The Toronto International U 1900 Blog

[Bob Armstrong]

TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 4, Wednesday, July 18 – Rd. 5 - Part I

TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 4, Wednesday, July 18 – Rd. 5 - Part I

Wee Hours of the Morning

From 12:00 AM to 1:00 AM, I caught up on outstanding chess volunteer stuff. Then for an hour, I completed my Day 3 Blog, and posted it on ChessTalk, and CCC - Chess Posts of Interest ( Facebook ). Then for another hour, I continued analyzing my Rd. 2 game with Peter McNelly. I intended to post it on Chess5, but my computer started to become balky about connecting to any websites. I tried rebooting, but that didn’t work. My e-mail didn’t work either. I was too tired to call Sympatico support. So I started the draft of this Day 4 Blog. I went to bed at 3:45 AM.

The U 1900 Favourites – How The 9 1800’s Are Faring After 4 Rounds

Chen, Richard 1880 – 2 ½
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 – 3 ½ ( tied 2/3 )
Finlay, Ian 1859 - 2
Zhong, Joey 1847 - 2
Preotu, Rene 1838 – 1 ½
Xu, Jeffrey 1832 - 3
Oganesyan, Hayk 1829 - 2
Chidley-Hill, John 1827 - 3
Coren, Daniel 1821 - 2

The Current Leaders After 4 Rounds

1st – 4 pts. ( won all games )
Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748

2/3 – 3 ½ pts.
Romero Alfonso, Carlos – 1864
Yu, Patrick – 1781 ( junior )

Note that finally, one of the 1800’s ( the “ favourites “ ) has now climbed back up into the top three.

The Top Boards Rd. 5 Pairings

Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 4 ) - Yu, Patrick 1781 ( 3 ½ )
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 3 ½ ) - Xu, Jeffrey 1832 ( 3 )

My Games from Prior Rounds

( Because new readers come to the blog from time to time, I want them to have the following information, and so I am repeating the template of it each day – I’d ask the daily readers of the blog to tolerate the repetition )

As I’ve said in prior blogs, I like to think “ class “ games have some interest. I believe in some ways they are more educational to class players than GM games, if properly annotated. They are understandable, because we all think similarly – GM moves are many times incomprehensible to us class players. For years now, I’ve used a chess website, Chess5 ( http://www.chess5.com ), as my own personal chess games blog – I have gotten to know the owner/administrator Eydun, quite well over the years. I introduced Canada to his website, after I first saw it. Canada is now one of the main posters to this on-line databank. I post all my games, using what I call my “ Comprehensive Annotation System “, hoping that this makes them even more helpful to viewers. Click on the heading link “ public games “. and you get a list of games posted this month so far, including mine from this Open.

So later this morning, after sorting out my problems with Sympatico, on the Chess5 website, I posted my second round game against Peter McNelly ( my first game had already been posted ). It is interesting in that I did get the advantage a number of times, but kept giving it up. It is has a cute queen-sac ending!

Later in the Morning of Day 4, July 18

I woke up around 9:00 AM. Not bad for tournament time – around 5 hours sleep. And immediately a chess friend, not playing in the tournament, called to see if I was free for lunch today – we go out together regularly for dinner every Thursday night before Scarborough Chess Club meets. So we arranged he’d pick me up a bit before 1:00 PM. Then I phoned Sympatico technical support about my internet connecting issue and the problem was simple and we solved it in no time. Then I heard Mario up getting his morning coffee, and so went downstairs. We started getting breakfast ( Francis! – chopped wieners and bacon, fried in bacon grease, and eggs, sunny-side up, with coffee – yummie, yummie! ). My wife called soon after we started ( she’s hiding out up at our Meaford farm during my “ chess week “ ), and so Mario pitched in and finished cooking the breakfast. At our farm, we have an ongoing battle with the red squirrel and the chipmunks, raiding out birdfeeders, and sometimes cutting the rope holding them, I guess due to their claws. Our birdfeeders are looking in worse and worse shape the more they hit the ground. I suggested we just change our template – we don’t feed birds; we feed squirrels and chipmunks, and the birds have to get in when they can to steal the sunflower seeds from them! My wife is not amused. So anyway, she’s going birdfeeder hunting in Collingwood with her sister and a mutual friend staying with her sister. There’s a specialty store in Collingwood – maybe they’ll have some profound advice for us “ bird-huggers “. Then Mario and I had breakfast and we analyzed his Rd. 4 win ( Fritz had been chewing on it all night, and given Mario some advice ), and he showed me some stuff about the Ruy Lopez ( Spanish? )/ Marshall. At 11:00 we headed in our normal direction – him down; me up – to do our own thing.

I drafted some blog material for a while, and then posted my Rd. 2 game with Peter onto Chess5.

