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Day 5/Rd. 6 – Wed., July 17 (Blog # 7): 2013 Canadian Open U 1600 Blog.
Day 5/Rd. 6 – Wed., July 17 (Blog # 7)
The Wee Hours of the Morning
I was in my room when Mario called about 12:30 AM to say the pairings for Rd. 6 were up if I wanted to come and make some blog notes for today’s blog. So I went to do that, and answered a blog post on Chesstalk. Mario disappeared for a short while. Then finished and returned to my room. I wasn’t tired, so I added a few things to my blog notes. Mario did some research re his Rd. 6 game. I went to bed at 2:00 AM. But could I sleep? – no way. So I was up to 3:30 AM ‘til I decided to try again – success. But…woke up at 6:00 AM – 2 ½ hrs. sleep is a bit short even for me. And I couldn't get back to sleep, so got up.
Early Morning
So I headed out for my favourite, local Second Cup. Now I have to help out a chess friend here, Dave Southam, of both the Scarborough CC and Annex CC in Toronto. I know he must have had a sleepless night as well last night. The reason? He had posted to my blog on Chesstalk, three questions. I answered 2 of them, but didn't realize the extreme importance to Dave of the third one, and I failed to respond. The question? Why did I say in an early blog that the Second Cup opened at 7:00 AM, and in a later one, 6:30 AM? I think, for Dave, this called into question the whole accuracy of the blog! Dave, as a friend, was concerned about my reputation. Thanks for your concern. The answer? On weekends - 7:00 AM....on weekdays – 6:30 AM. Dave, you can now put your mind at peace. The integrity of this blog is MAINTAINED!!
At the Second Cup, I followed my now usual routine of buying a coffee for me, and for my friends, the sparrows, a chocolate croissant. Now, I am fascinated by the mystery of nature, and often carry out natural experiments. So when I set out their croissant on the table, lo and behold they all stayed in the trees at the one end of the patio! They didn't seem to notice me. So I wondered....is it that today, I chose a patio table close to the centre of the patio, whereas yesterday I was at the end table closest to the trees? I was about to change tables, when someone else took it. So I scientifically observed the new situation. But they didn't come to the end table either. Well, under the circumstances, I felt, of course, that they would share their croissant with me. So the longer they delayed, more of their croissant disappeared.
Seems they got concerned, seeing the croissant disappearing, and suddenly a number of them showed up for their meal. So we friends happily shared their croissant for the better part of an hour. As I said, I do carry out nature experiments, so I tried to encourage them to come land on my knee right beside the table, annd take the croissant from my hand. A number of them came right to the edge of the table where my knee was – you could see the smoke coming out of their ears!! Food vs Risk!! Hmmm. But they all decided it wasn't worth the risk. But they didn't hold it against me, and we parted still friends.
Breakfast
About 9:00 AM, Mario called to my room that he was ready to go. He thought he remembered a place east on Laurier, and so we headed that way. Past the pub we'd visited in 2007 was a small vegetarian place – closed. So we decided to continue east to see if anything was there. We found the Moondog pub – menue much more varied than many pubs, with a regular, reasonably priced breakfast. Then we returned to the residence.
Late Morning
As usual now, Mario let me use his laptop to do Tuesday's blog and post it. He went to the lounge to do some chess studying. I also did the infrastructure for today's blog, and a bit of the content, and then let Mario have his computer back, and returned to my room. Mario and I arranged to go for an early dinner about 3:30 PM. I then went for a walk. Then I called my wife at our Meaford country home, where she goes when I go to a Canadian Open. She had now switched dog-sittiing as planned. She returned the retriever to her middle sister. Then took the dog from her youngest sister in Markham, that the middle sister had brought up. My wife had Maddy, a very smart snoodle, 'til Tuesday, when her middle sister would bring my wife and Maddy back to Markham. Maddy was no problem to take care of – she loved the farm, loved the walks on our myriad of walking paths, and stayed around the front yard when let out not on a leash. It seemed it was hotter in Meaford than in Ottawa, and we have no air-conditioning there. She had been toying with returning to our Toronto home, where we have air-conditioning, on Tuesday, with her middle sister going to Markham, but decided the country was still better.
Late Afternoon
Mario called about 3:30 PM that he was ready to go. We went towards the playing hall, and went south on Banks looking for something. Then we saw the CMA Strategy Games store. Mario, who has an extensive chess library, swore up and down he wouldn't buy anything. Former CFC ED and Ottawa RA CC member, Dave Gordon was working there. So we chatted a bit, and then we went to the Afghani restaurant across the street – quite good. We got to the playing hall about 5:15 PM (I had my traditional Timmy's with me). There was no one in the skittles room, so I went to sit outside the lower playing hall and relax. Robert Song, and his young daughter, came along, and I knew him from when his son, Michael Song, this year's Toronto Closed Champion, was a junior at Scarborough CC. We chatted a while, and when he left, Mario suggested I show him my Rd. 5 loss to David Cohen (since it had had a good attack, 'til I blundered).
