Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament (Feb. 15-17) – Blog

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  • Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament (Feb. 15-17) – Blog

    Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament – Blog

    Rds. 1 & 2 - 20/2/15 (Saturday)

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

    Tournament

    Name: Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament

    When: Feb. 15-17.

    Format: 6 - round swiss

    Sections: 5: Crown (2200+); U 2200; U 1900; U 1600; U 1300.

    Registration: 157 (22+33+36+44+22)

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

    Rating: a. All sections are CFC-rated.

    b. The top 3 sections are also FIDE rated.

    Playing Up: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play in the next section up – $ 20 fee.

    Blog Note:

    This Blog on my personal Facebook page is re-posted a few other places - so references here refer to this original Fb platform.
    The Day of Rd. 1(Sat., Feb. 15)

    Saturday Morning

    Today I am currently living in Toronto, Ontario, and so am able to play. I love to play in the Great Hall of Hart House (I am a U of T Alumni), and schedule in to be here this weekend, as one of my 4 weekend & longer tournaments per year. My first time playing there was the Canadian Open of 1968!

    I awoke at 5:00 AM (!), and found my wife reading in bed on her tablet – she had been up for a few hours. I had gone to bed at 10:30 PM on Thursday – a bit longer sleep for me than usual (Often during weekend tournaments I sleep much shorter, and get substantially less than my usual 6 hrs. 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, and stressful for some of those around me.

    So I went and got my morning coffee downstairs today, as usual, to take upstairs to my home office. I do limit my caffeine intake in a day, by using 1/2 decaf & 1/2 dark roast!

    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, this morning somewhat early, 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

  • #2
    Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament – Blog

    Rds. 1 & 2 - 20/2/15 (Saturday)

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

    Back to Saturday Morning


    I pretty much worked on only my own projects this morning. I got quite a bit of updating and posting done.

    I usually begin to draft my Long Weekend Tournament Blogs the day before (on Friday) – then I complete it when I get home Saturday night. But I didn't get it started since I was in transit from Montreal on Friday; 8 1/2 hrs for a normal 6 hr. trip – our section of the Hwy. 401 was closed east of Belleville due to a dual tractor trailer accident with the debris all across the highway – hrs. crawling to the emergency exit, and then onto township roads running parallel to the 401, to eventually get back on the open section of the 401. So I started the draft this morning.

    My wife and I then had breakfast. I then did a bit more on my own projects.

    Then at 9:30 AM, I headed outside to wait for my ride – Omar Shah, Scarborough Chess Club President, was driving to Hart House (He was going to be available for Rds. 1 & 2 as a “floater” if needed).

    We got into the hall about 10:00 AM. The tournament started about 20 min. late due to the fact that Hart House allows for last-minute on-site entries.

    I chatted before the round with a number of weekend warrior friends – Toy Kwan & Mario Moran-Venegas (both in my section), and Ken Kurkowski (In the U 1600 Section). I also talked with my lawyer friend from Toronto (Who likes to remain nameless), and who, like me, has a grandparent role in life.

    Round 1 (Almost 10:30 AM)

    My friend from U of T, Alex Ferreira, was chairing the organizing committee again this year, and acting as lead arbiter. He made the announcements and we were off. I had white against Junior Joseph Liao, whom I'd played a few times before at weekend tournaments.

    My Rd. 1 Game

    I just do a light annotation of my games for the Blog to show what I was thinking as the game unfolded (No engine analysis).

    Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1538) – Liao, Joseph (1716) [E11]

    Hart House Reading Week Open (U 1900) (1), 15.02.2020
    [Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