The Afternoon

About 12:15 PM, my chess friend picked me up and we went over to the Bus Terminal Restaurant for lunch. We discussed what we had been doing, and chess stuff: the CFC AGM; the Cooperative Chess Coalition organizational structure and chess reform; the Scarborough CC; etc. I got back at 2:00 PM, and then headed out to a doctor’s appointment. On the way back, I indulged my weakness, and got a large McDonalds strawberry milkshake – a real no-no! I got home at 4:00 PM, and Mario had been reading Chess for Zebras all day, and checking out some chess stuff on his laptop in the basement ( I have wireless ). He said he was going down to Bathurst/Bloor, and going to get some sushi before Rd. 5. I was not hungry, having just had a good lunch, and so said I’d meet him at the playing hall. I then did some chess stuff on the computer, and filled in more of the draft blog for this Day 4.

Then I noticed a phone message – from my wife – Oh! Oh! – the warning light was on that our water cistern was down low. We are on a small, shallow, 100 year old well for water. But it is supposed to be filling the cistern as we use water from it. And I’d been checking the gauges in the last month on the 2 pressure pumps, and there had been no indication that the well had yet gone dry due to the drought this Spring and early Summer. So what’s going on? The cement lid of the cistern is too heavy for my wife to lift off and check the cistern water level. So she’ll need help – not sure if there’ll be enough water for her ‘til I get up there on Saturday. We may have to call in the water supply company and get a tank truck of water to refill the cistern, if the well has gone dry, despite no warning from the pressure gauges. Maybe there’s something wrong with the well pump? We’ll have to talk tonight after the Round 5 to see how we deal with this. It’s only happened twice before in 22 years, but this year has been different.

I then started entering my Rd. 3 game with Daniel Coren, that had had such a complex critical position in the late middlegame. I was keen to see if Fritz could find something to save me – some tactical attack brilliancy, that we hordes of post-mortemer’s couldn’t find.

Off to Battle!

At 5:00 PM, I headed out for the hall by TTC. I got the obligatory Green Beanery coffee on the way there.

Pre-Rd. 5

Before the round, I talked with Ken Kurkowski of Scarborough CC briefly about how he was doing in the U 1600’s. Then Bernie Prost spoke to me a bit about this blog and generally that it seemed to be a good idea. I was playing Shafkat Ali, whom I’d played before, and we often chatted when we met at tournaments, so we both commiserated about each having only 1 / 4 pts.. Mario showed up soon after, and I explained to him about the farm water problem. Then the round started.

Rd. 5 Results in U 1900 ( Top Boards )

Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 4 ) 1 - 0 Yu, Patrick 1781 ( 3 ½ )
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 3 ½ ) 0 - 1 Xu, Jeffrey 1832 ( 3 )

My Rd. 5 Game/Result

In Rd. 5, I ( 1645 ) played white against Shafkat Ali ( 1655 ), whom, as I said, I’d defeated the last time we met at a Canadian Open. I won, leaving me with 2/5 pts. ( now at 40% - my pre-tournament goal had been to exceed 40 %, so I’m close to on target now ). I’d love to win my last two games of course, but if I split, it will give me 43 %, and I’ll have achieved my goal. The task now is to implement that over the last 2 days!

Continued below in Part II

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 4, Wednesday, July 18 – Rd. 5 - Part II

Continued from Part I above:

Leader Standings in U 1900 After 5 Rounds

1st - 5 pts. – won all games
Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748

2nd/3rd – 4 pts.
Xu, Jeffrey 1832
Chidley-Hill, John 1827

4th/6th – 3 ½ pts.
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864
Yu, Patrick 1781
Chuchin, Sasha 1703

Post Rd. 5

Mario won his game shortly after mine, and we both watched numerous games in all sections, including an interesting won between junior girl Jackie Peng, Canadian Women’s Olympiad Team # 2, and Canadian Champion, GM Bator Sambuev, and between the leader, Philippine’s GM Wesley So, and Hamilton junior Razvan Preotu. The last game was a very interesting ending between Ian Finlay and junior girl Jiaxin ( Dora ) Liu, of our section, where Ian eventually figured out how to win it, when many thought it was a draw.

Heading Home

We headed home by TTC at about 10:15 PM and got home by 11:00 PM.

Late Hours of the Day 4

I started making myself a hot dog, since I’d last eaten at 2:00 PM, but Mario said he was still quite OK from his sushi dinner, and he’d just take a beer. My wife then called about the farm water problem, and we decided what we’d try and do. I’d have to try to reach the tank truck water supply guy tomorrow morning, to see what could be set up for a water delivery. Then Mario and I looked over our two Rd. 5 games. Then we explored a new white opening I’ve been experimenting with, and figured out a few new ideas for it. At 1:30 he went to bed and I went upstairs to complete and post this blog.

