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GOTW: Piasetski - Pashayan, 2017 World Senior 65+

November 22, 2017, 1:57 pm
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Our Canadian Game of the Week is Piasetski - Pashayan, from the 27th World Senior Championship, which just finished in Acqui Terme, Italy.
Notes by IM Leon Piasetski.

27th FIDE World Senior Championship
November 6-19, 2017.
Acqui Terme, Italy

The 27th FIDE World Championship ended this week in the Northern Italian resort town of Acqui Terme. 

The World Senior Championship has four sections: Men's and Women's in both 50+ and 65+ age groups. The Men's sections were 11 round Swisses, the Women's were 9 rounds.

  • 93 players competed in the Open 50+. At 2650 the top seed was GM Julio Granda Zuniga (Peru), and he won with 9.5/11, a full point ahead of GMs Antonio Gogelio (PHI) and Eric Prie (FRA).
  • 165 players competed in the Open 65+. GM Evgeny Sveshnikov (RUS) won with 8.5/11, a half-point ahead of a group of 9 players -- including Olympiad ironman Eugenio Torre -- which was topped on tie-breaks by GMs Anatoly Vaisser (FRA) and Vlastimil Jansa (CZE)
  • 22 women played in the Women's 50+ section, which was won by WGM Elvira Berend (LUX) with 7/9.
  • 15 women played in the Women's 65+ section, which finished with Georgian WGM Tamar Khmiadashvili and GM (and former Women's World Champion) Nona Gaprindashvili a full point ahead of the field with 7.5/9. Khmiadashvili won their individual game, and so took the title on tie-break.

Three Canadians played, all in the 65+ section:

  1. IM Leon Piasetski +4 =5 -2;  6.5/11; 37th
  2. William Doubleday +5 =0 -6; 5/11; 105th
  3. Andre Zybura +2 =5 -4; 4.5/11; 120th

Links

FIDE Report
https://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/10506-27th-senior-chess-championship-acqui-terme-2017.html

Results
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr282186.aspx?lan=1&art=4&wi=821

Photos
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CZuUTJHeW4CcDDtQ2

photo: IM Leon Piasetski, by Gerhard Bertagnolli

 

 

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Upcoming Events: 2017.12 - 2018.01

November 25, 2017, 12:56 pm
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22 chess tournaments across Canada this December 2017 and January 2018. If you can't quit, you might as well play... 

December 2, 2017 

Kelowna Winter Active
Kelowna Central Library, Kelowna BC.

4 round Swiss
TC: G/30

https://beanscenechess.wordpress.com/2017/11/22/185/

 

December 2-3 , 2017

Mississauga Open 2017
Erindale United Church, Mississauga, ON

5 Round Swiss
TC: 90 + 30

http://www.miltonchess.ca/images/cfc/2017_mississauga_open.pdf 

December 8-10, 2017

RA December Open
RA Centre, Ottawa

5 Round Swiss
TC: 90 + 30

https://www.eoca.ca/

 

Nanaimo Winter Open
Coast Bastion Hotel, Nanaimo BC.

5 Round Swiss
TC: 90 + 30

https://nanaimo-open.ca/next_tournament 

 December 9-10 & 16-17, 2017

Tournoi Étoiles montantes/Quebec Young Stars
Chess’n Math Association, Montréal

8-round Swiss, CFC and FIDE rated, generous bye policy.

http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/tournoi-etoiles-montantes-2e-edition 

 December 15-17, 2017

Hart House Holidays Open
Hart House, Toronto

5 Round Swiss
TC: 90 + 30

https://harthousechess.com/2017/11/01/hart-house-holidays-open/

  

December 16-17, 2017.

WBX Team Tournament
Edmonton Chess Club

3-player Team tournament, Swiss or RR depending on entries

http://www.albertachess.org/2017WBX.php 

 December 26-31, 2017

2017-18 Canadian Women's Zonal/Championnat Zonal Féminin
St.Henri Community Centre, Montréal

10 player Round-Robin. 
Winner represents Canada at the next Women's World Cup

http://online.flipbuilder.com/hwhh/dskp/mobile/index.html#p=1

 

Tournoi du Père Noël
St.Henri Community Centre, Montréal

5 Round Swisse, une partie par jour
Cad:30m/75min + 30min/mat + 30s

http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/tournoi-du-pere-noel-3 

  

 January 2-6, 2018

2018 Montreal Winter Chess Classic
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, Montréal

5 Round Swiss
TC: 90 + 30

Plus: an 8-player Invitation Only RR for FIDE-rated players over 2150.
Plus: a chess training camp (9am-5pm) including rapid and blitz tournaments and lessons from FM Lefong Hua.

http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/classique-hivernale-de-montreal-2018

 

January 5-7, 2018

2018 John Schleinich Memorial
Calgary Chess Club

6-player RRs by rating group. No Byes!
TC: 40/90 + G/30 + 30

http://calgarychess.com/WORDPRESS/?page_id=10675

 

January 6, 2018

Woodpusher' Challenge
Edmonds Community Center,  Burnaby BC.

4 and 5 round Swisses

http://www.chess.bc.ca/Events/WP%201801%20Flyer%20v9.pdf

 

January 6-7, 2018

Guelph Winter Pro-Am 
Guelph University Centre, Guelph ON.

5 Round Swiss
TC: 90 + 30

Discount entry before Nov. 30.

Contact: halbond AT sympatico DOT ca 

 January 12-14, 2018

Championnat Jeunesse du Québec
Centre communautaire Saint-Henri, Montréal

Ouvert pour les joueurs moins de 18 ans, au 1er janvier 2018.

5 Ronde Swisse
Cad: 90 + 30

http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/championnat-jeunesse-du-quebec-2018

 

2018 Victoria Open
Comfort Inn and Suites, Victoria BC

5 Round open Swiss
TC: 90 + 30

plus: Invitational matches between BC and Washington, and between Vancouver and Victoria

http://victoriachessclub.pbworks.com/w/page/100118877/Victoria%20Ope

 

January 13-14, 2018

Canadian University Chess Championship
University of Ottawa

5-round, 4-player Team Swiss

Blitz Tournament Friday night (Jan.12)

https://uochess.club/ 

 January 16, 2018

2018 Greater Toronto Chess League
Willowdale Chess Club, ON

The 2018 GTCL will be a 4-player, RR Team tournament, held on consecutive Tuesdays.

