This has been the most attended yearly event in Wisconsin. (non-scholastic)History
year / players / winner(s)
2009 98 (NM E SANTARIUS, H PAN)
2008 95 (IM M AMANOV, NM A BETANELI, E SANTARIUS)
2007 97 (FM A STAMNOV)
2006 116 (A VAJA , G ARANOVICH)
2005 100 (FM A STAMNOV, E SANTARIUS)
2004 108 (IM S SMIATANKIN, NM A BETANELI, J ROWE)
I had a horrible 2nd day. I was telling someone the other day how I had not made any really bad blunders in a long time. I may have jinxed myelf. In round 4 after
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 3.e3 Ne4 4.Bf4 e6 5.Nd2 c6 6.Nxe4 dxe4 7.Bc4 Nd7 8.Ne2 g5 9.Bg3 Qa5+ 10.c3 Nb6 11.Bb3 h5 12.Be5 Rh6 13.h4 g4 14.Bf4 Rh7 15.Bc7 f5
I had the following position as White against J BECKER (2053) . Black's last move was f5. I was so eager to put a Knight on f4, that I overlooked Rxc7.
I know for sure that Jim Coons and John Veech are also playing in the Open Section.
ReplyDeleteRobin is correct, John is playing. We also ran into Matt Waller a couple of weeks ago and he said that he was going to play, along with several from the Racine Chess Club.
ReplyDeleteScott
The other two defending champs aren't coming.... One is back home in Turkmenistan. And I am off to Russia for Moscow Open that begins in a week (www.moscowopenchess.ru). Good luck to all!
ReplyDeleteI hope there will be a team from Fox River Valley at the National Team Championships in the middle of February.
Alex
Who will take Santarius down, or at least hold him to a draw?
ReplyDeleteDon't see anyone.
Looks like he will have an easy 5-0
I am also playing. (if I can get off work)
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for a great result, Ivan!
ReplyDeleteThanks Greg - My goals is to score 4.0/5.0
ReplyDeleteVery impressive attendance! Ivan, any chance for a "snap-shot" of a crosstable by the end of the day? Both sections maybe?
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Alex
Thanks for the updates Ivan, can you give us a snapshot of the wall chart for both sections. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Ivan
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog! My brother and I just started a blog - http://strunkbroschess.blogspot.com/ . We put your blog (gettingto2000) under our links section and we hope you would do the same.
Thanks and keep up the great blogging
Alex Strunk
Congrats to our State Champion on a fine recovery and two swift victories on the last day! It's too bad he didn't face the rapidly improving young talent A.Parker. Next time perhaps.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmmmmmm, young talent, Parker? What would Brian Luo or Alexander Velkanov be? Babies?
ReplyDeleteWish I could have attended. My son Evan won a couple of good matches in the Open.
ReplyDeleteEvan, Reid and Kolt (5th Graders) attended from Lake Denoon Middle School in Muskego. Please visit our blog at http://ldmschess.blogspot.com .. Thanks all.
- Mark Seghers
Will you be posting your games in their entirety later? I enjoy being able to see how your positions arose.
ReplyDeleteHey Ivan!
ReplyDeleteI also played this weekend. I had a great first day beating an expert and a master. But I crashed and burned on the 2nd day only scoring 1/3 with 2 draws. After that I've decided to take a break from chess for a couple of months. Good luck in your next tournament!
Tony
Hey Ivan,
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure if you were aware, but someone stole the money bag that contained all the money for the tournament....over 670 dollars. Mike Selig is just sick about this and its the first time its happened in over 38 years of his tournaments. If anyone has any leads of any kind please email me at chessjock64@yahoo.com
It seemed as though Eric had another good tournament, but it kinda stinks when you take first place and lose 3 rating points. Also, Ramsey Forbush took the Northeastern honors for the fifth time in four decades. Quit an accomplishment.
Best of luck to you Ivan and your upcoming events!
Jim
I though Mike's daughter's "friends" were suspects??
ReplyDeleteI would also like to mention that Mike is going to pay out the full amount of prize fund that was posted at the tournament...It'll just take a little while to come up with the funds.
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to post a reply to this situation on here could you please be a little less "vague" and not post as "Anonymous". This is a very serious situation.
Jim
How, with three guys at the registration table, could someone have taken the money without being seen? I believe whoever it was had to be a friend or acquaintance to have been able to get that close to the money. I know if I was behind the table someone would have noticed.
ReplyDeleteHey, I stumbled on your blog and tooled around for a while. I checked out your rating history and it looks like you have been in the 1800s since 4/05. Are you currently doing anything differently now, that you haven't been in the past four years, that would lead you to believe that getting past even 1900 is possible? I only ask because I read and study and do problems, just like you but I can't seem to get through class B. Been there 5 years and I'm beginning to think I'll be there 5 more. Just like Jack Nicholson said in a movie, "What if this is as good as it gets?"
ReplyDeleteGood Luck!
Thanks for the very unhelpful input Mr. Fischer.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do believe the movie your thinking about is actually "As Good As It Gets".