Some Random Thoughts After Day 4

1. Chess Players: There is a popular myth that all chess players are nerdy, introverted, nasty, individualistic, anti-social warmongers. Is this the kind of people you meet at chess tournaments? It’s not for me, and never has been in 45 years. Not that there aren’t some obnoxious “ bad apples “ from time to time. But my experience is that chess players, though often rather quiet personalities, are quite friendly and sociable. I enjoy meeting new opponents. And when you go to do post-mortems with them in the skittles room, they can sometimes surprise with their sense of humour, and generally positive attitude towards chess, and life itself. I have, over the years, made a couple of very good chess friends, whom I value a lot. I’m sure you all have too. I hope that as time progresses, and chess becomes more mainstream, we’ll be able to put the stake through the heart of this false image of tournament chess players.

2. Computers & Class Players: I believe computers and chess programs are raising the level of the ordinary class player. It’s like having half a coach. It can’t explain to you in human terms, WHY a certain move it suggests, instead of your lemon, is best, but it at least points you in the right direction, and with your experience, you can try to figure out what’s so good about it. At Scarborough Chess Club, the computer has helped our newsletter immensely. In the newsletter, we wanted to have annotated member games published. Well, elite players are : 1. too busy to volunteer to analyze class games; 2. don’t have a great desire to volunteer this way ( though they may consider other volunteer options when presented to them ). I’m no expert ( that’s an understatement for those who don’t catch it! ), so how could I annotate. Well my trusty friend Fritz volunteered to help me. With him, my annotations become passable, and even good – after all , he is a GM. So at Scarborough we have a committee of four who annotate games – Ken Kurkowski, Dinesh Dattani, Martin Maister, and myself. And our skill level ?– two B-classers; two C-classers. But we all use Fritz! And from the feedback I get to our SCC newsletter, the annotations are found to be of good quality, and educational! We could never be doing this without a computer chess program. There is good in progress!

3. Dramatic Characters: I’ve had a number of people speak to me about something related to this blog, which is a bit disconcerting. Apparently Mario is becoming very popular in many circles due to his blog exposure. Now I suppose this is a good thing. But Mario’s original casting was as “ chess companion “. But it seems his personae is evolving into something more. What role am I now playing, I ask myself? I mean, what would have happened if Dr. Watson had started solving all of Sherlock Holmes cases???? I don’t mean to make a big thing of this, and I have tried to patiently explain the problem to Mario – but I’m not sure if he gets it! Well, we’ll just role with the punches, and hopefully the universe will unfold as it should!

The Leaders Rd. 6 Pairings

Xu, Jeffrey 1832 ( 4 ) - Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 5 )
Chidley-Hill, John 1827 ( 4 ) - Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 3 ½ )
Yu, Patrick 1781 ( 3 ½ ) - Chuchin, Sasha 1703 ( 3 ½ )

Invitation

Finally, I'd like again to invite everyone to join into the discussion - any comments, suggestions, questions, criticisms of the blog are welcome - and of anything to do with the Toronto International Open. I will try to respond where it seems appropriate. I’d also like to thank all those chess players I know, who have encouraged me to keep doing my “ class “ blog - It is fun to do. It seems popular, since the views on ChessTalk of the blog thread have been running on average at over 400 “ views “ per day so far. Thanks to all my well-wishers.

[Ken Kurkowski]

Re: The Toronto International U 1900 Blog

More Random Thoughts, from the U1600 section

After a long hard game which I eventually lost in a Rook and Pawn ending...

Two constants at these tournaments:
- Rapidly improving kids, sometimes gaining several hundred rating points in a year and,
- Adult players with the same old rating (relative to their fellow adult players) tournament after tournament.

A couple of us were musing about whether it's possible for adults (other than beginners) to make significant improvements in chess. Can't think of any examples. And this despite the fact that we devour numerous books, websites and videos on opening repertoires, tactics, endings...

This brings up the whole issue of what separates the stronger players from the 'patzers'. I am beginning to suspect that it has less to do with 'concrete' areas of knowledge such as opening variations, fundamental endings, stock tactical tricks, but rather with a vague ability to put the pieces on the right squares, to skilfully conduct the phase of the game that falls between the opening and the outreak of major tactics (often referred to as critical point). I'm reminded of a quote from an old master from the 1930's that went something like: "I can see the same combinations as Alekhine, but I can't get the same positions [in which such combinations are possible]"

[Bob Armstrong]

TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 5, Thursday, July 19 – Rd. 6 - Part I

TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 5, Thursday, July 19 – Rd. 6 - Part I

Wee Hours of the Morning

From 12:00 AM, Mario and I looked at our Rd. 5 games and an opening. Then I did some chess backlog, and the Day 4 Blog, and posted it on ChessTalk and CCC – Chess Posts of Interest ( Facebook ). Then I began this Day 5 Blog, and pasted in some of the current information. By 2:45 AM, I was getting tired, and went to bed.

