3/3/2012Are you looking for private chess lessons? I am willing to do private chess lessons for individuals or groups. The students that I am willing to teach are those who are unrated to 1400.
If interested or have any questions please contact me at pilot_cougar_chess@live.com. I will also post more information about private and group lessons on my blog at pilotcougarchess.wordpress.com. February and March Calvin was a downer. Both tournaments were cancelled on the day of the tournament with hardly no players showing up. I don't know if it is due to weather or various other reasons. Hopefully, I will see you guys next few months for future tournaments here at Calvin.
Before ending this post, I would like to ask players a few questions;
1. What would like to see at Calvin?
2. Is the entry fee too high or too low?
3. Is the time control too long?
4. Are you willing to bring your own lunch to the tournament or not bring your own lunch?
5. How many rounds would like to have as well? (*note if you would like at least 4 rounds the time control would be shorter due to that I have to work in the evenings on Saturdays starting between 4pm or 5pm. So I need to leave here no later than 3:30pm)
-Antowine JOrdan 12/3/2011Today's Calvin tournament was full of great games and surprises as well. John Drexel, Isaac Zylstra, Thomas Armantrout, and Freddie Noe duked it out over the 64 squares. It was very good to see Fred and his dad to come to the tournament. Good to have you two back at the tournament here at Calvin.
To the action that happened within the first round of play. Thomas Armantrout upsetted John Drexel. In the endgame, John only had a rook, knight, and about 5 pawns on the board to blacks isolated queen pawns on the c-file, f-pawn, and a passed g-pawn with Queen backup. In this position, there was no way that John could have defended the position to stop the g-pawn from gain another piece activity. John's knight couldn't really move anywhere due to squares being taken away by black's pawn. Also white's rook was nailed down to the second rank and back row to try to stop the pawn. Eventually, white resigned the game due to the fact that there was no way of saving the game. Good job Thomas.
In the second round of play, Armantrout was white against Zylstra. In the end game, white could have drawn the game with perpetual check with his queen but instead white was concerned with blacks pawns and how he could advance them more into the endgame. Also at this juncture black had two rooks and about 5 pawns to white's queen and two pawns. It was a tough position and Zylstra manuvered his rooks well enough to win the game. Very well done Isaac.
In the final round of the tournament, It was a very close endgame to where it could have been a draw but Drexel was able to pull out the win. White was able to manuver his queen and rook into blacks territory for a winning attack. congrats John.
The final tournament standings were that John, Isaac, and Thomas tied for first with 2/3 points. I want to thank everyone for coming out to play and plan to celebrate the new year with the first Calvin tournament in the new year of 2012 on Jan. 7. Also be tentative on the format for next year.
Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!! 11/7/2011Hello Everyone,
It's great to have these tournaments every month. A great atmosphere, a quiet place to play, and also great competition among players here in the West side of the state. In both of these months, there were low turn outs due to the Michigan Open and the International Chess Festival. For Nov., only 6 players came to play and yes your TD, Antowine Jordan played as well and among the 6 players. Only one scholastic players showed up to play, so now players in that section. Malchi Jobin took a huge step in getting better by playing in the Challenge section. it was something different and in my eyes, a huge step of wanting to get better as a player as well. Keep it up Malachi, you will get better as you play players who are highier rated than you are.
Congrats to Kevin Jackson who came in first place with a perfect score of 3/3. He did a fablous job defeated a dragon set up in his first game against Antowine Jordan and in the last round won a difficult pawn endgame again Clara McGrew. Speaking of Clara, she came to play after playing in July Calvin tournament. She took second place honors with 2/3 with wins over Antowine and Thomas Armantrout who played in his first rated tournament. The endgame again me, was pretty difficult to win but pulled it out by mistakes by white in the end. It should have been a draw. Congrats Clara on fine play in your games.
