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It’s November in Toronto. In honour of our autumn weather (temperatures were down to -4°C at night last week, with rain changing to flurries), we’re launching our “Scarf Weather” Swiss. Can you name the four famous chess players in scarves in the picture above?

Round One is November 18, with a round every Monday night at 7:30 pm till we break for Christmas and New Year; the last round is Monday, December 16. Time control is game in 90 minutes, with a 30-second increment from move one. All games are CFC-rated.

Members of our club have vastly different playing strengths. Accordingly, players are divided into three sections by rating: Crown (over 1900 CFC), Reserve A (under 1900), and Reserve B (under 1500). And with Swiss pairings, each player will face an opponent with similar results each round.

New players are always welcome to join (please show up before 7:00 pm on Monday night to register). Email info@annexchessclub.com for more information, or to request a bye if you need a night off. Good luck to all players!

Round One – November 18

There are no upsets in the top section as, board after board, the higher-rated player gets the full point against his or her lower-rated opponent. (It’s great to have Canadian Olympiad team member – and 2012 Canadian Women’s Champion – WIM Natalia Khoudgarian joining us for this tournament. She’s currently the second-highest-rated woman in Canada; let’s see if anyone at our club can win a game against her!)

In the middle section, Jean-Marc David, after winning the bottom section several times, makes a strong debut in the section by winning his game against Ian Prittie. The only other upset is Manuela Renteria drawing the higher-rated Sebastian Lamprea, who has just joined the club. (Welcome, Sebastian!)

Finally, in the bottom section, there are no upsets, but Teresa Lee makes a great sacrifice to achieve a won ending against Raymond Lin. Unfortunately, she fails to follow it up with precise play and ends up losing the game.

(All in all, if you include Harmony Zhu’s victory over Marcus Wilker in the U1900 section and Larissa Souchko’s win over Brian Groat in the U1500, it’s a pretty good round for the women players at Annex Chess Club!)

Round Two – November 25

Round Two of the Scarf Weather Swiss sees some exciting games – and some big upsets! In the Crown section, Alexandre Michelashvili joins the tournament with a bye in Round One and comes up with a big win against Allan Munro. Miroslav Stefanovic, who also took a bye in the first round, defeats Wajdy Shebetah. And Ulli Diemer, making a special appearance in the top section to even out the numbers, defeats Arkadiy Ugodnikov: a big win for Ulli, who now has a perfect record playing in the top section!

At the top of the Crown section, there are just two players with perfect records. David Southam and Pavel Peev have 2.0/2.

In the U1900 section, the lead pack is down to two players as well. Ulli Diemer, who’s been having trouble having an opponent show up, is tied with 8-year-old superstar, Harmony Zhu, at 2.0/2.

Finally, in the U1500 section, there are three players vying for first. Bradley Yee, Milan Cvetkovic, and Richard Morrison all have 2.0/2: the usual suspects, in other words.

Round Two Game of the Week

I didn’t stay to the end to pick up any scoresheets, but Ian Prittie kindly sent in his annotations of our game, which is featured below. Players are welcome to submit annotated (or unannotated) games in .pgn format if you’d like me to post them.

Round Three – December 2

Before the round, players are treated to a chess lecture by Rhys Goldstein (recently featured in a player profile) “Selected Double Piece Sacrifices,” 6:50 to 7:20 pm.

If any member is interested in giving a half-hour pre-tournament chess lecture in the upcoming weeks, please let us know.

In the Crown section, the game on the top board is drawn. David Southam and Pavel Peev stay in the lead at 2.5/3, as Natalia Khoudgarian and Michael Humphreys draw as well.

In the U1900 section, Ulli Diemer gets a draw against Harmony Zhu, and the two remain in the lead at 2.5/3, tied with Josep Sobrepere, who wins a topsy-turvy battle against Sebastian Lamprea.

In the U1500 section, Jeff Pancer defeats Milan Cvetkovic to join Richard Morrison and Bradley Yee (who took byes) in first place with 2.5/3. Meanwhile, Arno Lowi is absolutely thrilled to win his first tournament game at ACC (featured below).