The U 1900 Favourites – How The 9 Are Faring After 5 Rounds

Chen, Richard 1880 - 3
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 3 ½ ( tied 4th/6th )
Finlay, Ian 1859 – 3
Zhong, Joey 1847 - 2
Preotu, Rene 1838 – 2 ½
Xu, Jeffrey 1832 – 4 ( tied 2nd/3rd )
Oganesyan, Hayk 1829 – 2 ½
Chidley-Hill, John 1827 – 4 ( tied 2nd/3rd )
Coren, Daniel 1821 - 3

The Current Leaders After 5 Rounds

1st - 5 pts. – won all games
Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748

2nd/3rd – 4 pts.
Xu, Jeffrey 1832
Chidley-Hill, John 1827

4th/6th – 3 ½ pts.
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864
Yu, Patrick 1781
Chuchin, Sasha 1703

The Top Boards Rd. 6 Pairings

Xu, Jeffrey 1832 ( 4 ) - Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 5 )
Chidley-Hill, John 1827 ( 4 ) - Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 3 ½ )
Yu, Patrick 1781 ( 3 ½ ) - Chuchin, Sasha 1703 ( 3 ½ )

My Games from Prior Rounds

( Because new readers come to the blog from time to time, I want them to have the following information, and so I am repeating the template of it each day – I’d ask the daily readers of the blog to tolerate the repetition )

As I’ve said in prior blogs, I like to think “ class “ games have some interest. I believe in some ways they are more educational to class players than GM games, if properly annotated. They are understandable, because we all think similarly – GM moves are many times incomprehensible to us class players. For years now, I’ve used a chess website, Chess5 ( http://www.chess5.com ), as my own personal chess games blog – I have gotten to know the owner/administrator Eydun, quite well over the years. I introduced Canada to his website, after I first saw it. Canada is now one of the main posters to this on-line databank. I post all my games, using what I call my “ Comprehensive Annotation System “, hoping that this makes them even more helpful to viewers. Click on the heading link “ public games “. and you get a list of games posted this month so far, including mine from this Open.

So yesterday on the website. I posted my 2nd round game ( my first game was posted earlier ). Then later today, I posted my interesting Rd. 3 game with Daniel Coren, the one everyone who saw it thought I was winning, and then could find no win. It is worth a look I think. I also posted my Rds. 4 & 5 games.

Later in the Morning of Day 5, July 19

Even for me it was a bit ridiculous, waking at 5:45 AM after 3 hrs. sleep. So I decided to lay there a bit, and my body had the good sense to fall back asleep ‘til 8:00 AM. A bit more than 5 hrs. sleep is quite doable. So I got myself a coffee, and went to see Robo, my computer, to ask it to ask Fritz to please find a win for me in my game with Daniel Coren in Rd. 3. I then posted the game on Chess 5. I also wrote a bit more in today’s draft blog. Then I had to do a post for the CFC on its website – I am a CFC Governor, and hold the non-executive officer position of Public Relations Coordinator. So I did a “ news “ post on the Rd. 5 standings for this tournament.

At 9:00 AM, I interrupted what I was doing to call Bayview Water Supply. John has sold us water a couple of times over the 22 years we’ve owned the Meaford farm, and is quite nice. I asked about a Saturday delivery, when I’d be there ( my wife preferred I be there, in case anything unexpected comes up – she knows zilch about the water system ). He said he usually didn’t, but since we were so low on water, he would. I was quite grateful for this, and we agreed I’d be up in Meaford by 1:00 PM on Saturday ( it’s about a 3 hour drive ). I called my wife, and I agreed I’d get there by 11:00 AM, in case he might show up early, or there was a traffic problem on the way up, etc.. So I’ll have to get up fairly early to pack, have breakfast and leave by 8:00 AM – have to do my blog fast in the wee hours of Saturday morning, to cover the last Rd. 7!

At 10:00 AM, I heard Mario shuffling around in the kitchen getting his morning coffee, so I went down and we had some cereal together, and chatted a bit about what was going on for both of us at the moment. He said he’d like to go visit Strategy Games some time today, since it had been posted that they currently had a fairly large collection of used chess books they were selling off, and Mario has a definite weakness for chess books. Then he went down to check who he played tonight, and to see if the opponent had any database games he could look at. I went back upstairs to continue my very important endeavors.

The Afternoon

At 12:30 PM the main character in this blog, Mario ( LOL ), decided to head out to Strategy Games, and to get lunch out ( Francis, the manager, directed him to a nice Greek take-out place nearby for lunch ).

