Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss (Nov. 31 - Dec. 12, 2019) – Blog

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 1st November, 2019, 06:11 AM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 1 - 19/10/31 (Thursday)

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

Back to Thursday Morning

First off, I had to deal with a few family legal matters.

I began to draft this Blog # 1 on Wednesday - I sort of add to it as I go through the day, and then try to finalize it and post it late Thursday night or in the wee hours of Friday morning. We often go to our hobby farm early on Friday morning, so I usually like to get the blog posted before I go to sleep if possible (Our farm is an almost internet/computer-free zone, so I cannot finish and post it there). If I have to leave it 'til Friday morning, I have to hope I get up early enough to get it posted before we have to go to the hobby farm.

So I started to update this draft.

I then continued my normal stuff.

The Bul**hit Coffee Club (BCC)

At 7:00 AM I dressed and got some stuff for my day ready. At 7:30 AM I headed out to my favourite morning coffee club, The Bul**it Coffee Club. When I am living in Toronto, I do like to go.

5 of us were there today (most of the core group of 6): Helen; John # 1; Darryl; Linda; & me. I had to leave a bit early today to drive my wife to her doctor appointment, so I don't know if at 9:00 AM John # 2 showed (on Thursdays, John # 2 shows up to go bowling with Linda and John # 1).

Some of the stuff (among others) we canvassed were:

Politics – Canada – how will the minority government do?
- - USA – Will Trump beat the impeachment process?
Halloween – the neighbourhood has seen an increase in young professional couples with young children – more and more houses are going all out with street decorations.
Physician-Assisted Self-Killing – that the Canadian process is much too restricted in giving consent.
Multi-culturalism – Quebec's new laws on “Canadian Values” test for immigrants, and “no religious symbols worn by public service employees”.

TEMPLATE BEGINS

BCC Historical Note

The BCC is held in one of my favourite local coffee shops, La Patisserie de Cigogne (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. In late Spring to early Fall, we often meet on the patio.

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. Darryl is often there with Helen when I arrive. In good weather, we meet on the patio. Most others arrive closer to 8:00 AM.

If no one is there when I get there, 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!).

We are at the moment 8 regulars: Helen, Linda, John # 1, Joe, Darryl, Ed (Rarely), John # 2 (Once per week), 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 pretty much let it all 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 on Fb!

TEMPLATE ENDS

Back Home

I got home at 9:30 AM. I then drove my wife to her doctor's to get her regular anti-sting venom inoculation. I got home at 10:30 AM.

I then had to make a few calls related to servicing needed at the farm and a family financial matter.

Finally I started out on my 35/25 life system – first I continued my own stuff for a 25 min. shift, setting the alarm. Then at the alarm, I reset it for 35 min. of house/family tasks.

My main family task for today was to ready stuff to go to our hobby farm early Friday morning.........we have been very busy the last few weekends with a lot of pre-snow prep; this weekend I have to dig over two raised veggie gardens and tarp them, among other stuff like looking at the lawn tractor with our handyman to find the “rattle”. I also have to go to the car service guy up there to get the winter tires on.

So I got a couple of my farm bags ready.

Another family task time was needed to do some family finance stuff, that took longer than expected.

Then I got the compost and garbage out to the bins, and put the bins out on the street for tomorrow. I also e-mailed the two teenage neighbour kids that take care of our house when we are away, to let them know we were going to the farm tomorrow.

Then I again took my own time.

Lunch

At 2:15 PM, I decided to have something to eat. At that point my wife arrived home from her appointments. We had some veggies and my wife's home-made hummus – easy to prepare and healthy.

After lunch I did some more on this Blog # 1, and continued with my routine retiree projects on my own time.

Siesta

Given that I usually sleep short compared to many in the early morning (night), and that I am working on year number 75, I have found that the European/Latin American practice of a siesta time in mid-afternoon works really well (I usually set the alarm and do not sleep more than 1 hour).

So I went for my siesta at 3:00 PM. My wife was also pretty exhausted and she also took a 1 hr. siesta.

I woke up with my alarm at 4:00 PM.

My wife was awake when I got up and so we visited for a while. We discussed preparing to go to the farm tomorrow. Then I then went back to the laptop for a short time until it was time to go to SCC.

Heading Out for Rd. 1

I then prepared my stuff to go to SCC. I printed out the cross-tables – I use them to record myself the top results in my section, for this Blog # 1. I also prepared my materials for the SCC Display Table (I do this as a member volunteer job).

At 5:35 PM I headed out by car for SCC. My wife had arranged to go over to her best friend's place for dinner. I went to my Timmies at Ellesmere and Brimley. I had my usual light dinner, got the needed caffeine to go into battle and worked on updating my “Reminder Book” (Bad memory). At 7:00 PM I drove back to the club (about 5 min. drive away).

Pre-Round 1

I got in and set up the whole display table, and put out the cross-tables. I chatted briefly with veteran member Jim Patterson.

After that I decided to limit my socializing and went and paced at the end of the hall, waiting for the pairings to be posted. This had nothing to do with my Bi-Polar Disorder this time. I was just tired from a very busy week living in Toronto for the prior 3 days. My friend Dave Southam (From the top section), saw me and kindly came down to check I was OK. He knows of my Bi-Polar and wondered if I was hiding a bit – I confirmed I was quite OK at the moment, and so he went off to charge his dead cell phone.

Round 1

The round started almost on time. The game is below.

After the game, I watched the rest of the games. I chatted a bit with my friend, Toy Chan, about the upcoming Dec. Hart House Holiday's Open and his coming European Vacation. Joseph Tavana, who was still playing in the top section, but walking around a bit for a break, came to the display table and I explained the club's Bellomo Little Library project, trying to get various chess books and magazines in circulation free. .

Then when I had the no. Of decisive games for my U 1800 section, I packed up my stuff and headed for home.

The Later Evening

I got home about 11:00 PM, and my wife was in bed reading. We chatted a bit before I went to do my own projects on the laptop, and finish this Blog # 1.

I finished the Blog # 1, and was able to enter and lightly annotated my game. But I left the posting of this Blog # 1 'til Friday morning, before we left for the farm......going to pick up our friend who was joining us for the weekend; we'd arranged to pick her up at her house at 9:30 AM. I hit the sack about 1:00 AM on Friday.

[See Part III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 1st November, 2019, 06:12 AM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 1 - 19/10/31 (Thursday)

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

My U 1800 Section Report - Rd. 1 - Thursday, October 31/19.

I am rated 1549. I am in the 2nd of the 4 sections. My section rating spread is effectively, from the high1600's to about 1000. I am in the middle third of the section.

Post-Rd. 1 – U 1800 Game 1 Winners

There are 43 players in our section; but there were only 13 boards, given all the byes for Halloween (The actual number of boards may have playing fewer than the total no. of players, due to byes, suspensions, withdrawals, etc.).

No. of Game 1 winners: 10

My Round 1 Game

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.

