The Toronto International U 1900 Blog

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: TIO – U 1900 Blog – Day 3, Tuesday, July 17 – Rd. 4 - Part II

Continued from Part I above:

Heading Home

TTC got us home about 11:00 PM.

Late Hours of the Day 3

Though we usually fix a midnight light meal when we get home, tonight I was not too hungry – though I did grab a beer, and a couple of brownies ( my wife had kindly made up a batch for Mario and I prior to the tournament – I asked Mario what his secret was, ‘cause I don’t get this kind of treatment normally! LOL ). Mario had taken Francis Rodrigues’ advice on ChessTalk ( he posted in the blog ) to heart, and ventured for late lunch into a Korean Falafel restaurant in the Dufferin /St. Clair area, after his doctor’s appointment. This did not work out as Francis had advised! – Mario had a bad stomach after the lunch, and was still feeling it when we got home, and didn’t want any solid food ( though he did partake of some liquid refreshment with me – not good to drink alone! ). We then analyzed my round 4 game with Eric, to see if there was any chance of my preventing being blown off the board, had I been willing to do a bit of work. The answer – unclear. We’ll wait for Fritz to help us. Eric’s position is quite strong, it seems. So we packed it in at 11:30 PM.

I went upstairs and caught up on some of my chess stuff ‘til about 1:00 AM, and then proceeded to finish this Day 3 blog, and post it ( ChessTalk; CCC – Chess Post of Interest – on Facebook ). Then, since I really wasn’t feeling too tired ( why would I with the way I worked last night ? ), I continued analyzing my Rd. 2 game with Peter McNelly. I intended to go to bed around 2:30 AM.

Some Random Thoughts After Day 3

1. How Time Flies!: We all know the saying: “ Time flies when you are having fun! “. Well it is very hard to believe that we are already at the half way point – finished 3 of 6 days. I have thoroughly enjoyed playing, despite some losses, and have been busy all of each and every day. And the blog helps hurry time along, as I post to my draft throughout the day, so it is partially done by the time I complete it late in the evening. I fully expect that the second half will go even quicker, and I’ll be saying: Finished Already??

2. Value of GM’s/IM’s – Though Ted Winick has said he was not trying to achieve a major Canadian tournament, but maybe an “ enhanced local one “, he has done well on the elite side: 3 GM’s, one of whom is in the mid-2600’s FIDE, and one who is current Canadian Champion, and 4 IM’s, one of whom is a former Canadian Champion. It is great to have these elite players come out – it does add some interest at the top, and they do, to some extent, help in drawing lower-rated players to the tournament, as the top players do give it “ prestige “. Good luck to all the elite participants in the Crown Section.

The Leaders Rd. 5 Pairings

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

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. Again, I’d also like to thank all those chess players I know, who have encouraged me to keep doing this “ class “ blog this year, and given me such wonderful, positive feedback – a number of people spoke to me about it in the hall Tuesday night. It is fun to do, and this makes it even more worthwhile to do – if people find it interesting, and somewhat entertaining. I’d note that on ChessTalk, the thread views have now doubled from Monday night, to over 1,000 views, before I even posted this Day 3 Blog! Thanks again everyone.

[Bob Armstrong]

TIO – U 1900 Blog – Day 3, Tuesday, July 17 – Rd. 4 - Part I

TIO – U 1900 Blog – Day 3, Tuesday, July 17 – Rd. 4. - Part I

Wee Hours of the Morning

From 12:00 AM, I did some chess volunteer work, and finished my Day 2 Blog, and posted it on ChessTalk, and the Cooperative Chess Coalition ( CCC ) Facebook chess discussion board, “ CCC – Chess Posts of Interest “. Then I set up the template for this Day 3 draft blog, and pasted in some of the historical information. I finished that about 2:30 AM. I had intended to finish the analysis of my Rd. 1 game ( it’s almost done ), and post it on Chess5, but found I was a bit tired by then – must be getting old!!. So I just up and went to bed.

