When the cat is away...

An enjoyable blitz tonight with a relatively even field. With FM Baron away Dimitry Partsi & Simon Schmidt shared 1st place. I enjoyed the event; felt like I had at least some chance in every game. Dimitry Partsi's play in time trouble recently has been a joy to behold: squeezing absolutely everything out of the position has become his speciality. In the following position there had been much jostling for position, many tricks, traps and draws offered in the previous 487 moves;) With 4 seconds left on the clock mighty Partsi missed the brilliancy Kc1 which would have kept the contest alive, blundering with Kc3??

White to play, Partsi - Cavezza 1/2 - 1/2
After Kc3?? I found the brilliant Re3!! drawing the game.

Being serious for a moment though, I have no problem with people taking opponents out on time in drawn positions. In blitz, both players start the game knowing they have 5 minutes and 0 seconds to get the game to a technically "completed" position, not a drawish one. Knowing that at the start, my view is we can't have any complaints about it at the end. That said, I get that it can be annoying too!

Results: 

#	Name	Score	Tie.	New Rating
1	Dimitry Partsi	7½	37½	2115 9
2	Simon Schmidt	7½	37½	1968 60
3	Jack Puccini	7	38	2152 6
4	Leo Nguyen	6½	38½	2036 4
5	Chris Kolak	4½	40½	2020 30
6	Andrew Fletcher	4½	40½	1771 18
7	Paul Cavezza	3½	41½	1721 7
8	Zheng Sun	2	43	1742 24
9	Daniel Dobos	2	43	1618 4
10	Elizabeth Warren	0	45	1367 10

Tuesday night Blitz! (7/7/15)

 Epic 10 / 10 from FM Baron!

#	Name	Score
1	Michael Baron	10
2	Jack Puccini	8
3	Kanan Izzat	7½
4	Hoai Nam	7
5	Dimitry Partsi	7
6	Leo Nguyen	6
7	Miodrag Milojevic	5½
8	Simon Schmidt	5
9	Thai Ly	5
10	Andrew Fletcher	5
11	Phillip Drew	5
12	David Lacey	5
13	Zheng Sun	5
14	Tony Tosevski	5
15	Goran Ilic	5
16	Nicholas Ilic	5
17	Shum Ghumman	4½
18	Elizabeth Warren	4½
19	Daniel Dobos	4
20	Niruruthi Ravichandren	4
21	Natalie Bartnik	3
22	Surjeet Singh	3
23	Zlatko Varga	1

Your weekly unusual shot of Dimitry:

23 players: epic! 

Tuesday night blitz! (30 / 6 / 15)

Good to see the blitz continue to grow. FM Michael Baron took the spoils winning all his games apart from a draw with FM Jack Puccini. IM James Morris came in second & Dimtry Partsi 3rd. Good to see some new faces too.
Scores and a video below!

IM Morris & FM Jack Puccini 

Some slight controversy in my game V Nic Ilic where a triple repetition draw claim was rejected and I won on time in an equal/drawish position. I had no problem doing this as I was a rook and time up for most of the game, but more importantly we're all on the same page about claiming draws in 5-0 blitz: there are no "draw claims". If there's mating material left on the board (including rook V rook or knight V knight, you're welcome to take someone out on time. If not, the position is already drawn regardless of claims). We all come into the games knowing this, so when you start you know you're playing with 5 minutes to conclude the game, not 5 minutes to get it to a technical draw with good play. I might've been more "sporting" had the times been close together, but we play with the clock for a reason, and if it takes you longer than your opponent to get to a "drawish" position, that counts for something: in 5-0 you can't call the arbiter to come and change the rules at the end of the game. Nic was a good sport about it anyway and it was nice to see the Ilic's in town!

#	Name	Score
1	Michael Baron	9½
2	James Morris	9
3	Dimitry Partsi	8
4	Jack Puccini	7½
5	Leo Nguyen	6
6	Thomas Kalisch	5½
7	Helen Minh	5½
8	Paul Cavezza	4½
9	Andrew Fletcher	4½
10	Zheng Sun	4½
11	Nicholas Ilic	4
12	Goran Ilic	3½
13	Rad Chmiel	3½
14	Zlatko Varga	3
15	Niruruthi Ravichandren	2½
16	Elizabeth Warren	2
17	Harish Kumar	2

Round by round in rating order:

#	Name	Rating	R. 1	R. 2	R. 3	R. 4	R. 5	R. 6	R. 7	R. 8	R. 9	R. 10
1	James Morris	2417	1	2	3	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
2	Michael Baron	2265	1	2	3	4	5	6	6½	7½	8½	9½
3	Jack Puccini	2159	0	1	2	3	3	4	4½	5½	6½	7½
4	Dimitry Partsi	2060	1	2	2	3	4	4	5	6	7	8
5	Helen Minh	2002	1	2	2	2	2	3	3½	4½	4½	5½
6	Leo Nguyen	1970	1	1	2	3	3	3	4	4	5	6
7	Thomas Kalisch	1770	1	1	2	2	3	3	3½	4½	5½	5½
8	Andrew Fletcher	1766	1	1	1	2	3	4	4	4	4	4½
9	Zheng Sun	1741	1	1	1	2	2½	3½	3½	3½	4	4½
10	Rad Chmiel	1708	0	0	1	2	2	2	2½	2½	2½	3½
11	Paul Cavezza	1706	0	1	1	2	2	2½	3½	3½	4½	4½
12	Goran Ilic	1662	0	1	1	1	1½	1½	2½	3½	3½	3½
13	Nicholas Ilic	1618	0	1	2	2	2½	3½	3½	4	4	4
14	Harish Kumar	1514	0	0	0	½	½	1½	2	2	2	2
15	Zlatko Varga	1415	½	½	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	3
16	Niruruthi Ravichandren	1388	0	0	½	½	½	½	1	2	2	2½
17	Elizabeth Warren	1324	0	½	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2

For those who missed it on our facebook page, I'll also upload a couple of videos of MCC member Myiesha Maunders playing in Washington Square Park in NYC. Enjoy!