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:
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)