TC: 60 + 10

Contact:  Sasha Starr <alexander DOT starr AT gmail DOT com> 

 January 19-21, 2018

RA Winter Open
RA Centre, Ottawa

5 Round Swiss
TC: 90 + 30

https://www.eoca.ca/ 

 January 27-28, 2018

Ontario Junior Championship
Erindale United Church, Mississauga, Ontario

5 Round Swiss
TC: 90 + 30

https://elevatemychess.com/ontario-junior/

 

January 27 & 28, 2018 [tentative]

PEI Quick and PEI Blitz
Charlottetown, UPEI

Quick:
5 Round Swiss
TC:G/25 + 5 sec delay

Blitz:
6-8 double-round Swiss
TC: 3 + 2

http://mcc.cdevastation.com/maritime.html

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GOTW: Bohatirchuk - Botvinnik, Leningrad,1933

November 30, 2017, 10:52 pm
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This week -- November 27, 2017 to be precise -- marked the 125th anniversary of the birth of Fedor Bohatirchuk, the Ukrainian-born Canadian Champion. Chessbase marked the occasion with a wonderful article which you can read that article here:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-man-who-was-dr-zhivago-fedor-bohatyrchuk

It has good photos and some nice game fragments, though I would have liked a bit more evidence to back up Lawrence Day's (plausible) claim that Bohatirchuk was Boris Pasternak's inspiration for Dr.Zhivago.

Bohatirchuk's greatest claim to chess fame comes from his enviable record against future World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik: +3 =1 -0.  

Our Canadian Game of the Week is the second of those three wins. Against a Sicilian Dragon, Bohatirchuk sets up a kind of Maroczy Bind, and when Black strikes out with ...f5, White keeps a lid on Black's play and converts his space and structural advantage in the center. If Botvinnik had been a better human being -- admittedly, easier in Canada than in Stalinist Russia -- he might have credited Bohatirchuk with a valuable lesson, rather than threatening to kill him.

A future post will include a selection of tactics featuring Bohatirchuk against top Canadian Champions.

photo: Bohatirchuk family headstone in the Pinecrest Cemetary, Ottawa. One hour before sunset, November 27, 2017. 

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BOTW: 2017.12.03

December 3, 2017, 8:01 am
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London Chess Fesitval
December 1-11, 2017.

London Chess Classic, FIDE Open, the British Knockout Championship, Rapid and Blitz tournaments, simuls, lectures and more.

9th London Chess Classic

10-player RR featuring 5 of the world's top six: 

Rank... Name.... FED.... Rtg

1  Carlsen Magnus, NOR...2837
2  Aronian Levon, ARM...2805
3  Caruana Fabiano, USA...2799
5  Vachier-Lagrave Maxime, FRA...2789
6  So Wesley, USA... 2788
8  Anand Viswanathan, IND... 2782
9  Nakamura Hikaru, USA... 2781
13 Karjakin Sergey, RUS... 2760
27 Nepomniachtchi Ian, RUS.... 2729
33 Adams Michael, ENG... 2715

Lev Aronian has had an amazing year so far, with wins at the Grenke Classic in April, Altibox-Norway Chess in June, St.Louis Rapid and Blitz in August, the World Cup in September, and marriage on September 30 to long-time girlfriend, WIM Arianne Caoili, and =1st the the Grand Prix in Palma de Mallorca in November.

Carlsen has to be the favourite -- the top-seed, convincing winner at the Isle of Man, and two recent crushing wins at the chess.com Speed Championship all show that he's in excellent form -- but Caruana came to London with the same secret weapon that the World Champion had at the Isle of Man... 

Rounds 1-8 start at various times between 2 and 4pm local (9am and 11am, EST). Round 9 starts at noon local, 5pm EST.

Live Games

https://grandchesstour.org/

Homepage

http://www.londonchessclassic.com/

 

London Classic Open
Dec. 2-9, 2017.

A 9-round Swiss featuring 37 GMs, 11 over 2600 and 25 over 2500. One game per day, except Sunday, which has 2 rounds.

Three Canadians are playing: WIM Yuanling Yuan, Daniel Abrahams and IM Aman Hambleton, who is going for his still-elusive final GM Norm. All three were paired down in round 1 and won.Yuanling plays 13-year-old IM Nihail Sarin in round 2.

Canadian Results

http://chess-results.com/tnr317477.aspx?lan=1&art=25&fedb=CAN&flag=30&wi=821

Complete Results

http://chess-results.com/tnr317477.aspx?lan=1

 

3rd British Knockout Championship

The event follows the same format as the FIDE World Cup: semis are best-of-two matches followed (if necessary) by rapid tie-breaks; finals are  best-of-four, followed by Rapid KO. The Semi-Finals see four well-matched British GMs:

  • Nigel Short vs Luke McShane and
  • David Howell vs Matthew Sadler. 

The event has no clear favourite: Sadler has the highest FIDE rating (2685) but that's only 45 points more than the lowest-rated semi-finalist. Short has by far the most experience -- becoming an IM when the next-oldest player (Sadler) was only 6. 

Homepage

http://www.londonchessclassic.com/

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Tactics: Bohatirchuk vs Canadian Champions

December 6, 2017, 7:21 pm
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November 27, 2017 marked the 125th anniversary of the birth of Fedor Bohatirchuk, the Ukrainian-born Canadian chess master.

Bohatirchuk is probably best known for his excellent score against Botvinnik: +3 =1 -0. The second of those three wins was our previous Canadian Game of the Week: here.

While he never won the Canadian Closed Chess Championship -- he emigrated to Canada at the age of 56 and taught radiology at the University of Ottawa -- he did defeat players who did. The diagrams show positions from games between Fedor Bohatirchuk and four Canadian Chess Champions, including the two who won it the most:

Maurice Fox (1898-1988)
Eight-time Canadian Chess Champion between 1927-49. Defeated Capablanca and drew with Alekhine in simuls, and defeated 13-year-old Bobby Fischer at the 1956 Canadian Open in Montreal. 

Abe Yanofsky (1925-2000)
Eight-time Canadian Champion between 1943-65, the first Grandmaster in the (British) Commonwealth, and the record-holder among Canadian men with 141 Olympiad games played.

Frank Anderson (1928-1980)
Two-time Canadian Chess Champion (1953, =1st with Yanofsky; 1955 clear first). The first Canadian-born International Master.

Lawrence Day (1949- )
Won the Canadian Championship in 1991, as well as the Canadian Open and Quebec Open three times each. Lawrence studied with Bohatirchuk while a student in Ottawa, and his influence may be seen in Day's use of g3 systems against the Sicilian.

The coloured circle in the bottom left of each board shows the player to move. 

Solutions and analysis below:

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AlphaZero

December 8, 2017, 10:52 pm
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AlphaZero vs Stockfish 

On December 5, 2017, Google DeepMind announced that it had developed an automated learning program -- AlphaZero (hereafter AZ)-- which trained itself to play Go, and chess, and Shogi in only a few hours and then decisively beat the world's best programs at each: 

    • beat Elmo at Shogi: +90 =2 -8
    • beat AlphaGO at Go: +60 =0 -40 (there are no draws in Go)
    • beat Stockfish at Chess: +28 =72 -0.

