Monday, December 21, 2009

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - December 19, 2009

from the Saturday Winnipeg Free Press
White to mate in 3 (Eaton)

1. Bxc4
1...exd1(Q) 2. Rxe7 Kxg6 3. Bf7#

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Zaczek wins 2009 Winnipeg Blitz Championship

I already reported at http://www.chessmanitoba.com the results of the 2009 Winnipeg Blitz Championship held December 15.

Here are few more pictures taken by Greg Swift.


Sunday, December 13, 2009

Blitz Chess (5 minute) Night ! Touch Move

I had expected a flood of comments regarding the proposed Touch move rules for the
Blitz championship. But perhaps our players have been watching the videos from the recent World Blitz Championship in Moscow, or the BNbank Blitz Norway tournament.



So elegant !

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Blitz Chess night - Tuesday, December 15

We will be having a special Blitz Chess (Five minute) night on Tuesday, December 15 at the University of Winnipeg, Room 4CM42.

As GM Boris Alterman says in his lectures on ICC, "Now, pay attention".

The event will have two sections - The main event will be the 2009 Winnipeg Blitz Championship - a knockout tournament (seeded Wimbledon style). So, I am projecting the top 16 entrants will play in the knockout.

But all players will also be simultaneously entered in a Swiss tournament. So, if a player is knocked out of the Championship section, they will continue to play in the Swiss section, carrying over the match points they earned in the knockout section.

Each round will consist of a 2 player match - alternating colours. If the match is tied after two games, an Armageddon one-game playoff will occur. White 5 minutes, Black 4 minutes with draw odds (that means the Black player "wins" if the Armageddon game is a draw). Higher rated player gets to choose which colour he will play in the Armageddon.

If there are 16 players in the knockout section - only 4 rounds will be required to determine the Champion - at a max of 30 minutes per round - that is only two hours. If there is closer to 32 players - an extra round will be required.

The Swiss will have the same number of rounds.

After those tournaments are over, we will have a "fun" (no prizes - just bragging rights) Swiss Blitz tournament that will use up the time to say 10:30 or so - so probably a 4 or 5 round single game per round - approximately an hour.

Entry fee $ 10 - for the night

See the proposed rules here

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Grand Prix and Shpan has been rated

See Mike Shpan Crosstable
See Grand Prix Crosstables


New established high ratings for

Leor Wasserman (1723)
Steven deGroot (1801)
Stephen Lipic (1799)
Richard Ott (1601)

Congratulations !

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - December 5, 2009

From the Saturday Winnipeg Free Press

White to Mate in 3 (Wainwright)

1. Rc6
...Bb8 2. Rb6 Bd6 3.Bxd6#
...Kd5 2. Rc5 Kd6 3.Rd5#

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

2009 Thank Gibbons Open has been rated

Congratulations to the following who achieved new high ratings:

Stephen Lipic
Saul Magnusson
Clifford Goodman



# Name

Old

Perf

New

High

Results Tot
1
Lipic, Stephen 
1710 
1866 
1751 
1751
  W  8  W  5  W  2  L  3 
3.0
2
Manicdao, Tomas 
1706 
1784 
1738 
19
  W  7  W  4  L  1  W  6 
3.0
3
Swift, Ryne 
1808 
1745 
1802 
1836
  L  5  W  8  D  4  W  1 
2.5
4
Magnusson, Saul 
1738 
1743 
1751 
1751
  W  6  L  2  D  3  W  8 
2.5
5
Goodman, Clifford 
1684 
1759 
1694 
1694
  W  3  L  1  D  0  D  0 
2.0
6
Letain, Cory 
1594 
1450 
1578 
1622
  L  4  W  7  D  8  L  2 
1.5
7
Gibbons, Lorne 
1292 
1258 
1288 
1446
  L  2  L  6  D  0  D  0 
1.0
8
Williams, Eric 
1466 
1413 
1454 
12
  L  1  L  3  D  6  L  4 
0.5

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thank Gibbons Open - November 28-29

Thank Gibbons Open
(sub-titled - Be Home by Saturday Supper)

University of Winnipeg
Room 5L24
wish to start earlier)

Update: A very competitive set of eight entrants are battling it out in essentially an under 1800 section.
Ryne Swift (1808)
Saul Magnusson (1738)
Stephen Lipic (1710)
Tomas Manicdao (1706)
Clifford Goodman (1684)
Cory Letain (1594)
Eric Williams (1466)
Lorne Gibbons (1292)

Standings and games at chessmanitoba.com

Note: Saturday's two rounds were over by 2:30 p.m. !

