Capablanca Classic

The March of Kings tournament is taking place this weekend in Calgary.  I was planning on playing in it and expecting to get at least 1 FIDE rated opponent so that I would complete the nine games needed to get an official FIDE rating.  My wife and kids had Thursday and Friday off from school, so I took the two days off work.  We planned to go down to Banff and do some skiing.  Then we could stop off in Calgary for two days for some chess and shopping.  Wednesday night “we” changed our minds and decided to go to the West Edmonton mall instead.  Oh well, I guess I will just have to wait to get my FIDE rating. 

While I was in Edmonton I remembered their regular Thursday night tournaments, so I went down to the Chess Club hoping to get a rated game in.  I paid my $5 and was paired against Rob Gardner (2340) on board 2 for the first round of the Capablanca Classic which continues throughout March.  I played a good game and was able to draw!  Rob is now the highest rated person I ever was able to score a half point against.  If the game was FIDE rated I would now have an official FIDE rating of 2002!!, but unfortunately they don’t FIDE rate their weekly tournaments.  I should get a boost to my CFC rating to ~1930 when the tournament is completed and rated at the end of the month.

 

The Edmonton Championship final playoff games were taking place at the same time between IM Edward Porper and IM Richard Wang.  This created some excitement near my game.  First they played two rapid games with 25 min w/ 10 sec increments.  In game 1 Richard was down a pawn in a 2 B’s vs 2 B’s endgame but refused a draw only to lose.  In game 2 Richard came back and won with the white pieces.  Then they played blitz games with 10 min w/ ? sec increments.  In the end it was …….IM Proper