Blog # 7 - Day 6/ Rd. 7 – Thursday, July 24
NOTE
1. This blog is duplicate posted: a) on the FQE Canadian Open website ("Follow the tournament"); b) on the CMA Chesstalk. But the FQE website has the great advantage that it includes a game-viewer. So my Rd. 2 game, and that of Mario’s, that are in the text, can be immediately played over. The URL for the blog there is: http://echecsmontreal.ca/co/suivre_en.html .
2. The advantage of the Chesstalk site, is that there is capacity for anyone to comment and discuss any CO matters. The URL is:
http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/forumdisplay.php?2-ChessTalk
Starting the Day Off Right – Wee Hours of the Morning
After midnight today (Thursday), I continued work on the draft Blog # 6 (covering Wednesday) and finished it, except for the game 6 analysis. I went to bed at 1:00 PM.
Mid-Morning
I awoke at 7:30 AM – a very long sleep for me, especially during tournaments. So I checked e-mails, posted on the 4 FB chess sites I manage/co-manage, and looked at the other 2 non-chess FB pages I manage. I reviewed my almost complete draft of this blog # 6, and made minor revisions. Then I continued analyzing the Rd. 6 game for this blog # 6. Mario was not yet up, and at noon I was going to lunch with my son (he lives in Montreal). So I needed an early breakfast. I went to McD’s and brought it back to keep on the game. Mario was up, and then he went down, and brought back breakfast. We happily worked, chatted and philosophized in our new CO Blogging Office, provided to us by the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
Afternoon
At noon I went down to the lobby to meet my son. But he apparently was running late. I just paced back and forth in the lobby (I love to pace). Then a woman came up to me and said: “Do I know you”. Initially I looked and didn’t recognize her. Then I did…….”Day”. “Angela” she replied, but I’m remarried. I introduced myself and she then remembered. She was initially married to Canadian IM Lawrence Day. She said she was not really all that up on chess anymore. But, if I understood correctly, she said she and her husband were about to have lunch with their friend, John Fedorowicz! I noted that he was one of the 6 co-leaders, and she asked who the others were and I told her. She then had to be off. One never knows at chess tournaments what the future holds. We had not seen each other for at least 20 years I think. And I only got the beard and mustache in 1990. Surprising that she recognized me. A nice, pleasant little event to have had happen.
My son showed up, and I took him to a nice Pizza place I knew. It is big and popular. But at 1:30 PM, crazy busy. It was so loud with all the talking, you couldn’t hardly hear each other…not really ideal for a nice intimate parent/child interlude. So I came up with Plan B – a restaurant under the hotel that I knew would be more sedate. He and I chatted about our visit last week at Spirits’ Den, our family hobby farm/swamp (his partner had been with him). He is working part-time on an organic farm, and so we talked farming a bit. We chatted about how he and his partner were living their lives, etc. He was on his way to work in the afternoon, so we each downed our beer went up to the hotel, and he then headed out to work. Nice to get some quiet time alone with him!
At the hotel….the slave job……this blog # 6, and Fritz (sigh – I’ve created a monster!). But I finally finished it, and at 3:30 PM out it went to Roman (FQE). Then I posted it on Chesstalk.
I felt a little disappointed about the timing for getting Blog # 6 out. I have been shooting to get it out before noon. But that is difficult. But I will shoot for it again with this Blog # 7.
A little after 4:00 PM Mario and I went downstairs for dinner. I wasn’t really hungry though, given a bit of a late lunch with my son, and just got a dessert. On the way back we met Omar Shah of Toronto and of our section, getting his dinner. So he brought it up to our place.
I now could start work on a draft of this Blog # 7 covering Thursday.
Round 6
At 5:45 PM Mario and I went down to Timmies to get a nice coffee to nurse us through the openings of Game 7 (I am black again – now have 2 W’s; 4 Bl’s). Omar went directly to the playing hall.
I was paired up a bit. But, as I have mentioned a number of times previously, it should have been more. The arbiters were, unfortunately, still using my higher FQE rating for pairing, rather than my lower CFC rating (which I have unsuccessfully tried to get corrected now three times – I’ve given up). I lost (a blunder that led to a quick mate – game over in about 2 hours). I have some concern whether it really is of blog quality, but I generally hold that things can be learned, even from flawed games. Plus, Kai (a BC Junior) is very efficient at mating me thereafter, and that is instructive. So, the game is below.
We did go and analyze the game, and Kai showed me where I did have a key move in the opening, that leads to winning material – I admitted I had missed it totally. Then I watched some games for a while.
Richard Berube then approached me and asked if I had received the little FQE gift for doing the blog for me (they also had paid my registration fee and playing up fee initially). I advised that I hadn’t. So we went to the hotel registration, and they advised that the card had been taken up to my room – Richard said it was a small gift certificate for a meal in the hotel restaurant. I thanked him, and said I hoped the blog had given FQE more visibility in English Canada.
I then went back upstairs to work on this blog # 7, including entering the game. The card and breakfast credit were there. I then continued analyzing.
I did go up and down to get a glimpse of the remaining games in the hall. I also touched base with my wife, up at Spirits’ Den, our hobby farm/swamp, 3 hrs. drive northwest of Toronto, and told her the sad tale of my chessing (no sympathy there! ). Mario came in at 9:30 PM, having won. He had booked up on his opponent in the afternoon, and learned a lot he didn’t know before – and he made successful use of it! So Mario now has 3 ½ pts. I then informed Mario he was going to be treated for breakfast Friday morning!
Omar Shah then came in – he’d drawn – gave him 5 pts.