I continued by entering my Rd. 4 game with Eric Wang ( SCC junior ) and Shafkat Ali ( Rd. 5 ), analyzing both, and posting both on Chess5.

I must confess that this is not my only blog – I am an addicted “ blogger “. I don’t have my own blog website ( horrors – that would cost money ). So I use my Facebook account as a blog ( yes, I do inflict myself on my friends with my blogging as well, on both life and chess ). So a bit after noon, I typed up my next couple of blog entries for the next week ( I post about every 2-3 days ). I also did some work on today’s blog.

AT 3:30 PM, Mario returned – loaded down. He had only bought one of the “ used “ books – looked like the cover had never been cracked. But he also picked up 5 other books and two CD’s. He said he was continuing to build his resources, to assist whichever way he might decide to go in future, on openings or defences! So he then headed downstairs to look at his haul!

I then had to set aside some time for a family task – fresh sweet black cherries. Each summer, we’ve gotten a 10 lb. pail, or two, of fresh black cherries, packed in sugar. We divide it up into freezer bags, and then put them in our farm basement freezer. And we then have them all winter – they are my wife’s favourite fruit. But as you may know, this Spring killed the Ontario fruit industry. There was an early warm spell, and a lot of the fruit trees bloomed…too early. It was followed by 15 nights of frost, out of the month following the warm spell. It killed all the blossoms. Apple orchards are talking a loss of 80-100 % of their crop this year. And it has affected lots of Ontario fruits, one being sweet cherries. My wife tried our normal supermarket sources in Meaford and Owen Sound, and they said they were not expecting to get any of the buckets this year, because of the disaster. So I was to try here in Toronto, to see if anywhere might be getting some in. So I contacted the closest Sobey’s, Loblaw’s, and No Frills. But no luck! But one guy in the produce department told me that I might get Metro to special order them for me. So tomorrow I’ll try to contact them.

Off to Battle!

At 5:00 PM, we TTC’d it to the playing hall and each got our Green Beanery coffee on the way.

Pre-Rd. 6

I talked briefly with some of the Scarborough CC guys playing in the U 1600, about how they were faring – Ken Kurkowski, Doug Gillis, and Dinesh Dattani. I also talked briefly with Lorne Yee – not sure if we’d formally met before, but we’ve had a number of e-mail correspondences on CFC business over the years. The round started around 6:00 PM.

Rd. 6 Results in U 1900 ( Top Boards )

Xu, Jeffrey 1832 ( 4 ) 0 - 1 Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 5 )
Chidley-Hill, John 1827 ( 4 ) 0 - 1 Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 3 ½ )
Yu, Patrick 1781 ( 3 ½ ) 0 - 1 Chuchin, Sasha 1703 ( 3 ½ )

My Rd. 6 Game/Result

In Rd. 6, I ( 1645 ) played white against Scarborough CC junior, Joey Zhong ( 1847 ), who defeated me in our last encounter at the club. I lost after trying a quite unrealistic attack plan, leaving me with 2/6 pts. ( 33% - My pre-tournament goal is to exceed 40 % - I now have to win my last game, to achieve 43%, and meet my target ).

Standings in U 1900 After 6 Rounds

1st – 6 pts. – won all games
Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 – Wins first prize – uncatchable – congratulations Rodrigo!!

2nd/3rd – 4 ½ pts.
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864
Chuchin, Sasha 1703

4th/9th – 4 pts.
Chen, Richard 1880
Finlay, Ian 1859
Xu, Jeffrey 1832
Chidley-Hill, John 1827
Coren, Daniel 1821
Zotkin, Daniel 1784

It is interesting to note that although the “ favourites ( over 1800’s ) “ were struggling at the start, we now have 6 of them in the top 9! They have reasserted slowly their higher rating, and higher skill level.

Post Rd. 6

Mario and I watched the last games in our section, and left at 10:15 PM.

Continued below in Part II

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 5, Thursday, July 19 – Rd. 6 - Part II

Continued from Part I above:

Heading Home

The TTC got us home around 11:00 PM.

Late Hours of the Day 5

Mario fixed himself a ham sandwich, and I made some hot dogs, and we both grabbed a beer, and analyzed our Rd. 6 games ‘til 12:30 AM. We both agreed I had been under a totally faulty impression in my game, that I could generate an attack, the way I went at it. We’ll see tomorrow if Fritz can find any silver lining in my attempt. I then went upstairs and finished this Day 5 Blog, and posted it to ChessTalk, and CCC – Chess Posts of Interest ( Facebook ). I also prepared the draft for the final Day 6 Blog.

