Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - December 28, 2013

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 3 (Shinkman)
1.Rg1

2013 National Open - Las Vegas

As some of you already know, I played in the National Open in Las Vegas, June 7-9, 2013 at the Riviera Hotel.  There are usually close a half-dozen Winnipeg players attending, but this year it was just me and John Remillard. (John was accompanied by his wife).

I have been to Vegas around a dozen times (I have lost count quite frankly) and have now played in 7  National Opens. ( I had to check www.uschess.org); 1999, 2007-2010, 2012-2013. The past few years I have opted to play tourist on the Friday, and then play rounds 1-3 on Saturday at G/60 or less.
This year I decided to play the normal schedule, 2 rounds per day at a new time control - 40/90,
Game/30  + 30 second increment from the start.

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - December 14, 2013

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 3 (Wainwright)

1. d3

2013 US Open in Madison (Middleton), Wisconsin

Sorry for the delay, I am just getting around to reporting on the US Open that several of us from Winnipeg attended in late July, early August.  Waldemar Schulz, Jim Green, Ken Einarsson, Steven de Groot and myself made the approximately 10-hour trip south.

I think our results are nothing to write home about (From 9 rounds, Schulz had 4 points, Green 3.5, everybody else 4.5), so there won't be much to report there.
Full Crosstable.

The location, however, was very enjoyable. Jim, Ken and Steve stayed at the tournament hotel.
Waldemar and I were a parking lot away - at the Comfort Suites; I would venture a guess that we were no further away from the actual playing hall.

Across the street from the hotels, was the pleasant eatery, pub /bar Schprecher's that seemed to host a band on the patio almost every evening. Unfortunately, this invariably coincided with our playing schedule, so we had some meals there, but that was about it.  Our hotel had a free (one drink) happy hour, but it did not commence until shortly before the evening rounds, so we passed.

 Just to left is a covered outdoor patio that hosted live bands every night.

 

A few yards further to the left is green space - a corn field!

 

The view outside Jim's room.

  So, the scenery was better than our chess.  Waldemar and I ventured out to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens and Butterfly Exhibit
. 

 Getting back to the tournament site - I spied this trophy - alas 1973 indicates John Burstow won the North-West Open - a great achievement during Fischermania 1

Saturday -  National Mustard Day ! at the site of the National Mustard Museum.   I kid you not - Waldemar and I checked it out.

Analyzing the day's games.

Chess content to follow

2013 December tournaments have been rated by the CFC

Please see crosstables:

2013 December Quads A
2013 December Quads B
2013 Tournament of Champions (David Langner Memorial)
2013 Les Mundwiler Memorial

Congratulations to the following who achieved new peak ratings:
Kevin Li        2271
Alex Platt      1975
Keith Czarny 1780

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - November 30, 2013

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 2 (Gamage)
1.Bb3

Computer Chess - Film Review

A review of  Computer Chess 

from today's Winnipeg Free Press -

appearing at  Cinemateque

for a limited time.

COMPUTER CHESS
Fri Dec 6, 2013 at 9:00 PM
Sat Dec 7, 2013 at 9:00 PM
Sun Dec 8, 2013 at 7:00 PM
Wed Dec 11, 2013 at 7:00 PM
From mumblecore master Andrew Bujalski comes this incredibly wierd comedy about a group of programmers competing to see who has designed the best chess-playing computer software that will eventually play against a human chess master.

2013 December Sunday Quads CFC Rating Tournament - Sunday, Dec 8

2013 December Sunday Quads CFC Rating Tournament
Sunday, December 8
(Room 4CM42) University of Winnipeg

A QUAD (short for quadrangular) is simply a group of four players arranged by rating. Each player in a particular QUAD plays one game against each of the other three players. The winner is the player with the best score.


The first thing that is done  is to arrange the players in order of their CFC ratings.
Then the players are broken into groups of four.  THe lowest grouping may have more than 4 players - this section will be run as a Swiss.

In each Quad Group - the pairings will be something like this:
  
White* Black*

Round 1
1 vs 4
2 vs 3
  
Round 2
3 vs 1
4 vs 2
  
Round 3
1 vs 2
4 vs 3


*Colors in the third round are determined by coin toss/computer


Each 4-player section is a separate event for pairing purposes. (There will be no prizes for this event)

Time Control:  Game / 60

Entry Fee: $ 5  (to cover CFC rating fees)

Round 1: 10:00 am

Round 2: 12:30 pm

Round 3:  2:30 Pm

By mutual agreement, games may start earlier than stated.


All players in the tournament must also be Chess Federation of Canada members.
CFC Membership information:
(membership can be purchased at the tournament site)
Former/returning members:
$ 20 for a one-tournament membership or $ 49 for 12 months, Juniors - one
tournament membership $ 10, $34 for 12 months.

 New members pay only $ 16 for a one-tournament membership or $ 36 for 12
months, Juniors - one tournament membership $ 10, $24 for 12 months.