The Skittles Room
Junior Francisco Dunne, and junior Mark Plotkin, again joined us to help in the analysis. Then we went in for Rd. 6.
U 1600 Round 6 Pairings/Results
2 ½ pts. – 1
Gilles Jobin (1942) 1 – 0 Rinna Yu (1301)
2 pts. – 4
Wenyang Ming (1851) 1 – 0 Jill Ding (1585)
Maurice Smith (1494) 0 – 1 Joshua Doknjas (1848)
Miles Duggal (1231) 0 – 1 Patrick Scantland (1838)
Kyle Creamer (1838) 1 – 0 Frank Lee (1471)
- our U 1600 leaders all got snookered!!
My Rd. 6 Game
Aiden Zhou (1136) 0 – 1 Bob Armstrong (1590)
My first win of the tournament. I had played his young sister two rounds earlier...and had drawn. Aiden played well, but at one point thought he was going to trap my Q, or at least win material. But it allowed a first B-sac on h3, and later an exchange sac of my R sitting on f3. He had to effectively sac his Q for a R to stop from being mated. And I did eventually mate him.
Post Our Rd. 6 Games
After our games, both Mario and I watched some game endings in both halls, 'til all games had finished. Then we headed back to the residence. We checked our Rd. 7 pairings, which were already on the CO Website. I checked if there were any reply posts to my Tuesday blog, but there were none. However, for the 6 blogs, there were now about 3,000 views, or 500/day – encouraging to know people are enjoying it. So I returned to my room, and Mario did some computer work before he went to bed.
U 1600 Leaders' Round 7 Pairings
2 ½ /6 pts. – 3
Edward Selling (1579) – Kajan Thanabalachandran (1759)
Michael Su (1770) - Ashley Tapp (1481)
Rinna Yu (1301) – Luc Gauthier (1740)
2/6 pts. - 5
Jill Ding (1585) – Luc Villeneuve (1931)
Walter Macneil (1655) – Maurice Smith (1494)
Frank Lee (1471) – Matthew Morabito (1779)
Kai Richardson (1626) – Miles Duggal (1231 )
Clarke Zhang (994) – Marcel Laurin (1625)
My Rd. 7 Pairing – I have 1 ½ /6 pts.
Bob Armstrong (1590) – Ken Douglas (unr)
Invitation
I hope you enjoy my musings and fact reporting over the course of this Canadian Open. It will help to make this blog even more interesting if viewers post their responses, facts they may know, their own stories, in response to my daily material. I hope to hear from many of you as the week passes! I will try to respond whenever it seems appropriate.
Day 5/Rd. 6 – Wed., July 17 (Blog # 7)
The Wee Hours of the Morning
I was in my room when Mario called about 12:30 AM to say the pairings for Rd. 6 were up if I wanted to come and make some blog notes for today’s blog. So I went to do that, and answered a blog post on Chesstalk. Mario disappeared for a short while. Then finished and returned to my room. I wasn’t tired, so I added a few things to my blog notes. Mario did some research re his Rd. 6 game. I went to bed at 2:00 AM. But could I sleep? – no way. So I was up to 3:30 AM ‘til I decided to try again – success. But…woke up at 6:00 AM – 2 ½ hrs. sleep is a bit short even for me. And I couldn't get back to sleep, so got up.
Early Morning
So I headed out for my favourite, local Second Cup. Now I have to help out a chess friend here, Dave Southam, of both the Scarborough CC and Annex CC in Toronto. I know he must have had a sleepless night as well last night. The reason? He had posted to my blog on Chesstalk, three questions. I answered 2 of them, but didn't realize the extreme importance to Dave of the third one, and I failed to respond. The question? Why did I say in an early blog that the Second Cup opened at 7:00 AM, and in a later one, 6:30 AM? I think, for Dave, this called into question the whole accuracy of the blog! Dave, as a friend, was concerned about my reputation. Thanks for your concern. The answer? On weekends - 7:00 AM....on weekdays – 6:30 AM. Dave, you can now put your mind at peace. The integrity of this blog is MAINTAINED!!
At the Second Cup, I followed my now usual routine of buying a coffee for me, and for my friends, the sparrows, a chocolate croissant. Now, I am fascinated by the mystery of nature, and often carry out natural experiments. So when I set out their croissant on the table, lo and behold they all stayed in the trees at the one end of the patio! They didn't seem to notice me. So I wondered....is it that today, I chose a patio table close to the centre of the patio, whereas yesterday I was at the end table closest to the trees? I was about to change tables, when someone else took it. So I scientifically observed the new situation. But they didn't come to the end table either. Well, under the circumstances, I felt, of course, that they would share their croissant with me. So the longer they delayed, more of their croissant disappeared.
Seems they got concerned, seeing the croissant disappearing, and suddenly a number of them showed up for their meal. So we friends happily shared their croissant for the better part of an hour. As I said, I do carry out nature experiments, so I tried to encourage them to come land on my knee right beside the table, annd take the croissant from my hand. A number of them came right to the edge of the table where my knee was – you could see the smoke coming out of their ears!! Food vs Risk!! Hmmm. But they all decided it wasn't worth the risk. But they didn't hold it against me, and we parted still friends.