Wang, Nathan Zian (1389) – Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1549) [A40]

Scarborough Falling Leaves (U 1800) (1), 31.10.2019
[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

1.d4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.e3 c5 Modern Defence 4.Bd3 Qb6 an unusual line that forces the opponent to use his native chess intuition. 5.0–0 a mistake because Nathan was unfamiliar with the defence. This loses a centre P. 5...cxd4 6.exd4 Bxd4 I go up a P 7.Nxd4 Qxd4 8.Bd2 Nf6 9.Bc3 Qb6 10.Re1 the eP is temporarily pinned, and hangs if I 0–0 10...d5 11.Nd2 Be6 Breaking the pin on the eP 12.Qf3 Nbd7 13.Nb3 0–0 14.Nd4 Rad8 15.Qe3 Nc5 16.Nxe6 Nxe6 17.Qxb6 axb6 My extra P is now doubled and isolated. Is this winnable? 18.Bb5 Ne4 19.Bb4 N4c5 20.Rad1 Nc7 21.Bf1 Rfe8 I finally am able to protect my eP and push it. 22.c4 d4 I now have the passed P 23.Bxc5 Not sure it is wise of Nathan to both give up his B for an N, and undouble my extra P. 23...bxc5 24.g3 e5 my centre P's look strong 25.Bg2 b6 4 of my 7 P's are now on Black squares, and Nathan has the white-squared B. 26.f4 exf4 27.gxf4 Rxe1+ 28.Rxe1 Kf8 keeping Nathan's R off the 7th rank 29.Bh3 Ne8 30.f5 Nd6 31.fxg6 hxg6 32.Bf1 f5 I now have 3 passed P's, and two are connected. Nathan should have trouble holding a draw here. 33.Bd3 Re8 34.Rxe8+ Kxe8 35.Kf2 Kf7 36.Kf3 Kf6 37.h4 Nf7 38.a3 Ne5+ 39.Ke2 Nxd3 40.Kxd3 Ke5 Nathan has a 3 to 2 pawn majority on the Q-side, to create a passed P and try to stay in the game. 41.b4 cxb4 42.axb4 f4 43.c5 bxc5 44.bxc5 I have 2 passed P's, and Nathan has 1 44...f3 45.c6 Kd6 46.c7 Kxc7 47.Kd2 Kd6 48.Ke1 The WK cannot stop both passed P's in this pawn formation 48...d3 49.Kf2 d2 50.Kxf3 d1Q+

0–1

My Score

1/1 pts. - Win: 1 (Rd. 1).

My Opponents' & My Scores

1/1 pts. - Me (1618)

0/1 pts. - Junior Boy Nathan Wang (1389) – I won in Rd. 1.

Top Section Games

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!

Some History

How My Blog Works (Some history and details) + an SCC Tournament History.

These next 2 sections are another template.

TEMPLATE BEGINS

SCC Tournament 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.

2018-9 Season

Club Championship (5^th tournament of the season) – 137 (Championship - 31; Reserves - 106) – Peak registration of the season.

Season Average Registration (For 6 tournaments): 120 (Almost at the prior 2017-8 Season Average of 121; our historical high from a few years ago (2016-7) is 133).

2019-20 Season (Current)

# 1 – Howard Ridout Memorial: 122 ( 1800+ - 20; U 1800 – 52; U 1400 (Jrs. Only) – 19; U 1000 (Jrs. Only) - 31) – above last season's average per tournament: 118.

Bob's Blog

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

i) on my personal Facebook Account for my over 900 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…), now owned by Henry Lam;
iii) occasionally on other chess websites, such as that of FQE (Province of Quebec's Chess Association). On the one occasion this was done, 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, under my own personal account - 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 (http://www.scarboroughchessclub.ca/).
iii) my Annex CC tournaments Fb blog to ACC's Fb Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/172335039452033/).

Henry Lam (Aka Dark Knight on CT), the owner of CT, and I have now done a first renewal of our “Henry/Bob Blog Agreement” (Original agreement - summer of 2018). Under it I agreed to re-post my Fb Chess Blogs on CT for both my chess club official tournaments, subject to the condition that interest did not wane to such an extent that it was no longer worth making the effort to do the blog. This has now happened re the Annex CC blog, and I am therefore no longer blogging those club tournaments. I also agreed to blog my non-club weekend (Sometimes longer; sometimes shorter) tournaments, in which I play between Summer 2019 and Summer 2020. Henry and I have a clause for consideration of annual renewal.

So, under this new agreement, I am now re-posting my blogs of my current Scarborough CC tournaments. My future non-club weekend blogs, to and including Summer 2020, 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, or fail to play one that is intended):

The 2019 Hart House Holidays Open – Toronto (Prior to Christmas – Dec.).
2. The 2020 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February).
3. The 2020 Quebec Open – if in Montreal or near-by (July).
4. The 2020 Toronto Open (Sept.)

This year so far, I have managed to insert a game into the Fall – The Canadian International Open – Longueuil, Quebec (Oct. 11-3, 2019).

The Blog Focus

I mainly focus on the section I am playing in (Has been U 2000, U 1900, U 1800 or U 1700). 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 (Players 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 sometimes cover (Bare Bones) the top section standings; but I have to have been able to get the results before the Blog goes to press. For this section, of course, including 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 during the day of club tournaments, and before and between rounds for weekend tournaments (A bit of a reality show - bits of my personal, though generally pretty ordinary, life).

I know many other chess players approach tournaments quite differently than I do (E.g. - study, research opponents to prepare for them, etc.!). So one cannot generalize from what I do, to what other chess tournament players do.

Blog Feedback

I have had generally positive feedback on my blogging (I have done it for many, many years now, as some long-suffering viewers know), 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 all these years (I'm now working on year 75 (Not of blogging! LOL) – I do hope, as long as there is interest, to keep doing my blogs for many years yet).

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!

TEMPLATE ENDS

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 8th November, 2019, 07:21 PM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 2 - 19/11/7 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 2 [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: Falling Leaves Swiss (# 2 of the 2019-20 Season)

When: October 31 – Dec. 12.

Format: 7- 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 – free].

Notes re sections:

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.

Registration: 112 (So far) ( 1800+ - 18; U 1800 – 48; U 1400 [Jrs. Only] – 20; U 1000 [Jrs. Only] - 31) – slightly below last season's average per tournament: 118. Note that SCC often picks up new registrants as the tournament progresses.

Time Control: Top Section: G/60 + 30 sec. (From move 1)

- Bottom 3 sections: G/70 + 15 sec. (From move 1).

Rating: a. All sections are CFC-rated.

b. The top section is also FIDE rated.

Playing Up: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play in their section, or, in the next section up – no fee.

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 (Nov. 7)

Thursday Morning

Today I am currently living in Toronto, Ontario, and so am able to play. When I am living in my two other locations (Ontario hobby farm; Montreal, Quebec), I take byes/withdraw.

I awoke at 5:30 AM before the alarm – 6 hours sleep for me is usual (Went to bed at 11:30 PM Wednesday night; often during weekend tournaments I sleep much shorter, and get substantially less than my usual night 6 hrs.).