This result follows DeepMind's previous high-profile successes in mastering Go, decades before many experts thought that would be possible:

    1. March 2016: AlphaGo defeated 18-time Go World Champion Lee Sedol: 4-1.
    2. May 2017: AlphaGo defeated current world #1 Go player Ke Jie: 3-0.
    3. October 2017: AlphaGo Zero defeated AlphaGo by a score of 100-0.

    The paper, which has not been peer-reviewed, describing the experiment, along with 10 games between AlphaZero and Stockfish can be downloaded here.

    We'll have more on this in a few days, including:

    Q: Did AZ really take only 4 hours to learn chess?
    A: Yes. Not counting the years of development in creating self-learning algorithms and the super-fast hardware to run them.

    Q: Are these 10 games a fair representation of AZ's chess ability?
    A: Obviously not: AZ scored 64% in the match, but scores 100% in the published sample.

    Q: Was this a fair test for Stockfish?
    A: No. There are objections to the lack of opening book, no endgame tablebases, the unusual time control, the exceptionally low level of memory cache allowed to Stockfish relative to the number of threads it ran on, the fact that they used a year-old version of the constantly changing program...

    Q: So, is AlphaZero not stronger than Stockfish?
    A: It is clearly much stronger, though probably by less than the 64-36 score indicates.

    Q: But their paper says SF was analyzing way more positions per second than AZ, doesn't that mean SF had an advantage?
    A: No. It means SF and AZ spend their calculating time differently: SF looks at lots of positions, AZ applies more time-consuming evaluations to each position.

    Q: When will I be able to buy AlphaZero for chess?
    A: Don't hold your breath. Google DeepMind did not sell the programs it made for Go, and (even if it did) they all run on hardware that goes about 1000 times faster than you could run on a desktop CPU with an AMD Ryzen 9.

    Q: Will AlphaZero StockPicker revolutionize investing?
    A: Not for long, if at all. Stock markets, unlike boardgames, are chaotic type-2 systems: choices made by agents affect the system in unpredictable ways...

    Q: Was it just a coincidence that the first round of the 2017 London Chess Classic was played at the home of Google DeepMind the same week as their paper about AlphaZero was published?
    A: :-) 

    Chess Games First

    There are many interesting things about this story, some of which we may return to here. But, as chess-lovers, the most interesting thing about the story is that there is now a chess-playing entity which is several orders of magnitude better than the best publicly-available programs, which are themselves several orders of magnitude better than the best human players, and that (some of) its games are available. So what does it play like??

    All 10 games, with notes, can be replayed in the viewer below. If you need some encouraging, how about 7-time Russian Champion Peter Svidler:

    "The games were absolutely fantastic, phenomenal.... I'm not amazed with the fact that it learned chess, but I was stunned by the games' quality."

    I think all 10 games are worth playing through, but if you're short of time, then play at least the following three:

    1. game 3: a QID where AZ sacrifices a pawn and an exchange to trap Black's Q on h8 and win by zugzwang.
    2. game 10: another QID, where AZ allows a N to be captured at move 19 just to gain a development lead which doesn't turn into a (humanly) clear win until after move 33.
    3. game 7: Karpov 2.0: no fireworks, but a Karpov-like win where AZ didn't seem to do anything... until its opponent was lost.
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    BOTW: 2017.12.15

    December 15, 2017, 7:34 pm
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    Karjakin - Nakamura in the chess.com Blitz Championship semi-final, Jeremy Silman annotating games played by four Canadians, and whatever is becoming of Alexandra Botez... are this week's Best of the Web.

    Chess.com Speed Chess Championship: Nakamura vs Karjakin
    Dec. 16, 2017. (9am Pacific, noon EST)

    Hikaru Nakamura and Sergey Karjakin meet in the semi-final of the 2017 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship.

    The winner plays defending Champion Magnus Carlsen, who beat Alexander Grischuk 15.5 - 10.5 in the other semi-final.

    The format for the Chess.com matches is 3 hours of online play, broken into four formats:

    1. 90 minutes of 5+2 blitz, 
    2. 60 minutes of 3+2 blitz,
    3. 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet,
    4. one chess960 game in each time control. 
    Nakamura is the favourite in the bullet portion, but Karjakin gives nothing away in the other time controls, and his patience and ability to hold passive positions might turn out to be the resourceful but risk-seeking Nakamura's kryptonite. 
    Live Games (commentary by IM Danny Rensch and ...? could be GM Eric Hansen or GM Robert Hess)

    https://www.chess.com/tv

    http://www.twitch.tv/Chess

    Jeremy Silman annotates three games by four Canadians

    IM Jeremy Silman is the author of "How to Reassess Your Chess" and "Silman's Endgame Course", both of which are excellent and aimed at getting class players up to and beyond expert level. 

    Silman also writes a regular column on Chess.com where he answers readers' questions. His most recent post includes analysis of three games by "Animaul7", who is Canadian junior Anthony Maulucci. All three games were played at the 2017 Aurora Fall Open. His opponents are: Mark Plotkin (2343), Sam Marin (2125), and Dorian Kang (2017). Silman's notes to the Nimzo pawn structure in the Marin game are particularly detailed.

    https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-can-an-expert-become-a-master

    Alexandra Botez on "Planet of the Apps"

    Canadian expert Alexandra Botez plays a lot less chess than she did before university, though she does occasionally stream online games (hand and brain), news summaries on Chess.com, and appeared as an alumna at the 2017 Susan Polgar Foundation Girl's Invitational.

    She's graduated from Stanford -- where she was the first-ever female president of the chess club -- and is developing an app called "Crowdamp", which is designed to help social-media taste-makers interact with their followers more efficiently and more directly. 

    Planet of the Apps is an online reality show similar to Dragon's Den and Shark Tank: hopeful entrepreneurs pitch a product idea to experts -- here, it's Jessica Alba, will.i.am, Gwyneth Paltrow and Gary Vaynerchuk -- hoping that one of them will like it enough to mentor them before they do a second pitch to potential investors. The title comes from the fact that all of the pitches are about apps: smart phone applications. It's produced by Apple and can be seen on Apple Music, and elsewhere. 

    Alexandra and her codeveloper Ruben Meyer pitch their app during episode 7, which you can watch on Apple Music, or by following the link below.

    times: (when Alexandra and Ruben are on) 

    • 12:40 - Introduction
    • 13:21 - initial pitch
    • 28:33 - meet with mentor team
    • 40:50 - investors pitch (screencap above)
    Note: there will be popups and/or redirects from the link below -- that's how they pay for their bandwidth. I use a popup blocker, but there are still a couple of redirects. Just keep clicking or double-clicking.

    https://www.mehlizmovies.is/fullepisodes/planet-apps-season-1-episode-7/

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    Tactics: (RB vs RB) X2

    December 16, 2017, 11:19 pm
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    "Fewer pieces create fewer problems."