Breakfast
About 9:00 AM, Mario called to my room that he was ready to go. He thought he remembered a place east on Laurier, and so we headed that way. Past the pub we'd visited in 2007 was a small vegetarian place – closed. So we decided to continue east to see if anything was there. We found the Moondog pub – menue much more varied than many pubs, with a regular, reasonably priced breakfast. Then we returned to the residence.
Late Morning
As usual now, Mario let me use his laptop to do Tuesday's blog and post it. He went to the lounge to do some chess studying. I also did the infrastructure for today's blog, and a bit of the content, and then let Mario have his computer back, and returned to my room. Mario and I arranged to go for an early dinner about 3:30 PM. I then went for a walk. Then I called my wife at our Meaford country home, where she goes when I go to a Canadian Open. She had now switched dog-sittiing as planned. She returned the retriever to her middle sister. Then took the dog from her youngest sister in Markham, that the middle sister had brought up. My wife had Maddy, a very smart snoodle, 'til Tuesday, when her middle sister would bring my wife and Maddy back to Markham. Maddy was no problem to take care of – she loved the farm, loved the walks on our myriad of walking paths, and stayed around the front yard when let out not on a leash. It seemed it was hotter in Meaford than in Ottawa, and we have no air-conditioning there. She had been toying with returning to our Toronto home, where we have air-conditioning, on Tuesday, with her middle sister going to Markham, but decided the country was still better.
Late Afternoon
Mario called about 3:30 PM that he was ready to go. We went towards the playing hall, and went south on Banks looking for something. Then we saw the CMA Strategy Games store. Mario, who has an extensive chess library, swore up and down he wouldn't buy anything. Former CFC ED and Ottawa RA CC member, Dave Gordon was working there. So we chatted a bit, and then we went to the Afghani restaurant across the street – quite good. We got to the playing hall about 5:15 PM (I had my traditional Timmy's with me). There was no one in the skittles room, so I went to sit outside the lower playing hall and relax. Robert Song, and his young daughter, came along, and I knew him from when his son, Michael Song, this year's Toronto Closed Champion, was a junior at Scarborough CC. We chatted a while, and when he left, Mario suggested I show him my Rd. 5 loss to David Cohen (since it had had a good attack, 'til I blundered).
The Skittles Room
Junior Francisco Dunne, and junior Mark Plotkin, again joined us to help in the analysis. Then we went in for Rd. 6.
U 1600 Round 6 Pairings/Results
2 ½ pts. – 1
Gilles Jobin (1942) 1 – 0 Rinna Yu (1301)
2 pts. – 4
Wenyang Ming (1851) 1 – 0 Jill Ding (1585)
Maurice Smith (1494) 0 – 1 Joshua Doknjas (1848)
Miles Duggal (1231) 0 – 1 Patrick Scantland (1838)
Kyle Creamer (1838) 1 – 0 Frank Lee (1471)
- our U 1600 leaders all got snookered!!
My Rd. 6 Game
Aiden Zhou (1136) 0 – 1 Bob Armstrong (1590)
My first win of the tournament. I had played his young sister two rounds earlier...and had drawn. Aiden played well, but at one point thought he was going to trap my Q, or at least win material. But it allowed a first B-sac on h3, and later an exchange sac of my R sitting on f3. He had to effectively sac his Q for a R to stop from being mated. And I did eventually mate him.
Post Our Rd. 6 Games
After our games, both Mario and I watched some game endings in both halls, 'til all games had finished. Then we headed back to the residence. We checked our Rd. 7 pairings, which were already on the CO Website. I checked if there were any reply posts to my Tuesday blog, but there were none. However, for the 6 blogs, there were now about 3,000 views, or 500/day – encouraging to know people are enjoying it. So I returned to my room, and Mario did some computer work before he went to bed.
U 1600 Leaders' Round 7 Pairings
2 ½ /6 pts. – 3
Edward Selling (1579) – Kajan Thanabalachandran (1759)
Michael Su (1770) - Ashley Tapp (1481)
Rinna Yu (1301) – Luc Gauthier (1740)
2/6 pts. - 5
Jill Ding (1585) – Luc Villeneuve (1931)
Walter Macneil (1655) – Maurice Smith (1494)
Frank Lee (1471) – Matthew Morabito (1779)
Kai Richardson (1626) – Miles Duggal (1231 )
Clarke Zhang (994) – Marcel Laurin (1625)
My Rd. 7 Pairing – I have 1 ½ /6 pts.
Bob Armstrong (1590) – Ken Douglas (unr)
Invitation
I hope you enjoy my musings and fact reporting over the course of this Canadian Open. It will help to make this blog even more interesting if viewers post their responses, facts they may know, their own stories, in response to my daily material. I hope to hear from many of you as the week passes! I will try to respond whenever it seems appropriate.
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