Pawns on the Ground
Pawns on the Ground
Lookin' Like a Fool With Your Pawns on the Ground

The followup to a very successful Monday night blitz event, Pawns on the Ground will build on that, plus Canada's awesome gold medal haul. If you have a clock and a decent chess set, bring 'em along.

We will be dividing the players into sections of 6 players each, which means you will get to play up to ten games, two against each opponent.

Please show up no later than 7:00 pm so we can get the first round started ASAP.

Updated Again! I posted the wrong opening moves in my original thread. I hope this doesn't affect anyone's preparation, although I doubt that people have started preparing already...I apologize for the confusion.

On a side note, when you are preparing for this tournament I encourage you to put your analysis in a Chessbase database (or .pgn file). After the tournament is over people can send me their analysis and I will add it to what I have, and then I can distribute the complete file to everyone. If people also submit some of their games from this event I can include those as well. This way we'll all have a high quality opening survey after the tournament is over, and we might even be able to contribute to current theory in this line.

Updated: The date for the themed tournament has been changed to March 20. Also, I will be holding a lecture on Friday, March 19 at 8 PM. The lecture will discuss central pawn majorities in the middlegame and will illustrate common attacking and defensive techniques in these structures. The cost for the lecture is $20 and all proceeds will go to the BATB.

The next BATB fundraiser will be an active "theme" tournament on March 20, and it will take place in Arts 213. A theme tournament is one where everyone plays the same opening variation, and the theme of this tournament will be the main line Sicilian Dragon! More specifically, everyone's game will begin with this sequence of moves:

1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 g6
6. Be3 Bg7
7. f3 0-0
8. Qd2 Nc6
9. Bc4 Bd7
10. Bb3 Rc8
11. 0-0-0 Ne5
12. Kb1

This variation was chosen for several reasons: it is sharp, it features castling on opposite sides, it's a main line with tons of theory and games to study from, and it's a line that I don't play with either color so I can't be accused of stacking the deck! As well, according to Keith (who knows more about the Dragon than I do), 12.Kb1 is the latest attempt at the highest level for white to gain an advantage, so the whole system is currently quite topical.

Keith and I have already committed to playing, and if you'd like to participate please let me know by responding to this thread or sending me an email. The cost to play is $20, and all proceeds will go towards Battle at the Border expenses.

The number of rounds and tournament format will depend on the number of players that enter, as will the time control. This tournament will not be rated by the CFC.

If you're interested in playing in this year's Battle with the likes of Nakamura, Charbonneau, Teplitsky, Yoos, Sasata, etc, please attend these fundraising events. We are over half way to our goal of raising $1,000 but we need your help to get to the finish.

Registered Players
Keith MacKinnon (+Lecture)
Jamin Gluckie (+Lecture)
David Steer (+Lecture)
Tyler Janzen (+Lecture)
Jason Danner (+Lecture)
Kirk Nilson (Lecture Only)
Kaden Nilson (Lecture Only)
Adithya Ramachandran (Lecture Only)
Chris Achtemichuk (+Lecture)
Josh Timm (+Lecture)
Roger Blum (Lecture Only)

...asked my daughter during the inaugural Brunskill Blitz last night. A total of 15 players in 3, count 'em, 3 sections took part in the chessical blood bath. To be honest, I didn't have a good answer, except that Jason really thinks that chess is awesome.

I'd have to agree with him there. In addition to the usual crowd, we had two newcomers, Jan and Aaron, who proved to be quite formidable over the board, but were otherwise splendid chaps. There were some intense battles fought, and several savoury bits of trash talk in the computer room/tournament hall - all in all, a good night.

Alright folks, I've decided to bite the bullet. I hereby announce my intention to organize the 2010 Sask Open. I will TD the event, and likely not play. In order to bring this to fruition, however, I will need some help. First, I would appreciate some input as to preferred date. Thoughts?

So, I have a friend and he's a computer web developer. So, he has some spare time so he offered to revamp our site a little bit plus he'll have something extra for his resume. What do you guys think?