40 Years Ago...

some future blogger won a chess tournament (1973 Winnipeg High School Chess Tournament) . How time flies !

From the Winnipeg Free Press, December 31, 1973



( I originally posted this 5 years ago, but decided to update it, because
a) It is the 40th anniversary
b) John Remillard has provided some long lost information
c) I am posting the games )

I was quite fortunate that the best player that year, Jeff Babb, was upset by Chris Cooley sometime in a middle round. Thus I didn't have to play Jeff, and I beat Cooley in the 8th and final round. I scored 6.5 -1.5 (3 draws) and if I recall correctly I won the trophy on tiebreak over CooleyPaul O'Leary and Jeff Babb. I also seem to recall there were over 80 players (84 apparently from the clipping below).

According to my recopied scoresheets there were 3 rounds on each of the 27th and 28th, 2 rounds on the 29th. The draws were with the still active John Remillard and Richard Lindsay, and J. Bradford.
I do remember Eric Jefferson giving me a ride from Tec Voc (the tournament site) to the Free Press (which was on Carlton then ) for the photos.

I have posted the games here.

I had been playing seriously for about 2 years - (of interest my scorebook shows that I just returned from the the Santa Claus Open in Hibbing, MN - I caught a ride with several other local players - more on that later) starting sometime in Grade 9 after getting tired of being the victim of Scholar's Mate on the odd occasion that someone brought out the board.
I recall having studied Reuben Fine's 'Basic Chess Endings', and playing over games from Keene's 'Flank Openings'.

John's team from St. Paul's had the highest team score - I don't recall how the team score was determined, it may have been the total of the top 4 players.

 Below are the individual results (scores, tiebreak) - players from the same school did not play each other.
I didn't appreciate it at the time, but hats off to the TD. It couldn't have been easy doing the pairings.

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - December 28, 2013

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 3 (Shinkman)
1.Rg1

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.