Round Three Games of the Week

This week’s games of the week put a spotlight on both ends of the spectrum: Peev-Southam from the top board, and Lowi-Pamwar from the bottom board. We’ve thrown in Bill Evans’ win against Omar Shah’s Hedgehog from the top section – to show that it’s not all ground game and “grandmaster” draws in the upper echelons of the club; players rated over 1900 still go down in flames sometimes. (You’ve got to be careful playing “the Hog” against someone who knows Kevin Spraggett and knew Bryon Nickoloff personally.) Finally, Josep Sobrepere has submitted his game with Sebastian Lamprea (with a complex ending that swings both ways before Josep finally comes out on top.)

Round Four – December 9

A delegation from Hart House Chess Club visits us, as Alex Ferreira (our old tournament arbiter before Tyler capably replaced him) drops by to advertise the Hart House Holidays Open. Alex, Dideng Du, and Jonathan Yu all join in the Annex club tournament for the night. Let’s return the favour and have a strong contingent of Annex players at Hart House, December 20-22.

If you’ve ever played chess in the Great Hall at Hart House, you know it’s not to be missed. Register before Dec 18!

At the top of the Crown section, Pavel Peev beats Rhys Goldstein to lead the section with 3.5/4. Behind him, Dave Southam (with a draw against Michael Humphreys) and Bill Evans (with a win against Adrian Chin) are tied for second at 3.0/4.

In the U1900 section, Josep Sobrepere beats 8-year-old WCM Harmony Zhu, and Ulli Diemer beats his nemesis, Jack Maguire, to remain in the lead at 3.5/4. Marcus Wilker, with a win against Jim Mourgelas, is in third place – half a point behind the two leaders at 3.0/4.

In the U1500 section, Richard Morrison beats Jeff Pancer to take sole first place at 3.5/4, as Milan Cvetkovic loses to Raymond Lin. Raymond Lin, Adam Goldfarb, Bradley Yee, and Daniele Pirri are in a big four-way tie for second place at 3.0/4.

The last round is next week, Monday December 16, at 7:30. Come half an hour early to hear Josep Sobrepere’s lecture, “You didn’t win. I lost.” – 6:50 to 7:20 pm.

Round Four Games of the Week

Harmony doesn’t lose too often, so Josep is understandably proud of this one. (He calls it one of the best games of his life!) Good luck to Harmony in the World Youth Chess Championship – bring home a gold medal!

Round Five – December 16

Our night starts off with a chess lecture by Josep Sobrepere, “You didn’t win; I lost: the effects of self-bias and illusory superiority in chess.” Josep describes how the psychological phenomenon of “illusory superiority” relates to chess. This psychological tendency is shown, for example, when 70% of college students in a 1976 study stated that they believed themselves to be above the median in leadership ability, with 25% believing themselves to be in the top 1%. Illusory superiority, Josep explains, results from the human brain’s tendency to justify a gut feeling about a complex issue with a single, simple rationalization. Chess ability, like leadership, is a complex skill: it involves time management, tenacity in calculation, visualization, opening knowledge, ending knowledge, tactical ability, positional understanding in a variety of types of positions, etc. People tend to simplify their own self-evaluation of such complex skills, basing it on a simpler component skill (generally an area they’re strong in), while ignoring other components (often areas of weakness). Josep demonstrates the phenomenon with a small survey of the audience before the lecture starts, asking whether we believe ourselves to be over-, under-, or accurately rated. Our responses, it turns out, demonstrate the same self-bias found in the 1976 college students: none of us believes him- or herself to be over-rated, and the majority of us believe we’re under-rated. According to the theory Josep is presenting, our mistaken self-evaluation is based on ignored areas of weakness in the complex skill of tournament chess play. Based on his own experience, Josep highly recommends looking for patterns in one’s losses, which allows one to detect and then work on these ignored areas of weakness. It is an interesting, and well-received lecture – even though it doesn’t, strictly, involve any chess.

