UMBRA Olympian Chess Tournament and Fund Raiser

[Gary Gladstone]

Shiyam Thavandiran just confirmed, who else is coming

[Gary Gladstone]

IM Nikolay Noritsyn, Member Olympic Team
GM Mark Bluvshtein, Member Olympic Team
IM Igor Zugic, Member Olympic Team
WIM Natalia Khoudgarian, Member Olympic Team
WFM Hazel Smith, Member Olympic Team
WFM Dina Kagramanov, Member Olympic Team
WFM Irina Barron (Pending) , Member Olympic Team
Ron Liv****s, Coach Olympic Team
David Lavin
Egidijus Zeromskis
Raja Panjwani
Hans Jung
Eddie Urquhart
Lawrence Day
Simon Gladstone
Brian Fiedler
Ross Richardson
FM Goran Milecivic
Shiyam Thavandiran
David Friedland
Tom Friedland
Lowell Berry - Brooker


P.S. Hal Bond will be coming as well and may even regale us with more of his tales in person, how about it Hal?

Gary

We have room for 60 in total for the Blitz Tournament. See you on Sunday

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

• Rounds: 6
• Type: Swiss
• Time Control : 5 Minute Blitz Double Round

Sorry, that I am writing so late (only yesterday I've looked into tournament details).

Maybe more single-rounds would be more interesting, as it would give opportunity to play/meet more people and hopefully to play against CAN team members.
6 double has 12 games, thus 10 or 11 single-rounds should fit in the same time frame.

Will a special rule be that CAN team members are not playing against each other?

[Gary Gladstone]

What a day and I survived my first tournament.

I only did so, because I had great help from a great group of people and everyone wanted to have fun, and I think all did.

First and foremost, thanks to Umbra for providing a great venue, refreshments, prizes and an incredible staff who did everything they could to accommodate us.

Thanks to the approximately 100 people that ambled through the store all day because of Chess.

Thanks to the Chess Institute of Canada, Ted Winnick and Brett Campbell for all their incredible help in organizing the physical tournament and Jonathan for working Swiss Sys. Thanks to the OCA for the use of sets, clocks and boards. It was a great treat to have Hal Bond come and talk to us about his recent trip to Germany and the Anand – Kramnik match.

The lecture by Ron Liv****s was well attended and the simuls were overflowing. GM Mark Bluvshtein and WIM Natalia Khoudgarian won all their games, while IM Igor Zugic lost one game to Simon Gladstone (do I sound like a proud father  ). IM Nikolay Noritsyn, WFM Hazel Smith, WFM Dina Kagramanov and WFM Irina Barron all participated in analysis and playing games with others. I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Geordie Derraugh and Erik Malmsten for their setup assistance, but the reality is, everyone deserves thanks because everyone pitched in; so sorry if I missed your name.

WE RAISED OVER $2,000 TODAY IN SUPPORT OF OUR OLYMPIC TEAM

It was great to see so many chess people having such a great time together in a non competitive atmosphere.

The Blitz Tournament had 36 players, we only played 5 rounds because of time, thanks for no complaints  and the clear winner was Shiyam Thavandiran.

Final standings will be posted shortly; thanks again to one and all.

Did I mention that CTV and Global both came, check the news tonight

Gary Gladstone

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

And I, and everybody who was there, say thank you to Gary Gladstone.

In case you will miss the TV and want to see how it went, I posted several pictures at http://www.kris-egis.com/egisphoto/t...s.php?album=15 (blitz (5 min) time control allows only to play)
Probably others will post their pictures as well.



The winner, Shiyam Thavandiran, plays sitting between GM Mark Bluvshtein and IM Ron Liv****s.

[David Lavin]

This tournament was great fun and I want to thank Garry Gladstone for his enthusiastic devotion and UMBRA for their grace and generosity.

I had a great time and had wonderful conversations with many organizers, governors, and lovers of the game. It was great to see that so many people I grew up with are still active in the game.

Oh, and I loved tying for 4th too!!

Good luck to our Olympians!

[Erik Malmsten]

The Olympic Fundraiser was a great event. It was a social occasion for the team members present and raised some money for the team. It is difficult to ever get these masters together for a chess event in Toronto. Equipment was provided, the room well lit, and free food! The event was featured in the weekly Now magazine and had TV cameras from Global and CTV. I was in the shot playing chess on Global news. My blitz games started off poorly, being distracted by socializing and taking photos.

Ron Liv****s shared games from Spassky-Petrosian and Hal Bond answered questions about the World Championship.

A new source of revenue was uncovered: parents of kids in chess programs who came and played in the simults and blitz tournament. This could be marketed to kids in other school chess programs.

I would recommend a donation bowl as more money could have been raised. Players in the simult who weren’t registered in the blitz tournament could have been asked to make a pay-what-you-can donation. Several people made a donation but didn’t play in the blitz. Perhaps their donation could have sponsored a master or kid who couldn’t afford to play. I don’t know if selling things like t-shirts, a souvenir booklet, or selling off of a lesson with a master would work. There wasn’t any sheet of paper that the masters could autograph for the kids.

