Tweet

The Polar Bear Swiss

Named in honour of the iconic inhabitant of Canada’s north, this is our first club tournament of the new year. All our club tournaments are rated by the Chess Federation of Canada, so participants are members of CFC as well as of our club.

To ensure competitive play, we group players by CFC rating. Accordingly, we have Crown, U1900, and U1500 sections. The Crown section is also rated by the World Chess Federation, FIDE.

Tournament games are played on successive Monday nights at 7:30 pm. Each player has 90 minutes for all her or his moves, with a time increment: an extra 30 seconds is added before each move.

Complete final results are posted below the round-by-round reports.

Round 1 – January 7

After a brief AGM, the tournament got started at around 8:00 pm. Welcome to all the new members in our organizational team!

Thirty-four players joined in Round 1, a somewhat lower number compared to previous tournaments – perhaps some of our regulars were “chessed out” after the Hart House Winter Open last weekend. The casual section, however, featured quite a few new faces – getting into chess shape seems to have been on a few folks’ lists of new year’s resolutions!

Round 1 is really too early to announce leaders, but NM Geordie Derraugh (one of our club’s arbiters and the winner of our last club tournament) currently stands atop the leader group. In the U1900 section, Ulli Diemer, who declined the promotion to the top section, lost his Round-1 game to George Supol (our new club treasurer). In the U1500 section, Shabnam Abbarin (who has been tirelessly keeping our books in order for the past several months) lost her Round-1 game in an upset win by Eli Teram. Complete standings are on the cross-tables below.

Round 2 – January 14

Arbiter Alex Ferreira got the tournament started pretty much on time, shortly after 7:30 pm. There were a few latecomers, but everyone showed up. A few new players joined in, but some Round-1 players took byes, so our tournament numbers were pretty steady. Meanwhile, our casual section was jam-packed – and extra-strong. Pretty soon, the casual section’s going to take up the length of the hall!

With a few byes among the leading group in the top section, David Southam has emerged in clear first with 2.0/2. In the middle section, Atharva Washimkar and Miroslav Stefanovic are tied for the lead with 2.0/2. And the bottom section, Arhant Washimkar and Vinorth Vigneswaramoorthy (our new marketing director) are tied for the lead with 2.0/2. It’s a good tournament so far for the brothers Washimkar!

Games from Round 2

Here are some of our most recent games. In the U1500 section, Vinorth Vigneswaramoorthy scores a win against Milan Cvetkovic; in the U1900, Atharva Wishimkar beats George Supol; and in the Crown section, Michael Sutton defeats a younger, higher-rated Hayk Oganesyan – score one for us old guys! (For some practical tactics, check out Atharva’s finish – or try to find a shot Vinorth missed on move 20.)

Round 3 – January 21

Once again, we got our games started on time, thanks to Alex. And we tried, for the first time, extending the casual section down the length of the hall. (Let us know how that worked for you in the comments section at the bottom of the page.)

Current section leaders are David Southam in the Crown section, Miroslav Stefanovic in the U1900, and Arhant Washimkar in the U1500.

Round 4 – January 28

Before the round, we had a raffle for a pair of Leafs tickets. Thanks to all who participated; we raised $260 for the club!

Tournament section leaders stayed strong, with David Southam (Crown), Miroslav Stefanovic (U1900), and Arhant Washimkar (U1500) all holding their leads going into the last round. See complete standings, below.

Games from Round 4

Everybody loves to watch Harmony’s games. Her game against me (which I was lucky enough to win) was the object of some extensive analysis at the Pump (our ACC clubhouse) after Round 4.

Round 5 – February 4

In the top section, club champion FM Michael Humphreys pulled off a come-from-behind sprint to the finish to win clear first with 4.0/5 – while Pavel Peev played a supporting “spoiler” role by holding leader David Southam to second place with 3.5/5.

In the bottom two sections, both leaders finished perfect with 5.0/5. Congratulations, Miroslav Stefanovic (U1900) and Arhant Washimkar (U1500)!

Honourable mention goes to Josep Sobrepere for a second-place finish in the U1900 with 4.0/5, and to Eli Teram for a second-place finish in the U1500 with 3.5/5. See complete standings, below.