The final round gets started at 7:30, and Vigen Ghazarian is on hand with his camera:

And when the dust clears …

In the top section, David Southam (with a win over Alexandre Michelashvili) and Pavel Peev (with a draw against Bill Evans) end up tied for first, but Pavel takes it on the third tie break: both players have a Modifided Median-Buchholz score of 11, both have a Solkoff score of 12, but Pavel has a better cumulative score, 13 to 12.5 – see tie-break rules on our Club page. Congratulations, Pavel!

Meanwhile, Josep Sobrepere takes clear first in the U1900 section with a last-round win over Ulli Diemer. Josep finishes with a total score of 4.5/5 after four straight wins and a first-round bye. Half a point behind him, Marcus Wilker comes in clear second with 4.0/5.

And in the U1500 section, Richard Morrison takes first with 4.5/5. Half a point behind is Daniele Pirri, in clear second with 4.0/5.

See complete results on the standings table below:

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Final Standings after Five Rounds

SwissSys Standings. Scarf Weather: Crown

#	Name	CFC #	Rating	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total
1	David Southam	102535	2223	W18	W15	D2	D4	W8	4.0
2	Pavel Peev	122223	2144	W20	W10	D1	W12	D3	4.0
3	Bill Evans	103309	2040	L4	W23	W13	W19	D2	3.5
4	Michael Humphreys	131628	2298	W3	H—	D7	D1	D6	3.0
5	Jonathan Yu	126131	2214	H—	H—	U—	W17	W11	3.0
6	Miroslav Stefanovic	154500	1953	H—	W16	H—	D11	D4	3.0
7	Natalia Khoudgarian	109626	2291	W12	H—	D4	H—	U—	2.5
8	Alexandre Michelashvili	149568	1861	H—	W11	D10	H—	L1	2.5
9	Digeng Du	107986	2268	H—	H—	U—	W15	U—	2.0
10	Zehn Nasir	148198	2167	W23	L2	D8	H—	U—	2.0
11	Allan Munro	140841	2102	H—	L8	W23	D6	L5	2.0
12	Rhys Goldstein	110906	2038	L7	W18	W15	L2	L13	2.0
13	Omaray M. Shah	121329	1949	H—	H—	L3	U—	W12	2.0
14	Daniel Wiebe	132137	1922	H—	H—	U—	B—	U—	2.0
15	Nicholas Vettese	154199	1811	W21	L1	L12	L9	D20	1.5
16	Wajdy Shebetah	148432	2172	H—	L6	H—	U—	U—	1.0
17	Alex T. Ferreira	127516	2057	H—	H—	U—	L5	U—	1.0
18	Daniel Zotkin	146857	1981	L1	L12	H—	H—	U—	1.0
19	Adrian Chin	155527	1871	H—	H—	U—	L3	U—	1.0
20	Arkadiy Ugodnikov	146626	1841	L2	L22	L21	H—	D15	1.0
21	Daniel Sirkovich	145096	1791	L15	U—	W20	U—	U—	1.0
22	Ulli Diemer	153538	1679	U—	W20	U—	U—	U—	1.0
23	Hugh Siddeley	120619	1963	L10	L3	L11	H—	U—	0.5