I got my morning coffee downstairs today, as usual, to take upstairs to my home office. My wife had made an applesauce from our organic apples from our hobby farm, so I grabbed a big bowl of it as well.

Before I went up, I did yesterday's dishes and generally straightened up the kitchen.

Template Note:

There 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 “Template Begins” to “Template Ends” (I will alert you immediately before the template if there are any revisions you won't have read previously).

TEMPLATE BEGINS

Victim of Routine

I am retired + unemployed – life is quite fine overall - 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! I have created a monster!

My mornings tend to be pretty scripted – who isn't a victim of routine?

So I settled in to my comfy home office and fired up my old laptop to follow my general daily routine tasks.

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 re-post the most relevant...see below.

4. Fb Project # 1 (My Company's) - My little company (In the process of being legally incorporated, after some years of operation as an unregistered sole proprietorship) 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 “The REAL News” by 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 second Fb discussion club, Chess Chat (also formed under my personal Fb account) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/.

Fb Project # 3 (On behalf of a religious community I am forming) - When I find them, I share religious (All Religions) posts to my religious community's Fb Page, Theist Community (https://www.facebook.com/Theist-Comm...dmin_todo_tour). Sometimes these re-posts also appear in PEERS.
Update the discussion group formed under my community's page. It is called Spiritual/Religions Discussion Club (Or SRDC) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2042495809374373/. I update it by sharing some more discussable of the posts now on the Theist Community page.
Fb Project # 4 (On behalf of a political party I would like formed) – Democratic Marxist – Global – https://www.facebook.com/Democratic-...dmin_todo_tour.
Update the discussion group formed under the political party page. It is called Democratic Marxist Global Forum – https://www.facebook.com/groups/2045...=nf&__tn__=C-R.
I have another retiree project besides my 3 Facebook Projects.

Chess is a passionate hobby of mine, as you know. It is part of what I call my “Interlude Living”. But I have never really studied seriously.

But what I do do, is I enter all my games, and annotate them, to try to learn something - GrandMasters do recommend this often. In addition, I integrate the opening (the first 10 moves) into an opening/defence tree I have for the opening/defence played. The value of this is pretty uncertain, given my inability to remember lines - but I do develop general impressions of how the opening can go.

So on my own time, I go back and forth between the 3 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

TEMPLATE ENDS

[See Parts II & III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 8th November, 2019, 07:24 PM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 2 - 19/11/7 (Thursday)

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

Back to Thursday Morning

First off, I had to deal with a few family legal matters. So I spent some time finding documents and printing others off my laptop.

I then began to draft this Blog # 2 - I sort of add to it as I go through the day, and then try to finalize it late Thursday night and post it in the wee hours of Friday morning. We often go to our hobby farm early on Friday morning, so I have to move quickly to get it posted before we leave (Our farm is an almost internet/computer-free zone, so I cannot post it there).

I then continued my normal stuff.

Later Thursday Morning

When my wife got up, we had to spend some time on a second legal matter in which we are involved. This took some time.

I then had to make a few calls related to a family financial matter, and relating to fixing our furnace at the hobby farm.

Then my wife had to go drop off the legal documents and then go to a heart course downtown. So I offered to drive her since I was going west at the same time. We left about 10:30 AM. I was meeting my best friend for lunch (We meet once per month), and it was my turn this time to go his way. So driving my wife to Yonge/Bloor fit right in.

The Afternoon

I got back from lunch about 2:00 PM. I was falling over exhausted – not sure what is going on since I had a good night's sleep. I tried doing a bit on the laptop for a while.

Siesta

Given that I usually sleep short compared to many in the early morning (night), and that I am working on year number 75, I have found that the European/Latin American practice of a siesta time in mid-afternoon works really well (I usually set the alarm and do not sleep more than 1 hour). Today this was clearly the time to crash.

I do listen to my body. So I left a note on the dining room table for my wife, since she was going to be home soon, and hit the sack about 3:00 PM

My wife did come home, and she also decided to take a siesta.

When I got up, it was back to business.

My main family task for today was to continue filing documentation on family files that were all over my office – when I am rushed, I just pile things that need filing! Looks like my law office used to!

Another big task for today was to continue packing my wife's pottery for her pottery cooperative's upcoming sale (I started packing a few days ago). She is an amateur potter, and the cooperative she belongs to is a few professionals, most part-time professionals and some amateurs. All members sell their creations in the two sales they hold: one pre-Christmas in November; the other in the Spring in May. Well.....that didn't happen........I slated it for Friday morning.

Then I got the compost and garbage out to the bins, and put the bins out on the street for tomorrow.

Then I then went back to the laptop for a short time until it was time to go to SCC.

Heading Out for Rd. 2

I then prepared my stuff to go to SCC. I printed out the cross-tables – I use them to record myself the top results in my section, for this Blog # 2. I also prepared my materials for the SCC Display Table (I do this as a member volunteer job).

At 5:35 PM I headed out by car for SCC. I went to my Timmies at Ellesmere and Brimley. I had my usual light dinner, got the needed caffeine to go into battle and worked on updating my “Reminder Book” (Bad memory). At 7:00 PM I drove back to the club (about 5 min. drive away).

Pre-Round 2

I got in and set up the whole display table, and put out the cross-tables. Then I chatted briefly with two new members who were new to tournament chess. We looked at a recent magazine re the recent World Championship match and brought them up to speed on the top chess echelons. I also showed them how to find their new CFC standard ratings after playing in the first SCC tournament this season, the recently completed Howard Ridout Memorial.

Round 2

The round started almost on time. The game is below.

After the game, I watched the rest of the games. I chatted a bit with Omar, our SCC President.

Then when I had the section leaders for all sections, I packed up my stuff and headed for home.

The Later Evening

On the way home I saw the gas was getting close to empty, so I stopped in at our local station to fill up for next week. I got home about 11:15 PM, and my wife had gone to bed. So I went to continue my own projects on the laptop. But I was too tired to finish this Blog # 2, or enter/analyze my game, and left that for Friday, and went to bed.

My U 1800 Section Report - Rd. 2 - Thursday, Nov. 7/19.

I am rated 1563. I am in the 2nd of the 4 sections. My section rating spread is effectively, from the high1600's to about 1000. I am in the middle third of the section.

Post-Rd. 2 – U 1800 Leaders

There are 49 players in our section; but there were only 19 boards (The actual number of boards may have playing fewer than the total no. of players, due to byes, suspensions, withdrawals, etc.).

The leaders are:

1^st/4^th – 2/2 pts. - Junior Boy Boyuan Kong (1624); Junior Boy Frank Wang (1607); Junior Boy Ben Smolkin (1597); me (1563).

5^th – 1.5/2 pts. - 10 player tie

[See Part III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 8th November, 2019, 07:26 PM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 2 - 19/11/7 (Thursday)

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

My Round 2 Game

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.

Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1563) – Hulbert, Guy (1307) [E81]

SCC Falling Leaves (U 1800) (2), 07.11.2019
[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 0–0 King's Indian Defence 5.f3 Samisch Variation 5...d6 6.Be3 c5 7.d5 Na6 Black works on a plan to play .....b5 and open lines to the Q-side in case I castle long......but it is too slow a plan. 8.Nge2 Nc7 9.g4 The Samisch Variation is an aggressive line....but it is more appearance than reality.....with correct play Black will draw usually. But if Guy dithers at all, the result can be disaster. 9...a6 Continuing with the .....b5 plan 10.Ng3 e6 11.h4 the attack is building 11...Nd7 12.Qd2 Ne5 13.Be2 f6 hoping to build a P-blockade in front of his K. 14.f4 Nf7 15.f5 exf5 16.gxf5 g5 hoping to close down W's attack 17.Nh5 Bh8 18.hxg5 fxg5 19.0–0–0 I will have to sac now to break things wide open in front of the K - for this I need the R, and a pin on the gP 19...h6 Black likely thinks W's attack is now stalled 20.Rdg1 pinning the gP, while the h1R is trained on the black hP, if the f7N can be kicked. 20...Ne8 21.Nf4 using the pin to better position the N for the attack 21...Bxc3 22.bxc3 Nf6 23.Bd3 Re8 24.Ne6 Bxe6 25.dxe6 accomplishing the first task - the kicking of the f7N 25...Ne5 26.Bxg5 the deadly sack that blows it open in front of Guy's K and makes the R attack effective.

1–0

My Score

2/2 pts. - Wins: 2 (Rds. 1 & 2) – in a 4-way tie for first.

My Opponents' & My Scores

2/2 pts. - Me (1618)

1/2 pts. - Guy Hulbert (1307) – I won in Rd. 2.

0/2 pts. - Junior Boy Nathan Wang (1389) – I won in Rd. 1.

Top Section Games

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!

Some History

How My Blog Works (Some history and details) + an SCC Tournament History.

These next 2 sections are another template.

TEMPLATE BEGINS

SCC Tournament 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.

2018-9 Season

Club Championship (5^th tournament of the season) – 137 (Championship - 31; Reserves - 106) – Peak registration of the season.

Season Average Registration (For 6 tournaments): 120 (Almost at the prior 2017-8 Season Average of 121; our historical high from a few years ago (2016-7) is 133).

2020 Season (Current)

# 1 – Howard Ridout Memorial: 122 ( 1800+ - 20; U 1800 – 52; U 1400 [Jrs. Only] – 19; U 1000 [Jrs. Only] - 31) – above last season's average per tournament: 118.

Bob's Blog

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

i) on my personal Facebook Account for my over 900 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…), now owned by Henry Lam;
iii) occasionally on other chess websites, such as that of FQE (Province of Quebec's Chess Association). On the one occasion this was done, 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, under my own personal account - 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 (http://www.scarboroughchessclub.ca/).
iii) my Annex CC tournaments Fb blog to ACC's Fb Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/172335039452033/).

Henry Lam (Aka Dark Knight on CT), the owner of CT, and I have now done a first renewal of our “Henry/Bob Blog Agreement” (Original agreement - summer of 2018). Under it I agreed to re-post my Fb Chess Blogs on CT for both my chess club official tournaments, subject to the condition that interest did not wane to such an extent that it was no longer worth making the effort to do the blog. This has now happened re the Annex CC blog, and I am therefore no longer blogging those club tournaments. I also agreed to blog my non-club weekend (Sometimes longer; sometimes shorter) tournaments, in which I play between Summer 2019 and Summer 2020. Henry and I have a clause for consideration of annual renewal.

So, under this new agreement, I am now re-posting my blogs of my current Scarborough CC tournaments. My future non-club weekend blogs, to and including Summer 2020, 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, or fail to play one that is intended):

The 2019 Hart House Holidays Open – Toronto (Prior to Christmas – Dec.).
2. The 2020 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February).
3. The 2020 Quebec Open – if in Montreal or near-by (July).
4. The 2020 Toronto Open (Sept.)

This year so far, I have managed to insert a game into the Fall – The Canadian International Open – Longueuil, Quebec (Oct. 11-3, 2019).

The Blog Focus

I mainly focus on the section I am playing in (Has been U 2000, U 1900, U 1800 or U 1700). 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 (Players 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 sometimes cover (Bare Bones) the top section standings; but I have to have been able to get the results before the Blog goes to press. For this section, of course, including 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 during the day of club tournaments, and before and between rounds for weekend tournaments (A bit of a reality show - bits of my personal, though generally pretty ordinary, life).

I know many other chess players approach tournaments quite differently than I do (E.g. - study, research opponents to prepare for them, etc.!). So one cannot generalize from what I do, to what other chess tournament players do.

Blog Feedback

I have had generally positive feedback on my blogging (I have done it for many, many years now, as some long-suffering viewers know), 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 all these years (I'm now working on year 75 (Not of blogging! LOL) – I do hope, as long as there is interest, to keep doing my blogs for many years yet).

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!

TEMPLATE ENDS

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 15th November, 2019, 11:56 AM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 3 - 19/11/14 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 3 [ 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: Falling Leaves Swiss (# 2 of the 2019-20 Season)

When: October 31 – Dec. 12.

Format: 7- 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 – free].

Notes re sections:

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.

Registration: 118 (So far) ( 1800+ - 18; U 1800 – 49; U 1400 (Jrs. Only) – 21; U 1000 (Jrs. Only) - 30) – above last season's average per tournament: 118.

Time Control: Top Section: G/60 + 30 sec. (From move 1)

- Bottom 3 sections: G/70 + 15 sec. (From move 1).

Rating: a. All sections are CFC-rated.

b. The top section is also FIDE rated.

Playing Up: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play in their section, or, in the next section up – no fee.

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. 3 (Nov. 14)

Thursday Morning

Today I am currently living in Toronto, Ontario, and so am able to play. When I am living in my two other locations (Ontario hobby farm; Montreal, Quebec), I take byes/withdraw.

I awoke at 5:00 AM before the alarm – 6 hours sleep for me is usual (Went to bed at 11:00 PM Wednesday night; often during weekend tournaments I sleep much shorter, and get substantially less than my usual night 6 hrs.).

I got my morning coffee downstairs today, as usual, to take upstairs to my home office.

Template Note:

There 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 “Template Begins” to “Template Ends” (I will alert you immediately before the template if there are any revisions you won't have read previously).

TEMPLATE BEGINS

Victim of Routine

I am retired + unemployed – life is quite fine overall - 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! I have created a monster!

My mornings tend to be pretty scripted – who isn't a victim of routine?

So I settled in to my comfy home office and fired up my old laptop to follow my general daily routine tasks.

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 re-post the most relevant...see below.

4. Fb Project # 1 (My Company's) - My little company (In the process of being legally incorporated, after some years of operation as an unregistered sole proprietorship) 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".

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

6. 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 second Fb discussion club, Chess Chat (also formed under my personal Fb account) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/.

8. Fb Project # 3 (On behalf of a religious community I am forming) - When I find them, I share religious (All Religions) posts to my religious community's Fb Page, Theist Community (https://www.facebook.com/Theist-Comm...dmin_todo_tour). Sometimes these re-posts also appear in PEERS.