    1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ Bogo-Indian Defence 4.Bd2 Qe7 5.a3 Bxd2+ 6.Qxd2 b6 7.Nc3 Bb7 8.Qc2 d6 9.e4 e5 10.Nd5 Nxd5 11.cxd5 exd4 Joseph goes up a P temporarily; I am not worried about getting it back. Right now I want the tempo more than material. 12.Bb5+ Nd7 13.0–0 0–0–0 this is a most risky move. The c-file in front of the Bl K is half-opened, with the Q already on it, and a R can come to c1 immediately, to pin the Q to protecting c7. 14.b4 Keeping the N off c5. 14...f5 Joseph knows he must find his own counter-play very quickly or get rolled. 15.Rfc1 threatening mate in one, but more importantly, pinning down the Q to a protection role. Also, I want the aR to stay where it is; eventually I will push the aP and open totally the a-file for a K-side attack. 15...Nf6 16.Nxd4 material equality; I am building control of c6. 16...fxe4 Joseph goes up a P again; I am not interested any more in material; I am K-hunting now. 17.Nc6 Qf7 18.Nxa7+ material equality 18...Kb8 19.Nc6+ Bxc6 20.Bxc6 Mate in two is threatened by Qa4. 20...b5 21.a4 This is why I left the aR on a1. 21...Nxd5 Joseph had used 32 min. 22.Bxd5 After 23.axb5, I have a mate with Ra8. And the Q cannot take the B, because then I mate after Qxc7+. I had used 4 minutes.

    1–0

    Post Rd. 1

    After the game I watched the rest of the games, until I went to lunch with 3 of the friends I'd talked to before the round: Toy, Mario & Ken. We headed over to a Chinese restaurant we'd been to during prior Hart House tournaments, at Yonge & Wellesley.

    We chatted away for over an hour, and had a great time. Then about 3:15 PM we headed back to the hall for Rd. 2. I rested a bit, and then Toy joined me and we chatted. Then Arkadiy Ugodnikov of our section joined us and we discussed Mario's round 1 game that we had both been watching, which had a Q-sac N + R mate! My Toronto lawyer friend, also from our section, also joined us.

    My Rd. 2 Game (A little after 4:00 PM)

    Li, Ruibin (1701) – Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1538) [A40]

    Hart House Reading Week Open (U 1900) (2), 15.02.2020
    [Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

    1.d4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.e4 c5 Modern Defence 4.c4 Qb6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nd5 Qd8 7.Bf4 d6 8.dxc5 Ruibin goes up a P 8...e5 Not dxc5, because then Nc7+ 9.Bg5 f6 10.cxd6 a very impressive, and killing, move; Ruibin is up 2 P's. 10...Kf7 11.Nc7 Rb8 12.Qd5+ Kf8 I am totally lost 13.Be3 Bd7 14.c5 mate is coming! 14...Rc8 15.Bc4

    1–0

    Post-Rd. 2

    Omar was not needed for round 2. He was selling some chess books. But when I finished quite early (“Crushed” is not a strong enough word for what happened), he said he'd leave anytime. I was pretty exhausted and so decided to just go home.

    [Part III below]

    Bob A

    Comment


    • #3
      Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament – Blog

      Rds. 1 & 2 - 20/2/15 (Saturday)

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

      The Evening


      I got home about 6:30 PM. My wife was over at her potters cooperative workshop, working on some pieces, and doing one of her cooperative jobs (She is an amateur potter).

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

      But I was then too tired to finish this Blog # 1, and at 7:00 PM went for a 1 hr. late siesta (It is my usual routine to have one every mid-afternoon, now that I am closing in on 75 y.o.. My wife called from the workshop just after the clock alarm went off, to see if I was home yet, and to advise she was on her way.

      When she arrived, we had dinner. Then she went to the living room couch to watch movies, and I went back up to my home office to finish this Blog # 1 and enter my two games.

      I left the posting on ChessTalk, Canada's national chess discussion board, 'til Sunday morning. I posted the Blog to my Fb account (See above for URL), and to my Fb chess discussion group, Chess Chat (See above for URL). Then I did a bit more on my own projects.

      I went to bed just before midnight Sunday.

      My U 1900 Section Report - Rds. 1 & 2 - Saturday, Feb. 15/20.

      I am rated 1538. I am in the 3rd of the 5sections. My section rating spread is effectively, from the 1500's to about 1899. I am in the lower third of the section.

      Post-Rd. 2 – U 1900 Leaders

      There are 36 players in our section; but there were fewer boards than 18 each round (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, with 2/2 pts. (Won both games):

      1st/6th Ferdinand Supsup (1809); Alisan Ozkazanc (1762); Ruibin Li (1709); Brian Hanratty (1658); Jonathan Wang (1547); Junior Boy Adam Li (1528).