The chess crew and store staff were great. Thanks Gary and Ted and Brett.

[Gary Gladstone]

Here's a bunch more photos from Erik Malmsten

http://picasaweb.google.ca/garyglads...essTournament#

Gary

[Gary Gladstone]

You are invited to view Sarah's photo album: Sarah umbra chess event
http://picasaweb.google.ca/sarah.lam...ey=zkJj6Mqe4oc

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Umbra Sunday Challenge: Open

#     Name/Rtng/ID               Rd 1  Rd 2   Rd 3    Rd 4   Rd 5
1  IM Igor Zugic                  18     11      2      9      3
                         2591    2.0    3.5    4.5    6.5    6.5
2  IM Artiom Samsonkin            19      8      1     14      5
                         2571    1.0    3.0    4.0    6.0    6.0
3  IM Nikolay Noritsyn            20     12      6     15      1
                         250     2.0    4.0    4.0    6.0    8.0
4  FM Goran Milecivic             21     13     16     18     12
                         2505    2.0    3.0    4.0    6.0    7.0
5  GM Mark Bluvshtein             22     14     30      6      2
                         2484    2.0    4.0    5.0    6.0    8.0
6     Shiyam Thavandiran          23     15      3      5     30
                         2441    2.0    4.0    6.0    7.0    9.0
7     Ron Liv****s                24     16     13     30     10
                         2411    2.0    3.0    5.0    5.0    7.0
8     Lawrence Day                26      2     25     17     19
                         2313    1.5    1.5    3.5    3.5    4.5
9     Eddie Urquhart              27     17     19      1     11
                         2289    2.0    3.0    4.5    4.5    5.0
10 WIM Natalia Khoudgarian        28     30     21     19      7
                         2252    2.0    2.0    3.0    5.0    5.0
11     Egidijus Zeromskis         29      1     17     16      9
                         2242    2.0    2.5    4.0    4.5    6.0
12     David Lavin                31      3     22     20      4
                         2219    2.0    2.0    4.0    6.0    7.0
13     Hans Jung                  32      4      7     21     14
                         2170    2.0    3.0    3.0    4.5    6.0
14     Brian Fiedler              33      5     23      2     13
                         2136    2.0    2.0    4.0    4.0    4.5
15     Michael Humphruis          34      6     24      3     22
                         2125    2.0    2.0    4.0    4.0    6.0
16     Hugh Siddeley              35      7      4     11     17
                         2118    2.0    3.0    4.0    5.5    6.5
17     Geordie Derraugh           36      9     11      8     16
                         2087    2.0    3.0    3.5    5.5    6.5
18 WFM Hazel Smith                 1     28     27      4     23
                         2068    0.0    2.0    4.0    4.0    6.0
19 WFM Dina Kagramanov             2     26      9     10      8
                         2067    1.0    3.0    3.5    3.5    4.5
20 WFM Irina Barron                3     29     35     12     24
                         2063    0.0    2.0    4.0    4.0    6.0
21     Erik Malmsten               4     31     10     13     26
                         2015    0.0    2.0    3.0    3.5    5.5
22     Simon Gladstone             5     32     12     27     15
                         1807    0.0    2.0    2.0    4.0    4.0
23     Ramon Morales               6     33     14     35     18
                         1800    0.0    2.0    2.0    4.0    4.0
24     Roman Guenkine              7     34     15     36     20
                         1735    0.0    2.0    2.0    4.0    4.0
25     Mark Plotkin               30     35      8     32     33
                         1600    0.0    0.0    0.0    2.0    4.0
26     Jose Belzunce               8     19     28     34     21
                         1486    0.5    0.5    1.5    3.5    3.5
27     Jean Claude Rioux           9     36     18     22     35
                         1400    0.0    2.0    2.0    2.0    3.0
28     Rueben McCleary            10     18     26     33     36
                         1378    0.0    0.0    1.0    2.0    4.0
29     Gavi Swayze                11     20     33     31     34
                         1000    0.0    0.0    1.0    2.0    2.0
30     Victor Plotkin             25     10      5      7      6
                          unr.   2.0    4.0    5.0    7.0    7.0
31     David Friedland            12     21     34     29     32
                          unr.   0.0    0.0    0.5    1.5    3.5
32     Lowell Berry-Brooker       13     22     36     25     31
                          unr.   0.0    0.0     0.0   0.0    0.0
33     Gabilan Sivapatham         14     23     29     28     25
                          unr.   0.0    0.0     1.0   2.0    2.0
34     Nivethan Amirthalingam     15     24     31     26     29
                          unr.   0.0    0.0     1.5   1.5    3.5
35     Kainan Qin                 16     25     20     23     27
                          unr.   0.0    2.0     2.0   2.0    3.0
36     Tom Friedland              17     27     32     24     28
                          unr.   0.0    0.0     2.0   2.0    2.0

Players are sorted in the Start order.