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

[Bob Armstrong]

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 6 - 19/12/5 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 5 [ 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:

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

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. 6 (Dec. 5)

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 8:00 AM; I had not set the alarm; I had gone to bed at midnight – sleeping through 8 hrs. is unusual (Usually I'll sleep 6 hrs; but often during weekend tournaments I sleep much shorter, and get substantially less than my usual sleep).

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".

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Fb Project # 4 (On behalf of a political party I would like formed) – Democratic Marxist – Global – https://www.facebook.com/Democratic-...dmin_todo_tour.
4. 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.
5. 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

[Parts II & III below]

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 6 - 19/12/5 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 5 [ Part II of 3 parts; see Part I above]

Back to Thursday Morning

The first thing I did was call our hobby farm handyman, to advise that we needed the farm laneway blown out by noon on Friday, since we were coming up.

Then 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 I didn't get it started on Wednesday, and this morning I was too busy, since I was driving my wife to an appointment this morning.

I did get my breakfast and had it in front of the laptop. Then I had to do a few things to assist my daughter, indefinitely living in Toronto at the moment. Then my wife needed some help preparing for her appointment.

So at 9:30 AM, my wife and I headed out. I dropped her at an office not too far away, and then headed for my favourite local Starbucks for about an hour, to update my organizer and my Reminder Book (Bad memory; have to write everything down so it doesn't just fall below the radar).

The Afternoon

When I got home, I started on a few of my family tasks, including the dishes and generally straightening the kitchen. I then gathered the recycles, put them in the bin, and put it out on the street for Friday morning pick-up. I did the same thing with the compost.

Then I paid some bills and dealt with some family legal issues.

Then back to my own laptop tasks.

Mid-Afternoon

My wife got home at 3:00 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

I had to mail some letters and go to the bank, and my wife needed to go to two places to buy some food to take to Spirits' Den (Our southern Georgian Bay property). So off we went on errands.

We got back about 5:15 PM

Heading Out for Rd. 6

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 # 5. I also prepared my materials for the SCC Display Table (I do this as a member volunteer job).

At 6:00 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 6

I got in and set up the whole display table, and put out the cross-tables. I chatted briefly with Toy Kwan of our section, and he had some chess books to give me for our Bellomo Little Library program at SCC. Books and magazines are given out on the condition they are always passed on to someone/anyone after one month. So we went and put them in my car.

Round 6

The round started almost on time. The game is below. I played veteran SCC'er Jim Paterson. We drew the last time we played in an SCC tournament.

Post Rd. 6

After the game I watched the rest of the games, and the top board in the top section was the last to finish.

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 reading. We chatted a bit and then I went and did a bit on my own projects on the laptop.

I then entered and lightly annotated my Rd. 6 game for this blog, and finished this Blog # 5. Usually I would post it early Friday morning before going to the farm. But we want to get away quick Friday morning, so I pushed on to post it as well.

I went to bed at 1:45 AM Friday morning.

My U 1800 Section Report - Rd. 6 - Thursday, Dec. 5/19.

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. 6 – U 1800 Leaders

There are 51 players in our section; but there were only 22 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^rd– 5/6 pts. – Junior Girl Lucy Gao (1684 - Undefeated); Umang Dwivedi (1663); Junior Boy Ben Smolkin (1597).

My Round 6 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) – Paterson, Jim (1495) [B14]