The U 1900 Favourites – How the 9 1800’s Are Faring After 3 Rounds

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

The Current Leaders After 3 Rounds

1/3 – 3 pts.
Zotkin, Daniel 1784 - junior ( member of my Scarborough Chess Club )
Yu, Patrick1781 - junior
Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748

4 – 2 ½ pts.
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864

Rd. 4 Leaders’ Pairings

Zotkin, Daniel 1784 ( 3 ) – Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 3 )
Zhong, Joey 1847 ( 2 ) – Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 2 ½ )

Note: Co-leader, Patrick Yu ( 1781 ) took a bye in Rd. 4 .

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 Game Annotation System ( CGAS ) “, 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 this afternoon on the website. I posted my Rd. 1 round loss to Steve Nickoloff It is interesting in that I have a one-move mate at the end…But he mates first! The game is not dramatic, but is worth a look. I’ve already been getting some feedback on the game on the Facebook board.

Later in the Morning of Day 3, July 17

True to my “ tournament sleeping schedule “, I just woke up at 7:30 AM! A healthy and long 5 hrs. sleep – but I seem to survive. So I got my morning Java and went to see if Robo was awake. So together we caught up on some of my chess stuff, and responded to some positive and entertaining blog responses from new Canadian Open Champion, IM Eric Hansen, Toronto Strategy Games ( Chess ‘n Math Association ) Manager, Francis Rodrigues, and Jerry Kitich, off studying in France, and currently on a “ professional “ chess playing outing in Greece, and maybe some other, European countries.

At 8:30 AM I heard Mario down getting his morning wake-up coffee and went down to say “ Hi “. Mario had put Fritz on “ full analysis “ overnight, to see what it had to say about his Rd. 3 game with junior Kevin Yie, before he fell into a nice little tactical trap Kevin had set for him. Mario’s game up to then looked pretty good to my “ patzer “ eyes. So Mario went down to see what he could “ learn “. I then got dressed, had some cold cereal ( Francis??? ), and prepared to go get an oil change in my wife’s car ( we were 2,000 km over the due date, since we’ve been scurrying back and forth to our Meaford farm so much in the last month – just too busy when we were here in Toronto for such short periods ), and to go see my lawyer to get some papers. I was about to leave when Mario surfaced, and said Fritz had found a fascinating exchange sac for him that it said was best ( it also said Mario had had a slight advantage off and on during the game, ‘til his blunder ) in his Rd. 2 game with Kevin. . So we sat down ( we just leave the chess board on the dining room table and eat around it ) and reviewed it for a while. I left at about 9:45 AM – don’t want to be too late getting out and back: " Another blast of furnace-like heat is set to envelop the Greater Toronto Area on Tuesday — with the high expected to reach a blistering 37 C. " This would be a new record for 2012! – no air conditioning in the car ( sigh ) – don’t want to fix it, because we’re hoping to get a newer one imminently. In fact, my mechanic, who always takes a once over look at my car whenever I bring it in for whatever, found that I had a broken front left suspension coil. But when I told him I was getting rid of the car soon, he said it was safe to drive for the next while – I might notice bumps a bit, but otherwise it should be fine.

I got back at 1:00 PM. Mario had left about 11:00 AM to go to a doctor’s appointment, and so we were going to meet up at the playing hall before Rd. 4 tonight. I noticed that Mario had kindly adopted the kitchen role of dishwasher!

The Afternoon

I then went to check on some of my non-tournament chess stuff, and then added some material to today’s blog. Then I posted on Chess5 my Rd. 1 game as mentioned above ( I’d finally finished analyzing it ). Then I started entering/analyzing my Rd. 2 win against Peter McNelly. At 4:00 PM, I decided I was a bit hungry, and so went down to make a couple of hot dogs for dinner ( skipping the beer this time – I can’t risk lowering my skill level before Rd. 4! ). I called my wife, hiding out from my chess at our family farm, but her sister, who lives in Meaford as well, and a mutual friend from Pickering, were visiting, so we said we’d try and talk tomorrow. Of course, by then, I’m going to be able to crow about being at 50% ( maybe ). I continued to do the McNelly game ‘til 5:00 PM.

