No worries Andre, take all the time you need. Is anyone playing in the Canadian Chess Open in July, it's from the 11th to the 19th in Edmonton. I know Raven is going, I don't know if I can make it, that is a lot of time I need to take off from work!!!
I was planning to but wont be able to this time. We have a great club in Edmonton that stage some good tournaments. They hosted this tournament in 2001 and 2005 previously. So they have been bringing our share of hosting up a lot.
ItsYouThatIAdore has a few games entering the middle game now. Some of the positions should start to get interesting. I think this will be a closely fought tournament. Even when the ratings are 200 points apart it is hard to predict. Players can be much stronger when they put extra effort in to games.
Capa was playing some crazy aggressive moves. I haven't seen that before. I think he just pushed it too hard. It happens. I have thrown caution to the wind trying to get my opponent off balance but it doesn't usually work in correspondence style games.
Well the tournament has come down to backfrom1994 and LexRex. Both have the potential of 37 points. Raven69 has a statistical chance at 2nd place with a potential 33 points which would put her ahead of backfrom1994's current 28 points. Raven69 should finish better than her current 7th place position due to so many games that are still unfinished.
ItsYouThatIAdore and loschuzmas both forfeit games to finish at the bottom despite both being among the favourites to win the tournament.
KnightStalker47, Capa, and Checkagain all played some strong games and made the tournament competitive. Checkagain managed to take a game against the highest rated player of the tournament. Many thanks to these players for joining a very tough tournament.
backfrom1994 and LexRex drew their first match and are fighting it out in an interesting 2nd game. LexRex is up a knight for 2 pawns but has his king stuck in the middle of the board. Don't miss this game. It is a very good battle that may decide the ultimate winner of the tournament.
The Canadian Masters 2009 is nearing its conclusion. There is a tough battle
for first place between LexRex and backfrom1994. Their final game is sitting
on the edge with LexRex being up a peice for two pawns in an extremely tense game.
Can backfrom1994 manage a draw?
LexRex 34 points 1 game remaining
backfrom1994 28 points 3 games remaining
KnightStalker47 19 points 1 game remaining
Checkagain 16 points 1 game remaining
Capa 15 points 1 game remaining
ItsYouThatIAdore 15 points 0 games remaining
Raven69 13 points 5 games remaining
loschuzmas 6 points 0 games remaining