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle November 21 2009

from the Saturday Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 3 (Densmore)
Solution is 1. Qa2 !

Friday, November 20, 2009

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle November 7, 2009

from the Saturday Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 3 (Dobbs)
1. Kg2
One line is
1...Ne3+ 2.Rxe3+ Kxe3 3.Nf3#

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Manitoba Junior has been rated

See crosstable here
New high ratings achieved by:

Paolo Araull0 2187
Igal Raihman 1968
Leah Green 1304

Congratulations !

Thursday, November 12, 2009

ND Chessnuts Results 2009

GM Alex Yermolinsky

See the Open results here

and the U1900 results here
Ken Einarsson playing Black in the U1900 Section

In Match scores, we defeated Minnesota, but lost to North Dakota. (I will have to confirm the scores with Blair Rutter), but from what I can determine - Stephen Lipic and Blair Rutter both contributed a +2 score against Minnesota.

I scored 3 / 5 - clear 5th overall and good enough for a piece of some U2100 prize - apparently $ 100.

But the titled players kept avoiding me :-)

Yermolinsky took a first round bye, IM Victor Adler fell ill earlier in the week, and thus on Friday night I was paired with IM Sandor Kustar on first board.


After half an hour or so it was determined that he was not going to be able to play in the tournament, so Brian Thompson filled in and I was fortunate to win a see-saw endgame.
Mike Sailer (Black) vs. Blair Rutter (White)

In the second rd I drew Aron Kaptsan. In third round I beat an expert, Nikita Barabanov and found myself with a surprising 2.5. I thought that I may have a crack at "Yermo" in round 4, but I assume the colours didn't work.

Aron and Zaczek both got to play Yermo. Aron lost in an interesting endgame, I saw Zaczek in the "private" skittles room analyzing with Yermolinsky after round 5, so that must have been fun for Jonathon.
Zaczek-Rutter
Yermolinsky drew Okechukwu Iwu of Duluth.
These two, Mike Sailer and Dmitri Babarbanov tied for first with 4 points
Iwu and Waldemar Schulz

Stephen Lipic was in the running for an under 1900 prize in the Open section; I am sure he will let me know the result.

GM Yermolinsky provided a lecture and Q & A.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Connections

As you have read below - Aron Kaptsan won the 2009 Manitoba Senior Championship on Sunday.
It then occurred to me that the World Senior had just ended a few days earlier with Jānis Klovāns of Latvia tying for first. (Klovans has won the event on three previous occasions. )

On the way home Sunday, I asked Aron if he knew Klovāns. Yes, he replied, and related some stories.

What he didn't tell me was this !-

Championship of Latvia- 1969

Rk

Name

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

P

1

Petkevich J.

*

1/2

1/2

1/2

1

1/2

1/2

1

1

1/2

1/2

1/2

1

1

1

10.0

2

Shmits A.

1/2

*

1/2

1/2

1

1

1/2

1

1

1/2

1

1/2

1

1/2

1/2

10.0

3

Peterson A.

1/2

1/2

*

0

1

1/2

1/2

1

1

1

0

1

1/2

1

1

9.5

4

Zhuravliov V.

1/2

1/2

1

*

0

0

1/2

1/2

1

1

1

1

0

1

1

9.0

5

Gutman L.

0

0

0

1

*

1/2

1/2

0

1/2

1

1

1

1

1

1

8.5

6

Kirilov V.

