Monday coffee!

by · July 22, 2013

Summer is such a busy time chess-wise! Seems like there are just TOO MANY interesting tournaments going on at the same time to follow, and this can be frustrating for those who also like bloggin‘ on chess. BUT, in chess, there should be no such thing as too many, and every tournament-large and small- is an important opportunity to promote chess and make propaganda for your chess club.

EXCEPT, ofcourse, if you are from Ottawa…

Sometimes it is best to say very little–OR NOTHING–when you have nothing nice to say about anyone, so allow me make a compromise and limit myself to just three (3) words: incompetent , self-important and arrogant.

Now that that nasty bit of business is done with, congrats to Nigel Short and Eric Hansen for their first place tie (7.5 points out of 9) They each won $4k. Following close behind , at 7 points each, were Ivan Sokolov, Bruzon, Aman Hambleton, Porper and Calugar. They each took home slightly more than $1k

Gm Eric Hansen and Im Aman Hambelton are two of Canada’s top up and coming talents and have already started to make a name for themselves. Later this year both will start to reside in Spain and take on the European circuit. GOOD LUCK TO BOTH!

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Apparently the Ottawa organizers were satisfied with their performance!

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KID’S LEARN EARLY TODAY!

The legendary grandmaster S.Tartakower is reputed to have told a journalist in a final interview, looking back at his career of more than 50 years, ”I have never beaten a truly healthy opponent”. Ofcourse, what Tartakower was referring to was the seemingly inexhaustible and resourceful habit of chess players in finding all sorts of excuses for losing a game other than ”You beat me fairly and squarely”, or ”You are just a better player than me.”

Case in point is 13 year old Canadian chess-teen sensation Ashley Tapp’s FACEBOOK summary of her 9th round game at the Ottawa tournament: ” I lost to a 1809. Something happened to my eye before this last game, I had to leave before the ending ceremony to get them checked. I was sad I missed the ending, having one eye that burned all day…”