Off to Battle!

At 5:00 PM, I headed out for our fabulous TTC to get me to Bathurst Subway Station. Got there in time to go get my now traditional large coffee at the Green Beanery on the corner of Bloor/Bathurst.

Pre-Rd. 4

I got to the playing hall about 15 min. before the round, and chatted briefly with a few friends: Bill Evans and I canvassed again how we had analyzed the critical position in my Rd. 3 game with Daniel Coren; Jack Maguire and I reminisced about better times when my rating was briefly in the 1900’s ( I’m now 1645, having fallen from 1819 in January 2011 ); Ken Kurkowski and Doug Gillis ( both Scarborough CC’ers ) and I reviewed how they had been doing in the U 1600 section. Mario and I ended up playing side by side for Rd. 4..

Rd. 4 Results in U 1900 ( Top Boards )

Zotkin, Daniel 1784 ( 3 ) 0 – 1 Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 3 )
Zhong, Joey 1847 ( 2 ) 0 – 1 Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 2 ½ )

My Rd. 4 Game/Result

In Rd. 4, I played black against Scarborough CC ( my club ) junior, Eric Wang ( 1724 ), who defeated me in our last club encounter.. I lost, leaving me with 1/4 pts. ( 25 % - well below my pre-tournament goal to exceed 40% ). This game was a strange one for me – I generally work very hard at my games ( though I often get the wrong answers ) – but in this one, I consciously decided to take an easy play, and not worry about analyzing his possible counter-play – “ laziness “ is not something that grabs me very often in chess, but it did tonight. And I paid the price, as Eric took full advantage of my sloppiness.

Standings in U 1900 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.

Post Rd. 4

Mario won his game, shortly after I had finished, and we walked around and looked at numbers of games that were still continuing in all four sections. The last game concluded at about 10:15 PM.

Continued in Part II below

[Aris Marghetis]

Re: The Toronto International U 1900 Blog

One of the advantages of the tournament site at the Annex Club is the proximity of many culturally-diverse eating establishments in the Bloor-Bathurst area. Before round 3 I had a delicious vegetable plate at a small Middle-Eastern take out place (followed by a more conventional coffee & chocolate brownie at Starbucks across the street).

I walked for lunch today, headed east along Bloor from Bathurst. I thought my bald head was roasting, then stumbled across free samples of what seems to be a new Starbucks drink. It is cold clear "green coffee", flavoured, and apparently jacked with caffeine! It was very refreshing, and I recommend it for anyone before their game!

Over the last few days, we're learning more about how to run a full Great Hall, and the temperature in there right now is already 1.5 degrees cooler than even later yesterday evening. We have all lights off, and the exhaust system on max, and will leave it like that until just a few moments before the round starts. Please do not adjust any table positions, as they have been placed to benefit from the lights that will only be turned on at the last minute. I hope that we are all physically more comfortable tonight! :)

All the best, Aris.

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: The Toronto International U 1900 Blog

Hey Jerry:

Could you send a " care package " to Mario and I with some of that delicious-sounding stuff?? It seems Mario and I need to vary our diet more, according to some sources, who shall remain nameless!

Bob

In this weather I don't think it will make it and they make you throw everything out at the airport in Toronto on fear of a big fine. I don't get back until January 10th. I'll tell you what I can do though is have a gyro in your name.

Or you could just bust a move and get yourself to the Danforth :)

I rememer in Pierre Berton's excellent book 1967 about Canada's centennial a woman was divorcing her husband under the very different divorce laws back then. The moment she realized they were incompatible was apparently when they went to one of those new things called a Chinese restaurant in Toronto and he ordered a ham sandwich only.

[Ken Kurkowski]

Re: The Toronto International U 1900 Blog

One of the advantages of the tournament site at the Annex Club is the proximity of many culturally-diverse eating establishments in the Bloor-Bathurst area. Before round 3 I had a delicious vegetable plate at a small Middle-Eastern take out place (followed by a more conventional coffee & chocolate brownie at Starbucks across the street).