The organizers now are getting the standings/pairings on the net before 11:59 PM, and I use them for the blog. But in case there should be a glitch, I still manually collected the results I needed for my blog from the hard copy results posting sheet. By 11:00 PM, I had all the relevant results I needed for the blog. Omar and Mario then went to watch some of the last games. Omar left and Mario came back up to prepare for his opponent – the admins had everything up again before midnight – now running a tight ship!
My Games
(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 year’s blogs, I like to think “class” games, like those in the U 2000 section, down in the middle of the bowels of the tournament, 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 and back up storage site – 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 (CAS)”, hoping that this makes them even more helpful to viewers. In prior years, this is where I have posted my Open games for those interested to play over. Click on the heading link “public games”, and you get a list of games posted this month so far. There is an option to go back and look at posted games from prior months. In past years, my Can. Op. games have been posted there during the tournament. But I am not doing that this tournament, since I am now blogging on the FQE website, and there now is a gameviewer in my blogs.
My games may not be dramatic, but I am told I am a somewhat messy (I prefer the phrase “somewhat unorthodox”) and adventurous player (I lose a lot!), and that my games, win or lose, are often interesting to play over (some friends say, so they’ll learn how not to play chess…sigh). However in this tournament so far, I must admit I have played quite conservatively, even passively, in the first three games (all losses). My Rd. 5 & 7 games showed more spirit – though only one was a win. The Rd. 6 game is kind of messy, and I never really was in it. But in any event, the viewer will decide.
The 7 U 2000 Leaders Post Rd. 7
1. – 6 ½ pts. (Undefeated) – 1 player – Germaine, Michel (1947 – QC);
2. – 6 pts. – 1 player – Weston, Paul (1963 – QC )
3/ 7. – 5 1/2 pts. – 5 players – Chang, Michael (1912 – QC); Pinho, Tiago (1889 – Portugal); Barko, Maxim (1887 – QC); Gunapalan, David (1872 – QC); Petit, Raymond (1789 – QC).
Our section started with 13 top players who I termed the “favourites”. They were all in the 1900’s. But a number of them were not in the full Can. Op.; they were only in the Mini-COC and so they should not have been in our favourites group, which should have been only 7 players. 3 of them are now among the leaders set out above. Here are the true remaining 4 non-leader favourites and their scores – I kind of like to keep tabs on them since, though they may not be doing well early on, they are quite capable of suddenly again rising to the top:
1. Shah, Omar – 1999 – ON – 5 pts.
2. Have, Didier - 1992 – QC – 4 ½ pts.
3. Pomerantz, Daniel – 1937 – 5 pts.
4. Sarra – Bournet, Marc – 1911 – QC – 4 pts.
My Round 7 Game
The time control is 40/90 min. + SD/30 min, with a 30 sec increment from move 1.
Here it is – it is annotated using my own “Comprehensive Annotation System (CAS), Fritz, and my own annotations – I asked for feedback on my system, and have received some good analysis, critical of the method. That is good – I intend to consider it carefully after the tournament, to see what I can learn But I do hope you enjoy playing it over, and that much of the analysis, particularly tactical, is instructive and sound. As I said, this is certainly to be considered a somewhat flawed game, but for what it is worth, here it is (I now have 1 win; 5 losses; 1 forfeit):
Richardson, Kai (1709) - Armstrong, Robert J. (1645) [A91]
In the Wee Hours of Friday Morning
At midnight Friday, I was finished the text of the Blog # 7, but only part way through the Game 7 annotating. Mario and I then went out to get some fresh air and picked up something from our 24/7 Timmies, to keep us going. I worked on the blog ‘til 1:00 AM, but couldn’t finish it (I take a medication earlier in the evening, that when it kicks in hours later, wipes me out)– the text was all completed, but analyzing the Rd. 7 game the way I do it, move by move with my chess engine, called my “Comprehensive Annotation System (CAS)”, was going to have to go into tomorrow. It does require a time commitment. I hit the sack at 1:00 AM.
Mid-Morning Friday
Friday morning, I managed to get 4 ½ hrs. sleep (my tournament “sleep disorder I’ve referred to in earlier blogs). I checked e-mails, posted on the 4 FB chess sites I manage/co-manage, and looked at the other 2 non-chess FB pages I manage. Then I continued analyzing my Rd. 7 loss for this blog # 7.
Mario got up at 7:15 AM, just as I was beginning to send the blog out to Roman to post. I then posted it on Chesstalk.
The U 2000 Leaders’ Rd. 8 Pairings (top 14)
Round 8 on 2014/07/19 at 10h10
My Rd. 7 Pairing
37 30 Armstrong Robert J. 1845 2 2 St-Cyr Xavier 1730 62
The Top Section Leaders After Rd. 7
First prize is $ 4,000. There are 42 registered players (one shown actually in U 2400).
Here are the Leaders:
1. 5 ½ pts. - GM Van Kampen, Robin (2636 – Netherlands)
2/ 5. – 5 pts.
GM Tiviakov, Sergey (2656 – Netherlands)
GM Kovalyov, Anton (2636 – Canada – top FIDE-rated Canadian, playing for Canada)
GM Hansen. Eric (2596 – Canada)
GM Ghaem-Maghami, Ehsan (2586 – Iran)
The Top Section Leaders’ Rd. 7 Pairings
Round 8 on 2014/07/25 at 18
Invitation.
Unfortunately, the website format FQE uses, does not allow for any comments, questions, etc. concerning the blog material. This is why it is being duplicate posted on the Chess ‘n Math Association national chess discussion board, Chesstalk. There this can be done. So, I'd like again to invite everyone to join into the discussion on Chesstalk by making comments, suggestions, questions, constructive criticisms , etc. Anything to do with the Can. Open is welcome. I will try to respond on Chesstalk if that seems appropriate.
Bob Armstrong, the U 2000 Blogger
