2014 Manitoba Closed Update

Manitoba Closed 2014 format : 8 player knockout 

(Note: The MCA board approved the adding up to two spots to the the Manitoba Championship through an at-large bidding process.  Players who did not otherwise qualify can provide a minimum $ 50 bid in order to play.  The two highest bids over $ 50 will get spots #9 and # 10 in the seeding. Qualifiers 7 and 8  (ordered by CFC rating), along with the new 2 additions will play in a preliminary knockout round, producing two winners who then play with the top six qualifiers by CFC rating).  If interested, please submit your bid to chessmanitoba@gmail.com by April 17, 2014

Qualifiers -
Qualifiers must play 10 standard rated games (somewhere in the world) during calendar 2013 in order to qualify. 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 (no event)
     3. MB Junior Champion (if rated above 1900) KEVIN LI
     4. Top Manitoban in AY Memorial (TREVOR VINCENT)
     5,6. Top 2 finishers in the Tournament of Champions (Nov-Dec) Kevin Li, JEFF BABB
     7. Player with the best (not qualified otherwise) MTPPS (Modified Tournament Performance Point Score) SAM LIPNOWSKI
     8. Player with the 2nd best MTPPS (Modified Tournament Performance Point Score) LEOR           WASSERMAN
     9. 2nd Manitoban in the AY Memorial (KEVIN GENTES (on tiebreak), but did not play 10 games.
    10. Player with the 3rd best MTPPS  Les Mundwiler
    11. Player with the 4th best MTPPS  GUSTAVO MELAMEDOFF
    12. Player with the 5th best MTPPS  WALDEMAR SCHULZ
    13. Player with the 6th best MTPPS  ANTHONY BORON
  14. Player with the 6th best MTPPS  MYRON KERNETSKY

The players above will be contacted to determine their desire to play in the championship.

MTPSS -  Modified Tournament Performance Point Score
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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The  top MTPPS scores are as follows:

1	Trevor Vincent	125311	23653
2	Samuel Lipnowski	105377	22928
3	Kevin Li	152422	22886
4	Jeff Babb	102141	22621
5	Leor Wasserman	139153	22129
	Les Mundwiler	103336	21818
6	Gustavo Melamedoff	136900	21484
7	Waldemar Schulz	106687	21309
8	Anthony Boron	101126	21255
9	Myron Kernetsky	101127	21226
10	Ryne Swift	143093	21016
11	Gustav L Baron	152320	20816
12	Steven de Groot	137876	20776

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following qualifiers have accepted:

KEVIN LI   2285
SAM LIPNOWSKI  2238
JEFF BABB 2160
GUSTAVO MELAMEDOFF 2098
ANTHONY BORON 2021
LEOR WASSERMAN 2020
RYNE SWIFT 1929
GUSTAV BARON  1876

 Arvin Dawa 2139  has entered via bis
C Iyer 2096  has entered via bid.  

IYER will play BARON in the playin ound
DAWA will play SWIFT in the playin round.

Players will be reseeded based on the ratings above - after the play-in round



The following qualifiers have declined:
Trevor Vincent
Myron Kernetsky
Waldemar Schulz

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - April 19, 2014

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 2 (Carpenter)1.Qxd4+

Rudolf Rocker Chess Club

Mark Jenkins writes:

Greetings folks into chess,

As mentioned before, I'm starting a chess club. It's going to be most Saturdays, noon-4pm on the third floor of 91 Albert St starting next Saturday, April 26.

http://rockerchess.ca

Unfortunately this location lacks an elevator -- but it does have heritage charm, space for about 40 people, and reasonable rent. As the club develops, I envision us also including folks who can't make it there through remote methods (phone, internet, SMS) and club members meeting up with folks at other locations.

We'll be running an optional ratings system for bullet, blitz, rapid, standard times, over the board untimed games (with sealed move adjournment allowed) and correspondence.

We're open to all ages and levels of ability, but my goal is to provide a fun, casual drop in setting for a broad community of adults. Most of the organized chess community in Winnipeg right now is young scholastic players (and their parents/relatives) and strong adults who play CFC rated events held by MCA.

My view is that both of these existing cohorts can contribute to my goal of making semi-organized club chess a part of Winnipeg again. If this succeeds, we'll get more than a strong community of "old patzers" out of this -- we'll also directly develop more stronger players who will attend tournaments and more advocates of the game to spread it to young people.

On our website, http://rockerchess.ca club members will have the opportunity to contribute to the site by posting game analysis, announcements of local events, and personal reflections on the world of chess.

To encourage this drop-in spirit, we're operating admission on a "pay what you can" basis. We'll also need folks to join me and chip in their organizing energies. Even something as simple as picking up edibles for sale from a wholesaler can be a real help.

At some point I'd like to attempt something big and splashy to create some local buzz and press coverage. I've got some crazy ideas up on http://rockerchess.ca/promoideas/ . Want to make any of these happen? Got your own ideas? Let me know.

These ideas would do best if co-organized with MCA and Scholastic chess folks with the goal of promoting local chess as a whole and raising the profile of all of us.

I've got a 8x11" and 11x17" poster designed.
http://rockerchess.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/RockerChessPoster8x11.pdf

http://rockerchess.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/RockerChessPoster11x17.pdf
Feel free to print and post.

Mark Jenkins
member #1

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - April 5, 2014

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 2 (Wormald)
1. Qh1