    That's the quote at the start of Laszlo Polgar's "Chess Endgames", a fat collection of 4560 thematically-organized endgame positions which (as Laszlo well-knew) showed just how many problems remain even when very few pieces remain. Positions 4423-4446 in Polgar's book are RB vs RB of opposite colour endings. He might consider adding these games to any future edition of his collection...

    Our two positions come from top boards of Round 4 at last weekend's RA December Open. Both were RB vs RB with opposite-coloured Bs. The general wisdom is that opposite coloured Bs increase attacking chances in the middlegame, but they increase the drawing margin in endgames. The reason is the same for both conclusions -- neither B can oppose the other  -- so an attack supported by the B will have one more attacker than defender, and (in the endgame) a blockade on the colour of one B cannot be broken by a B on the other colour. Because of the awkward position of the white Kings in our two examples they feature both themes: mating tactics and defensive blockades.

    The coloured circles in the lower left corner of the diagrams indicate the player to move. Take some time to at least come up with some ideas before looking at the games and analysis...

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    Canada's Next GM: Aman Hambleton!

    December 22, 2017, 9:38 am
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    With one round to go IM Aman Hambleton has guaranteed his final GM Norm at the Sunway Sitges International in Spain!

    Aman has been playing almost constantly since scoring his second GM Norm in Reykjavik in April, but this week everything came together:

    1. win over an expert;
    2. win over a master; 
    3. draw with black against #5 seed GM Oleksander Zubov (2626); 
    4. win over #7  GM Victor Bologan (2607); 
    5. win over #11 GM Aleksandr Predke (2599); 
    6. draw with #3 seed GM Salem Saleh (2638); 
    7. draw with GM Awonder Liang (2573); 
    8. draw with GM Fernando Peralta (2556).

    Not only does Aman's +4 =4 -0 score guarantee the 2600 performance rating he needs for the GM Norm, but it puts him in position for a top place finish after Saturday's final round. 

    The photos in the gallery below chart the descent of the normally well-groomed Aman into a hirsuite norm-hungry beast. This happened because Aman promised not to shave until he scored his final GM Norm, and he kept his promise.

    In his post-mortem chat on the ChessBrah stream (screencap below), Aman thanked all his supporters, said he was looking forward to spending the Christmas holiday at home, would be celebrating his birthday December 30th, and would have a live de-bearding on the ChessBrah stream on December 31.

    Links

    Sitges International Chess Festival
    http://www.sunwaychessfestival.com/

    ChessBrah Stream
    https://www.twitch.tv/chessbrah

    Hambleton games on the Norm Quest 

     

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    2017-18 Women's Zonal

    December 24, 2017, 8:57 am
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    2017-18 Canadian Women's Zonal/Championnat Zonal Féminin

    December 26-31, 2017
    St.Henri Community Centre, Montréal

    The 2017-18 Zonal is a 10-player Round-Robin. The winner represents Canada at the next Women's World Cup and qualifies for Canadian Women's Olympiad Team. The final list of players, along with the pairings, were settled last week:

    Players

    RankNameProvRatingQualified byParing #
    1Matras-Clement, AgnieszkaAB2317Runner-up4
    2Zhou, QiyuON2309Champion3
    3Khoudgarian, NataliaON2248Ontario PC10
    4Demchenko, SvitlanaON2222Rating7
    5Ouellet, Maili-JadeQC2206Québec PC2
    6Xu, RuoyingON2110Rating5
    7Tian, Shi YuanBC2017BC PC9
    8Wang, JiayingNF1925Maritime PC1
    9Cui, CynthiaNB1790Maritime PC6
    10Chao, LucyAB1634Alberta PC8

     With five 2200+ players this may be the strongest Canadian Women's Zonal ever. 

    Pairings:

    Rd. Pairings 
    1: 1:10, 2:9, 3:8, 4:7, 5:6
    2: 10:6, 7:5, 8:4, 9:3, 1:2
    3: 2:10, 3:1, 4:9, 5:8, 6:7
    4: 10:7, 8:6, 9:5, 1:4, 2:3
    5: 3:10, 4:2, 5:1, 6:9, 7:8
    6: 10:8, 9:7, 1:6, 2:5, 3:4
    7: 4:10, 5:3, 6:2, 7:1, 8:9
    8: 10:9, 1:8, 2:7, 3:6, 4:5
    9: 5:10, 6:4, 7:3, 8:2, 9:1


    Schedule:     

      • Dec. 26 Rd.1 & 2; 10am & 6pm
      • Dec. 27 Rd.3; 6 pm
      • Dec. 28 Rd.4 & 5; 10am & 6pm
      • Dec. 29 Rd.6; 6 pm
      • Dec. 30 Rd.7 & 8; 10am & 6pm
      • Dec. 31 Rd.9, 10am; TB @ 4pm if necessary.
     December 28 should be a key day in the Zonal, as both rounds see 4 of the 5 masters playing each other.
    .
    Arbiters: Bernard Ouimet & Vadim Tsypin
    .
    Note: The Zonal is being held alongside the Tournoi du Père Noël, Dec 26-30, a 5 round Swiss at one-game-a-day (link below).

    Link
    http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/championnat-zonal-feminin-du-canada-2018

    Tournoi du Père Noël
    http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/tournoi-du-pere-noel-3

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    2017 Christmas Theme Puzzles

    December 25, 2017, 1:20 pm
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    Two Chrstmas-themed puzzles:

      • for the star on the left it is White to play and mate in 2
      • for the tree on the right it is Black to mate in 2.
    Note: the puzzle on the right is significantly harder, and there are hints below.
    Hint:
    Spoiler: Highlight to view
    What was White's previous move?
    Hint 2: 
    Spoiler: Highlight to view
    Count the number of captures the Black pawns made.
    Hint 3: 
    Spoiler: Highlight to view
    Where did White's Bishops go?
    Solutions:
    Spoiler: Highlight to view
    Solutions will be posted here next week.

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    BOTW: 2017.12.27

    December 27, 2017, 9:24 am
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    King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships

    Dec. 26-30, 2017
    Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Rapid Dec. 26-28, is a 15 round Swiss.

    Blitz Dec. 29-30, 21 round Swiss.

    FIDE's "decision" -- if you can call it that, since there were no other bids -- to accept the bid to hold the event in Saudi Arabia is controversial:

    Pros: Record $2 million prize fund. Excellent conditions for players who attend. More explict dress code, including women not required to wear headscaves in tournament hall.

    Cons: Players from countries Saudi Arabia has diplomatic problems were not allowed visas (= no players from Israel); women have to live by the local customs outside the playing hall (scarves, must be accompanied by male relative).

