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#

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.

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 !

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

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 !

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#

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