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: The Toronto International U 1900 Blog

Hey Jerry:

Could you send a " care package " to Mario and I with some of that delicious-sounding stuff?? It seems Mario and I need to vary our diet more, according to some sources, who shall remain nameless!

Bob

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: The Toronto International U 1900 Blog

Hi Francis:

What can Mario and I say - some chess players are just " lowbrows " !! Maybe we will raise the bar a notch one late afternoon by heading out to Swiss Chalet - how does that work for you???

Wish I could play " sexy sacs, rampant rooks, kamikaze queens "!! I'll see what I can do in Rd. 4 to entertain you!

Thanks for helping make " the blog " more entertaining.

Bob

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: TIO -U 1900 - Day 2, Monday, July 16 – Rd. 3 - Part II

Hi Daniel:

Welcome to " the blog "!!

I thoroughly enjoyed playing our game, despite the loss. And it was a real treat doing our analysis post-mortem. I agree the game is interesting against that guy, whoever he is, and I hope to finish my analysis today, and post it on Chess5, for those interested in what Canadian GM Bator Sambuev found so interesting, along with us.

Good luck today in Rd. 4.

Bob

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: TIO -U 1900 - Day 2, Monday, July 16 – Rd. 3 - Part II

Hi Eric:

Thx for the positive feedback!

As I've said previously, some think you shouldn't encourage me! I'll become insufferable LOL.

On a more serious note, I am providing sort of extensive details in hopes of making it more interesting. A second reason, is that I am reposting this on our CCC Facebook discussion page, where we have 525 " Likes " ( our peak membership so far ) from all over the world. I'm hoping that it is interesting to them, somewhat, how we Canadians go about our normal lives, worked into an interesting chess setting.

If you have any comments yourself on any of my thoughts, please feel free to post in the thread! Love to get feedback - good, bad, indifferent. It will make the blog even more interesting to readers.

Lastly, a huge " Congratulations " for your stellar win at the Canadian Open - I've got a nice picture of you on the first page of our Scarborough Chess Club Newsletter, with your game againt Leon, annotated, as my lead article. Keep up the good chess!

Bob

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: The Toronto International U 1900 Blog

Hi Bob,

I mentioned to both Mario and you at previous Canadian Opens
how much I've enjoyed your blog! It has a wonderfully ambient
charm, and if anything, I regret that Mario and you are not foodies!

A coupla hot-dogs here, cereal or a Molson there, bah!....Ah, you guys
should be feasting over morning analysis on a chess-buffet of Caissa's
finest brekkie offerings - fragrant juices, blueberries 'n cereal, bangers n
mash, hash browns, the sizzle of rashers and yolks swirling in the air!

As for dinner.....:-) Seriously though your blog is delightfully atmospheric
and if you could colour the action with sexy sacs, rampant rooks, kamikaze
queens (okay, I borrowed that from Murray Chandler:-), it would so zing!

Thanks again Bob, for making the time to keep us enthralled!

Francis

Would it help if I started mentioning the bakeries, restaurants with fresh bread, fresh seafood, Greek salads, feta cheese, fish soup, fried zuccini, gyros, souvlaki, lamb ribs, mousaka etc etc etc in Paleochora?

[Francis Rodriguez]

Re: The Toronto International U 1900 Blog

Hi Bob,

I mentioned to both Mario and you at previous Canadian Opens
how much I've enjoyed your blog! It has a wonderfully ambient
charm, and if anything, I regret that Mario and you are not foodies!

A coupla hot-dogs here, cereal or a Molson there, bah!....Ah, you guys
should be feasting over morning analysis on a chess-buffet of Caissa's
finest brekkie offerings - fragrant juices, blueberries 'n cereal, bangers n
mash, hash browns, the sizzle of rashers and yolks swirling in the air!

As for dinner.....:-) Seriously though your blog is delightfully atmospheric
and if you could colour the action with sexy sacs, rampant rooks, kamikaze
queens (okay, I borrowed that from Murray Chandler:-), it would so zing!

Thanks again Bob, for making the time to keep us enthralled!

