2016 May TNT chess tournament starts Tuesday, May 3

CFC (Chess Federation of Canada)  rated. CFC Membership required (see below)

$ 15 entry fee  –   Prizes will be based on entries.

Location: University of Winnipeg – Rm 4CM42

5 rounds – May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31   – (This is not a knockout tournament, players will play all 5 rounds)   (Players may take up to 1  half-point and any number of zero-point byes.  Half-point byes for round  5 must be requested before Round 2.)

Please note that we intend to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp. There is one game per week.

All of the TNTs are Swiss (pairing) style tournaments with a time control of G /110 minutes [Each player has 1 hour 50 minutes  to complete their moves, the game will be be approx. 3 hours and 40 minutes maximum]. We will also be using FIDE Rule Appendix G.4 for situations with players having under 2 minutes remaining.

$ 15 entry fee and CFC membership required.

All players must be CFC members (can be obtained during registration on-site)

[$ 20 for a one-tournament adult membership or $ 49 for 12 months- new adult members pay only $ 36 for a twelve-month CFC membership, or $ 16 for a one-tournament membership]

Junior (under 20)  members pay $ 10 for a one-tournament membership, $ 34 for a twelve-month CFC membership, new junior members pay only  $ 24 for a twelve month CFC membership, or $ 8 for a one-tournament membership]

Registration for tournament -Tuesday, May 3 – approximately 6:35 pm to 6:50 pm

Registration will be cut off at 6:50 pm. (If you think you may be late, please send an email to chessmanitoba ‘at’ gmail.com) before 5 pm (you can try later, but the wireless access at the U may be problematic) . Players can join in Round 2, they will receive a half-point bye for Round 1.  Additional bye information will be added.

Location: University of Winnipeg – Rm 4CM42

Easiest way to get there is to take the elevator at the north end (Ellice) to the 5th Floor(if that Elevator is operating) Otherwise, there is an elevator just to the west of the old Bookstore location.  Our goal is to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp.

2016 Jack Boardman Memorial has been rated by the CFC

See the crosstable here:
http://chess.ca/crosstable?tournament_check_number=201604099&key=160427

Congratulations to the following who achieved new peak established ratings:

Jeff Clark 2123 (+106)
Will Bonness 1777
Mike Skop 1699
Carter Marshall 1340
Ken Marshall 1328

2016 Gibraltar Congress - the flatmates

As I mentioned in a previous post - I shared a flat with four people I did not know previously. Well, as it turned out, I had met one of them before!    My flatmates were Padmini Rout, and Nisha Mohota of India, and father/daughter from Iceland, Magnus Kristinsson and Veronika Magnusdottir.  We all got along very well, and I am happy to have 4 new friends.

Magnus and Veronika squinting into the sun, waiting for the bus at Casemates.

Nisha Mohota and Padmini Rout en route to the playing site.  To Nisha's right is Yasser Saber of Morocco, who defeated GM Bellon Lopez in Round 9.  Waiting for and taking the bus was a great way to meet fellow players.

 

 

 

 I had met Nisha at the 2005 Canadian Open during the post mortem with Jonathan Zaczek. http://www.365chess.com/view_game.php?g=3190808.  She became an IM in 2011.  Padmini is also an IM, and notched a GM norm at the 2015 Gibraltar Masters.

Another new friend is John Zachariassen.  We were paired near each other for most rounds in the Masters.  He was staying at the Cannon Inn, near my flat, so we stopped for dinner one night at the Star Bar, Gibraltar's oldest bar.

 

Fish and chips for me  ! and a pint of course.

2016 Manitoba Closed Championship Qualifying Update

 Update April 25:
The final 8 re-sorted based on Jan 1. ratings according to the regulations are:

Baron	Gustav	2197
Dawa	Arvin	2161
Clark	Jeff	2057
Bince	Rolando	1976
Boron	Anthony	1951
Wolchock	Theo	1950
Prince	Colin	1920
Ma	Derek	1891

 The pairings for the quarterfinals are:
Baron-Ma
Dawa-Prince
Clark-Wolchock
Bince-Boron


Update: April 24 - Arvin Dawa and Derek Ma won the second games of their matches, winning both matches.