    Both Hikaru Nakamura and 2016 Rapid and Blitz World Champion Anna Muzychuk cited political objections as reasons they will not play in the event. For more, see: https://en.chessbase.com/post/world-rapid-starts-in-riyadh

    Live Games (start at 6am EST)

    http://riyadh2017.fide.com

    https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/world-rapid-championship-2017/1/1/1

    English commentary: WGM K. Tsatsalashvili & GM E. Miroshnichenko
    Russian commentary: GM Sergei Shipov

    Note: the English feed for the live commentary is very spotty, with frequent hangs. The Russian and Spanish feeds work fine, but not all English speakers will understand them.

    Canadian Women's Zonal

    Dec.26-31, 2017

    A 10-player RR to determine the Canadian Women's Champion, who will represent Canada at the next World Cup, and qualify automatically for a spot on the Olympiad team.

    Event Details (updated)

    http://chess.ca/newsfeed/node/1029

    Live Games: The top four games from each round are on DGT boards, and can be viewed here:

    http://fqechecs.qc.ca/revue/revue/zonal2017/tfd.htm

    Note: burst pipes outside the venue forced the rescheduling of Round 2 (and all later rounds). At the moment it is not clear if the venue will be functional for round 2, currently rescheduled for Dec 27 at 6pm.

    The DeBearding

    December 31, 2017

    Aman Hambelton's soon-to-be-legendary beard comes off live online on the ChessBrah twitch stream.

    Over a year ago, Aman promised he would not shave until he got his final GM Norm. He accomplished that at the Sunway Sitges International in Spain in late December, and celebrate a return to well-coiffed humanity from his Beast State live online:

    https://www.twitch.tv/chessbrah 

    Chess.com Blitz Championship Final: Carlsen v Nakamura

    January 3, 2018. 10am PST, 1pm EST

    Magnus Carlsen defends his Chess.Com Championship title against Hikaru Nakamura in the final of the online Blitz Championship.

    Based on their head-to-head record, and their performance in the matches leading up to the final, Carlsen is the clear favourite.

    The format for the Chess.com matches is 3 hours of online play, broken into four formats:

      • 90 minutes of 5+2 blitz, 
      • 60 minutes of 3+2 blitz,
      • 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet,
      • one chess960 game in each time control. 

    Live Games (commentary by IM Danny Rensch and GM Eric Hansen)

    https://www.chess.com/tv

    http://www.twitch.tv/Chess

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    2017-18 Canadian Women's Champion: Maili-Jade Ouellet

    December 31, 2017, 12:54 pm
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    Maili-Jade Ouellet won the 2017-18 Canadian Women's Chanpionship (Zonal 2.2) with 7/9 (+6 = 2 -1). 

    She earns the right to represent Canada at the next Women's World Cup and automatically qualifies for Canadian Women's Olympiad Team (she played in the Baku Olympiad on fifth board).

    The 2017-18 Canadian Women's Zonal/Championnat Zonal Féminin was held December 26-31, 2017 in Montréal. It was a 10-player Round-Robin, which included both the 2016 Champion, WGM Qiyu Zhou, and 2016 runner-up, WIM Agnieszka Matras-Clement. Full crosstable below. 

    Thanks to Organizer Richard Bérubé (FQE DG) and TD's Bernard Ouimet and Vadim Tsypin. They not only ran the event, but managed to cope with a forced change in venue between rounds 1 and 2 due to a water pipe that burst in the exceptionally cold weather.

    Rk. NameFIDE12345678910Pts.
    1WIMOUELLET Maili-Jade2062*0½½1111117,0
    2WGMZHOU Qiyu22401*½110½½116,5
     WIMMATRAS-CLEMENT Agnieszka2260½½*½1111016,5
    4WFMDEMCHENKO Svitlana2081½0½*0½11115,5
    5WIMKHOUDGARIAN Natalia21000001*11½014,5
    6 XU Ruoying2020010½0*0½114,0
      CUI Cynthia16040½0001*½114,0
      TIAN Shi Yuan16610½00½½½*114,0
    9 WANG Jiaying191900101000*13,0
    10 CHAO Lucy1331000000000*0,0

    Details and links:  http://chess.ca/newsfeed/node/1029 

    Games

    The top 4 games of each round were played on DGT boards, and could be followed live online. Below are five key games from the Zonal, including the winner's games against her nearest three rivals and two critical last-round games. Interestingly, four of the five games were decided in major piece endings. 
    Select the game by clicking the triangular key next to the players' names...

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    GM-Elect Hambleton Annotates

    January 8, 2018, 11:40 am
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    Everyone following Canadian chess will know that IM Aman Hambleton scored his final GM Norm in late December in Spain. That result not only earns him FIDE's Grandmaster title, but also pushed his rating back over 2500, and allowed him to finally shave the beard he had promised to let grow until making his final Norm. 

    Aman has annotated many of his games for an upcoming issue of Chess Canada. Here are three -- a draw, a loss, and a win -- from three different 2017 tournaments along the way. None of them are opening knockouts. Each is a complex, back-and-forth fight, each with at least one phase of time-pressure and (in two of them) long battles into the endgame.

    photo: Aman at the 2017 RTU Open.

    For more on Aman's final norm, including links to more of his annotated games, see http://chess.ca/newsfeed/node/1028

    To watch Aman streaming online, subscribe to the ChessBrah stream: https://www.twitch.tv/chessbrah

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    BOTW: 2018.1.12

    January 12, 2018, 2:52 pm
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    TATA Steel/Wijk aan Zee

    January 13-28, 2018.

    The 80th running of the Dutch by-the-sea classic is the first major event of 2018. The 14-player RR includes the traditional mix of world's top tier and weaker but interesting players, a mix which should ensure fighting chess as the top seeds have to play to win every game against the lower-rated guests:

    NameFIDECountryRank
    Carlsen, Magnus2834NOR1
    Caruana, Fabiano2811USA2
    Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar2804AZE3
    So, Wesley2792USA6
    Kramnik, Vladimir2787RUS7
    Svidler, Peter2768RUS10
    Anand, Viswanathan2767IND11
    Karjakin, Sergey2753RUS14
    Giri, Anish2752NED15
    Wei, Yi2743CHN22
    Matlakov, Maxim2718RUS32
    Hou, Yifan2680CHN64
    Adhiban, B.2655IND96
    Jones, Gawain2640ENG127

    Notes:

    • Carlsen is the World Champion, and won the FIDE Blitz Championship in December, but hasn't won a top classic since 2016.
    • So is the defending Champion.
    • Kramnik has played in Wijk 12 times, his best result being =1st with Anand in 1998.
    • Svidler is now the 8-time Russian Champion, having won again in 2017.
    • Anand first played in Wijk 29 years ago -- before 9 of the other players were born! The ex-World Champ won the 2017 FIDE Rapid Championship in December.
    • Yifan is the #1 FIDE-rated woman in the world, and former Women's World Champion.
    • Jones qualified by winning the Challengers Group in 2017.