Some Random Thoughts After Day 5

1. Chess is a social equalizer: As I watched the games at the end of Rd. 5 yesterday, I again was struck by how much children’s minds are developed at young ages. Dora Liu ( U 10 ) was causing Ian Finlay ( a mature adult ) no end of grief, trying for a draw. And I’ve seen Kevin Yie, 7 years old when he started playing at Scarborough CC, playing Ted Termeer at SCC, over 80 years old. As well, Ted Winick, the force behind the Chess Institute of Canada, organizer of this tournament, pointed out to me last night some of his junior chess class students who were now teenagers, and doing well in chess, from very modest income families from the inner city – chess is not an expensive sport, at least at the introductory levels, if one is not shooting for national or world competition, and the expenses associated with those. And a lower income junior can play a Bay Street lawyer and have her on the ropes! There is a respect that chess generates in us for the other players, that does not take into account age, income, ethnicity, etc.. Quite an admirable feature for our Royal Game!

2. The juniors are getting so good! : I’m feeling like a broken record on this issue, but the ages of the juniors is constantly dropping, and their strengths seem to be constantly increasing. Part of this is due I think to the greater emphasis on junior chess by Chess ‘n Math, The Chess Institute of Canada, and to a lesser degree, the CFC junior program. But I think the biggest change from 15 years ago, is the normalcy of juniors having coaches. It seems now that chess parents see hiring a coach the same as a child taking piano lessons in the bygone days. You just need a teacher! And it is showing – the kids results against us “ veterans “ are very good ….and it seems mostly, well-deserved. This can only be good for Canadian chess.

The Leaders Rd. 7 Pairings

Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 5 ) – Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 4 ½ )
Chuchin, Sasha 1703 ( 4 ½ ) – Chen, Richard 1880 ( 4 )
Finlay, Ian 1859 ( 4 ) – Chidley-Hill, John 1827 ( 4 )
Coren, Daniel 1821 ( 4 ) – Xu, Jeffrey 1832 ( 4 )
Zotkin, Daniel 1784 ( 4 ) - Yu, Patrick 1781 ( 3 ½ )

Invitation

Finally, I'd like again to invite everyone to join into the discussion - any comments, suggestions, questions, criticisms of the blog are welcome - and of anything to do with the Toronto International Open. I will try to respond where it seems appropriate. Thanks to all those who have given me such positive feedback on my blog effort.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 5, Thursday, July 19 – Rd. 6 - Part I

I then had to set aside some time for a family task – fresh sweet black cherries. .... It killed all the blossoms.

We had three green cherries for awhile but they disappeared mystically.
Do you know about a Niagara region orchids' status? We used to go every year for pick-your-own.

Bob, I suggest you would play some wild game today. Nothing to loose :)

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 5, Thursday, July 19 – Rd. 6 - Part I

Hi Egis:

Haven't heard anything about the orchids - as I understand it though, there had to be blossoms at the time of the frosts - the strawberries' buds were still closed at that time, and that crop was OK.

As to a " wild game " today - some maintain that that's all I play ! LOL ( which I think translates into " bad " !! ). But I'll keep my eyes open for the " killer " move.

Bob

[Bob Armstrong]

TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 6, Friday, July 20 – Rd. 7 ( Final ) - Part I.

TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 6, Friday, July 20 – Rd. 7 ( Final ) - Part I.

Wee Hours of the Morning

Mario and I looked at our Rd. 6 games from Thursday ‘til 12:30 AM, and then Mario went to check out his game on the computer, and I went upstairs to finish the Day 5 Blog and post it. I also started the draft for this Day 6 Blog, and pasted in some of the already available information. I went to bed at 2:15 AM.

The U 1900 Favourites – How The 9 Are Faring After 6 Rounds

Chen, Richard 1880 - 4
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 – 4 ½ ( tied 2/3 )
Finlay, Ian 1859 – 4 ( tied 4/8 )
Zhong, Joey 1847 - 3
Preotu, Rene 1838 – 2 ½
Xu, Jeffrey 1832 – 4 ( tied 4/8 )
Oganesyan, Hayk 1829 – 2 ½
Chidley-Hill, John 1827 – 4 ( tied 4/8 )
Coren, Daniel 1821 – 4 ( tied 4/8 )

The Current Leaders After 6 Rounds

1st – 6 pts. – won all games
Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748

2nd/3rd – 4 ½ pts.
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864
Chuchin, Sasha 1703

4th/9th – 4 pts.
Chen, Richard 1880
Finlay, Ian 1859
Xu, Jeffrey 1832
Chidley-Hill, John 1827
Coren, Daniel 1821
Zotkin, Daniel 1784


The Top Boards Rd. 7 Pairings

Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 5 ) – Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 4 ½ )
Chuchin, Sasha 1703 ( 4 ½ ) – Chen, Richard 1880 ( 4 )
Finlay, Ian 1859 ( 4 ) – Chidley-Hill, John 1827 ( 4 )
Coren, Daniel 1821 ( 4 ) – Xu, Jeffrey 1832 ( 4 )
Zotkin, Daniel 1784 ( 4 ) - Yu, Patrick 1781 ( 3 ½ )

