Hamilton Winter Open 2011

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

Garvin, can you put me in, I'll be there by 930am, leaving home now, under 1900.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

Your input means a lot to us(organizers), since you are the only active playing GM in Canada.

Kovalyov and Roussel-Roozmon are both active in Canada, unless Canada = Ontario for you ?

[Bindi Cheng]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

None of them play as much as Bator, he's pretty much the only GM who actually plays in weekenders. When's the last time either of them played anything other than a Canadian Open or something like that?

[Neil Sullivan]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

None of them play as much as Bator, he's pretty much the only GM who actually plays in weekenders. When's the last time either of them played anything other than a Canadian Open or something like that?

They both played last weekend in Trois-Rivieres

http://pages.globetrotter.net/jrboutin/Standings.html

The results were reported here by Hugh Brodie.

[Adam Cormier]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

Can someone post the round 4 pairings?

[Neil Sullivan]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

Can someone post the round 4 pairings?

The pairing page only shows rd. 5. You would have to take them from the crosstable.

[Garvin Nunes]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

To see the tentative pairings for round 4 of our weekend swiss please visit the following link:

http://chess.servegame.com/hamilton/...011Results.jpg

These pairings are tentative and may change.

The above page is in a JPEG format so you may need to click on it to magnify it.

[Graham Price]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

I can never rationalize why, with 3 players tied, #1 is playing #2 while
#3 is playing #4. #3 has already had an easier run of opponents and
it continues giving him a good shot at going 4/4 .
I would think fairer pairings would be 1:4 and 2:3 or even 1:3 2:4.
They are playing for money (I know not much) but contenders need to play
contenders.

[Michael von Keitz]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

Any word on the clash of the titans?

[Stuart Brammall]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

Sambuev went 5-0, beating So along the way.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

I can never rationalize why, with 3 players tied, #1 is playing #2 while
#3 is playing #4. #3 has already had an easier run of opponents and
it continues giving him a good shot at going 4/4 .
I would think fairer pairings would be 1:4 and 2:3 or even 1:3 2:4.
They are playing for money (I know not much) but contenders need to play
contenders.

If they were using something other than the Swiss System your pairings might work but since they are not....

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

Sambuev went 5-0, beating So along the way.

Congratulations to Grandmaster Sambuev on yet another tournament victory and undoubtedly a new high CFC rating!

[Alex Ferreira]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

Hi,


I'd like to thank Garvin Nunes, Bob Gillanders, Gordon Gooding & Mikhail Egorov (sorry if I missed someone) for the smoothly-ran event. Hamilton hadn't worked for me in the past and I am glad I went this time.

Neat feature with the demo-boards beside the top 3 matches. Organizers, players and spectators keenly joined in updating the moves from the boards to the demos, for the rest of the hall to follow. Great on the organizers' part to have been able to get Wesley So to play. Always in good spirits, Wesley entertained all comers with blitz and game analyzes throughout the tournament.

Congrats to Bator Sambuev for yet another 5-0 sweep! Mowing down the 'opposition' in style. In my amateur evaluation, something seemed to have gone wrong at some point in the game against Noritsyn, but it got turned around. Bator's games seem to always be very spectator-friendly, it'd be awesome to replay through the last 3 rounds, hopefully the organizers will post games.
As for Sambuev's rating, I don't understand. Wesley So was attributed a higher rating based on FIDE conversion, fine. Granted there was only one game between them, but it's the data we have.
Has someone considered the possibility of Sambuev being underrated with FIDE? Is a 2500 rated player supposed to beat up on local 2400s this regularly? When we say 2700 is too high, this is based on what? He'll probably reach a new high now. When someone consistently scores 5/5, who's to say that 2500, 2700 or 3000 is correct or not? It seems hard to make comparisons when someone is just a class above everyone else.

Thanks again, those who made the event possible,


Alex Ferreira

[Alex Ferreira]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

I can never rationalize why, with 3 players tied, #1 is playing #2 while
#3 is playing #4. #3 has already had an easier run of opponents and
it continues giving him a good shot at going 4/4 .
I would think fairer pairings would be 1:4 and 2:3 or even 1:3 2:4.
They are playing for money (I know not much) but contenders need to play
contenders.

Hi Graham,

I also predicted the Round 4 pairings to be different. Based on the fact that Samsonkin had already played down (against someone in a lower point group) in Round 3. From what I understand about FIDE pairings, seeding is the last deciding criteria in making pairings. Above it in priority, I believe there's a rule that states a player should not play either up (against a higher point group) or down (against lower) within 3 games. The issue with colours is more important than this and would override it. Still, with Sambuev having had BWB, So having WBW and Samsonkin having WBW, it seems that So should have played down against Dougherty, who had had WB (or BW) and a bye in R3, so either colour would be fine for him in equalization.
In any case, maybe I missed something, or a different pairings program was used (I think some US pairings programs may use USCF rules that don't account for all these things).
Either way this a moot point because it was not FIDE rated.

Alex Ferreira

[Garvin Nunes]

Re: Hamilton Winter Open 2011

I would like to thank everyone who attended our tournament. Without you, of course, nothing would be possible. (After all you paid for everything).

To the titled players, Bator, Wesley, Artiom, Nikolay and Michael and the many masters who came you made this a special event. Your dedication inspires us all.

And finally Mike, Gordon, Bobby and Rene, thank you for all the hard work you put into this event. This is not a profit tournament and I don't know how often you get volunteers to put in the effort you did this weekend. I'm just glad I have the help of such people.

A tournament report will be coming soon. It will include some of my thoughts on how our events can be improved in the future. I ask everyone who took photos to please post links to them in this thread!