      My Score

      1/2 pts. - Win: 1 (Rd. 1); Loss: 1 (Rd. 2).

      My Opponents' & My Scores

      2/2 pts. -Ruibin Li (1709) – in a tie for 1st/6th – I lost in Rd. 2.

      1/1 pts. - Junior Boy Joseph Liao (1716) – I won in Rd. 1.

      Me (1538)

      Some History

      How My Blog Works (Some history and details)

      This next section is another template.

      TEMPLATE BEGINS

      Bob's Blog

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

      i) on my personal Facebook Account for my 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. 13-5). I played.
        2. The 2020 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February 15-17 – Family Day Weekend). I am playing.
        3. The 2020 Canadian Open – Mississauga, Ontario (Thursday, July 16 – Wed., July 22).
        4. The 2020 Toronto Open (Sept. 5-7 - Labour Day Weekend)

      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

      Comment


      • #4
        Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament – Blog

        Rds. 3 & 4 - 20/2/16 (Sunday)

        Bob's Chess Blog # 2 [Part I of 3 parts]
        (See Knight Logo below)

        Tournament

        Name: Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament

        When: Feb. 15-17.

        Format: 6 - round swiss

        Sections: 5: Crown (2200+); U 2200; U 1900; U 1600; U 1300.

        Registration: 157 (22+33+36+44+22)

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

        Rating: a. All sections are CFC-rated.

        b. The top 3 sections are also FIDE rated.

        Playing Up: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play in the next section up – $ 20 fee.

        Blog Note:

        This Blog on my personal Facebook page is re-posted a few other places - so references here refer to this original Fb platform.
        The Day of Rds. 3 & 4 (Sun., Feb. 16)

        Sunday Morning

        I awoke at 7:00 AM. I had gone to bed at shortly after midnight – a bit longer sleep for me than usual (Often during weekend tournaments I sleep much shorter, and get substantially less than my usual 6 hrs. sleep).

        So I went and 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, this morning somewhat early, 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

        Comment


        • #5
          Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament – Blog

          Rds. 3 & 4 - 20/2/16 (Sunday)

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

          Back to Sunday Morning


          The first order of business was to post the Blog # 1 on ChessTalk, Canada's national chess discussion board, where I have an agreement with the owner, Henry Lam, to post my blogs over the course of a year.

          Next up was to start the draft of this Blog # 2.

          Then I pretty much worked on only my own projects this morning. I got quite a bit of updating and posting done.

          My wife got up about 8:00 AM and we then had breakfast.

          I then did a bit more on my own projects.

          Then at 9:00 AM, I headed out for Hart House by TTC.

          I got into the hall about 9:45 AM. The round 3 started only a bit late.

          I chatted very briefly before the round with a number of friends – the usual suspects: Toy Kwan, Ken Kurkowski, Mario Moran-Venegas, Doug Gillis, Dinesh Dittani, etc.

          Round 3 (10:15 AM)

          Alex Ferreira, chair of the organizing committee, and lead arbiter, made the announcements and we were off. I had white against Boris Iriarte – when he described the game later to a friend of mine, he said he ran into “a buzz-saw”!

          My Rd. 3 Game

          I just do a light annotation of my games for the Blog to show what I was thinking as the game unfolded (No engine analysis).

          Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1534) – Iriarte, Boris (1720) [E81]

          Hart House Reading Week Open (U 1900) (3), 16.02.2020
          [Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