9. Update the discussion group formed under my community's page. It is called Spiritual/Religions Discussion Club (Or SRDC) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2042495809374373/. I update it by sharing some more discussable of the posts now on the Theist Community page.

10. Fb Project # 4 (On behalf of a political party I would like formed) – Democratic Marxist – Global – https://www.facebook.com/Democratic-...dmin_todo_tour.

11. Update the discussion group formed under the political party page. It is called Democratic Marxist Global Forum – https://www.facebook.com/groups/2045...=nf&__tn__=C-R.

12. I have another retiree project besides my 3 Facebook Projects.

Chess is a passionate hobby of mine, as you know. It is part of what I call my “Interlude Living”. But I have never really studied seriously.

But what I do do, is I enter all my games, and annotate them, to try to learn something - GrandMasters do recommend this often. In addition, I integrate the opening (the first 10 moves) into an opening/defence tree I have for the opening/defence played. The value of this is pretty uncertain, given my inability to remember lines - but I do develop general impressions of how the opening can go.

So on my own time, I go back and forth between the 3 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

TEMPLATE ENDS
[See Parts II & III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 15th November, 2019, 11:58 AM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 3 - 19/11/14 (Thursday)

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

Back to Thursday Morning

First off, I had to deal with a few family legal matters.

I then continued my normal stuff.

I usually begin to draft my SCC Blog the day before (on Wednesday) - I sort of add to it as I go through the day, and then try to finalize it and post it in the wee hours of Friday morning. We often go to our hobby farm early on Friday morning, so I usually like to get the blog finished before I go to sleep if possible (Our farm is an almost internet/computer-free zone, so I cannot finish and post it there). If I have to leave for the farm Friday morning, I get up early enough to get it posted before we have to go.

But today I was too busy, and partly forgot about it!It will have to be dealt with totally tonight.

My wife got up about 7:30 AM, and after breakfast, we settled in for a while to continue dealing with our legal issue. But we had to leave it to continue later, since she had an early appointment downtown, and then had to go to her heart gym program.

Later Thursday Morning

I went back to my daily tasks, including the dishes and generally straightening the kitchen and dining room. I had to make a few phone calls about getting some furnace repair people in at our hobby farm, as well as a few calls dealing with outstanding family matters.

At 11:00 AM, I wanted a break from my home office, and so went to my local Starbucks for a coffee and almond croissant, and to spend some time updating my “Reminder Book” (Terrible memory) and getting a bit of contemplation (A bit like meditation/mindfulness) time.

The Early Afternoon

I then went to an appointment with my Estates/Corporate lawyer, and we got a few things moved forward a bit. I got home at 2:45 PM. My wife arrived home soon thereafter. We visited for a short while and had a 'linner”.

Siesta

Given that I usually sleep short compared to many in the early morning (night), and that I am working on year number 75, I have found that the European/Latin American practice of a siesta time in mid-afternoon works really well (I usually set the alarm and do not sleep more than 1 hour). My wife, because of her health, also is tired by then.

So we both went for a siesta at 3:30 PM. We take the landline phone off the hook and shut off cell phones – drives the family and friends nuts, but they've adjusted.

I woke up with my alarm at 4:30 PM.

Then I got the compost and garbage out to the bins, and put the bins out on the street for tomorrow.

My wife was awake when I got up and so we visited for a while. We discussed preparing to go to the farm tomorrow. Then I then went back to the laptop for a short time until it was time to go to SCC.

Heading Out for Rd. 3

I then prepared my stuff to go to SCC. I printed out the cross-tables – I use them to record myself the top results in my section, for this Blog # 3. I also prepared my materials for the SCC Display Table (I do this as a member volunteer job).

At 5:35 PM I headed out by car for SCC. My wife had arranged to go with her best friend to the Fall Sale at her potter's studio cooperative (She is an amateur potter, but sells her stuff alongside those of the few professional potters, and the many semi-professionals.

I went to my Timmies at Ellesmere and Brimley. I got the needed caffeine to go into battle and worked again for a while on updating my “Reminder Book”. At 7:00 PM I drove back to the club (about 5 min. drive away).

Pre-Round 3

I got in and set up the whole display table, and put out the cross-tables. I chatted briefly with Sam Sharpe from the top section, and briefly with President Omar Shah (We're both playing in the upcoming Hart House Holidays Open Chess Championship).

Round 3

The round started almost on time. The game is below.

After the game, Lucy Gao and I went to do a post-mortem in the second room. It was an interesting game and quickly a number of juniors who had also finished their games joined us. We think we found a line where Lucy could have won in the middlegame, but I haven't gotten to analyze the game yet with my engine, so we'll see.

Then I watched the rest of the games.

Then when I had the leaders for all sections, I packed up my stuff and headed for home.

The Later Evening

I got home about 11:00 PM, and my wife was already in bed. I went to do my own projects on the laptop. But quickly I was too tired to start this Blog # 3, and at 11:30 PM I had to go to bed, and leave the blogging 'til Friday morning.

My U 1800 Section Report - Rd. 3 - Thursday, Nov. 14/19.

I am rated 1563. I am in the 2nd of the 4 sections. My section rating spread is effectively, from the high1600's to about 1000. I am in the middle third of the section.

Post-Rd. 3 – U 1800 Leaders

There are 49 players in our section; but there were only 20 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:

1^st– 3/3 pts. (Won all games) – Junior Boy Ben Smolkin (1597)

2^nd/5^th – 2.5/3 pts. (Undefeated) – Junior Boy Boyuan Kong (1624); Junior Boy William Gao (1577); Me (1563); Junior Boy Anya Singh (1384).

[See Part III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 15th November, 2019, 12:00 PM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 3 - 19/11/14 (Thursday)

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

My Round 1 Game

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.

Gao, Lucy (1684) – Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1563) [B27]

Scarborough CC Falling Leaves (U1800) (3), 14.11.2019
[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 c5 Modern Defence 4.c3 Qa5 Not a good move according to my analysis engine; but it has surprise value as compensation. 5.Nbd2 cxd4 6.Nb3 Qc7 7.cxd4 b6 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.0–0 Nf6 10.Re1 Nc6 in hyper-modern fashion, W has the centre, and Bl comes at it from the wings. 11.a3 0–0 12.d5 Ne5 13.Bf4 Nxf3+ 14.Qxf3 d6 giving the Q an escape square that will not put her on the 8th rank, separating the 2 R's. 15.Rac1 Qd7 16.Nd4 c6 will be a great outpost for one of Lucy's minor pieces. 16...Rfc8 I want my R's to be connected, so the f8R must come to c8 first. 17.Bb5 Qd8 18.Nc6 Bxc6 19.Bxc6 Rab8 20.Bg3 Nd7 21.b4 b5 I cannot let Lucy cement the B into c6; I intend to capture the B with my N if at all possible and then win the c-file passed P 22.Qd3 a6 23.h3 Nb6 24.Qb3 Nc4 a good outpost for my N; it still can attack the c6B if it can get to e5 without being traded off. 25.a4 Be5 26.axb5 Bxg3 now a bit of a complicated position to calculate 27.Qxg3 axb5 I must be careful that I do not allow Bxb5, with my c4N hanging 28.f4 Keeping my N off of e5 and threatening his c6B 28...Qb6+ the downside of Lucy's f4 is that I can now, with a check, get my Q active 29.Kh2 Qd4 30.Qc3 Lucy has 10 min. left; I have 45 min. 30...Qf2 If I exchange, I simplify the game, making it easier for Lucy when having to play faster. 31.Rf1 Qe2 32.Rce1 Qa2 33.Ra1 Qe2 34.Rae1 Qa2 I offer a draw, and Lucy accepts with 8 min. left on her clock; I have 42 min.

