error on the part of the CFC! But what can you expect of a horse with three broken legs?
Shoot it already!

[Victor Plotkin]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

Mr. Hebert!
I don't want to answer you on the same ugly and personal level. We have enough this stuff here, on chesstalk. I just recommend you choose words more accurately. I never lick shoes and did nothing to you to be shamed.
Just to remind you: 200 years ago words like this were enough for duel in both France and Russia (probably also in Canada).
I never used any negative word regarding yourself or R.-R. I just posted my personal opinion in 1-st post and facts only in 2-nd. Even if I critisized somebody it was CFC for wild card. My personal opinion CFC should take into account things like withdrawing from national championship (for wild card only, not rating).
I believe you should apologize.

[Eric Hansen]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

What's the matter with you Mr Plotkin ? You lick an organizer's boots and then turn around to criticize a fellow chessplayer's actions that happened 2-3years ago and violated absolutely no rule ? You should be ashamed...

Being invited to the National team has little to do with the Canadian championships. Many players on those teams did not even play in the canadian championships! Furthermore withdrawing from a round-robin has serious consequences but not from a swiss system tournament. Players withdraw from these tournaments all over the world without even a glance from the organizers or the sponsors, unless some fees are involved.

Players rarely withdraw from national championships as far as I know. There is a big difference with that and a regular weekend swiss. Sponsors do not want to provide for an event where the players do not even completely play! How can you support professionally organized tournaments and want stable sponsorship when you also think withdrawing from a national championship is fine? Also, I don't know about before, but I know in recent years (06,08) members of the olympic team had all played in previous zonals. It should certainly be a consideration when picking players.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

And what about chessplayer who withdrew twice from his last two (2006 and 2007) Canadian Championships and still got an invitation to National team (wild card) from CFC (may be not from CFC, but it doesn't matter)? I don't think sponsors should like it.

What's the matter with you Mr Plotkin ? You lick an organizer's boots and then turn around to criticize a fellow chessplayer's actions that happened 2-3years ago and violated absolutely no rule ? You should be ashamed...

Being invited to the National team has little to do with the Canadian championships. Many players on those teams did not even play in the canadian championships! Furthermore withdrawing from a round-robin has serious consequences but not from a swiss system tournament. Players withdraw from these tournaments all over the world without even a glance from the organizers or the sponsors, unless some fees are involved.

[Eric Hansen]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

And what about chessplayer who withdrew twice from his last two (2006 and 2007) Canadian Championships and still got an invitation to National team (wild card) from CFC (may be not from CFC, but it doesn't matter)? I don't think sponsors should like it.

Good point, Victor. I didn't notice that but it certainly shouldn't happen again. Although I have an odd feeling that it might :) . Anyways I'll try my best to make sure it doesn't happen again by putting in some good results in the next year.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

You played well, you won a very prestigious tournamant, what is there to fuss about?

Not fussing, just pointing out with deep disappointment that tables, sets and clocks may be enough to play chess, but not nearly enough to promote the game. If I had had a disappointing result, I suppose that you would be the first to explain my "fussing" on a bad performance. People short of argument often come up with this kind of "rationalisation" one way or the other.

As a player unconcerned with nothing but the 64 squares, the tournament went well and was quite pleasant for me. But as an individual involved in this game for 40 years+ and concerned about promoting it, I consider that it was a complete fiasco and a spoiled occasion to promote chess, even if 100% of its participants enjoyed their adventures on the chessboard. It is the nature of this great game that allows that: at times it can be enjoyed even in the most dismal conditions. This is the main reason why chess in Canada has survived decades of mismanagement and underpromotion.

If there is anyone to blame it should be the CFC and in particularly the former president who didn't seem to care much and because of whom this tournamnet almost never took place.

This sentence is pretty interesting. In the first part ("If there is anyone to blame" ) you seem to imply that possibly no one is to blame and then, in the next part, we see a full charge against the former CFC president. It has to be one or the other, not both. Is it your upbringing that makes it hard for you to clearly voice a dissenting opinion ?

Hal indeed made a mistake at the beginning with the time control, he quickly acknoledged this and changed. I didn't especially like the snacks that were offered or the lack of coffee but that was not so terrible. There was plenty of room, it was quiet to play and no incidents occured.