          1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e4 d6 King's Indian Defence 5.f3 Samisch Variation 5...0–0 6.Be3 Nbd7 7.Nge2 c5 8.d5 Re8 9.g4 Ne5 10.Ng3 h6 11.Be2 a6 12.h4 Nh7 13.Qd2 e6 14.Bxh6 I go up a P 14...Qf6 15.0–0–0 Offering a P back; what do I get? A K to safety; A R out for the attack; I still have a formidable attack, despite returning the P. 15...Bxh6 16.Qxh6 Qg7 Boris decides the f3P is likely poisoned 17.Qe3 No need to exchange Q's; I have a strong attack and want the Q to be part of it in future. 17...b6 18.g5 need to block the gP from moving to g5 when I push h5 18...Bb7 Joining his R's for the defence 19.f4 best to kick the N before continuing the attack 19...Nd7 20.h5 exd5 21.Nxd5 It is now time to play in the centre, as well as on the K-side. 21...Bxd5 22.Rxd5 Qf8 23.hxg6 fxg6 24.Rh6 Boris is having great trouble defending everything 24...Re6 25.f5 Re5 26.Rxg6+ I am up 2 P's. 26...Kh8 27.Rdxd6 Playing in the centre; I am up 3 P's (All passed and connected). 27...Qe7 28.Kb1 there are line that finish with Qxg5+; best to simply eliminate the check so I will have a free move when Boris pawn-grabs. 28...Re8 Finally the 2nd R into the defence, but it is now too late. 29.Rde6 Qd8 30.Qc3 May as well tie Boris down totally to enhance attacking possibilities, even at the expense of losing the gP 30...Nxg5 31.Rxg5 Boris' problem: the e8R will hang 31...R8xe6 32.Rh5+ saving the R; and after fxe6, the N must fall, or else the e5 R will.

          1–0

          Post Rd. 3

          After the game I watched the rest of the games, until I went to lunch with Ken Kurkowski. Mario and Toy were going to go to the Chinese Restaurant again, but Ken and I decided to just go for to the close Subway.

          Ken and I got back about 3:00 PM and all the games had finished. So Ken dealt with some e-mails, and I worked on updating my organizer and my “Reminder Book” (I have a terrible memory, and so have to keep track of my “To Do's”). A few friends joined us a bit later and we chatted 'til the round.

          My Rd. 4 Game (A little after 4:00 PM)

          I played the # 8 seed in our 36 player section, and to make it more difficult, I had black.

          Ozkazanc, Alisan (1762) – Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1538) [A29]

          Hart House Reading Week Open (U 1900) (4), 16.02.2020
          [Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

          1.c4= For analysis of the first 10 moves, see English Opening 1...g6 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 0–0 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.0–0 e5 7.d3 Re8 8.Bd2 a6 9.Rb1 Nd4 10.e3 Nxf3+= 11.Bxf3 d6 12.Bg2 c6 Best to blunt the range of the g2B right away. 13.e4 Be6 14.h3 [14.a4 a5=] 14...Qd7 [14...b5 15.b3 Rc8=] 15.Kh2 Rad8 I was quite pleased with how Bl has come out of the opening. 16.f4?!³ Alisan is the # 8 ranked in our section of 36 players; he plays aggressively now. But for the first time in the game, I get the advantage. [16.Qe2= Qe7=] 16...exf4 17.gxf4 [17.Bxf4³ Nh5 18.Bg5 Be5! 19.Ne2 f6 20.Bf4 g5³] 17...Qe7?!= I want to head for h4 [17...Nh5³ 18.f5 Be5+ 19.Kg1 Bd4+ 20.Rf2 Bxf2+ 21.Kxf2 Bxf5 22.exf5 Qxf5+³] 18.Qf3?!³ [18.f5=] 18...Nh5 19.Rbe1 Bc8 The push f5 will come at some point; might as well move the B to give me more options when f5 does come. Also, the B may want to sac on h3 at some point. 20.Be3 Rf8 Bb6 is bothersome; best to deal with moving the R's now the way I want. 21.d4 Bf6 22.d5 Bh4 23.Bf2 Bxf2 24.Qxf2 f5 25.e5 c5 26.Qe3 dxe5 27.fxe5 Alisan has a formidable and winning centre; my only chance is a K-side attack. 27...f4 28.Qf3 Ng3 29.Rf2 Qh4 Finally I get here; and it is the wrong move; I needed to play Bd7 to keep it from being trapped forever on c8. 30.e6 Blocking in the B; I might as well not have it (sigh). 30...Rde8 31.Ne4 Nxe4 32.Rxe4 g5 Continuing with my plan of breaking Alisan's centre play by forcing him to defend a K-side attack. 33.Rfe2 g4 The P is poisoned; I will end up with f3 winning material. 34.Qd3 h5 35.Re5 Rf6 I'm dead if Alisan gets in Qg6+ 36.Rd2 f3 37.Bf1 g3+ 38.Kg1 g2 39.Bxg2 fxg2 40.Rxg2+ I am theoretically up B vs 2 P's. But at ground zero, my B is dead; I am really playing down 2 connected passed P's! And now Alisan has his own K-side attack. But what else was there for Bl to do?? 40...Kh8 41.Qd1 Rh6 42.Qe2 I analyzed for 37 minutes; and people know I play very quickly generally. There is no way out. But I got tired, and picked the worst way. 42...Qxh3 I am theoretically up B vs P; and am totally toast. 43.Reg5

          1-0

          Post-Rd. 4

          I was one of the last few games finishing in our section. I got my standings list all completed, and then headed home by TTC.