Scarborough CC Falling Leaves (U1800) (6), 05.12.2019
[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 c5 4.Bd3 d5 5.c4 Transposition into a Queen's Gambit Declined - like position 5...cxd4 6.exd4 Nc6 7.Nc3 Be7 8.0–0 0–0 9.Re1 a6 10.c5 I force the play to the Q-side 10...Qc7 11.Na4 Bd7 12.Nb6 Rae8 13.Bd2 Need to play b4 to get my Q-side P's moving 13...Na7 14.a4 Bc6 15.b4 I now have to plan how to push through and get some kind of advantage - right now my advantage is space. 15...h6 16.Ne5 To totally cramp Jim up, I prevent him playing the freeing ....e5. 16...Nd7 Looking at the few number of pieces that can actually defend the Bl K prompted me to look for a sac-attack 17.Bxh6 Sacking my B for a P and an attack. I could not calculate anything decisive - but on general principles of attacking pieces vs defending pieces, I had to have something or at least I would recover my sac and maybe be up in P's. 17...gxh6 Jim takes up the challenge; he is up B vs P 18.Qh5 Jim cannot let me win the hP 18...Kg7 19.Qg4+ Bg5 20.h4 f6 21.Qh5 g6 is a dangerous hole for Jim 21...Re7 22.Qg6+ Kh8 23.hxg5 I am up a P 23...Rg7 24.Qxh6+ I am up 2 P's 24...Kg8 25.Nbxd7 I need to eliminate this N as a possible defender. As well, when up material, exchange. 25...Bxd7 26.gxf6 I am up 3 P's. 26...Rxf6 27.Qxf6 I am up R + 2 P's (1 is passed) 27...Bc8 The Q finally becomes another defender, but it is now a bit late. 28.Re3 What is termed the "lift" re a R. 28...Nc6 29.Nxc6 again, exchange and don't let a piece become a defender 29...bxc6 30.b5 Now to get my 4th major piece into the attack. 30...cxb5 31.axb5 axb5 I am up R + P 32.Ra8 the additional artillery makes Jim's life a bit miserable now. 32...Qb7 33.Qxe6+ using the pin on the c8B. Jim resigned. It is mate in 4 moves.

1–0

My Score

4/6 pts. - Wins: 3 (Rds. 1, 2 & 6); Draw: 1 (Rd. 3); Loss: 1 (Rd. 5); 1/2 Pt. Bye: 1 (Rd. 4).

My Opponents' & My Scores

5/6 pts. - Junior Girl, Lucy Gao (1684) – I drew in Rd. 3; she is in a 3-way tie for first.

- Umang Dwivedi (1665) – I lost in Rd. 4; he is in the 3-way tie for first.

4/6 pts. - Me (1563)

3/6 pts. - Junior Boy Nathan Wang (1389) – I won in Rd. 1.

- Guy Hulbert (1307) – I won in Rd. 2

[See Part III below]

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 6 - 19/12/5 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 5 [ Part III of 3 parts; see Parts I & II above]

Other Sections' Leaders

1800 +

1^st – 5/6 pts. - (Undefeated) - Dave Southam (2185 – current and former Club Champion);

2^nd– 4.5/6 pts. - Junior Boy Fengxi Mao (2181);

3^rd/4^th– 3.5/6 pts. - Junior Boy Raymond Gao (2052);.Junior Boy Edward Xiao (1812).

U 1400 Juniors

1^st– 5/6 pts. (Undefeated) – Luka Granic (1224).

2^nd– 4.5/6 pts. - Daniel Odoemelam (1297).

3^rd– 4/6 pts. - Ivan Huang (1140).

U 1000 Juniors

1^st– 5.5/6 pts. (Undefeated) – Junior Girl Lucy Yang (928).

2^nd– 5/6 pts. - Nameer Issani (733).

3^rd/7^th– 4/6 pts. - Justin Tso (867); Aiden Liang (848); Bravin Pavanantharajah (785); Joshua Kim (Unr.); 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):

1. 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]

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 7 - 19/12/12 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 6 [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:

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

Registration: 120 (1800+ - 18; U 1800 – 51; U 1400 (Jrs. Only) – 20; U 1000 (Jrs. Only) - 31) – 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. 7 (Dec. 12)

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; I had gone to bed at midnight – a fairly normal length of sleep for me (But often during weekend tournaments I sleep much shorter, and get substantially less than my usual sleep). I must monitor my sleep, not to develop a sleep deficit – with my Bi-Polar Disorder, a sleep deficit raises the odds of my entering a hypo-manic, or even a psychotic-manic, phase....not that healthy for me.

I couldn't get my morning coffee downstairs today, as usual, to take upstairs to my home office, since I have been fasting since 9:00 PM Wednesday – going for a blood test this morning.

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".