1/2

0

1/2

1

1/2

*

1/2

1

1/2

1/2

1/2

1/2

1

1

1/2

8.5

7

Klovans J.

1/2

1/2

1/2

1/2

1/2

1/2

*

1/2

1/2

1/2

1/2

1/2

1

1

1

8.5

8

Abrosimov A.

0

0

0

1/2

1

0

1/2

*

0

1

1

1

0

1

1

7.0

9

Kaptsan A.

0

0

0

0

1/2

1/2

1/2

1

*

1/2

0

1

1

1

1

7.0

10

Kirpichnikov V.

1/2

1/2

0

0

0

1/2

1/2

0

1/2

*

1/2

1

1/2

1

1

6.5

11

Kliavinsh J.

1/2

0

1

0

0

1/2

1/2

0

1

1/2

*

0

1

0

1

6.0

12

Chembaev E.

1/2

1/2

0

0

0

1/2

1/2

0

0

0

1

*

1/2

1/2

0

4.0

13

Matvik N.

0

0

1/2

1

0

0

0

1

0

1/2

0

1/2

*

0

1/2

4.0

14

Osipov I.

0

1/2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1/2

1

*

1

4.0

15

Daudzvardis J.

0

1/2

0

0

0

1/2

0

0

0

0

0

1

1/2

0

*

2.5

16

Vitolinsh A.















*

3.5(of 9)

Sunday, November 8, 2009

2009 Manitoba Senior

Five players contested the inaugural Manitoba Senior Chess Championship.

Aaron Kaptsan, John Wierda, Gary Campbell, Andy Kohalmi, Lorne Gibbons.

Round 1 saw Campbell hold Kaptsan to a draw, and Kohalmi flagging in a won ending against Wierda.
Kaptsan - Campbell


Kohalmi-Wierda



Round 2 saw rating favorite Kaptsan on Board 1 defeat Wierda in what turned out to be the pivotal game of the tournament.

Round 3 saw Wierda with the bye - and pairings Gibbons-Kaptsan and Campbell-Kohalmi both had Black winning.

Round 4 pairings Wierda-Gibbons and Kaptsan-Kohalmi, had both rating favorites win.

The result is that Aron Kaptsan is the 2009 Senior Chess Champion of Manitoba at the young age of 80.

TD Tony Boron congratulates Aron Kaptsan

Other prizes:
2nd place - John Wierda

Top over 75 - Andy Kohalmi

Top over 65 - Gary Campbell
Top D - Lorne (Camera Shy) Gibbons

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

2009 Manitoba Senior Championship

2009 Manitoba Senior Championship (60 and over)

Format: Four round Swiss system (players play all four games
- win or lose)
Time Control: Game/60
Location: University of Winnipeg - Room 3C14
Dates: November 8, 2009

Eligibility:
Open to those born before November 7, 1949

Registration: 9:30 am to 9:50 am - Sunday, November 8, 2009

Schedule:

Round 1 at 10:00 a.m.,
Rounds 2, 3, 4 tentatively scheduled for noon, 2:30, 4:30,
however if games are
finished in less than two hours rounds may start earlier.

$ 5 entry fee
Time Control: Game/60

Chess Federation of Canada membership not required
Class/Age prizes.

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle October 24, 2009

from the Saturday Winnipeg Free Press
White to mate in 3 (Hargreaves)

1. Rf7

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Mike Shpan Memorial Tournament

Tuesday, November 3 is the start of the six-round Swiss Tournament that is played on 6 consecutive Tuesdays ending December 8.

(This is not a knockout tournament, players will play all 6 rounds)
Please note that we intend to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp.

The "Shpan" is a Swiss (pairing) style tournaments with a time control of G /120 minutes [Each player has 2 hours to complete their moves, the game will be be 4 hours maximum]

Start time is 7:00 pm and the TD will confirm costs ( $ 20 entry fee and CFC membership required)
Registration for tournament - November 3 - approximately 6:30 pm to 6:50 pm

Please note that we intend to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp.

Location: University of Winnipeg - Rm 4CM42
4CM42 <-click here for map
This is very near our old room of 5L24 and is in fact on the same floor.