          The Evening

          I got home about 8:30 PM. I had some supper, and then went to my home office to update my Fb projects, and then enter my two games and finish this Blog # 2.

          I finished this Blog # 2, and left the posting on ChessTalk, Canada's national chess discussion board, 'til Monday morning. I posted this Blog # 2 to my Fb account (See above for URL), and to my Fb chess discussion group, Chess Chat (See above for URL). Then I did a bit more on my own projects.

          I was then tired and went to bed around 11:00 PM.

          [Part III below]

          Comment


          • #6
            Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament – Blog

            Rds. 3 & 4 - 20/2/16 (Sunday)

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

            My U 1900 Section Report - Rds. 3 & 4 - Sunday, Feb. 16/20.


            I am rated 1538. I am in the 3rd of the 5 sections. My section rating spread is effectively, from the 1500's to about 1899. I am in the lower third of the section.

            Post-Rd. 4 – U 1900 Leaders

            There are 36 players in our section; but there were fewer boards than 18 each round (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, with 4/4 pts. (Won all games):

            1st – 4/4 pts. - Won all games – Jonathan Wang (1547).

            2nd – 3.5/4 pts. - Undefeated – Junior Boy Adam Li (1528).

            3rd/8th Ferdinand Supsup (1809); Arkadiy Ugodnikov (1770); Reign Vinuya (1770); Alisan Ozkazanc (1762); Ronan Uthayakumar (1659); Junior Girl Isamel Shen (1516).

            My Score

            2/4 pts. - Wins: 2 (Rds. 1 & 3); Losses: 2 (Rds. 2 & 4).

            My Opponents' & My Scores

            3/4 pts. - Alisan Ozkazanc (1762) – I lost in Rd. 4.

            2.5/4 pts. -Ruibin Li (1709) – in a tie for 1st/6th – I lost in Rd. 2.

            2/4 pts. - Boris Iriarte (1720) – I won in Rd. 3.

            - Junior Boy Joseph Liao (1716) – I won in Rd. 1.

            Me (1538)

            Some History

            How My Blog Works (Some history and details)

            This next section is another template.

            TEMPLATE BEGINS

            Bob's Blog

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

            i) on my personal Facebook Account for my 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. 13-5). I played.
              2. The 2020 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February 15-17 – Family Day Weekend). I am playing.
              3. The 2020 Canadian Open – Mississauga, Ontario (Thursday, July 16 – Wed., July 22).
              4. The 2020 Toronto Open (Sept. 5-7 - Labour Day Weekend)

            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

            Comment


            • #7
              Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament – Blog

              Rds. 5 & 6 - 20/2/17 (Monday)

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

              Tournament

              Name: Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament

              When: Feb. 15-17.

              Format: 6 - round swiss

              Sections: 5: Crown (2200+); U 2200; U 1900; U 1600; U 1300.

              Registration: 157 (22+33+36+44+22)

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

              Rating: a. All sections are CFC-rated.

              b. The top 3 sections are also FIDE rated.

              Playing Up: Players within 100 pts. of the floor of the section above have the option to play in the next section up – $ 20 fee.

              Blog Note:

              This Blog on my personal Facebook page is re-posted a few other places - so references here refer to this original Fb platform.
              The Day of Rds. 5 & 6 (Mon., Feb. 17)

              Monday Morning

              I awoke at 4:15 AM! I had gone to bed Sunday night at 10:15 PM – so I got my normal 6 hrs. sleep! (Often during weekend tournaments I sleep much shorter, and get substantially less this).