My Games from Prior Rounds

( Because new readers come to the blog from time to time, I want them to have the following information, and so I am repeating the template of it each day – I’d ask the daily readers of the blog to tolerate the repetition )

As I’ve said in prior blogs, I like to think “ class “ games have some interest. I believe in some ways they are more educational to class players than GM games, if properly annotated. They are understandable, because we all think similarly – GM moves are many times incomprehensible to us class players. For years now, I’ve used a chess website, Chess5 ( http://www.chess5.com ), as my own personal chess games blog – I have gotten to know the owner/administrator Eydun, quite well over the years. I introduced Canada to his website, after I first saw it. Canada is now one of the main posters to this on-line databank. I post all my games, using what I call my “ Comprehensive Annotation System “, hoping that this makes them even more helpful to viewers. Click on the heading link “ public games “. and you get a list of games posted this month so far, including mine from this Open.

So today on the website. I posted my 6th round game with Joey Zhong ( my first 5 games were posted on prior days ). My last round game will likely be posted sometime next week.

Later in the Morning of Day 6, July 20

I awoke at 8:45 AM! Got a long 6 hrs. sleep – very unusual for my “ tournament schedule “ sleeping – but not complaining! I heard Mario downstairs – he’d just surfaced too, and he had the coffee on! Then he volunteered to cook breakfast, and I was on table-setting and toast detail. Then my wife called from our farm – wanted to see how I’d done yesterday, but was really more interested in finding out if I’d located any of those delicious black cherry pails. I had to report no success, with one store to check with this morning. So I said I’d be up there by 11:00 AM tomorrow morning. Then Mario and I had breakfast while he showed me a wacko combination that Fritz had found in his Rd. 6 game while doing overnight “ full analysis “. I then washed up the dishes, and Mario headed out to his daughter’s to pick up his car. He was then returning and we made plans to head out to a restaurant for a mid-afternoon lunch. I then phoned the last grocery store on my list, and the produce guy confirmed that because of the crop failure they weren’t getting any in this year, though they did have the tart red cherries ( which we don’t use ).

I then did some work on today’s draft blog, and then set about entering my Rd. 6 game into Fritz, to see how bad exactly, my aborted attack plan had been against SCC junior, Joey Zhong.

At 11:30 AM, Mario returned with the car, and we agreed to go to a mid-afternoon lunch out. Then my wife called about our running battle with the chipmunks and red squirrels at our bird feeders at our farm – they’re stealing all the sunflower seeds and their numbers have increased now that they’ve found the food supply. The birds are fighting for their lives to get near the feeder at all. As well, we have to bring our 4 feeders in at night, because the raccoons pull them all down and damage them as they hit the ground. We had agreed we’d be willing to spend some $$ to try to solve this issue. And when she went shopping the other day, she did go to the bird feeder specialty shop. Well…..we now have the cheapest new feeder and the most expensive free-standing pole with feeder arms and raccoon and squirrel baffles. So we decided where we’d put it – have to be careful not to punch through to the septic pipe that runs under the garden. We negotiated a bit, and so she’s going to try to get the bottom ground part of the pole in and straight ( it comes in two parts )! Let’s hope this helps the birds out a bit, in the battle of nature, red in tooth and claw.

The Afternoon

After posting my Rd. 6 game, I then returned to typing up future entries to my Facebook account Blog. Mario then showed me the tactical training material offered by the chess website, Gameknot. He has a membership there, and it keeps continuous track of your tactical problem progress through a rating system. Seemed quite good. Then at 2:00 PM, Mario and I headed out to Swiss Chalet for lunch. We returned at 3:30 PM. I then continued my Facebook blog writing and caught up on my chess volunteer work.

Off to Battle!

Since Mario had his car now, we left for the hall shortly after 5:00 PM, parked in Mario’s favourite spot ( free ), got our Green Beanery coffee, and headed for the hall, getting there a few minutes early.

Pre-Rd. 7

Mario and I chatted a bit before the round, and I got a chance to talk some politics with quite knowledgeable Gary Gladstone, who’s son Simon is an improving junior. I asked Ken Kurkowski of Scarborough CC about his upcoming game, and then the round started.