    Interesting Rounds:

    • 1: Carlsen - Caruana
    • 4: Giri - Carlsen
    • 5: Carlsen - Kramnik
    • 7: Anand - Kramnik, and Mamedyarov - Wei Yi
    • 13: Karjakin - Carlsen

    Live Games and Commentary (starts 7:30 EST)

    Commentators include Robin van Kampen, Yasser Seirawan, and Eric Hansen, who will do onsite commentary from rounds 6-13.

    https://www.tatasteelchess.com/live/live-games

    https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments

    Homepage

    https://www.tatasteelchess.com

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    GOTW: +2 and lost!

    January 22, 2018, 8:58 pm
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    Magnus Carlsen is the World Champion and rated 2830, and that seems to mean he can give piece odds to a mere 2630 GM and still win.
    The Dragon is so bad that even when you're a piece up you are still almost lost!

    Those were the kinds of semi-jokes making the rounds Sunday after Carlsen blundered a piece in a known position in the Dragon against Gawain Jones at the TATA Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee, and yet still managed to win.

    When reviewing this game before round 5 at the Ottawa Winter Open, GM Bator Sambuev said he had (mis)played the same opening as in Carlsen-Jones, and rather than get a bad position with no play against an FM, he sacrificed his queen... and won! I found that game and annotated it, along with another Carlsen game in the same variation when he survived against 2700+ Peter Leko.

    The three games are preceeded by an Opening Survey on this 10.Qe1 line against the Dragon.

    In all three games, one player was at least +2... and did not win, and in two of them they lost.

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    Upcoming Events: 2018.01-02

    January 22, 2018, 9:56 pm
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    January-February 2018 

    40 chess tournaments across Canada during the worst weather months of the year!?

    See for yourself... 

    January 2-6, 2018


    2018 Montreal Winter Chess Classic
    Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, Montréal

    5 Round Swiss
    TC: 90 + 30

    Plus: an 8-player Invitation Only RR for FIDE-rated players over 2150.
    Plus: a chess training camp (9am-5pm) including rapid and blitz tournaments and lessons from FM Lefong Hua.

    http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/classique-hivernale-de-montreal-2018

     

    January 5-7, 2018

    2018 John Schleinich Memorial
    Calgary Chess Club

    6-player RRs by rating group. No Byes!
    TC: 40/90 + G/30 + 30

    http://calgarychess.com/WORDPRESS/?page_id=10675

     

    January 6, 2018 

    NYYCC & GP
    St.Timothy Catholic School, North York, ON

    U8, U10, U12, U14, U16, U18 Open and Girls
    5 round Swiss
    TC: G/25

    https://senecahillchess.com/2017/11/08/2018-nyycc-and-gp/

     

    Woodpusher' Challenge
    Edmonds Community Center,  Burnaby BC.
    4 and 5 round Swisses

    http://www.chess.bc.ca/Events/WP%201801%20Flyer%20v9.pdf


     January 6-7, 2018

    Guelph Winter Pro-Am 
    Guelph University Centre, Guelph ON.

    5 Round Swiss
    TC: 90 + 30

    Discount entry before Nov. 30.

    Contact: halbond AT sympatico DOT ca 


     January 12-14, 2018

    Championnat Jeunesse du Québec
    Centre communautaire Saint-Henri, Montréal

    Ouvert pour les joueurs moins de 18 ans, au 1er janvier 2018.

    5 Ronde Swisse
    Cad: 90 + 30

    http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/championnat-jeunesse-du-quebec-2018

     

    2018 Victoria Open
    Comfort Inn and Suites, Victoria BC

    5 Round open Swiss
    TC: 90 + 30

    plus: Invitational matches between BC and Washington, and between Vancouver and Victoria

    ttp://victoriachessclub.pbworks.com/w/page/100118877/Victoria%20Ope


     January 13-14, 2018

    Canadian University Chess Championship
    University of Ottawa

    5-round, 4-player Team Swiss
    Blitz Tournament Friday night (Jan.12)

    https://uochess.club/ 



    January 14, 21, 28 , 2018

    Seneca Hill Chess
    St. Timothy Catholic School, North York, ON 

    2 rounds per Sunday
    TC: G/60 or 50+10

    https://senecahillchess.com/2014/11/11/sunday-cfc-tournaments/

     

     January 16, 2018

    2018 Greater Toronto Chess League
    Willowdale Chess Club, ON

    The 2018 GTCL will be a 4-player, RR Team tournament, held on consecutive Tuesdays.
    TC: 60 + 10

    Contact:  Sasha Starr <alexander DOT starr AT gmail DOT com> 



    January 18, 2018

    Eagle Minds Active
    Alton Library, Burlington ON

    5 round active
    TC: G/30

    http://eaglemindschess.weebly.com/bi-monthly-tournaments.html

     

    January 19, 2018

    tournoi Vacances dans le Sud
    Aylmer, Quebec

    7:30 pm

    http://www.ceaylmer.ca/



     January 19-21, 2018

    RA Winter Open
    RA Centre, Ottawa

    5 Round Swiss
    TC: 90 + 30

    https://www.eoca.ca/

     

    Tournoi de Classe C&D (1200-1599)
    Stade Olympique, Montréal 

    Système suisse de 5 rondes
    cad: 60+30

    http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/tournoi-de-classe-cd-1200-1599



    January 20, 2018

    Calgary Youth Regional
    Calgary Chess Club, Calgary

    U8 to U18 sections
    5 rounds
    TC: 25 + 5s delay

    https://www.calgaryjuniorchess.com/CJCC/event/event/7779

     


    January 26, 2018

    Tournoi Vacances dans le Sud
    Aylmer, Quebec

    7:30 pm, rapide

    http://www.ceaylmer.ca/

     

    January 26 - 28, 2018

    Chess2Inspire
    Lansdowne Centre, Richmond

    Sections: 1301+, 801-1300, UR

    http://chess2inspire.org/chess2inspire-junior-championship-2018


    BC Women's Provincial Chess Championship
    Lansdowne Centre, Richmond

    6 player RR, Invitational!

    http://chess2inspire.org/chess2inspire-junior-championship-2018

     

    January 27, 2018 

    2018 Lethbridge Youth Chess Championship
    Family Centre, Lethbridge, AL

    U8 to U18 sections
    Format: 5 round Swiss (or RRs if smaller sections)
    TC: 30 + 5

    https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/2018-lethbridge-youth-chess-championship-tickets-41746102717


     January 27-28, 2018


    Ontario Junior Championship
    Erindale United Church, Mississauga, Ontario

    5 Round Swiss
    TC: 90 + 30

    https://elevatemychess.com/ontario-junior/

     

