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