Other players attending Thomas Armantrout and long time West Michigan player, Tim Clark. He had a difficult tournament. He lost to Kevin in a tough endgame, in which he lost in due to time pressure. Also losing to Thomas. That was an the biggest upset for the tournament.
Games are going to be forth coming for this tournament. Also you will be able to find the results of the tournaments of Sept. and this months at uschess.org. 10/14/2011Hello everyone,
It has been a long time since I have posted anything on here. I have posted a report on the website about the Grand Rapids Opens which gives a summary of what took place. It is in a word document in docx file formate. Basically it is Microsofts newest formate that was developed a few years back when they updated. If you are unable to veiw the document at all, goto pilotcougarchess@wordpress.com and you will be able to read the summary of how the tournament went. I think everyone will be pleased of how it went. Games will be forth coming on westmichiganchess.com for your viewing to some of battles that took place. I hope to see many of West Michigan players attend next years event. I am in the planning process for next years event. More details will be soon to follow. 7/11/2011What a nice turn out for mid-summer tournament. In a month that is laden with vacations, 4th of July weekend celebrations, chess camps, etc. July Calvin turned out to be a fantastic tournament with a total of 21 players coming out to duke it out for the top honors in each section. I would like to thank everyone who came out over the weekend to play. Also would like to thank everyone who was winning to play a swiss-round robin format in the top section of the quad as well. It was fun watching the top players in West Michigan fighting it out over 64-squares.
First off, congradulations to Ratko Bojanovic and Clara McGrew for winning there sections out right. There was a three way tie for first between Andrew Schremser, J Caleb Bowman, and Antowine Jordan (td). It was great to see Clara back to playing in the tournament. She was in top form.
In the scholastic section, Seth Strout won the section with 4.5/5 for clear first. His only draw came in the third round against Leah Ziegler who placed second with 4/5. Third place finisher was Malachi Jobin who is new to the Calvin tournaments. Congrats to all three for doing a fantastic job. Also to note, Seth Strout also won his section in the Bottom Half Class two weeks ago as well. He is on roll with two straight tournament wins in just two weeks time. That is not easy feat either.
There was an upset in one of the quads. J Caleb Bowman beat Antowine Jordan, your td, in the last round and stopped him from having a perfect score. Bowman had a better position of Queens Gambit in which Jordan missed a move to prevent Bowmans queen inside white's defense. Bowman had a beautiful combination in which white missed and black capitalized on it, in which white immediately resigned afterwards. Good game Bowman. Very nice job.
In the top section, many of the games went down to the wire. Kevin and Eugene's game went in final minutes in their game, which can be replayed on the site or downloaded. Brumely, went down to his final 5 seconds on the clock but was able pull out the win by using sharp attacks and tatics on blacks king side. It was very well played from white's side. In the last round game of Stan Jarosz and Greg Bailey, it was down to a rook pawn endgame on both sides of the board. Both had a passed pawn on the queen in which both sides can take. Due to two pawns on the king side and the positions, the game ended in a hard fought draw.
Again thank you all for coming out and I will see each of you next month as well. More games are forth coming. So be on the lookout for them.
5/29/2011Hello West Michigan Chess!
I have a idea of wanting to play someone in a six game classical chess match with me? We would meet at least once a week to play a game. It will be rated and the time control would be 40 moves in 90 minutes, with rest of the game in 30 minutes plus 30 increment.
The idea of this type of format is to get players like myself and others to get used to this if they are willing get better in their game. If international players can do a match, so can the average chess player as well. Also this could be a start of other
amatuer chess matches here in West Michigan and other parts of the state as well.
Please let me know if anyone is interested in playing in such a format. 5/8/2011
This weekend saw a small turnout of players due to the Great Lakes Open the previous week. I would like to thank all of the players who did show for the tournament.
This month's tourney started a new format of 3RR (round robin) G/60. This allows for players to be paired in quads rather than in swiss pairing system. Also it allows everyone to have a game with everyone else in the quad with no byes if there is an odd number of player. In the future Calvin tournaments, we'll continue with this format to see how it goes and also to see if more players will show up to play. Please let everyone know of the new format.