Sorry to hear about the money being gone.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought here and possibly a long shot. Mr. Rowe said, "money bag that contained all the money," but did not specify the type of bag. There was a large amount of trash laying around the room and the adjoining room. There were bags and boxes all over the place. Could the bag have gotten mixed up with the trash accidentally? Did anybody check the trash?
Thanks for the thought Robin. The money bag was taken, the money taken out and then the bag discarded. The bag was found empty. Its hard for me to believe that someone would just dump the money in the trash or mix it up with someone elses equipment and then ditch the bag....truly chaotic.
ReplyDeleteI do appreciate the solid reply Robin :)
Anon 1/26/2009 2:58 PM
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the statistics are but I think its pretty rare for an adult who has been playing for years to improve a whole rating class.
The reason most probably is that before I can improve I need to unlearn lots of incorrect information and that is not easy to do.
I also can't put in as much time as I want to.
To make matters worse, the older you get the harder it gets.
So I might be destined to be a life long 1800 players, but it is a lot of fun trying to climb out.
Thanks Ivan, I kept checking back to see if you would respond.
ReplyDeleteSo how do you plan to identify the stuff to unlearn? And what do you replace it with? Do you just memorize lines without understanding the purpose of the moves and take the chance your opponent doesn't get out of book before you gain an advantage? To me that's not fun but it what I hear all the junior players are doing. Rote memorization is boring, I like to create on the chessboard. That's what keeps it fun for me.
Maybe if I can really understand and apply whats in the book "Chess for Zebras" I could jump a rating class.
ReplyDeleteI also think that with good tactics alone one can get his rating to at least 2000.
I don't memorize openings, unless I am know who I am going to play in advance. This happens once in a while in local round robins.
What state do you live in?
MO. Is that a good book? I had always heard tactics can only get you to 1700-1800 because above that level, your opponents understand positional play and barring any serious mistakes in the middlegame by them, the tactical player (who is used to winning in the middlegame) now finds himself in an unfavorable endgame, which the higher level player has studied and or has mastered. I noticed you have a couple titled players chiming in, maybe they know the answer. Maybe I should throw away my "Secrets to the Endgame" book! :) I'm done working for today though, so I'll try and check back tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe Zebra book is great. How often do you play OTB? I try to focus on tacics and end games.
ReplyDeleteIvan
YOu got around to it, Ivan! Well done.
ReplyDeleteAlex
Alex,
ReplyDeleteWhat is the above comment in reference to?
Is Moscow colder than Madison?
Ivan
I just received a call from Mike Selig and the original quote for the money lost was actually the amount of money in checks. The actual amount of money lost was $1009.00. If anyone has any information please let me know.
ReplyDeleteWell, were the checks endorsed? How does the theif plan on cashing them? The bank would have a record of who either cashed or deposited them. You have the registration information from everyone, ask them to check their accounts and to let you know if their check cashes.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.
Ivan,
ReplyDeleteThe comment was in reference to "Chess For Zebras" book that I suggested to you on this very blog about a year ago. :-)
Moscow is much warmer than WI right not, but it should cool off considerably by the end of the week.
Jim,
That's actually good news as the checks can be tracked and can be cancelled.
Mike has the checks because he had a cash bag and a check bag. This is how he found out that he had the two amounts mixed up. Sorry for any confusion.
ReplyDeleteAlex: I very highly recommend both of Rowson's books ("7 Deadly Chess Sins," too) as I spent a few months reading them and looking at myself and my own psychology. I've never seen anything quite like them before.
ReplyDeleteAs for the comment about the thief not being seen by the directors at the table, there were two durin the 5th round, myself and Ed Larkin. Ed was dutifully filling out the pairing cards (facing away from that area). Since he is a new TD, he was concentrating intently on doing a good job (which he did). I was getting results and going out to the playing room to manually update the wallcharts so that people knew what where they stood. Should the bag have been in an unsecured location? No, but that does not change the fact that someone stole money from a well-respected director-Mike Selig.
ReplyDeleteMike has already told me of his desire to retire and have me run the NEO for him after this year. I am unsure as I want to get away from the business due to many people on message boards whining about the way I direct.
With Arlen done; Mike, Luke Ludwig, Jim Nickell, and Guy Hoffman all over 50, who will be left to run tournaments larger than the Hales Corners Open in a few years?
Dennis Kosterman and I have already told Mike that we will forego payment for the weekend to alleviate the financial damage. I also paid for the numerous memberships purchased with my credit card when I entered them to USCF. Mike is under no obligation to reimburse me. I feel just as guilty for this happening under my watch and deserve some of the liability.
The young man in question is the "friend" of his grand-daughter. He was at the back side of the TD table closest to the money bag. We found out after the fact that he has warrants for his arrest, and has not been seen since Sunday evening.
Now, if someone really wants to make a difference, send Selig a donation; show you care enough to do more than lob silly comments about a serious situation.
Thanks to the players (specifically John Becker; it was good to see you again my friend) for a good tournament. There were a couple minor issues, but nothing that could not be remedied.
Thanks to Dennis Kosterman and Ed Larkin for helping out, you guys did a good job.