Tuesday, July 28, 2015

When the cat is away...

An enjoyable blitz tonight with a relatively even field. With FM Baron away Dimitry Partsi & Simon Schmidt shared 1st place. I enjoyed the event; felt like I had at least some chance in every game. Dimitry Partsi's play in time trouble recently has been a joy to behold: squeezing absolutely everything out of the position has become his speciality. In the following position there had been much jostling for position, many tricks, traps and draws offered in the previous 487 moves;) With 4 seconds left on the clock mighty Partsi missed the brilliancy Kc1 which would have kept the contest alive, blundering with Kc3??

White to play, Partsi - Cavezza 1/2 - 1/2
After Kc3?? I found the brilliant Re3!! drawing the game.

Being serious for a moment though, I have no problem with people taking opponents out on time in drawn positions. In blitz, both players start the game knowing they have 5 minutes and 0 seconds to get the game to a technically "completed" position, not a drawish one. Knowing that at the start, my view is we can't have any complaints about it at the end. That said, I get that it can be annoying too!

Results: 


#NameScoreTie.New Rating
1Dimitry Partsi37½2115 9
2Simon Schmidt37½1968 60
3Jack Puccini7382152 6
4Leo Nguyen38½2036 4
5Chris Kolak40½2020 30
6Andrew Fletcher40½1771 18
7Paul Cavezza41½1721 7
8Zheng Sun2431742 24
9Daniel Dobos2431618 4
10Elizabeth Warren0451367 10








Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Tuesday night blitz! (30 / 6 / 15)

Good to see the blitz continue to grow. FM Michael Baron took the spoils winning all his games apart from a draw with FM Jack Puccini. IM James Morris came in second & Dimtry Partsi 3rd. Good to see some new faces too.
Scores and a video below!




IM Morris & FM Jack Puccini 






Some slight controversy in my game V Nic Ilic where a triple repetition draw claim was rejected and I won on time in an equal/drawish position. I had no problem doing this as I was a rook and time up for most of the game, but more importantly we're all on the same page about claiming draws in 5-0 blitz: there are no "draw claims". If there's mating material left on the board (including rook V rook or knight V knight, you're welcome to take someone out on time. If not, the position is already drawn regardless of claims). We all come into the games knowing this, so when you start you know you're playing with 5 minutes to conclude the game, not 5 minutes to get it to a technical draw with good play. I might've been more "sporting" had the times been close together, but we play with the clock for a reason, and if it takes you longer than your opponent to get to a "drawish" position, that counts for something: in 5-0 you can't call the arbiter to come and change the rules at the end of the game. Nic was a good sport about it anyway and it was nice to see the Ilic's in town!


Round by round in rating order:
#NameRatingR. 1R. 2R. 3R. 4R. 5R. 6R. 7R. 8R. 9R. 10
1James Morris24171233456789
2Michael Baron2265123456
3Jack Puccini2159012334
4Dimitry Partsi20601223445678
5Helen Minh2002122223
6Leo Nguyen19701123334456
7Thomas Kalisch1770112233
8Andrew Fletcher1766111234444
9Zheng Sun174111124
10Rad Chmiel1708001222
11Paul Cavezza170601122
12Goran Ilic16620111
13Nicholas Ilic16180122444
14Harish Kumar1514000½½2222
15Zlatko Varga1415½½11222233
16Niruruthi Ravichandren138800½½½½122
17Elizabeth Warren13240½11222222


For those who missed it on our facebook page, I'll also upload a couple of videos of MCC member Myiesha Maunders playing in Washington Square Park in NYC. Enjoy!