Francis

[Daniel Coren]

Re: TIO -U 1900 - Day 2, Monday, July 16 – Rd. 3 - Part II

This blog is a great idea, Bob (and your game with that Daniel Coren guy does sound interesting).

[Eric Hansen]

Re: TIO -U 1900 - Day 2, Monday, July 16 – Rd. 3 - Part II

Hi Bob,


Keep it up! I find all the little details and thoughts about each day very interesting.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: TIO -U 1900 - Day 2, Monday, July 16 – Rd. 3 - Part II

Part II - Continued from Post above

The Leaders Rd. 4 Pairings

Zotkin, Daniel 1784 ( 3 ) – Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 ( 3 )
Zhong, Joey 1847 ( 2 ) – Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 ( 2 ½ )

Note: Co-leader, Patrick Yu ( 1781 ) took a bye in Rd. 4 .

Post Rd. 3

My game with Daniel was very interesting, and at one point, quite a complex attack by me as Black, though down material. We went to the skittles room to do a post-mortem. We were initially joined by a friend of Daniel’s ( Omar? ), Ken Kurkowski of my Scarborough CC, and Hugh Siddeley of Annex CC. Various people then came in and out as we struggled with the critical position – everyone who came up immediately thought I had a crushing attack but it was hard to find – Daniel had his pieces well-placed to defend against all the tactical sacks possible. Bill Evans, former SCC’er, came by and tried a few ideas…unsuccessfully. Mario then cam over. Then the Canadian Champion, GM Bator Sambuev, who was sitting at the next board, waiting to help a junior analyze his game, looked over and found the position so interesting, he leaned over and started analyzing it – he then tried out a sac idea, which was not bad, though I still ended up losing, but not nearly so badly. Then Erik Malmsten came along, and he had a chess program on his phone, so he inserted the position – and lo and behold, one of the lines it followed had a number of Bator’s ideas in it, though it was a bit better, but I was still losing.

After that, I went out to copy down some results for this blog, and got into an interesting lengthy discussion with Ted Winick, moving force behind the Chess Institute of Canada, which founded the Annex CC, and which was organizing this tournament. Then Mario and I watched the last U 1900 game in the hall, between juniors Hayk Oganesyan and Sasha Cuchin ( who’d defeated Mario in an earlier round ). A win by either of them would put them in a tie for fourth, but it ended in a draw.

Heading Home

So Mario and I headed for the TTC about 10:15, and got home at 11:00 PM.

Late Hours of the Day 2

We got ourselves a tasty ham sandwich and settled in for a while to review Mario’s Rd. 3 loss to junior Kevin Yie, of Scarborough CC. About 11:45 PM, Mario headed to bed, and I went up to the study, and Robo, to catch up a bit on my chess volunteering, and to complete my blog for Day 2. With typical efficiency, Aris and his team had had the Rd. 3 Results/Rd. 4 Pairings posted here on ChessTalk at about 11:30 PM. for me to use. I was able to post the blog shortly after 1:00 AM Tuesday.

Some Random Thoughts at the End of Day 2

1.Thanks all around – I think, as chess players, we don’t appreciate enough those who provide us with the competitive chess experience, even if they may be making nominal income. Thanks to Ted Winick and the Chess Institute of Canada for taking this on, IA Hal Bond as organizer, and the TD’ing team of IA Aris Marghetis, Rene Preotu and Alex Ferreira. It is my belief that fewer problems arise, the more these guys do things right. And that enhances the chess experience for all of us!
2. A true chess player learns from his losses – Mario and I both lost in Rd. 3, but we worked hard at not being discouraged. Of course, we both love playing, regardless of result, but it is important to make use of your losses to learn what you had missed. I found many worthwhile ideas came out of my post-mortem with Daniel, and the hordes. Similarly, Mario and I were able to see where Mario might have misjudged in his game ( he had also done a post-mortem with Kevin, and Kevin’s coach, Mikhail Egorov ). The willingness to learn, has to trump the discouragement of the loss.