Now to the action, congrats to Leah Ziegler who took home 1st place with a perfect score of 5 out of 5. Also to note, this is Leah's third first place finish this year so far with a perfect score. The other two perfect finishes was back in Jan. and Feb. 2011. Keep up the good work Leah.
Second place finisher was Chirag Rudrangi with 4 out 5. Tied for third was Dakshesh Daruri and Seth Strout with 3.5 out of 5. (Seth Strout won April scholastic section as well.)
Now for the quad sections. There were hard-fought games in each of the three rounds of the tournaments. Isaac Zylstra played a wonderful game in Quad 1 against John Drexel which ended in a draw. It was a King, Bishop, Pawn endgame with all kingside pawns on both sides of the board. It was a very interesting game and a great highlight to the tournament. In the last round in the Quad 1, Greg Bailey and John Drexel drew in a complex endgame position. Drexel at one point was setting up a mating net but couldn't pursue it due to a weak back rank that Bailey saw and wanted to exploit. Drexel needed the win in this game in order to secure first place but came up a half-point shy. Greg Bailey was the winner of the Quad 1. Congrats.
In Quad 2 there was furious fighting as well. Bill Ignasiak took home the top honors. In every game he played well, and wiht confidence, keeping the pressure on his opponents. But in the last round game, new comer Andrew Schremser had a mating attack against Ignasiak. But due to time pressure, with about a minute to go, Schremser couldn't find the mate so he resigned. (Side note: Andrew has been coming to the tournaments on a regular basis observing the competition so he can learn and so forth. So he finally has decided to compete and challenge himself to our sport. So let each of us welcome him to our community.) Another top story in this section is that Joshua Posthuma upset Robert Vasey in the second round. Posthuma was rated almost 300 points lower. Congrats Josh! He also took home the upset prize for the tourney.
Thank you for all who came to the tournament and I hope to see many players next month for some exciting chess. Next month's tournament dates will be posted very soon along with the other dates for the summer as well.
Games for the May Calvin and also of Feb., March, and April will be forthcoming. Be watchful for them. 1/29/2011It is a great day to have a tournament. Just like football, it is cold outside and snow is on the ground, and its time to get down to business. But unlike football, chess is played indoors, on long tables with your opponent right across from you.
First, I like to say thanks to everyone who showed up to the tournament on this snowy day. It was great to see everyone out and ready to do battle on the chessboard. I would also like to thank my wife Jennifer Jordan who showed up and helped me out at registration as well. She was very helpful. Lastly, I would like to thank Ann for helping out with scholastic section as well.
The total number of players that showed up to the tournament were 17 players (10 scholastic and 7 adults). Many of the scholastic players were new players and this was there. Out of the 10 scholastic players, 6 were brand new players. So it was great to see new players to start their chess careers at this Calvin Tournament.
Congratulations to Leah Ziegler who scored a perfect 5.0 points in the scholastic section. Second and third place finishers were won by the Collins brothers, Jackson Collins (4.0) and Ben Collins (3.5). Congratulations to the brothers as well on their performance because this was their first tournament.
For the top section, It was won by John Drexel with 3.5 with a close second place finish by Greg Bailey with 3.0. Third place was tied between Joseph and Nick Schwerin with 2.5. Joseph had third on the better tiebreaks. Nick showed extremely fighting spirit in all of his games with some very tough endgames. In his game against Meyer, while in time pressure, he held the draw with Meyer missed a winning move. Nick's performance rating by the end of the tournament was 1711!
John Drexel also had an excellent tournament with his only draw came against James Abbott. John also had an impressive performance rating of 2111 by the end of tournament.
Again, congratulations to all place finishers and thanks again to all who came out. Hope to see you at Feb. 5, 2011 Calvin Tournament as well. Games of this month's tournament will be forth coming soon. |
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