Meeting Legendary GM Eugene Torre

In Reykjavik.

He says hello to his fans in Winnipeg (and Canada).

2017 April TNT has been rated by the CFC

See the crosstable here:

http://chess.ca/crosstable?tournament_check_number=201704101

Congratulations to the following who achieved new peak established ratings:

Isaac Wiebe  2243
Theo Wolchock 2071
Bruce Reimer 1696
Ken Marshall 1542
Carter Marshall 1451
Zachary Piche 1372

Cecil's Saturday Puzzle - April 8, 2017

from the Winnipeg Free Press

White to mate in 2 (Loyd)

This one is relatively simple due to the scarcity of candidate moves for either side.

1977 Latvian Championship - Aron Kaptsan 9th

 A new cross table has surfaced -
Aron Kaptsan tied for a very credible ninth

http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_repub/1977/ch_lat77.html

This would be a companion piece to this old post:
http://chessmanitoba.blogspot.com/2009/11/connections.html

2017 Manitoba Closed Qualifying Update

2017 Manitoba Closed Championship Qualifying -

Manitoba Closed 2017 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 February 26, 2017, the Board approved a regulation that bidders for the wild-card spots must have a standard rating greater than 1800.) 

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 2016 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 (ARVIN DAWA)
     2. Winner of the Reserve (not held)
     3. MB Junior Champion (if rated above 1900)  - THEO WOLCHOCK)
     4. Top Manitoban in AY Memorial (if Standard time control)(not held)
     5,6. Top 2 finishers in the Tournament of Champions (KEVIN GENTES not resident, MARCOS VALENTINO, BLAIR RUTTER) 
     7. Player with the best MTPPS (ISAAC WIEBE ) 
     8. Player with the 2nd best MTPPS (ROLANDO BINCE ) 
     9. 2nd Manitoban in the AY Memorial (n/a)
    10. Player with the 3rd best MTPPS  (ANTHONY BORON )
    11. Player with the 4th best MTPPS  (Theo Wolchock )
    12.  Player with the 5th best MTPPS (Blair Rutter )
13.  Player with the 6th best MTPPS (JEFF BABB)
13.  Player with the 7th best MTPPS (GUSTAV BARON)


The above players (in bold) will be contacted in early 2017 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.

UPDATE: April 22  1130 pm

Confirmed participants:
JEFF BABB        2216
MARCOS VALENTINO 2210
ISAAC WIEBE         2196
ROLANDO BINCE    2099
BLAIR RUTTER   2073
ANTHONY BORON 2067
GUSTAV BARON   2015
THEO WOLCHOCK 1965

Declined:
ARVIN DAWA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 2017 top MTPPS scores are as follows:
(Tournaments scored included all Manitoba CFC Standard rated tournaments, US standard rated tournaments, International FIDE standard rated tournaments etc.) If you believe a result has been missed or is incorrect, please contact me.

Isaac Wiebe	22941
Rolando Bince	22649
Anthony Boron	22461
Theo Wolchock	21801
Blair Rutter	21695
Jeff Babb	21467
Arvin Dawa	21211
Gustav L Baron	21034
Saul Magnusson	20935
Jeff Clark	20900
Myron Kernetsky	20601
Marcos Valentino	20562
Will Bonness	20404
Jaroslaw Czypinski	19872
Jim Green	19834
James Atem	18895
Ken Einarsson	18350
Cory Letain	18190

Arthur Bisguier 1929 - 2017

Art won the 2003 Abe Yanofsky Memorial.
http://chess.ca/crosstable?tournament_check_number=200309022&key=170406


From the New York Times

https://nyti.ms/2oDvSiN

Arthur Bisguier, Brash, Self-Taught Bronx Chess Champion, Dies at 87

By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN

Mr. Bisguier learned to play chess when he was 5 by watching games between his older sister and a cousin. He was frustrated by failures against Bobby Fischer.

2017 April TNT starts Tuesday, April 4, 2017

2017 April Tuesday Night Tournament –
CFC (Chess Federation of Canada)  rated.$ 15 entry fee  –   Prizes will be based on entries.  Location: University of Winnipeg – Rm 4CM424 rounds – 1 on each of April 4,11, 18,25   – (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 1.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.
.
Start time is 7:00 pm and the TD will confirm costs$ 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,April 4 – 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.  Tournament Director will be Blair Rutter  reachable  at 204-298-6961.
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.