So now we have your definition of a "top notch" event: plenty of room (low attendance makes up for the extra room..)., quiet (also related to low attendance...) and no incidents (related to the good behaviour of the participants). Did I get you right ? Or is it that after some thought, your "top notch" has been downgraded to "acceptable" ?

To see this happen I think first of all we need good leadership at the CFC that would aggressively push to improove chess in Canada.

Don't you think that some of that needed leadership and sense of responsibility should come from organizers too ? If the players bow before anyone who puts a site, some chessboards and a sheet of pairings together, and call it "great", we are not out of the woods.

[Ron Livshits]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

Jean I'm really surprised by all this.

You played well, you won a very prestigious tournamant, what is there to fuss about? If there is anyone to blame it should be the CFC and in particularly the former president who didn't seem to care much and because of whom this tournamnet almost never took place. Hal stepped in when no one else would and put together a decent tournamanet. Could it be better? Yes it could, I myself have played in many nicer tournamanets. Was the tournamnet unpleasent to play in? No I don't think so, after playing in the Continental with close to 300 people jammed like sardins, discusting toilets and noisy traffic the playing conditions at the closed were perfectly acceptable. Hal indeed made a mistake at the beginning with the time control, he quickly acknoledged this and changed. I didn't especially like the snacks that were offered or the lack of coffee but that was not so terrible. There was plenty of room, it was quiet to play and no incidents occured.

I have nothing against the type of conditions you would like to see. I think everyone would welcome them. To see this happen I think first of all we need good leadership at the CFC that would aggressively push to improove chess in Canada. Until that happens we should appriciate people like Hal who for a reasonable fee put together an acceptable tournamnet.

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

Ben,

Just remember, I have an answer for everything... like after you beat me in round one of the 1993 Intercollegiates (if I remember correctly, I had a pretty strong position out of the opening with Black, but I made a capture with the wrong pawn and blew it), I beat you 2-0 in the Friday night blitz a few weeks later at the Specialist :)

This is all fun for me too buddy! ;)

[Benoit St-Pierre]

You Still Have Friends

Jordan,

Don't give up yet. You can point out what we can't infer and what we can. As long as it's conversational. We're chesstalkin' here, ain't we ?

:-P

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

comic books? no I'd rather read Professor Jordan's Chess Organizing for Dummies

first you say Jean didn't say there would be spectators if seats & demo boards were laid out, which prompted the lecutre on logic & then you argue that there were indeed spectators that came in sufficient quantities & that they would have stayed if only everything was laid out for them

you are swearving all over logic road, when you attempt to sound all academic like then I assume you don't mind being called professor

Did I say something about quantities? Did I say something about how long they would stay? I must have been bored to sleep from the garbage you spewed when I posted that message. Please quote when and where I said that.

The book that I will write will be titled Logic For Dummies, and your picture will be on the cover with a big question mark over your head. You form arguments with facts that don't exist, and when people explain the truth of a matter in easy-to-follow detail, you can't seem to understand anything.

Oh crap, I wasted another three minutes of my life with this garbage... screw you for making it so fun and easy to poke holes in your garbage, Zeljko!

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

Explaining a modus tollens in a chess forum is pedantic. Among other bad things. Deal with it.

If you are making that statement because you think that all chess players are logical and intelligent, then sadly you are wrong. However, I will not point out the logical fallacy at this time ;)

If pointing out a modus tollens is pedantic and bad, then what would you call the logical fallacy that caused my response? Are you saying that illogical banter is good, and trying to set the record straight is bad?

If so, then I give up!!

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

Fine Zeljko, you keep throwing out garbage, and I'll ignore it. Maybe you'll get bored and read a comic book or something.

comic books? no I'd rather read Professor Jordan's Chess Organizing for Dummies

first you say Jean didn't say there would be spectators if seats & demo boards were laid out, which prompted the lecutre on logic & then you argue that there were indeed spectators that came in sufficient quantities & that they would have stayed if only everything was laid out for them

you are swearving all over logic road, when you attempt to sound all academic like then I assume you don't mind being called professor

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Few personal notes about Canadian Closed

earth to Jordan, stop wasting your time posting nonsense and stop being all professor like marking up my 'term paper' with underlining & bolding

Fine Zeljko, you keep throwing out garbage, and I'll ignore it. Maybe you'll get bored and read a comic book or something.