Update: April 9 - Arvin Dawa and Derek Ma won the first games of their matches, both having White.

Update: Feb 24  -   Gustav Baron, Theo Wolchock, Rolando Bince, Anthony Boron, James Atem, and Colin Prince, Jeff Clark Derek Ma have confirmed their entry. Kevin Gentes, Isaac Wiebe, Jeff Babb, Leor Wasserman have declined. We will give Marcos Valentino a deferral to 2017.

Jim Green and Ethan Eckert were successful in were successful for the at-large bids. Update, April 5: Jim has had to withdraw due to medical issues.  Arvin Dawa will replace Jim.

The play-in round will consist of the following match pairings:

Derek Ma vs. Ethan Eckert
James Atem vs.Arvin Dawa

the first named will have choice of colour in Game 1.

2016 Manitoba Closed Championship Qualifying -

Manitoba Closed 2016 format : 8 player knockout 

(Note: on February 23, 2014 the MCA board approved the adding up to two spots to the the Manitoba Championship at discretion of the Board; if the Board add the two spots, 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. On November 23, 2014, the Board approved continuation of this procedure for 2015 forward) 

Qualifiers -
Players must be Manitoba Permanent residents.

(Persons  who are not citizens or permanent residents, but who have been a resident of Manitoba for a twelve-month period immediately preceding the tournament, may be admitted to the Tournament provided they can clearly demonstrate to the MCA Board of Directors that they have a settled intention to continue to reside in Manitoba. The admittance to the Tournament of such exceptions shall be entirely at the discretion of the MCA Board of Directors.)
 

Qualifiers must play 10 standard rated games (somewhere in the world) during calendar 2015 in order to qualify. In order of preference - if the qualifying player does not want to participate or the qualifier is redundant, we continue down the list until there are 8 willing participants.

     1. Previous Year's Champion (KEVIN GENTES)
     2. Winner of the Reserve (not held)
     3. MB Junior Champion (if rated above 1900)  - 
     4. Top Manitoban in AY Memorial (Kevin Gentes)
     5,6. Top 2 finishers in the Tournament of Champions (GUSTAV BARON, ISAAC WIEBE) 
     7. Player with the best MTPPS (Kevin Gentes) 
     8. Player with the 2nd best MTPPS (Isaac Wiebe) 
     9. 2nd Manitoban in the AY Memorial (Jeff Babb, Moncal, Baron tied for 2nd, Moncal has only played 4 games)
    10. Player with the 3rd best MTPPS  (Gustav Baron)
    11. Player with the 4th best MTPPS  (Marcos Valentino)
    12. etc.from the MTPPS  (Anthony Boron, Theo Wolchock, Rolando Bince)

The above players will be contacted in early January 2016 to determine their willingness to participate in the knockout.  If any of the players decline, invitations will be provided to next players on the list below.  Then there will be a short period when wild-card bids (as described above) will be entertained.

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 current top MTPPS scores as of November 1. are as follows:
(Tournaments scored included all Manitoba CFC Standard rated tournaments, Canadian Closed,  Montreal Open, National Open, World Open, Millionare Open, etc.) If you believe a result has been missed or is incorrect, please contact me.

 

Name	Perf
Kevin Gentes	23950
Isaac Wiebe	22984
Gustav L Baron	22531
Marcos Valentino	22135
Anthony Boron	21761
Theo Wolchock	21638
Rolando Bince	21617
Myron Kernetsky	21463
Leor Wasserman	21447
Jeff Clark	21134
James Atem	20820
Colin Prince	20772
Derek Ma	20661
Waldemar Schulz	20638
Jim Green	20521
Blair Rutter	20465
Brock Beach	20231
Jamie Campbell	19909

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - April 16, 2015

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to move and mate in  (Shinkman)
1. d3

2016 Gibraltar Pairs Blitz - January 29

This was a fun event that started at 9 pm. The rules were that teams were to be composed of two players averaging no more than 2300 ELO, players were to alternate moves, and team members could not speak to each other (although, "oh, is it my move?" was heard often)

I (1915) teamed with one of my flatmates,  Magnus Kristinsson (1776) to form Chess Tourists (1846) 

We ended up with 4 points (2 points for a win)
http://chess-results.info/tnr205941.aspx?lan=0&art=63&wi=821

but a close examination of the crosstable will show that we scored a big upset over Rudd Star Belgrade (2236)  in Round 1 (their only loss!) . 