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Fb Project # 4 (On behalf of a political party I would like formed) – Democratic Marxist – Global – https://www.facebook.com/Democratic-...dmin_todo_tour.
4. 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.
5. 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

[Parts II & III below]

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 7 - 19/12/12 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 6 [Part II of 3 parts; see Part I above]

Back to Thursday Morning

So I started into my normal routine without my normal morning caffeine fix. But I do limit my caffeine intake in a day, by using 1/2 decaf & 1/2 dark roast!

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 I didn't get it started on Wednesday, and so I started it this morning.

I then launched into my regular routine. In my chess time, I am working on one opening at the moment – playing White against the Dutch Defence. I play the Dutch myself, and it is interesting to see how Stockfish handles it as White.

The Later Morning

At 8:30 AM, I headed out to get my blood test done at a local lab – I am diabetic, and told my personal physician I was stopping my daily recording because my drugs had stablilized my blood sugar level within high normal. He advised me he was my physician, and I had to negotiate with him! So we agreed on a quarterly blood test instead .

After the blood test, I had to deliver a letter to my lawyer nearby. Then I headed home (I had missed going to my usual Bul**it Coffee Club at Patisserie La Cigogne because of the blood test).

Returning Home

I got home at 10:00 AM. My main family task today is to pack away in large rubber-made containers, all my wife's pottery inventory left over after her pottery studio's fall sale in November (She is an amateur potter and belongs to a local potters cooperative of about 50 members). So I got started, after visiting with my wife for a while.

The Afternoon

I couldn't follow my 35/25 system right away because the family tasks for me were well backed up. I then gathered the recycles, put them in the bin, and put it out on the street for Friday morning pick-up. I did the same thing with the compost.

I then put away the dry dishes from the drain rack, did another load of dishes, and then straightened the kitchen and living room. We are finally taking back control of our house!

Then I had to do the November 30 Family Budget month end (A bit behind – we had gone to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, to see friends, and then had gone to my wife's hobby farm for a few days - in the Southern Georgian Bay area of Ontario).

I usually would have had a “linner” (Between lunch and dinner) in mid-afternoon – I usually try to eat early on chess tournament days – but I just forgot, being so single minded about my family tasks today.

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 I went for a siesta at 4:00 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 5:00 PM. My wife checked in by phone, and said she was still out shopping with our daughter (Studying currently here in Ontario) – they had had a late lunch out together.

Heading Out for Rd. 7 (Final)

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 # 6. I also prepared my materials for the SCC Display Table (I do this as a member volunteer job).

At 5:30 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 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 7

I got in and set up the whole display table, and put out the cross-tables. I chatted briefly about our 60^th club anniversary party next Thursday with Maurice Smith, our VP. He advised he had invited 90 yr. old veteran, Alex Knox, to come, and he said he'd try to make it.

Round 7

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

Post Rd. 7

After the game I watched the rest of the games, until I had the winners for all sections. Toy Kwan and I chatted briefly about us playing in the upcoming Hart House Holidays Open Chess Championship, and the fact that two other members of our World-Wise Lunch Club would also be playing: Undriadi Benggawan and Ken Kurkowski.

Then I packed up my display table stuff and headed for home at 10:00 PM – the winners were decided early tonight! I stopped and got gas on the way home.

The Later Evening

I got home about 11:00 PM, and my wife was still up and reading. We chatted a bit – she had had one of her best friends over for dinner, and so I got a bowl of great squash soup, with crackers and cream cheese, as a midnight snack.

Then I went and did a bit on my own projects on the laptop.

But I was then to tired to finish this Blog # 6, and left it to Friday morning (I usually will post it early Friday morning).

I went to bed at 11:30 PM.

My U 1800 Section Report - Rd. 7 - Thursday, Dec. 12/19.

I am rated 1534. 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. 7– U 1800 Winners

There are 52 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.).

Here are the winners (I am having to guess, and don't have final scores, because the SCC Website for U 1800 had not been updated after Rd. 6):

1^st- Junior Boy Ben Smolkin (1597).

2^nd/3^rd– Umang Dwivedi (1663); Wissam Muhajer (200).