SwissSys Standings. Scarf Weather: U1900

#	Name	CFC #	Rating	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total
1	Josep Sobrepere	152976	1620	H—	W14	W9	W5	W3	4.5
2	Marcus Wilker	102713	1572	L5	W17	W6	W12	W18	4.0
3	Ulli Diemer	153538	1638	X19	B—	D5	W4	L1	3.5
4	Jack Maguire	144604	1605	L16	W15	W10	L3	W14	3.0
5	Harmony Zhu	151635	1703	W2	W6	D3	L1	U—	2.5
6	Mark A. Patton	104721	1638	W15	L5	L2	W10	D7	2.5
7	Jean-Marc David	151900	1396	W17	L8	H—	D9	D6	2.5
8	Daniel Sirkovich	145096	1791	H—	W7	H—	U—	U—	2.0
9	Sebastian Lamprea	133740	1729	D14	W11	L1	D7	U—	2.0
10	David Fletcher	105301	1583	H—	D12	L4	L6	W17	2.0
11	Michael D. Sharpe	100280	1531	H—	L9	W15	H—	U—	2.0
12	James Mourgelas	108540	1440	H—	D10	W14	L2	U—	2.0
13	Adrian Chin	155527	1871	H—	H—	U—	U—	D15	1.5
14	Manuela Renteria	152627	1581	D9	L1	L12	W17	L4	1.5
15	Bill Thornton	131181	1485	L6	L4	L11	B—	D13	1.5
16	Hugh McNeil	108257	1795	W4	U—	U—	U—	U—	1.0
17	Ian Prittie	153588	1444	L7	L2	B—	L14	L10	1.0
18	Adam Goldfarb	153496	1271	H—	H—	U—	U—	L2	1.0
19	Nicolas Vasiljevic	156469	1546	F3	U—	U—	U—	U—	0.0

SwissSys Standings. Scarf Weather: U1500

#	Name	CFC #	Rating	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total
1	Richard Morrison	135889	1261	W12	W16	H—	W10	W8	4.5
2	Daniele Pirri	132983	1145	W22	L5	W19	W4	W12	4.0
3	Bradley Yee	125441	1377	W11	W8	H—	H—	U—	3.0
4	George Supol	152286	1346	W26	D10	H—	L2	W11	3.0
5	Milan Cvetkovic	150817	1341	W17	W2	L10	L8	W19	3.0
6	Eli Teram	107314	1320	H—	H—	L7	W16	W17	3.0
7	Adam Goldfarb	153496	1271	H—	H—	W6	W17	U—	3.0
8	Raymond Lin	150193	1221	W18	L3	W16	W5	L1	3.0
9	Vinorth Vigneswaramoorthy	153938	1287	H—	W24	H—	U—	D28	2.5
10	Jeff Pancer	107543	1154	W20	D4	W5	L1	U—	2.5
11	Dennis Li	153129	1097	L3	W29	D12	W23	L4	2.5
12	Alex Geddie	155388	964	L1	W20	D11	W15	L2	2.5
13	Ian Prittie	153588	1522	H—	H—	W23	U—	U—	2.0
14	Bill Thornton	131181	1452	H—	H—	U—	W24	U—	2.0
15	Michael Vermont	151783	1149	H—	L23	W29	L12	D18	2.0
16	Larissa Souchko	145490	1051	W21	L1	L8	L6	W23	2.0
17	Nick Mourtos	156384	965	L5	W22	W25	L7	L6	2.0
18	Teresa Lee	154501	886	L8	L26	H—	W20	D15	2.0
19	Rahul Gangolli	156023	873	H—	H—	L2	B—	L5	2.0
20	Arno Lowi	155277	665	L10	L12	W22	L18	X29	2.0
21	Brian Groat	153518	662	L16	B—	H—	H—	U—	2.0
22	Manish Pamwar		unr.	L2	L17	L20	W29	W27	2.0
23	Kaizen Liu	152053	1073	H—	W15	L13	L11	L16	1.5
24	Stone Hu	153507	945	X28	L9	H—	L14	U—	1.5
25	John A Rogers	101732	1243	H—	H—	L17	U—	U—	1.0
26	Ben Chan	130822	1072	L4	W18	U—	U—	U—	1.0
27	Jerry Zhou	154706	unr.	H—	H—	U—	U—	L22	1.0
28	John Heisey	156203	1227	F24	U—	U—	U—	D9	0.5
29	Howard Halim	153419	846	H—	L11	L15	L22	F20	0.5

Puzzle answer

Famous players in scarves (at the top) are (L-R): Nigel Short (who has visited ACC twice), Hou Yifan (current Women’s World Chess Champion), Judit Polgár (the strongest female player of all time), and local hero, Mike Ivanov (2012 Toronto Junior Champion)