Easiest way to get there is the same way to 5L24 - take the elevator at the north end (Ellice) to the 5th Floor(if that Elevator is operating) Otherwise, there is an elevator just to the west of the Bookstore.

Contact: Lorne Gibbons, TD

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Grand Prix Finals

TD Lorne Gibbons is in the process of contacting players eligible for the final.
Jaroslaw Czypinski, please contact Lorne.

October 2009 TNT has been rated

See the rated crosstable here

New high ratings acheived by:

Arvin Dawa 2107 (provisional)
Aaron Green 1980
Stephen de Groot 1787
Leor Wasserman 1684
Brian Evans 1632
Shashika Kumaragamage 1361 (provisional)

Congratulations !

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Manitoba Junior Championship

"Ole Hellsten Award"

Location: University of Winnipeg Room 5L24
Dates: November 14 & 15, 2009

Eligibility: Open to Manitoba residents under 20 years of age as of December 31, 2009.
Tournament - In 2 sections:

Players in the Open Section will compete for the "Ole Hellsten Award" and be declared the Manitoba Junior Champion. The Champion is eligible to represent Manitoba at the Canadian Junior Championship.

The Reserve Section is only open to players rated under 1000 in the 'Chess and Math' system.

Registration: 9:00 am to 9:45 am - Saturday, November 14, 2009

Schedule:

The Open Section is a two-day event
Rounds at 10:00 a.m. and 2:30 pm on each of November 14 and 15.
Time Control: Game / 120 minutes

The Reserve Section is a one-day event - November 14 only.
Rounds at 10:00 am, 11:00 am, 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm
Time Control: Game / 25 minutes

Entry Fee:
Open Section: $ 15 (and CFC required)
Reserve Section: $ 5 (no CFC Membership required)

Other:
Tie Breaker, if necessary, in Open Section:

One game with Game /15 minutes
followed by Game / 5 minutes
until Champion is declared.

Reserve section tiebreaker, if necessary, will be Game / 5 minutes.

Further information will likely be posted at:
http://www.manitobajrchess.blogspot.com/

Monday, October 12, 2009

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - October 10, 2009

From the Saturday Free Press
White to mate in 3 (Densmore)

The surprising answer is 1.Qa1
if 1...Rxa1 2. Bxa1 and the rest is easy.
If 1...R moves off the first rank, 2. Qh1 is mate
If 1. Other Rook moves 2. Be8 leads to mate


Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle , September 26, 2009

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 3 (Buchwald)
1. Ne4 Ng1 (...Nc1 is a mirror image, 2. Rd2 etc.)2. Rf2 Ne2 3. Nf3#
1. Ne4 Ng3 (...Nc3 is a mirror image) 2. Nc3 and Rd1 to follow.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

September TNT has been rated

Congratulation to new high ratings achieved by:

Aaron Green 1976 (+75 !)
Arvin Dawa 2074 (provisional)
Saul Magnusson 1738 (+90 !)
Brian Evans 1622
Ryne Swift 1836
Michael Pang 1701
Leor Wasserman 1672