              So I went and 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, this morning somewhat early, 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

              Comment


              • #8
                Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament – Blog

                Rds. 5 & 6 - 20/2/17 (Monday)

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

                Back to Monday Morning


                The first order of business was to enter my 2 Sunday games, update the TRN Fb site, and the Chess Chat Fb group, and then post the Blog # 1 on ChessTalk, Canada's national chess discussion board, where I have an agreement with the owner, Henry Lam, to post my blogs over the course of a year.

                My sister-in-law is an early riser, and we often chat early in the mornings – so true to form I get a “Hi” at 5:00 AM! We chatted for a bit about grandchildren, and children, and then she had to get ready to go to work.....though retired now, she does take day contracts supply principalling at a grade school.

                Next up was to start the draft of this Blog # 3.

                I then went and straightened the kitchen and did the dishes from the day before.

                Then I pretty much worked on only my own projects this morning. I got quite a bit of updating and posting done. I also analyzed my Rd. 4 game with Stockfish.

                Heading Out for Rd. 5.

                Then at 9:00 AM, I headed out for Hart House by TTC.

                I got into the hall about 9:45 AM. The round 5 started only a bit late.

                I chatted very briefly before the round with a number of friends – Arkadiy Ugodnikov (Who tied for 1st in our section), David Cohen, playing again after some absence, Toy Kwan of our section, Justin Li (carving out time from work to get in his chess), Junior Henry Zhang and his father, about his round 4 game, etc.

                Round 5 (10:00 AM)

                I had white against Junior Ricky Zhu.

                My Rd. 5 Game

                I just do a light annotation of my games for the Blog to show what I was thinking as the game unfolded (No engine analysis).

                Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1538) – Zhu, Ricky (1745) [E83]
                Hart House Reading Week Open (U 1900) (5), 17.02.2020

                [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...a6 6.Be3 0–0 7.Nge2 Nc6 8.g4 It is an aggressive line for White 8...Rb8 9.Ng3 Re8 10.h4 e6 11.Qd2 d5 this is not such a usual line for Bl.; I noted that the position was a bit different than I was used to. But for some reason, despite the red flag, I just analyzed it briefly, and didn't really see any problem (But there is!). 12.c5 dxe4 Ricky goes up a P. It is only now that I saw that I could not play fxe4 because of losing my gP + Ricky having 3 attackers suddenly on my backward dP. 13.g5 I opted to continue my attack and I'd have to go down a P. 13...Nd5 I still cannot capture the eP because of the triple attack appearing on the dP. 14.Nxd5 exd5 Ricky has now cemented his extra P. 15.f4 Best to just continue a K-side attack 15...Bg4 16.h5 Bf3 17.Rh2 Qd7 18.hxg6 I now have an open h-file to attack on. 18...hxg6 19.Bh3 Bg4 Ricky is determined not to let me 0–0–0 20.Bxg4 Qxg4 It is now very difficult to continue any K-side attack, being prevented from 0–0–0 and getting the 2nd R to h1. 21.Qf2 Blunder - the over-worked Q principle 21...Nxd4 Ricky goes up 2 P's. After recaptures, I lose my N. 22.Bxd4 Bxd4 23.Qxd4 Qxg3+ 24.Qf2 I cannot interpose with the R - e3! [24.Rf2 e3] 24...Qxf2+ 25.Kxf2 Rbd8 I am down 2 connected, passed P's - this is lost unless I can find some trappy way in the ending to win a P - Having the 2 R's does at least give possibilities. 26.Rah1 Kf8 27.Rh8+ Ke7 28.R8h7 Ke6 29.R1h6 Re7 30.Kg3 Kf5 31.Rg7 setting a cute little trap of R(6)xg6, to get back one of the P's. 31...Rdd7 Ricky is going to have no part of that idea! I resigned.

                0–1

                Post Rd. 5

                After the game I watched the rest of the games, until I went to lunch with Ken Kurkowski, Toy Kwan, and Erik Malmsten (Who played in the top section in Rd. 4 as a “Floater”). Mario Moran-Venegas, of our section, was heavy into a R & P ending, and so we told him we were going to go to the Chinese Restaurant again where we'd been earlier in the tournament, so he could join us.

                We chatted for about an hour – the food is good, and the price quite reasonable. Mario did come and join us shortly after we got there.