Here are some pics from Sophie Triay. Magnus is in the blue blazer at lower right, and I am beside him with the brown shirt and red lanyard.strap.

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - April 2, 2016

1. Ne4

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 2 (Swane)

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - April 2, 2016

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 2 (Swane)

1. Ne4

The history of the top chess players over time

A bit of a stretch for this blog, but many of the early 20th century players played simuls here, and quite frankly, this is too cool not to share ! Enjoy ! (Hat tip to Wayne Komer)

 https://youtu.be/z2DHpW79w0Y

2016 Gibraltar Masters - Round 4

I had Black against John Beadle (1560) of England, and ten years older than me. I was much more familiar with the opening, won a pawn on move 14 and had a decisive position before move 20. So, I was on the scoreboard in the Masters. But the day still had more chess ahead !

2016 Gibraltar Challengers B - Round 5

Entering the last round of the Challengers B, I had 1.5-2.5, so win would give a credible even score.
I was Black against David Gostelow (2013) of England, a fellow  same age as me.  As I write this two months later, I don't remember much about this game.

Let's see 19. cd5 ed5 20. e6 would have been scary, and at no time was I a threat to win this game. My opponent was leaking time however, and offered a draw, which I had no regrets in accepting. So I finished with 2 out of 5, finished 49 of 73, with a starting rank of 65, and gained 5 ELO.

2016 Jack Boardman Memorial Tournament starts Tuesday, April 5

2016 Jack Boardman Memorial (April TNT) –
CFC (Chess Federation of Canada)  rated. CFC Membership required (see below)

$ 15 entry fee  –   Prizes will be based on entries.

Location: University of Winnipeg – Rm 4CM42



Registration for tournament -Tuesday, April 5 – approximately 6:35 pm to 6:50 pm.

4 rounds – April 5, 12, 19, 26,   – (This is not a knockout tournament, players will play all 4 rounds)   (Players may take up to 1  half-point and any number of zero-point byes.  Half-point byes for round  4 must be requested before Round 2.)

Please note that we intend to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp. There is one game per week.

All of the TNTs are Swiss (pairing) style tournaments with a time control of G /110 minutes [Each player has 1 hour 50 minutes  to complete their moves, the game will be be approx. 3 hours and 40 minutes maximum]. We will also be using FIDE Rule Appendix G.4 for situations with players having under 2 minutes remaining.

$ 20 entry fee and CFC membership required.

All players must be CFC members (can be obtained during registration on-site)

[$ 20 for a one-tournament adult membership or $ 49 for 12 months- new adult members pay only $ 36 for a twelve-month CFC membership, or $ 16 for a one-tournament membership]

Junior (under 20)  members pay $ 10 for a one-tournament membership, $ 34 for a twelve-month CFC membership, new junior members pay only  $ 24 for a twelve month CFC membership, or $ 8 for a one-tournament membership]


Registration will be cut off at 6:50 pm. (If you think you may be late, please send an email to chessmanitoba ‘at’ gmail.com) before 5 pm (you can try later, but the wireless access at the U may be problematic). or phone 204-798-9464, Players can join in Round 2, they will receive a half-point bye for Round 1. 

Location: University of Winnipeg – Rm 4CM42

Easiest way to get there is to take the elevator at the north end (Ellice) to the 5th Floor(if that Elevator is operating) Otherwise, there is an elevator just to the west of the old Bookstore location.  Our goal is to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp.

http://passages.winnipegfreepress.com/passage-details/id-219242/name-Arthur_Boardman/run-date-2014_11_22/classification-id-1/order-publish_date|DESC,last_name|ASC,first_name|ASC/