Rd. 7 Results in U 1900 ( Top Boards )

Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 5 ) 1 – 0 Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 4 ½ )
Chuchin, Sasha 1703 ( 4 ½ ) 0 – 1 Chen, Richard 1880 ( 4 )
Finlay, Ian 1859 ( 4 ) 1 – 0 Chidley-Hill, John 1827 ( 4 )
Coren, Daniel 1821 ( 4 ) 0 – 1 Xu, Jeffrey 1832 ( 4 )
Zotkin, Daniel 1784 ( 4 ) 1 - 0 Yu, Patrick 1781 ( 3 ½ )

My Rd. 7 Game/Result

In Rd. 7, I ( 1645 ) played black against Mark Jubenville ( 1686 ). I drew, though I was up a P in the ending, ‘til I blundered it back to him. This leaves me with 2.5/7 pts. (at 36% , a slight disappointment since I had a pre-tournament goal of exceeding 40%, and didn’t quite make it – but I’m pretty close. Also, I did finish tied 23/26 though being the bottom rated of 34; that's kind of nice ).

Winners in U 1900 After Full 7 Rounds

1st – 7 pts. – won all games!!
Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 – Congratulations!!

2nd / 5th – 5 pts.
Chen, Richard 1880 ( junior )
Finlay, Ian 1859
Xu, Jeffrey 1832 ( junior )
Zotkin, Daniel 1784 ( junior )

It is interesting to note that though the 1800’s favourites were missing in action in the early rounds, 3 of them ended up in the top 5.

Continued in Part II below

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: TIO U 1900 Blog – Day 6, Friday, July 20 – Rd. 7 ( Final ) - Part II.

Continued from Part I above

Post Rd. 7

Mario finished his game early, and so came to say “ goodbye “, since he was heading out to his place up north, since he had to work early Saturday morning. After my game, Mark Jubenville and I went to do a post-mortem in the skittles room. Erik Malmsten ( who happens to be a tireless volunteer at Toronto chess tournament, even when not formally asked ) joined us. The game seemed decently played, though we each made a couple of bad moves that were sort of obvious after the game. I then chatted briefly with Ted Winick, principal of The Chess Institute of Canada, the organizer, and said I’d had a most enjoyable tournament, though the result might have been slightly better. I talked to Scarborough CC’er Doug Gillis, who had been a co-leader in the U 1600’s going into the last round, and in earlier rounds, but he had been unable to win it and finished out of the money. SCC’er Hassan Pishdad, and Daniel Zotkin’s father spoke to me briefly about my blog. Then I spoke to the mother of SCC junior, Jeffrey Xu, who’d placed in our section – I told her that, from my patzer’s point of view, it seemed Jeffrey was one of our SCC juniors with possibly the most potential to improve ( I enter the games at SCC each week, with Ken Kurkowski, and so get to see how our SCC juniors are playing, week after week ). He had just defeated Daniel Coren, who had beaten me in an earlier round, and Daniel also felt he had played extremely well for his age. Jeffrey tied earlier this month at the CYCC Open U 12 for 2nd/7th , and I believe he is in the younger age group in the section. I then went to thank the TD, Aris Marghetis, for such an enjoyable and well-run tournament, and headed home.

Heading Home

TTC got me home by 10:30 PM, I dealt with a few chess matters, and then headed out to my trusty middle-eastern supermarket to pick up some groceries to take up to the farm.

Late Hours of the Day 6

At 11:40 PM, I started completing this Day 7 Blog and posted some stuff as CFC Public Relations Coordinator, on the tournament result.

Some Random Thoughts After Day 6

1. A Very Successful and Enjoyable Chess Holiday!: It’s hard to believe that 6 days have already gone by. My week was quite busy overall, and enjoyable, since it was full of things I love to do. Mario and I had a good time together, as we had last year – we enjoyed analyzing together, and chatted about myriads of different things. I thoroughly enjoyed all of my chess games, despite the losses, and enjoyed “ learning “ about my bad judgment from my friend Fritz. The tournament was well-run ( thanks again to the organizers and TD team ) and that always makes the tournament experience more enjoyable. I enjoyed doing this U 1900 Blog, and from the positive comments from many, it seems to have been worthwhile, and enjoyed. I’m looking forward already to next year’s “ long tournament “, likely the Canadian Open in Ottawa. All in all, a most enjoyable week.


Invitation

Finally, I'd like again to invite everyone for the last time, to join into the discussion - any comments, suggestions, questions, criticisms of the blog are welcome - and of anything to do with the Toronto International Open. I will try to respond when I get back into Toronto.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: TIO U 1900 Blog – Thx

Thanks to all those who supported my blog by reading it - the thread averaged 340 views per day, over Mon. to Saturday! Not bad, considering Mario and I lead a pretty pedestrian life during a chess tournament! LOL

I appreciated the positive feedback I received in the playing hall from numbers of people, and those who commented here.

Right now, I'm booking in the Canadian Open in Ottawa in July in 2013. You've been given notice - I may decided to inflict myself on everyone for an eight straight year! But you are safe 'til then!

Thx. again to all for the encouragement to keep it up throughout the tournament.

Bob, of Blogger Central