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BGonline.org Forums
Update from Chiva's Tournament in Maryland
Posted By: Paul Weaver
Date: Sunday, 17 October 2010, at 6:11 a.m.
There were eighteen players in the championship draw. We played 15pt matches. Mary Hickey gave many lessons over the weekend. I was her first student. She raced off to a 10-0 lead against me in the first round and won 15-5.
In the semis, Mary beat Jeff Acierno and Joe Freedman beat Rich Munitz. I think Mary and Joe will play the finals tomorrow.
In the finals of the consolation, Rich beat Frank Raposa, a 26-year-old player from the area. I had never met Frank before I played him in the semis. He played very well. It is great to see strong young players coming up.
Although Rich has probably not considered how his consolation win affects the 2010 ABT race, he closed the gap between himself and the absent John O'Hagan from roughly 5 points to roughly 1.5 points. John and Rich plan to attend both of the remaining ABT events of 2010. May the luckier man win!
Rich mentioned that he wanted to enter the last chance tomorrow (Sunday). If he entered and won, he might pass John. I feel sure that if he paid Chiva enough money (would Chiva turn down a seven-digit offer?), Chiva would permit Rich to play in the last chance.
To cover the very unlikely event that anyone cares, I will mention that I broke my own world record. I have now reached the consolation semifinals in five ABT events this year.
Alan Grunwald was leading 10-1 in the finals of the Masters event over local player Ray Zamani, who is fluent in Farzi. Can anyone guess where Ray was born?
Mochy came here from Japan but did not cash in the tournament. Mochy played Chiva in the finals of the "Board Tournament," and Chiva won the board. Chiva announced he would auction it off and give half the proceeds to the USBGF.
Mochy is going to Paris when he leaves Maryland. How far is it from Baltimore to Paris? If you go east, it is roughly 3000 miles. Mochy, however, will go by way of Tokyo, making his journey something like 15000 miles instead of 3000. He said he needed to get 50,000 miles on his airline for 2010.
It was great to see Mochy at a tournament in the USA. He behaved reasonably well. He lost to Jeff Acierno in the first round. What does the #1 player in the world do after losing a tough match in which he had a big lead? There was no post-match whining for Mochy. He did not show us the jokers his opponent had rolled. Mochy did not show us the lousy numbers he had rolled. Using only his scoresheet as a guide, he was able to remember almost all of the doubling decisions from his match and many of the crucial checker plays. He checked them out on XG. Instead of focusing on how lucky his opponent was, he put his effort into figuring out what mistakes he had made, so he can learn and improve.
If some ABT TD would invite Mochy to give a seminar and comped his room, I bet Mochy might be willing to do it in 2011. After all, he needs to reach 50,000 miles with his airline every year.
I like TDs with a sense of humor, even if it is at my expense. When I first saw Chiva on Thursday and asked him when I would play my first round match in the Masters event, he told me the match would start at 2 AM. I was such a dimwit that I did not get the joke at first. Evidently Chiva remembered some things I posted on this very Web site last month about not enjoying playing until 2:15 AM. I had forgotten all about it.
I think it was Mary Hickey who told me she had had a conversation with Bill Davis, who plans to run his tournament a bit differently in 2011 than in 2010, according to Mary. I believe she indicated that Bill suggested he might make well-known slow players play all of their matches with clocks. If true, this would be a major improvement, something long overdue.
I know that some bgonline readers got tired of reading my many posts about shortcomings in Bill's March 2010 tournament. Some readers thought I was too harsh on Bill. I believe if I my approach had been softer and gentler, Bill would have made no changes. I am convinced that Bill now realizes he has to do a much better job of running his tournament on a reasonable schedule. I firmly believe Bill and Amy will put on a much better show in March 2011 than they did in March 2010. If this turns out to be the case, then I will take full credit for the great tournament they run.
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