2012 Manitoba Chess Championship

The 2012 Manitoba Chess Championship has a winner - but before we get into that, let's review the selection process, the candidates, and finally the matches.

Manitoba Closed 2012 format : 8 player knockout 

Qualifiers -
In order of preference - if the qualifying player did not want to participate or the qualifier is redundant, we continued down the list until there were 8 willing participants.

     1. Previous Year's Champion (TREVOR VINCENT)
     2. Winner of the Reserve (2011 Albert Boxer Memorial)
     3. MB Junior Champion (if rated above 1900)
     4. Top Manitoban in AY Memorial
     5,6. Top 2 finishers in the Tournament of Champions (Nov-Dec)
     7. Player with the best MTPPS (Modified Tournament Performance Point Score) s
     8. Player with the 2nd best MTPPS (Modified Tournament Performance Point Score)
     9. 2nd Manitoban in the AY Memorial
    10. Player with the 3rd best MTPPS 
    11. Player with the 4th best MTPPS 
    12. etc.from the MTPPS

Note that the concept of the MTPPS was introduced.

MTPSS -  Modified Tournament Performance Point Score
This is a change from the previous qualification through rating.  The rating provision did not properly recognize activity or recent results of relatively inactive players. It also did not recognize any non-CFC events.  So, the MTPPS is calculated as follows:
A Loss = 0 points
A Draw = the rating of the opponent
A Win = the greater of [your opponent's rating + 200] or [your rating]
The top ten performance scores for each player are counted
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The qualifiers were:
1. Previous Year's Champion (TREVOR VINCENT)
2. Winner of the Reserve (2011 Albert Boxer Memorial)  (KEVIN LI)
3. MB Junior Champion (if rated above 1900)  (KEVIN LI)
4. Top Manitoban in AY Memorial (Trevor Vincent, JEFF BABB)
5,6. Top 2 finishers in the Tournament of Champions (Nov-Dec) (KEVIN LI, JONATHON ZACZEK)
7. --> Players with the best MTPPS
 

Here are the top qualifiers for the Manitoba Championship according to MTTPS scores.

Player/                       Top Ten MTTPS scores  / Minimum

Trevor Vincent 23690 2091

Jonathon Zaczek 23254 2284

Gustavo Melamedoff 22812 2141

Kevin Li 22770 2239

Samuel Lipnowski 22706 2261

Aron Kaptsan 22520 2185

Anthony Boron 22416 2113

Nilo Moncal 22226 2102

Les Mundwiler 22180 2146

Jeff Babb 21975 2060

Carl Pottinger 21504 2035

Trevor Vincent, Jonathon Zaczek, Kevin Li and Jeff Babb all qualified through placings in tournaments, so the other four that got invites to the eight man knockout were:

Gustavo Melamedoff, Samuel Lipnowski,  Aron Kaptsan, and Anthony Boron.

(Zaczek passed on participating as has been in Poland most of the year, thus Moncal became the final invitee)

Let's review how the MTTPS worked.  I  devised it to a) identify those players who showed they could compete with the highest rating players, b) test a better method than qualifying through rating. Under the old system, as high enough rated player could qualify perpetually by playing just well enough not to lose many rating points. Below are performances by the MTTPS qualifiers against the other qualifiers that contributed to their placing.

Melamedoff - wins (Kaptsan, Boron, Vincent, Babb(x2),Li)
draws (Babb, Kaptsan)

Lipnowski - wins (Moncal,Boron)
 draws (Zaczek(x2)

Kaptsan- wins (Boron (x2), Melamedoff(x2), Moncal)
draws (Li(x2), Melamedoff, Zaczek)

Boron-  wins (Zaczek, Moncal,Kaptsan(x2))
             draws (Li (x3), Babb)
Moncal wins (Li,Babb)
                 draws (Li)

So, it is clear (to me at least), that the MTTPS qualifiers were capable of competing with the other qualifiers.

The eight qualifiers were then ranked by CFC rating with # 1 matched against # 8, # 2 against # 7, etc.

CFC average ratings (at time of rating -July 1, 2012) 2170, median 2160; compared to 2159,2137 in 2011; 2164, 2187 in 2010.

The matches were: (with CFC and FIDE ratings listed as of Jan 1)

Vincent, Trevor	2365	2173
Kaptsan, Aron	1943	2019
Lipnowski, Sam	2263	2202
Boron, Anthony	2054	1959
Li, Kevin	2238	2097
Moncal, Nilo	2101
Babb, Jeff	2201	2144
Melamedoff, Gustavo	2117	2040

Li                  Moncal

Melamedoff      Babb

Vincent

Kaptsan

Lipnowski

Boron

Vincent., Lipnowski, Li, and Babb emerged after the first set of matches.

Vincent then defeated Babb, while Li rebounded from a first game loss to beat Lipnowski in the tie-breakers.
Li and Vincent played 2 draws at the G/90 + 30 second time control, but Trevor prevailed in the rapid playoff.
Trevor Vincent wins his fifth consecutive Manitoba Championship  !

Game file is here.
http://www.chessmanitoba.com/viewer/MyChessviewer.php?pgn=2012_MB_Champ.pgn