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, and given me such wonderful, positive feedback over the years. It is fun to do, but this encourages me even more to make it an annual. Some wish the others would not encourage me at all!! LOL I’d note that on ChessTalk, the thread had already hit 584 views, before I even posted this Day 2 Blog! Thanks again everyone, and I hope the blog is somewhat interesting, and entertaining.

Bob - Intrepid Warrior

[Bob Armstrong]

TIO -1900 - Day 2, Monday, July 16 – Rd. 3 - Part I

TIO – U 1900 - Day 2, Monday, July 16 – Rd. 3 - Part I

Wee Hours of the Morning

After Mario and I analyzed our games from Rds. 1 & 2 ‘til about 12:30 AM, I came up to complete and post my Day 1 Blog, and catch up on some of the outstanding work on some of my chess volunteer time. I got to bed at 2:40 AM.

The U 1900 Favourites ( 1800 & Over ) - 9 – How Are They Faring?

Chen, Richard 1880 – 1 ( junior )
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864 – 1.5
Finlay, Ian 1859 - 1
Zhong, Joey 1847 – 2 ( junior ) ( co-leader )
Preotu, Rene 1838 - .5
Xu, Jeffrey 1832 – 1 ( junior )
Oganesyan, Hayk 1829 – 1.5 ( junior )
Chidley-Hill, John 1827 – 2 ( co-leader )
Coren, Daniel 1821 - .5

The Current Leaders

It is interesting to note that only 2 of the 9 favourites are currently co-leaders – it is proving a tough tournament for them. It may indicate the small strength range between 1600’s and 1800’s, where there are so many upsets. The higher-rated’s do not dominate the field. There are 34 in our section, and I still am guarding the rear of the column!

Zhong, Joey 1847 ( junior )
Chidley-Hill, John 1827
Zotkin, Daniel 1784 ( junior )
Yu, Patrick 1781 ( junior )
Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748

Later in the Morning of Day 2

I’ve mentioned before that I do not generally sleep a lot – 1:30 AM to 7:00 AM is quite common – 5 ½ hours sleep seems to do me. But when I play in chess tournaments, it is even less. Sunday morning I got 5 hours sleep. This morning, though going to bed at 2:40 AM, I awoke at 7:00 AM – less than 4 ½ hrs. But amazingly ( is it the adrenaline? ) I seem rested, and am not tired at the end of playing a long game at night. Don’t know if this will continue as I troop on into the future ( I’m 67 years old later this month ), but I’ll not complain! More time to live !!

So I got the obligatory morning coffee, and said “ Hi “ to Robo, my trusty computer friend, and checked out some of my chess stuff that I do with some of my volunteer time – CFC Governor; OCA Governor; Greater Toronto Chess League Board of Directors, Scarborough Chess Club ( SCC ) Newsletter editor, and Chair of the SCC Games Database Committee, and Coordinator of the chess discussion promotion group I founded, Cooperative Chess Coalition ( CCC ), which operates the most interesting and active chess discussion page on Facebook! Then I began doing a partial draft of my Day 2 Blog, to be completed late tonight after I get home from Rd. 3

.After than, I started entering my game from Rd. 1 ( I lost, but early this morning, Mario pointed out where he though I’d missed a win, and it appeared good to me – but later analysis by Fritz showed it didn’t work ). I then use Fritz 13 to analyze my games. But I don’t do it on “ full analysis “ over an extended period of time. I do it individual move by move – I use a system I have developed called the “ Comprehensive Game Annotation System ( CGAS ). It is more elaborate than most annotators use.

After I enter and analyze my games, I use a public game database storage website for all my games – Chess5 ( www.chess5.com ). I will in due course be posting my analyzed games there, and, if interested, you will be able to go there to see them and to see what my CGAS annotations look like. As I’ve said in prior Canadian Open blogs in prior years, 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 this chess website, Chess5 ,as my own personal chess games blog, for this very reason – 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 hope that my “ Comprehensive Games Annotation System “ makes my “ class “ games even more helpful to viewers. Click on the heading link “ public games “. and you get a list of games posted this month so far ( hopefully it will include mine from this Open soon ).