Final Standings after Round 5

SwissSys Standings. Polar Bear Swiss: Crown

#	Name	ID	Rating	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total
1	Michael Humphreys	131628	2269	H—	W4	D2	W8	W6	4.0
2	David Southam	102535	2222	W12	W8	D1	W6	L3	3.5
3	Pavel Peev	122223	2227	H—	H—	U—	W11	W2	3.0
4	Zehn Nasir	148198	2059	W11	L1	D5	W7	U—	2.5
5	Daniel Zotkin	146857	1960	L9	H—	D4	H—	W12	2.5
6	Pi Nasir	148197	1852	L10	W12	W11	L2	L1	2.0
7	Hayk Oganesyan	152587	1907	L8	L11	B—	L4	W13	2.0
8	Tyler Longo	135360	2095	W7	L2	H—	L1	U—	1.5
9	Geordie Derraugh	132393	2248	W5	H—	U—	U—	U—	1.5
10	Jonathan Yu	126131	2046	W6	H—	U—	U—	U—	1.5
11	Michael Sutton	151225	1755	L4	W7	L6	L3	U—	1.0
12	Erik Malmsten	100196	1931	L2	L6	U—	B—	L5	1.0
13	David Cohen	100234	1833	H—	H—	U—	U—	L7	1.0

SwissSys Standings. Polar Bear Swiss: U1900

#	Name	ID	Rating	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total
1	Miroslav Stefanovic	154500	unr.	W10	W9	W3	W4	W8	5.0
2	Josep Sobrepere	152976	1511	W11	D7	W5	H—	W3	4.0
3	Atharva Washimkar	153285	1454	W12	W14	L1	W9	L2	3.0
4	Alexandre Michelashvili	149568	1565	H—	D5	W11	L1	W15	3.0
5	Marcus Wilker	102713	1628	H—	D4	L2	W10	W13	3.0
6	Kuhan Jeyapragasan	147906	1616	H—	D8	W16	W14	U—	3.0
7	Greg Beal	101490	1719	W17	D2	D8	H—	U—	2.5
8	Arkadiy Ugodnikov	146626	1734	H—	D6	D7	D13	L1	2.0
9	Daniel Sirkovich	145096	1612	W13	L1	W12	L3	U—	2.0
10	Harmony Zhu	151635	1538	L1	L11	W15	L5	W17	2.0
11	Hooshang Ab-barin	152910	1651	L2	W10	L4	W12	U—	2.0
12	Jack Maguire	144604	1557	L3	W17	L9	L11	W14	2.0
13	Bill Thornton	131181	1481	L9	D15	W17	D8	L5	2.0
14	George Supol	152286	1514	W15	L3	H—	L6	L12	1.5
15	Ulli Diemer	153538	1715	L14	D13	L10	W17	L4	1.5
16	Jamie Murphy	153736	1555	H—	H—	L6	U—	U—	1.0
17	Abdolreza Radpey	149018	1526	L7	L12	L13	L15	L10	0.0

SwissSys Standings. Polar Bear Swiss: U1500

#	Name	ID	Rating	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total
1	Arhant Washimkar	153286	1250	W15	W2	W4	W3	W5	5.0
2	Eli Teram	107314	1198	W17	L1	W16	W8	D3	3.5
3	Christopher Field	108098	1220	W10	D9	W6	L1	D2	3.0
4	Vinorth Vigneswaramoorthy	153938	1321	W14	W7	L1	W11	U—	3.0
5	Ian Prittie	153588	1163	H—	W18	D9	W13	L1	3.0
6	Bradley Yee	125441	1321	H—	H—	L3	W16	W7	3.0
7	Milan Cvetkovic	150817	1222	W13	L4	W8	H—	L6	2.5
8	Larissa Souchko	145490	1089	L9	W15	L7	L2	W13	2.0
9	Jean-Marc David	151900	1273	W8	D3	D5	U—	U—	2.0
10	Stone Hu	153507	842	L3	B—	L11	L14	W18	2.0
11	Michael Vermont	151783	1194	H—	H—	W10	L4	U—	2.0
12	Miles J. Hershberg	134614	unr.	H—	H—	U—	U—	W14	2.0
13	Dennis Li	153129	917	L7	D14	W18	L5	L8	1.5
14	Raymond Lin	150193	1117	L4	D13	U—	W10	L12	1.5
15	Teresa Lee	154501	974	L1	L8	H—	W18	U—	1.5
16	Ben Chan	130822	1012	H—	H—	L2	L6	U—	1.0
17	Shabnam Abbarin	151181	1395	L2	H—	H—	U—	U—	1.0
18	Brian Groat	153518	648	H—	L5	L13	L15	L10	0.5

---

The Polar Bear Dip

It’s a New Year’s tradition for Canadian “polar bears” to wade into freezing waters on the first day of the year. Check the CBC article for more pictures and details.