September 2009 TNT
# Name Old
Perf
New
Results

1 Green, Aaron 1901
2238
1976
W 17 W 5 W 9 D 2
3.5
2 Dawa, Arvin 2072
2049
2074
W 13 W 20 W 3 D 1
3.5
3 Magnusson, Saul 1648
2142
1738
W 23 W 7 L 2 W 15
3
4 Rutter, Blair 1878
2126
1911
W 21 D 0 D 11 W 9
3
5 Zaczek, Jonathon 2126
2024
2119
W 15 L 1 W 16 W 8
3
6 Green, Jim 1762
1845
1781
L 9 D 21 W 18 W 20
2.5
7 Schulz, Waldemar 2000
1768
1972
W 14 L 3 D 15 W 16
2.5
8 Boron, Anthony 2003
1904
1995
W 10 L 9 W 14 L 5
2
9 Lipnowski, Samuel 2272
1886
2248
W 6 W 8 L 1 L 4
2
10 Evans, Brian 1588
1788
1622
L 8 L 12 W 20 W 21
2
11 Swift, Ryne 1831
1760
1836
W 19 D 0 D 4 L 0
2
12 Lauritson, Jim 1923
1722
1906
L 18 W 10 W 13 L 0
2
13 Pang, Michael 1696
1677
1701
L 2 W 19 L 12 W 18
2
14 Milord, Frank 1630
1635
1636
L 7 W 17 L 8 W 19
2
15 Lipic, Stephen 1722
1714
1723
L 5 W 18 D 7 L 3
1.5
16 Wasserman, Leor 1671
1631
1672
D 0 W 22 L 5 L 7
1.5
17 Gibbons, Lorne 1294
1366
1293
L 1 L 14 W 0 D 0
1.5
18 Ott, Richard 1482
1576
1499
W 12 L 15 L 6 L 13
1
19 Green, Leah 1242
1458
1268
L 11 L 13 W 21 L 14
1
20 Greenberg, Harley 1750
1445
1714
W 22 L 2 L 10 L 6
1
21 Trueman, Francis 1474
1318
1452
L 4 D 6 L 19 L 10
0.5
22 D'arcangelo, Joseph 1071
1311
1170
L 20 L 16 L 0 L 0
0
23 Kernetsky, Myron 1985
1248
1958
L 3 L 0 L 0 L 0
0
























































































































































































Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - September 12

From the Saturday Winnipeg Free Press - September 12, 2009



White to mate in 3 - (Wurzburg)
I didn't have time to look at this, but the answer is
1. Kb3

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Abe Yanofsky Memorial has been rated

But not available at the CFC site. I got the info from the CFC and created crosstables with the new rating info; see U 1800 here, and the Open here.

Congratulations to those who achieved new high ratings:

Trevor Vincent (2304 !)
Paolo Araullo (2148)
Jonathon Zaczek (2126)
Rolando Bince (2117)
Igal Raihman (1953)
Aaron Green (1901 !)
Steven de Groot (1774 +84 !)
Ryne Swift (1831)
Saul Magnusson (1648)
Leor Wasserman (1671)
Michael Pang (1696)
Keer Keer (1474)
Clifford Goodman (1684)

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Monday, August 31, 2009

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - August 29, 2009

From the Saturday Winnipeg Free Press
White to move and mate in 2
(Jacob Funk)

Okay solvers, this is an easy one, I found it within a minute. All the clues are quite transparent.
1. Bb3

Sunday, August 30, 2009

September TNT starts Tuesday, September 1



September TNT starts September 1

4 rounds - September 1, 15, 22, 29 - (This is not a knockout tournament, players will play all 4 rounds)

Please note that we intend to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp.

Note that there is no game on September 8.

Tuesday Night Tournaments are held every month of the year, (except for November and December when things are organized a little differently).

There is one game per week.

All of the TNTs are Swiss (pairing) style tournaments with a time control of G /120 minutes [Each player has 2 hours to complete their moves, the game will be be 4 hours maximum]
The TNTs are typically 4 round events (one game for 4 consecutive Tuesdays in the month)
Start time is 7:00 pm and the TD will confirm costs ( $ 15 entry fee and CFC membership required)
Registration for tournament - August 4 - approximately 6:40 pm to 6:50 pm

Please note that we intend to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp.


Location: University of Winnipeg - Rm 5L24
Contact: Lorne Gibbons, TD

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

August TNT has been rated

August TNT has been rated:

Congratulations to the following who have achieved new rating highs:
Jonathon Zaczek 2125
Ken Einarsson 1800
Ryne Swift 1802
Michael Pang 1679 (+67 !)
Gary Crawford 1439 (+54)
Steven de Groot 1690
Saul Magnusson 1578
Justin Villeneuve 1356 provisonal

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle August 15, 2009

From the Winnipeg Free Press, Saturday, August 15, 2009
White to mate in 2 (Jacob Funk)