    January 27 & 28, 2018 


    PEI Quick and PEI Blitz
    Health Sciences Building, Charlottetown, UPEI

    Quick:
    5 Round Swiss
    TC:G/25 + 5 sec delay

    http://mcc.cdevastation.com/upeiwqck18.html


    Blitz:
    6-8 double-round Swiss
    TC: 3 + 3 sec delay; G/5 if no digital clock.

    http://mcc.cdevastation.com/peibl18.html

     

    Janvier 28, 2018

    Tournoi de qualification pour CYCC 2018
    Centre Communautaire Russo-Juif, Montréal

    Système suisse, 5 ronde
    cad: G/20

    http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/tournoi-de-qualification-pour-le-championnat-jeunesse-dechecs-du-canada-2018-cycc


    January 28, 2018

    2018 Edmonton Youth Chess Championship
    Edmonton Chess Club

    U8 to U18 Sections
    Format: DOE, 4-5 games
    TC: 25 + 5

    http://www.albertachess.org/2018EYCC.php

     


     

    February 2018 


    February 2-4, 2018


    Oakville Winter Open
    Holiday Inn, Oakville ON

    5 Round Swiss

    https://elevatemychess.com/tournament/


    February 3-4, 2018

    Battle of Alberta

    Team tournament North vs South

    Details: TBA


    February 4, 11, 25 , 2018

    Seneca Hill Chess
    St. Timothy Catholic School, North York, ON 

    2 rounds per Sunday
    TC: G/60 or 50+10

    https://senecahillchess.com/2014/11/11/sunday-cfc-tournaments/


    February 5

    February Quick
    KQ Chess Club

    5 round swiss
    TC: 25+10

    Note: check website, as tournament is listed for both Feb 5 and Feb 10

    http://kwchess.org/tournaments-2/


    Février 9-11, 2018

    Championnat junior féminin du Québec
    Stade Olympique, Montréal

    2018 CYCC and SPFGI qualifier
    Système suisse, 5 rondes
    Cad: 60 + 30

    http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/championnat-junior-feminin-du-quebec

     

    Février 10-11, 2018

    Tournoi Hospitalité 2018
    Centre Mario-Tremblay, Alma QC

    Système suisse de 4 rondes
    Cad: 30c/75m + 45/mat + 30s

    http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/tournoi-hospitalite-2018



    February 10-11, 2018

    2018 Northern Alberta Open
    Edmonton Chess Club 

    Qualifier for Alberta Closed
    5 round Swiss
    TC: 90 + 30

    http://www.albertachess.org/2018NAO.php


     

    February 10-12, 2018

    BC Open
    Executive Airport Plaza Hotel, Richmond, BC

    6 round Swiss
    TC: 90 + 30

    http://bcopenchess.pbworks.com/w/page/7082404/FrontPage


     

    February 16-18, 2018


    South Saskatchewan Chess Championship
    Quality Hotel, Regina, SK

    5 Round Swiss
    TC: 90 + 30

    http://queencitychess.club/tournaments#Winter2018



    February 17-18, 2018

    10th Canadian Military Championship
    Royal Military College Saint-Jean, Quebec

    http://www.regisbellemare.com/accueil---home-.html

     

    February 17-19, 2018

    Hart House Reading Week Open
    Hart House, Toronto

    6 round Swiss
    TC: 90 + 30

    https://harthousechess.com/2018/01/11/hart-house-reading-week-open/



    February 23-25, 2018


    Bluenose Open
    Saint Mary’s University, Halifax

    5 rounds
    Details: TBA

    http://www.nschess.ca/?page_id=52


    Février 23-25, 2018

    Transcontinental hivernal
    Stade Olympique, Montréal

    6 player RR sections by rating. No byes!
    cad: 60+30

    http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/activite/transcontinental-hivernal-2018


    February 24-25, 2018

    2018 Ontario Girls U-19 Championship 
    Erindale United Church, Mississauga, ON

    2018 CYCC and SPFGI qualifier
    5 round swiss
    TC: 60 + 30

    https://elevatemychess.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/final-20180224-PolgarQualifierON-en-v04.pdf


    CYCC Qualifier
    Erindale United Church, Mississauga, ON

    5 round swiss
    TC: 60 + 30

    CFC and FIDE rated

    http://elevatemychess.com/mississaugaqualifier/


    February 24-25, 2018

    2018 Alberta Youth Chess Championship
    Sheraton Cavalier, Calgary

    U8 to U18 sections, residents of Alberta only.
    Format: DOE, probably 5 round Swisses

    TC: 90 + 30

    http://www.albertachess.org/2018AYCC.php

     

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    BOTW: 2018.01.24

    January 24, 2018, 12:21 pm
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    Gibraltar 2018

    January 21-Feb 1, 2018

    The "World's Best Open Tournament" returns, this year with 12 players over 2700 and 35 over 2600 competing in a 10-round Swiss Top seeds are Lev Aronian, MVL and three-time winner Hikaru Nakamura. Other notable players include Le Quang Liem, Ivanchuk, Adams, Gelfand and Short.

    Only one Canadian is playing in Gibraltar this year, but FM Victor Plotkin is playing in both the Masters and the Challengers A groups. In Rounds 1, he drew GM Ju Wenjun (2572) and CM David Coleman (2055).

    Special Events (start at 8:30 or 9 pm local, 2:30/3pm EST)
    Starting Wednesday Jan 24, there are special events scheduled every night, including Masterclasses (where top players discuss one or two games), and Team Blitz events (played on a jumbo board where players take turns running to move and hit the clock). All events can be followed live online.

    Live Games (commentary by GM Simon Williams and IM Jovanka Houska)
    Start at 3pm local, 9am EST (except round 10, which begins four hours earlier).

    https://www.gibchess.com/live-commentary

    Homepage
    https://www.gibchess.com/

    Gibraltar on YouTube
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1RTZ95_wMc5dbzI8ugTEQ

    Results and Standings
    http://www.chess-results.com/tnr301239.aspx?lan=1


    PRO Chess League: Rounds 2 and 3

    January 25 and 31, 2018

    The Professional Rapid Online (PRO) Chess League returns for its second season. 32 teams play in four RR divisions, each round playing one other team of four in a Schevenningen format (a RR against everyone on the other team) at 15min + 2 sec per game. 

    Top players include: Magnus Carlsen (Norway Gnomes), Hikaru Nakamura (Seattle Sluggers), MVL (Marseille Migraines), Fabiano Caruana (St.Louis Arch Bishops), Vishy Anand (Mumbai Movers), Yu Yangyi (Chengu Pandas), Le Quang Liem (Webster Windmills).

    As a sign of how seriously players take the PRO League:

    • Magnus Carlsen spent part of his rest dat at TATA Steel to play in round 1, scoring 4/4. 
    • Hikaru Nakamura is scheduled to play in round 2, despite playing in Gibraltar that same day.