About 9:00 AM Mario surfaced from the basement guest room, for his morning wake-up coffee. Then he went to enter his Rd. 2 game into Chess5 as well ( without annotations ). A bit later, I heard him kindly pitching in to do the dishes ( many of which were mine from before he came ( I had been batching it for a few days prior to the tournament ) ! ). At 10:00 AM I cooked us up bacon and eggs ( Mario on toast detail ). In the process, my wife called to see how I was doing, and wish me luck in Rd. 3 tonight. But the real reason she was calling was to give me an opportunity to wish her a “ happy birthday “! I had to plead with her that I had in fact remembered, and was going to give her a call after our breakfast – I think I was believed! After that, Mario and I reviewed my Rd. 2 win. This led us into unduly lofty discussion. “ What does White have on move 1?? “ I said “ initiative “, but no more – the position after any first move for White is at best within the computer statistical range of equal ( 0.00 to 0.25 ), with Black playing perfect defence. But Mario disagreed! As does Fritz 13! Fritz says after 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 that White has a “ slight “ advantage – over 0.25!! Mario agreed – he feels though that with perfect Black defence, White’s advantage is whittled down to nothing by about move 14, even with White making no mistakes. I have always maintained that “ human “ chess history has postulated that with perfect Black defence, the best White can achieve is equality, and if both play a perfect game, the outcome is a draw. Lofty concepts!! What view do you take – agree with me or Mario??? Post your responses in my blog, and become “ notorious “!!

By 11:30 AM we had both worn each other out, and Mario returned to the basement to set up a lunch with his daughter, but it turned out to be a bad time for her, since she had a dental appointment. I went back to analyzing my game with Steve Nickoloff in Rd. 1 – my system makes an analysis of a single game very time consuming! But I think it is worthwhile, on a cost-benefit analysis!

The Afternoon

I continued to analyze my Rd. 1 game, and saw that I did have a slight advantage in the middlegame with my K-side attack. This required another coffee, given the excitement of this discovery!! Mario by now had migrated to the back deck with his chess board and was playing games out of “ Chess for Zebras “ ( think I got this right ), and happened to be looking at a Tal-Keres game when I came out to say “ Hi “. Then back to the analysis.

Given that it is my wife’s birthday today ( no, I won’t give away her age – I know – captive to past stereotypes – but I value my life! ), the licence plate sticker on her car expires today of course – and she’s up at our farm – so dutifully I trooped off to the Service Ontario office at 2:30 PM, and to get some coffee ( Mario and I had finished the little I had left ), and then to the bank to pay bills! I got back about 4:15 PM, and Mario was still reading out on the deck – good book he says – about adult learning, and using chess as the vehicle to convey the information. I made a sandwich for an early dinner , and went back upstairs to continue my Rd. 1 game analysis, and blog draft for Day 2 ( today ).

Off to Battle!

At 5:00 PM Mario and I headed out for the playing hall by public transit – only took about ½ hour from my place to Bathurst Station – time enough to go get a large coffee at the Green Beanery, to get me going for Rd. 3.

Pre-Rd. 3

Chatted with Geordie Derraugh, Alex Ferreira, Marcus Wilker, Ken Kurkowski, Jack Maguire, and a few others prior to the start of the round, which began a bit after 6:00 PM.

Rd. 3 Results in U 1900 ( Top Boards )

Zhong, Joey 1847 0 - 1 Zotkin, Daniel 1784
Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748 1 - 0 Chidley-Hill, John 1827
Yu, Patrick 1781 1 - 0 Zhang, John 1773 ( 1.5 )

The two leaders out of our 9 initial “ favourites “, Joey and John, have fallen by the wayside! We now have no 1800’s among the co-leaders.

My Rd. 3 Game/Result

Coren, Daniel 1821 1 – 0 Armstrong, Robert J.

Standings in U 1900 After 3 Rounds

1/3 – 3 pts.
Zotkin, Daniel 1784 - junior ( member of my Scarborough CC )
Yu, Patrick 1781 - junior
Oliveira, Rodrigo 1748

4 – 2 ½ pts.
Romero Alfonso, Carlos 1864

Continued in Part II Below