½–½

My Score

2.5/3 pts. - Wins: 2 (Rds. 1 & 2); Draw: 1 (Rd. 3).

My Opponents' & My Scores

2.5/3 pts. - Me (1563)

2/3 pts. - Junior Girl, Lucy Gao (1684) – I drew in Rd. 3.

1/3 pts. - Junior Boy Nathan Wang (1389) – I won in Rd. 1.

- Guy Hulbert (1307) – I won in Rd. 2

Top Section Games

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!

Some History

How My Blog Works (Some history and details) + an SCC Tournament History.

These next 2 sections are another template.

TEMPLATE BEGINS

SCC Tournament 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.

2018-9 Season

Club Championship (5^th tournament of the season) – 137 (Championship - 31; Reserves - 106) – Peak registration of the season.

Season Average Registration (For 6 tournaments): 120 (Almost at the prior 2017-8 Season Average of 121; our historical high from a few years ago (2016-7) is 133).

2020 Season (Current)

# 1 – Howard Ridout Memorial: 122 ( 1800+ - 20; U 1800 – 52; U 1400 (Jrs. Only) – 19; U 1000 (Jrs. Only) - 31) – above last season's average per tournament: 118.

Bob's Blog

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

i) on my personal Facebook Account for my over 900 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…), now owned by Henry Lam;
iii) occasionally on other chess websites, such as that of FQE (Province of Quebec's Chess Association). On the one occasion this was done, 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, under my own personal account - 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 (http://www.scarboroughchessclub.ca/).
iii) my Annex CC tournaments Fb blog to ACC's Fb Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/172335039452033/).

Henry Lam (Aka Dark Knight on CT), the owner of CT, and I have now done a first renewal of our “Henry/Bob Blog Agreement” (Original agreement - summer of 2018). Under it I agreed to re-post my Fb Chess Blogs on CT for both my chess club official tournaments, subject to the condition that interest did not wane to such an extent that it was no longer worth making the effort to do the blog. This has now happened re the Annex CC blog, and I am therefore no longer blogging those club tournaments. I also agreed to blog my non-club weekend (Sometimes longer; sometimes shorter) tournaments, in which I play between Summer 2019 and Summer 2020. Henry and I have a clause for consideration of annual renewal.

So, under this new agreement, I am now re-posting my blogs of my current Scarborough CC tournaments. My future non-club weekend blogs, to and including Summer 2020, 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, or fail to play one that is intended):

The 2019 Hart House Holidays Open – Toronto (Prior to Christmas – Dec.).
2. The 2020 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February).
3. The 2020 Quebec Open – if in Montreal or near-by (July).
4. The 2020 Toronto Open (Sept.)

This year so far, I have managed to insert a game into the Fall – The Canadian International Open – Longueuil, Quebec (Oct. 11-3, 2019).

The Blog Focus

I mainly focus on the section I am playing in (Has been U 2000, U 1900, U 1800 or U 1700). 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 (Players 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 sometimes cover (Bare Bones) the top section standings; but I have to have been able to get the results before the Blog goes to press. For this section, of course, including 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 during the day of club tournaments, and before and between rounds for weekend tournaments (A bit of a reality show - bits of my personal, though generally pretty ordinary, life).

I know many other chess players approach tournaments quite differently than I do (E.g. - study, research opponents to prepare for them, etc.!). So one cannot generalize from what I do, to what other chess tournament players do.

Blog Feedback

I have had generally positive feedback on my blogging (I have done it for many, many years now, as some long-suffering viewers know), 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 all these years (I'm now working on year 75 (Not of blogging! LOL) – I do hope, as long as there is interest, to keep doing my blogs for many years yet).

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!

TEMPLATE ENDS

Bob A

**Sam Sharpe** · Saturday, 16th November, 2019, 08:32 AM

I enjoy our short discussions pre/post-games. Lucy is a killer, Bob! "You done did gud!" (as they say in the deep south).

**Hugh Brodie** · Saturday, 16th November, 2019, 09:10 AM

Bob - remember to use upper-case "o" for castling (I think lower-case works as well) - not the number zero "0". Chessbase doesn't recognize the zeros when I import your games.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Game_Notation

"SAN [Standard algebraic notation]: kingside castling is indicated by the sequence O-O; queenside castling is indicated by the sequence O-O-O (note that these are capital Os, not zeroes, contrary to the FIDE standard for notation)."

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 29th November, 2019, 07:29 AM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 5 - 19/11/28 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 4 [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: Falling Leaves Swiss (# 2 of the 2019-20 Season)

When: October 31 – Dec. 12.

Format: 7- 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 – free].

Notes re sections:

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.

Registration: 118 (So far) ( 1800+ - 18; U 1800 – 49; U 1400 (Jrs. Only) – 21; U 1000 (Jrs. Only) - 30) – above last season's average per tournament: 118.

Time Control: Top Section: G/60 + 30 sec. (From move 1)

- Bottom 3 sections: G/70 + 15 sec. (From move 1).

Rating: a. All sections are CFC-rated.

b. The top section is also FIDE rated.

Playing Up: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play in their section, or, in the next section up – no fee.

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. 5 (Nov. 28)

Thursday Morning

Today I am currently living in Toronto, Ontario, and so am able to play. When I am living in my two other locations (Ontario hobby farm; Montreal, Quebec), I take byes/withdraw.

I awoke at 5:00 AM before the alarm – 5 1/2 – 6 hrs. hours sleep for me is usual (Went to bed at 11:30 PM Wednesday night; often during weekend tournaments I sleep much shorter, and get substantially less than my usual night 6 hrs.).

I got my morning coffee downstairs today, as usual, to take upstairs to my home office.

Template Note:

There 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 “Template Begins” to “Template Ends” (I will alert you immediately before the template if there are any revisions you won't have read previously).

TEMPLATE BEGINS

Victim of Routine

I am retired + unemployed – life is quite fine overall - 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! I have created a monster!

My mornings tend to be pretty scripted – who isn't a victim of routine?

So I settled in to my comfy home office and fired up my old laptop to follow my general daily routine tasks.

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 re-post the most relevant...see below.

4. Fb Project # 1 (My Company's) - My little company (In the process of being legally incorporated, after some years of operation as an unregistered sole proprietorship) 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 second Fb discussion club, Chess Chat (also formed under my personal Fb account) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/340524269771672/.

