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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
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
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