                We all got back to the hall about 3:45 PM and the pairings were up.

                My Rd. 6 (Final) Game (A little after 4:00 PM)

                I played the # 2 seed in our 36 player section, Thuan Nguyen; I found that he had, in January, just joined the Scarborough Chess Club where I play (for our Jack Frost Swiss – concluded last Thursday). And, to make it more difficult, I had black.

                Nguyen, Thuan (1797) – Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J. (1538) [B27]

                Hart House Reading Week Open (U 1900) (6), 17.02.2020
                [Armstrong, Robert (Bob) J.]

                1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 c5 (Modern Defence) 4.Be3 Qb6 An unusual line, with some surprise value - easy for Bl to put pieces on wrong squares. 5.b3 Dangerous with my g7B active 5...Nc6 Piling onto the d4 square 6.c3 cxd4 7.Bxd4 not good to exchange the B for the N 7...Nxd4 8.Nxd4 a6 9.Na3 not playable 9...Qa5 10.Nb1 b5 11.Qd2 breaking the troublesome pin on the c3P 11...Bb7 12.f3 Rc8 now piling onto c3 13.Be2 Qb6 Prevents 0–0, because of the N becoming pinned, and my e5! 14.Qd3 b4 Thuan will now lose the d4N, and his position will be a shambles. Thuan resigned - I think a bit prematurely, given he is around 250 rating points higher than me, and we class players are known for our blundering!

                0–1

                Post-Rd. 6

                My game finished fairly early, so I got to watch the final round games on our sections top boards. in our section. I got my final standings list all completed, and then headed home by TTC.

                [Parts I & II above]

                Bob A

                Comment


                • #9
                  Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournament – Blog

                  Rds. 5 & 6 - 20/2/17 (Monday)

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

                  The Evening


                  I got home about 9:00 PM. I had some supper, straightened the kitchen a bit, and then went to my home office to update my Fb projects, and then enter my two games and finish this Blog # 3.

                  But when it came time to work on this Blog, I was just too tired (I had been up since 4:15 AM + playing two games). I left everything for Tuesday morning, and went to bed at 10:15 PM.

                  Early Tuesday morning, I finished this Blog # 3, entered and annotated lightly the two games, and posted the Blog on ChessTalk, Canada's national chess discussion board, on my Fb account (See above for URL), and to my Fb chess discussion group, Chess Chat (See above for URL).

                  My U 1900 Section Report - Rds. 5 & 6 - Monday, Feb. 17/20.

                  I am rated 1538. I am in the 3rd of the 5 sections. My section rating spread is effectively, from the 1500's to about 1899. I am in the lower third of the section.

                  Final Standings – U 1900 Winners

                  There are 36 players in our section; but there were fewer boards than 18 each round (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:

                  1st/3rd – 5/6 pts. - Undefeated – Arkadiy Ugodnikov (1770); Junior Boy Reign Joshua Vinuya (1770); Jonathan Wang (1547).

                  My Score

                  3/6 pts. - Wins: 3 (Rds. 1, 3 & 6); Losses: 3 (Rds. 2, 4 & 5).

                  My Opponents' & My Scores

                  4/6 pts. -Ruibin Li (1709) – I lost in Rd. 2.

                  3.5/6 pts. - Junior Boy Ricky Zhu (1745) – I lost in Rd. 5.
                  • Boris Iriarte (1720) – I won in Rd. 3.
                  3/6 pts. - Alisan Ozkazanc (1762) – I lost in Rd. 4.

                  - Junior Boy Joseph Liao (1716) – I won in Rd. 1.
                  • Me (1538)
                  2/6 pts. - Thuan Nguyen (1797) – I won in Rd. 6.

                  Some History

                  How My Blog Works (Some history and details)

                  This next section is another template.

                  TEMPLATE BEGINS

                  Bob's Blog

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

                  i) on my personal Facebook Account for my 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. 13-5). I played.
                    2. The 2020 Hart House Reading Week Open – Toronto (February 15-17 – Family Day Weekend). I am playing.
                    3. The 2020 Canadian Open – Mississauga, Ontario (Thursday, July 16 – Wed., July 22).
                    4. The 2020 Toronto Open (Sept. 5-7 - Labour Day Weekend)

                  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

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