Fb Project # 3 (On behalf of a religious community I am forming) - When I find them, I share religious (All Religions) posts to my religious community's Fb Page, Theist Community (https://www.facebook.com/Theist-Comm...dmin_todo_tour). Sometimes these re-posts also appear in PEERS.
Update the discussion group formed under my community's page. It is called Spiritual/Religions Discussion Club (Or SRDC) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2042495809374373/. I update it by sharing some more discussable of the posts now on the Theist Community page.
Fb Project # 4 (On behalf of a political party I would like formed) – Democratic Marxist – Global – https://www.facebook.com/Democratic-...dmin_todo_tour.
Update the discussion group formed under the political party page. It is called Democratic Marxist Global Forum – https://www.facebook.com/groups/2045...=nf&__tn__=C-R.
I have another retiree project besides my 3 Facebook Projects.

Chess is a passionate hobby of mine, as you know. It is part of what I call my “Interlude Living”. But I have never really studied seriously.

But what I do do, is I enter all my games, and annotate them, to try to learn something - GrandMasters do recommend this often. In addition, I integrate the opening (the first 10 moves) into an opening/defence tree I have for the opening/defence played. The value of this is pretty uncertain, given my inability to remember lines - but I do develop general impressions of how the opening can go.

So on my own time, I go back and forth between the 3 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

TEMPLATE ENDS

Back to Thursday Morning

I started into my normal routine.

I usually begin to draft my SCC Blog the day before (on Wednesday) - I sort of add to it as I go through the day, and then try to finalize it and post it in the wee hours of Friday morning. We often go to our hobby farm early on Friday morning, so I usually like to get the blog finished before I go to sleep if possible (Our farm is an almost internet/computer-free zone, so I cannot finish and post it there). If I have to leave for the farm Friday morning, I get up early enough to get it posted before we have to go.

But yesterday I was too busy, and partly forgot about it this morning!

[Parts II & III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 29th November, 2019, 07:35 AM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 5 - 19/11/28 (Thursday)

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

The Bul**hit Coffee Club (BCC)

At 7:00 AM I dressed and got some stuff for my day ready. At 7:30 AM I headed out to my favourite morning coffee club, The Bul**it Coffee Club. When I am living in Toronto, I do like to go.

6 of us were there today (the core group): Helen; John # 1; Darryl; Linda; Joe & me. I had to leave a bit early today to drive my wife to her doctor appointment, so I don't know if

Some of the stuff (among others) we canvassed were:

Politics – USA – Will Trump beat the impeachment process? Will the USA Supreme Court make his disclose his tax returns?
- Canada – Will Scheer be forced out of the Conservative Party leadership?
Christmas – what plans everyone had for Christmas.
Sport – how the Leafs are doing.

At 9:00 AM John # 2 showed (on Thursdays, John # 2 used to show up to go bowling with Linda and John # 1; but John # 1's arthritis now makes bowling to painful and frustrating, so he has dropped out). John # 2 and Linda went bowling when we broke up.

TEMPLATE BEGINS

BCC Historical Note

The BCC is held in one of my favourite local coffee shops, La Patisserie de Cigogne (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. In late Spring to early Fall, we often meet on the patio.

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. Darryl is often there with Helen when I arrive. In good weather, we meet on the patio. Most others arrive closer to 8:00 AM.

If no one is there when I get there, 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!).

We are at the moment 8 regulars: Helen, Linda, John # 1, Joe, Darryl, Ed (Rarely), John # 2 (Once per week), 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 pretty much let it all 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 on Fb!

TEMPLATE ENDS

Errands

I stayed by myself and updated my “Reminder Book” (Bad Memory) at the coffee shop.

Then at 9:45 AM I went to my appointment at the nearby bank. Then I went and saw Sam, who trims my beard from time to time – for my wife and my upcoming trip to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, to visit with two friends of 50 years! Finally I went to my wife's bank to do some banking for her.

On the way home by TTC, I met my wife in the local subway station, on her way to her heart course.

Later Thursday Morning

When I got home, I started on a few of my family tasks, including the dishes and generally straightening the kitchen. Then I paid some bills and dealt with some family finance issues. Then back to my own laptop tasks.

The Early Afternoon

I then dug into a legal matter my wife and I are dealing with – this took a bit of time.

My wife got home at 2:45 PM. We visited for a short while and then had a 'linner”. This works well for me on chess days, since I don't like to eat a heavy dinner just before going to play chess.

The Late Afternoon

Then I got the compost and garbage out to the bins, and put the bins out on the street for tomorrow.

My wife was tired and took a short nap. Then we went at our legal project again for a stretch, until it was time to go to SCC.

Heading Out for Rd. 5

I then prepared my stuff to go to SCC. I printed out the cross-tables – I use them to record myself the top results in my section, for this Blog # 4. I also prepared my materials for the SCC Display Table (I do this as a member volunteer job).

At 5:35 PM I headed out by car for SCC.

I went to my Timmies at Ellesmere and Brimley. I got the needed caffeine to go into battle and worked again for a while on updating my “Reminder Book”. At 7:00 PM I drove back to the club (about 5 min. drive away).

Pre-Round 5

I got in and set up the whole display table, and put out the cross-tables. I chatted briefly with Top Section player Sam Sharpe - he is now on the current Canadian Olympiad Correspondence Team (Has played twice before).

Round 5

The round started almost on time. The game is below.

Post Rd. 5

After the game, Toy Kwan (In my section) and I talked about both attending the upcoming Hart House Holidays Open in mid-December.

Then I watched the rest of the games.

Then when I had the leaders for all sections, I packed up my stuff and headed for home.

The Later Evening

I got home about 11:00 PM, and my wife was still up and wrapping chicken cutlets she'd cooked this evening. She put them in the refrigerator freezer, while I dried and put away the dishes, and straightened the kitchen. Then I went and did a bit on my own projects on the laptop. I then entered and lightly annotated my Rd. 5 game for this blog, and finishing this Blog # 4.

I went to bed at 12:30 AM Friday morning, intending to post the blog later this morning after I woke up.

My U 1800 Section Report - Rd. 5- Thursday, Nov. 28/19.

I am rated 1563. I am in the 2nd of the 4 sections. My section rating spread is effectively, from the high1600's to about 1000. I am in the middle third of the section.

Post-Rd. 5 – U 1800 Leaders

There are 51 players in our section; but there were only 21 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:

1^st– 5/5 pts. (Won all games) – Junior Boy Ben Smolkin (1597)

2^nd/4^th – 4/5 pts. – Junior Girl Lucy Gao (1684); Umang Dwivedi (1663); Wissam Muhajer (200).

My Round 5 Game

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.

Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1563) – Dwivedi, Umang (1663) [E87]

Scarborough CC Falling Leaves (U 1800) (5), 28.11.2019
[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 King's Indian Defence 5.f3 Samisch Variation 5...0–0 6.Be3 c5 7.d5 e5 8.Nge2 a6 9.g4 I am playing into a thematic sac by Black - sometimes it wins, and sometimes it doesn't. But the game is always interesting and fun to play - win or lose........ 9...Bxg4 Umang goes for the sac 10.fxg4 Nxg4 I am up B vs 2 P's 11.Qd2 Qh4+ 12.Ng3 Nxe3 13.Qxe3 f5 Black threatens to get his piece back 14.exf5 gxf5 15.Be2 I miss that I can save my piece - all that was necessary was 15.Qf2 (sigh). Also, if I'm going to make a mistake, I should have at least put my B on d3. 15...f4 16.Qf2 fxg3 Umang is now up 2 P's 17.Qxg3 Umang is up a P (Passed) 17...Qxg3+ 18.hxg3 Bf6 19.Bd3 Rf7 20.Ne4 Be7 21.Rh6 Nd7 22.Nxd6 material equality 22...Bxd6 23.Rxd6 Rd8 24.Re6 keeping the N pinned on d7; but I needed to prevent .....Rf3 and I didn't and it costs me a P 24...Rf3 25.Kd2 Rxg3 Umang goes up a P (And now has two passed P's to my one) 26.Rh1 Rg7 27.Kc3 Rf8 I could see problems with Umang getting both R's active on fully-opened files. 28.b3 Rf3 pinning the B; I needed to exchange this R right away by 29.Rf1. 29.Re8+ Kf7 30.Rh8 I missed that I couldn't move my eR because of the pin on my d3B 30...e4 I am now lost 31.Rf1 Rgg3 32.Rxh7+ Ke8 33.Rh8+ Ke7 34.Rh7+ Kd6 35.Kb2 exd3 Umang is up an N 36.Re1 Rg2+ 37.Ka3 Rff2 38.b4 Rxa2+ Umang is up N + P 39.Kb3 Rgb2+ 40.Kc3 cxb4+ 41.Kxd3 Ra3+ I am being forced into a N-fork, and will lose my h7R
0–1

My Score

3/5 pts. - Wins: 2 (Rds. 1 & 2); Draw: 1 (Rd. 3); Loss: 1 (Rd. 5); 1/2 Pt. Bye: 1 (Rd. 4).

My Opponents' & My Scores

4/5 pts. - Junior Girl, Lucy Gao (1684) – I drew in Rd. 3.
- Umang Dwivedi (1663) - I lost in Rd. 4.

3/5 pts. - Me (1563)

?/5 pts. - Junior Boy Nathan Wang (1389) – I won in Rd. 1.

?/5 pts. - Guy Hulbert (1307) – I won in Rd. 2

[Part III below]

Bob A

**Bob Armstrong** · Friday, 29th November, 2019, 07:36 AM

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 5 - 19/11/28 (Thursday)

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

Other Sections' Leaders

1800 +

1^st/2^nd– 4/5 pts. - Dave Southam (2185 – current and former Club Champion); Junior Boy Raymond Gao (2052).

3^rd/4^th – 3.5/5 pts. - Junior Boy Fengxi Mao (2181); Junior Boy Edward Xiao (1812).

U 1400 Juniors

1^st– 4.5/5 pts. (Undefeated) – Luka Granic (1224)

2^nd/3^rd – 4/5 pts. - Daniel Odoemelam (1297); Ivan Huang (1140)

U 1000 Juniors

1^st– 4.5/5 pts. (Undefeated) – Junior Girl Lucy Yang (928).
2nd/3rd - 4/5 pts. - Nameer Issani (733); Joey Zhang (Unr.).

Top Section Games

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!

Some History

How My Blog Works (Some history and details) + an SCC Tournament History.

These next 2 sections are another template.

TEMPLATE BEGINS

SCC Tournament 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.

2018-9 Season

Club Championship (5^th tournament of the season) – 137 (Championship - 31; Reserves - 106) – Peak registration of the season.

Season Average Registration (For 6 tournaments): 120 (Almost at the prior 2017-8 Season Average of 121; our historical high from a few years ago (2016-7) is 133).

2019-20 Season (Current)

# 1 – Howard Ridout Memorial: 122 ( 1800+ - 20; U 1800 – 52; U 1400 (Jrs. Only) – 19; U 1000 (Jrs. Only) - 31) – above last season's average per tournament: 118.

Bob's Blog

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

i) on my personal Facebook Account for my over 900 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…), now owned by Henry Lam;
iii) occasionally on other chess websites, such as that of FQE (Province of Quebec's Chess Association). On the one occasion this was done, 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, under my own personal account - 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 (http://www.scarboroughchessclub.ca/).
iii) my Annex CC tournaments Fb blog to ACC's Fb Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/172335039452033/).

Henry Lam (Aka Dark Knight on CT), the owner of CT, and I have now done a first renewal of our “Henry/Bob Blog Agreement” (Original agreement - summer of 2018). Under it I agreed to re-post my Fb Chess Blogs on CT for both my chess club official tournaments, subject to the condition that interest did not wane to such an extent that it was no longer worth making the effort to do the blog. This has now happened re the Annex CC blog, and I am therefore no longer blogging those club tournaments. I also agreed to blog my non-club weekend (Sometimes longer; sometimes shorter) tournaments, in which I play between Summer 2019 and Summer 2020. Henry and I have a clause for consideration of annual renewal.

So, under this new agreement, I am now re-posting my blogs of my current Scarborough CC tournaments. My future non-club weekend blogs, to and including Summer 2020, 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, or fail to play one that is intended):

The 2019 Hart House Holidays Open – Toronto (Prior to Christmas – Dec.).
2. The 2020 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February).
3. The 2020 Quebec Open – if in Montreal or near-by (July).
4. The 2020 Toronto Open (Sept.)

This year so far, I have managed to insert a game into the Fall – The Canadian International Open – Longueuil, Quebec (Oct. 11-3, 2019).

The Blog Focus

I mainly focus on the section I am playing in (Has been U 2000, U 1900, U 1800 or U 1700). 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 (Players 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 sometimes cover (Bare Bones) the top section standings; but I have to have been able to get the results before the Blog goes to press. For this section, of course, including 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 during the day of club tournaments, and before and between rounds for weekend tournaments (A bit of a reality show - bits of my personal, though generally pretty ordinary, life).

I know many other chess players approach tournaments quite differently than I do (E.g. - study, research opponents to prepare for them, etc.!). So one cannot generalize from what I do, to what other chess tournament players do.

Blog Feedback

I have had generally positive feedback on my blogging (I have done it for many, many years now, as some long-suffering viewers know), 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 all these years (I'm now working on year 75 (Not of blogging! LOL) – I do hope, as long as there is interest, to keep doing my blogs for many years yet).

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!

TEMPLATE ENDS

Bob A

**Sam Sharpe** · Friday, 29th November, 2019, 07:38 PM

I don't remember ever trimming your beard, Bob. Please don't say that there's two of me; some folks think just one is too many! LOL

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss (Nov. 31 - Dec. 12, 2019) – Blog

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss (Nov. 31 - Dec. 12, 2019) – Blog

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