[Part III below]

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Scarborough Chess Club Falling Leaves Swiss – Blog

Rd. 7 - 19/12/12 (Thursday)

Bob's Chess Blog # 6 [Part III of 3 parts; see Parts I & II above]

My Round 7 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.

Chanonlan, Ara (1356) – Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1534) [A85]

Scarborough CC Falling Leaves (U 1800) (7), 12.12.2019
[Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

1.d4 f5 Dutch Defence 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bf4 Ne4 6.e3 Bh4 Just a hokey bad plan that loses a P 7.Nxe4 fxe4 8.Nxh4 Qxh4 9.Bxc7 Ara goes up a P early in the opening 9...0–0 10.Bg3 Qf6 I had hoped for some attacking compensation for losing the P, but there really is nothing. 11.c5 Nc6 12.Bc4 Kh8 13.Qe2 b6 14.cxb6 axb6 15.0–0 Ne7 16.Bd6 Re8 17.f3 Bb7 18.fxe4 Ara is up 2 P's, but I will win back the advanced eP. 18...Qg6 19.Bd3 Bxe4 Ara is up a P again 20.Bxe4 Qxe4 21.Rf4 Qc6 22.Bxe7 Rxe7 23.Raf1 Ree8 With my K stuck in the corner, I now have to watch for back rank mates. 24.Qh5 Ara threatens to sac his Q and then get a back rank mate 24...Qd6 25.Qf7 Preparing to attack the g7P with Rg4 next. 25...Rg8 26.Rh4 Ara now threatens to sac his R and mate with Qh5. 26...e5 27.Qf5 Ara seems somewhat fixated on mating me!! 27...h6 28.dxe5 Ara is up 2 P's again 28...Qe7 29.Rd4 Rgf8 30.Qxd7 Qxe5 31.Rxf8+ Rxf8 32.e4 I am totally lost. //So I set a trap - I move with the obvious purpose being to win back a P. But there is more to it. 32...Qa5 33.Qa4 this is called "luck" in chess - your opponent blunders. Ara falls into the trap, blocking my winning the aP. 33...Qe1# I dodged a bullet!
0–1

My Score

4/7 pts. - Wins: 4 (Rds. 1, 2, 6 & 7); Draw: 1 (Rd. 3); Loss: 1 (Rd. 5); 1/2 Pt. Bye: 1 (Rd. 4).

My Opponents' & My Scores

6/7 pts. - Umang Dwivedi (1665) – I lost in Rd. 4; he tied for 2^nd/3^rd.

5/7 pts. - Junior Girl, Lucy Gao (1684) – I drew in Rd. 3.

4/7 pts. - Me (1563)

3.5/7 pts. - Ara Chanolan (1356) – I won in Rd. 7.

3/7 pts. - Junior Boy Nathan Wang (1389) – I won in Rd. 1.

- Guy Hulbert (1307) – I won in Rd. 2

Other Sections' Leaders

1800 +

1^st – 6/7 pts. - (Undefeated) - Dave Southam (2185 – current and former Club Champion).

2^nd – 5/7 pts. - Junior Boy Fengxi Mao (2181).

3^rd/6^th – 4/7 pts. - Junior Boy Jonathan Hay (2039); Junior Boy Austin Xie (1956); Sam Sharpe (1946); Junior Boy Edward Xiao (1812).

7^th – 4/6 pts. - Junior Boy Raymond Gao (2052 – withdrew after Rd. 6).

U 1400 Juniors

1^st– 6/7 pts. (Undefeated) – Luka Granic (1224).

2^nd– 5.5/7 pts. - Daniel Odoemelam (1297).

3^rd– 5/7 pts. - Ivan Huang (1140).

U 1000 Juniors

1^st– 6.5/7 pts. (Undefeated) – Junior Girl Lucy Yang (928).

2^nd– 6/7 pts. - Nameer Issani (733).

3^rd/6^th– 4.5/7 – Aiden Liang (848); Eric Zhou (Unr.); Junior Girl Jessica Ding (Unr.); 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):

1. 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