    Teams enter from all over the world, including: India (2), Russia (1), Armenia, Latvia, Estonia, Norway (2), France (2), England (2), Canada, USA (12), Argentina, Australia and China. To accommodate their different time-zones, matches begin at different times, ranging from 11am EST for th Eastern Division, to 9:45pm for the Pacific Division.

    Canada has only one team entered this year, the Montreal ChessBrahs: 

    • GM Robin van Kampen
    • GM Eric Hansen
    • IM Renier Castellanos
    • GM Aman Hambleton
    • IM Michael Kleinman
    • FM Lefong Hua
    • Elias Oussedik
    • Maroun Tomb

    Each team is allowed two "free agents" -- players who have no affiliation with that city -- and this year Montreal lost Fabiano Caruana, but gained GMs Hou Yifan and Ivan Saric.

    Montreal won its first round match against Miami 8.5-7.5, and plays Pittsburgh (Jan 25) and Monclair (Jan 31) next. Eric Hansen is busy doing live commentary at TATA Steel, so Montreal will field Van Kampen, Castellanos, Hambleton and Kleinman on Jan 25.


    Details
    https://www.prochessleague.com/

    Live Games see Chess.com and twich (start  11am to 9:45pm EST)
    https://www.prochessleague.com/league-streams.html

    Montreal ChessBrahs
    https://www.prochessleague.com/montreal-chessbrahs.html
    https://www.twitch.tv/chessbrah



    TATA Steel/Wijk aan Zee

    January 13-28, 2018.

    The 80th running of the 14-player RR Dutch classic continues. With three rounds to go, Anish Giri, Magnus Carlsen, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lead with 7/10, with former World Champions Vladimir Kramnik (6.5) and Vishy Anand (6) just behind. Round 11 sees Mamedyarov - Carlsen, and the final round a return to the previous World Championship match, with Karjakin - Carlsen.


    Live Games and Commentary (start 7:30 EST)

    GM Eric Hansen continues onsite commentary with guests from rounds 6-13. During round 10 he had back-to-back postmortem visits with Anand and Kramnik.

    https://www.tatasteelchess.com/live/live-games

    https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments

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    Anti-Grunfelds at the 2018 Ontario Junior Championship

    January 29, 2018, 6:47 pm
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    The 2018 Ontario Junior was held January 27-29, 2018 at the Erindale United Church in Mississauga. 

    FM Nicholas Vettese won the 2018 Ontario Junior with 5/5. Eric Ning was second with 4/5. Top seed Eugene Hua (2399) withdrew after winning his first game!? WFM Constance Wang was top girl, with 2.5/5. Raymond Gao won the U1800 in a play-off over Eric Wang. Richard Han won the U1300 with 5/5.


    Thanks to:

    • Elevate My Chess, Ken Green and Gary Hua, and Mikhail Egorov, for organizing the event; 
    • the Mississauga Chess Club for hosting;
    • IA Danny Goldenberg for keeping the ruffians in check.
    Links

    Homepage (including photo and game links)
    https://elevatemychess.com/ontario-junior/

    Report by Gary Hua
    http://forum.chesstalk.com/showthread.php?16673-Summary-Ontario-Junior-CC-Jan-27-28-2018

    photo: FM Nicholas Vettese, on the Black side of one of the three (?!) anti-Grunfelds he faced over five rounds. 

    Although the anti-Grunfelds scored badly, it wasn't because Black came out of the opening with an advantage... or even equality. Rather, these games were decided like most are: by good moves versus mistakes after move 25.

    Our two annotated games are: Hay - Vettese, and Atanasov - Ning.

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    BOTW: 2018.02.03

    February 3, 2018, 4:05 pm
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    PRO Chess League: Super Saturday & Super Sunday

    February 3 and 4, 2018

    This weekend the PRO Chess League features matches between divisions. On Saturday, it's Atlantic vs Pacific, and Sunday it is East vs Central. This weekend the teams play head-to-head matches, and at a faster time control to fit in all the games.

    Top players this weekend include:

    Saturday: Shak Mamedyarov (San Jose Hackers), Hikaru Nakamura (Seattle Sluggers), Fabiano Caruana (St.Louis Arch Bishops), and Le Quang Liem (Webster Windmills).

    Sunday: Magnus Carlsen (Norway Gnomes), MVL (Marseille Migraines), and Yu Yangyi (Chengu Pandas).

    The Montreal Chessbrahs play on Saturday with an all Canadian lineup: GM Eric Hansen, GM (elect) Aman Hambleton, IM Raja Panjwani, and IM (elect) Shiyam Thavandiran.

    The Professional Rapid Online (PRO) Chess League features 32 teams play in four RR divisions, each round playing one other team of four in a Schevenningen format (a RR against everyone on the other team) at 15min + 2 sec per game. 

    Details
    https://www.prochessleague.com/

    Live Games see Chess.com and twich (start: Sat: 6pm EST; Sun: 11 am EST)
    https://www.chess.com/tv

    https://www.prochessleague.com/league-streams.html

    GM Pascal Charbonneau interview on Perpetual Chess

    Perpetual Chess is a weekly podcast produced by US master Ben Johnson, who talks to chess players about their lives and games. It was previously featured and reviewed on the Newsfeed here: http://chess.ca/newsfeed/node/961

    This week's guest is Canadian GM Pascal Charbonneau, who lives in the US and works as a hedge fund analyst, but still plays chess online. Pascal plays in the PRO Chess League for the Montclair Sopranos (that's their logo at the top). He is not playing this weekend, but he had one big week in last year's tournament where he showed very little rust against a line up of some of Canada's top players:  IM Nikolay Noritsyn, GM Tomas Roussel-Roozmon, GM Bator Sambuev, and GM Razvan Preotu.  Against the Toronto Dragons Pascal scored 3-1. You can play through those games with notes on the CFC Newsfeed (link below).

    Topics

    • 3:10 -  Working in Finance 
    • 8:46 -  First job (with Sid Belzberg) and networking
    • 26:30 - Diet Exercise Crossfit 
    • 33:40 - Canadian chess
    • 41:25 - win over Anand (game in player below)
    • 46:00 - proudest chess moment (blitz vs Karpov in Kansas) and playing other stars
    • 54:40 - chess weaknesses (uneven, poor opening prep, nervous pregame to the point of sickness)
    • 57:45 - learning the game and early improvment, match vs Miladinovich, dial-up online FICS play
    • 62:50 - books and improvment advice (LGMT, Z53)

    Perpetual Chess
    https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/

    Charbonneau 3 - Toronto 1
    http://chess.ca/newsfeed/node/924

    Montclair Sopranos Homepage (includes Pascal Charbonneau, and WIM Yuanling Yuan)
    https://www.prochessleague.com/montclair-sopranos.html

    Charbonneau - Anand,  Turin Olympiad 2006.

    This may be Pascal's most famous game, and is discussed in the Perpetual Chess podcast featured above,

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     Round:  Result:

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