Solutions: Apparently there is a 'cook', unless I got the position wrong.
Stephen in the comments hit on both of them but rejected 1. Nf3 because of 1...Nc6, but then 2.Bxf7#
But 1. Rxc3 apparently mates in two also.
1. Nf3

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

August 2009 TNT Standings after 3 rounds

# Name Rtng
Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Tot
1 Aron Kaptsan 2027
W25 W23 W12 3.0
2 Myron Kernetsky 2009
D29 W17 W15 2.5
3 Jay S Khedkar 2008
W30 D8 W16 2.5
4 Igal Raihman 1905
H--- W29 W20 2.5
5 Blair Rutter 1810
D20 W18 W19 2.5
6 Aaron Green 1779
W26 W9 H--- 2.5
7 Ryne Swift 1779
H--- W14 W21 2.5
8 Jonathon Zaczek 2121
H--- D3 W23 2.0
9 Rolando Bince 2086
W24 L6 W26 2.0
10 Jim Lauritson 1939
L19 W32 W27 2.0
11 Waldemar Schulz 2027
D18 L15 W29 1.5
12 Anthony Boron 2015
W28 D19 L1 1.5
13 Harley Greenberg 1782
L21 W33 H--- 1.5
14 John Klokow 1774
D31 L7 W28 1.5
15 Ken Einarsson 1768
H--- W11 L2 1.5
16 Arie Wasserman 1698
W33 H--- L3 1.5
17 Steven De Groot 1680
H--- L2 W30 1.5
18 Keith Czarny 1626
D11 L5 W31 1.5
19 Michael Pang 1612
W10 D12 L5 1.5
20 Brian Evans 1579
D5 W31 L4 1.5
21 Saul Magnusson 1564
W13 H--- L7 1.5
22 Lorne Gibbons 1238
H--- D30 H--- 1.5
23 Stephen Lipic 1717
W27 L1 L8 1.0
24 Clifford Goodman 1678
L9 L26 W32 1.0
25 Gary Campbell 1651
L1 L27 W33 1.0
26 Richard Ott 1483
L6 W24 L9 1.0
27 Gary Crawford 1385
L23 W25 L10 1.0
28 Leor Wasserman 1650
L12 H--- L14 0.5
29 Frank Milord 1647
D2 L4 L11 0.5
30 Cory Letain 1622
L3 D22 L17 0.5
31 Keer Keer 1433
D14 L20 L18 0.5
32 Alex Iomdina unr.
H--- L10 L24 0.5
33 Justin Villeneuve 1306
L16 L13 L25 0.0

August 2009 TNT Round 3 Results

There is a glitch with the chessmanitoba.com server so I will post results here.

No draws ! No upsets ! Boron disappointed the rest of the pack with 1.5 by failing to stop Kaptsan who now sits alone 3-0. It will likely be Khedkar's task next week to create a tie for first.
The August auditions for "So You Think You Can Play Chess", conclude on August 25.

Bd
Res White
Black Res
1
0 Anthony Boron
Aron Kaptsan 1
2
0 Ken Einarsson
M Kernetsky 1
3
1 Jay S Khedkar
Arie Wasserman 0
4
0 Brian Evans
Igal Raihman 1
5
1 Blair Rutter
Michael Pang 0
6
1 Ryne Swift
Saul Magnusson 0
7
0 Stephen Lipic
Jonathon Zaczek 1
8
0 Richard Ott
Rolando Bince 1
9
0 Gary Crawford
Jim Lauritson 1
10
1 Waldemar Schulz
Frank Milord 0
11
0 Leor Wasserman
John Klokow 1
12
1 Steven De Groot
Cory Letain 0
13
0 Keer Keer
Keith Czarny 1
14
0 Alex Iomdina
Clifford Goodman 1
15
1 Gary Campbell
Justin Villeneuve 0


½ Lorne Gibbons
BYE


½ Aaron Green
BYE


½ Harley Greenberg
BYE

Please send your games ! Early thanks to Michael Pang, Blair Rutter, Steven De Groot, and John Klokow !