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Looks like this was a great success! The wins: Samsonkin over Nakamura and Milicevic over Shabalov were worth the price of holding the event! The Samsonkin game was a great crowd pleaser and "my best win ever!" - Samsonkin. Players et al post your comments here. Let the sponsors know their contributions are appreciated!
If there is one thing that made this tournament a success is because of private sponsorships and the unconditional guaranteed prizes. Most of the credit should go to the Chess Organizer “Brian Fiedler” who has attracted several sponsors for the event.
Suggestions and comments include (1) Open Section should be FIDE rated;
(2) There should be online pre-registration; (3) Advertisement should also be posted on free local newspapers (like Metro) at least once a week to attract more players; (4) Tournament should be at least 7 rounds; (5) The tournament schedule should be on a long weekend or during school break for students to participate. (6) There was a sudden increase of registered players close to the deadline which should have been avoided if there was a gradual increase of tournament fee toward the end of registration.
Overall, the playing venue’s conditions, facilities and services were excellent!!!
Rating: 4 1/2 STAR.
A Great Success! Also, thank you MONROI for the web show!
If Samsonkin's win over Nakamura gets analyzed by Artiom or Hikaru, I would like to know where to find it. I happened to be there when he played 17.Ne6!! and a few seconds later, Nakamura gave a gentle shake of his head as he looked around. Was this home cooking or found at the board? In retrospect, it looks so obvious, but, that is easy to say after the fact!
The venue was wonderful, I had been there to "check it out" before the event, before the 1st round and during play. Lots of room, spectators were permitted to walk among the boards and watch up close.
How much would it have cost the organizers to have the event FIDE rated? Just curious!
Sounds like a great event... I wish I could've attended. I agree with pretty much all of Precy's points, especially (2) and (4)... If able I would have loved to play, but I have a final today.
By the way, being able to follow the top games online using Monroi was awesome.
The venue was incredible, it felt worthy of the all the great chess minds that were floating about in the room. There were even balconies were we could have thrown coins for Samsonkin's winning attack. The skittles room was a good size with lots of activity.
I would like to thank Brian Fiedler for organizing this terrific event. It seems his networking abilities netted not only a wonderful venue, great players and sponshorship, but also the most prizes for a tournament I have ever seen! I hope Brian will consider continuing this great service to the chess community in Toronto, who really are the cutting edge with all their powerhouse talent.
Brian Lamb also did his usual excellent job directing, with no visible errors to speak of. I remember him from the Macedonian Open, and he has excellent experience getting things done, and Im glad he volunteered for future events. Directing can be a thankless task, and the trick is when your doing things right I think nobody notices! Thanks Brian.
Alex Ferrera also deserves mention because he is part of a younger generation that is willing to donate time, effort and a passion for the game. I appreciate his constant effort to increase interest in the Toronto chess scene. He is very approachable and good natured too, which helps with communication.
I would say this was the best weekend tournament in Toronto in more than 20 years. The location was jaw-droppingly stunning. It reminded me of the old Hotel Statler in New York City where the original New York Open took place. It had a balcony running the length of the GM games section - 20 boards in a row - 20 ft up and you could walk along and do a spectator simul predicting each move on the boards and walking back again. My eyesight isnt so good these days but the feeling and layout was the same. The open bank vault downstairs is a tourist attraction - the vault door perfectly round looked to be 20 ft in diameter and 5 ft thick solid steel - the vault stretched back a 100 ft - is this the biggest bank vault in Canada??. Anyways the service was impeccable - and black marble floors and granite pillars and luxurious washrooms. The sponsors had reps present to talk to potential customers. I enjoyed getting my free chess shirt and other souvenirs and the friendly ladies supplying them. Everyone was on their best behavior and also very friendly. There were so many good games it made my head swim and it was impossible to do a thorough job of spectating - maybe thats why I didnt play well (heh heh -no excuses Hans) I tied for 1st for the trivia prize which was a real surprise because at first I wasnt going to fill out the question form and I dont consider myself a trivia buff. The tournament attracted players that had disappeared from the Toronto scene for almost a decade - most noteworthy Eduardo Teodoro. Fast Eddie is almost 30 now but I am happy to say his engaging personality hasnt changed. IM David Cummings my last round opponent was another but he still plays as tough as ever. FM Goran Milicevic is a perennial GM killer when the pressure is on - he got Shabalov! and finished clear 3rd! ahead of 3 famous GM's - how does he do it? - I am going to have to take lessons - Ive never beaten a GM. The tournament was also an underground walk from Union Station - very nice on the first day when the weather was lousy (high winds). In my first game I faced an opening that I had never seen in my 35 year tournament career. I was White. Imagine waking up to: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 e5 3.Nf3 f6!? 4.Bc4 g6?!? 5.c3 Bh6 !?? Here I started calculating Bxg8 Bxc1, Bxh7 Bxb2, Bxg6+ Kd7, Qb3 Bxa1 etc and then realized its a morning round - take a deep breath and concentrate on development so: 6.Nbd2 Kf8 %# 7.h3 Kg7 Time for a second cup of coffee! Now I decided to play cagey. 8.Nf1 Bxc1 9.Rxc1 Nh6 10.Ne3 c6 11.00 Qe7 Here my thinking drifted into a knightmare as I started to visualize all his pieces developing properly and overwhelming me with accompanying excellent pawn play. Time for drastic measures. 12.Nd2 Nd7 13.f4 Lets see how he handles this one. 13...Nf8 Whew - a break 14.fxe5 fxe5 15.Qf3 Ne6 16.Bxe6 Bxe6 17.dxe5 dxe5 18.Qg3 Lovely queen and two knights. 18...Nf7 19.Ndc4 Bxc4??Whoops 20.Nf5+ Kf8 21.Nxe7 Bxf1 22.Rxf1 Kxe7 23.Qf2 Nd6 24.Qf6+1-0
Congratulations to Brian Fiedler!! He went out and did it!! and how!! Absolutely fabulous job of organizing (and first time too). He has my utmost respect. Maybe someone else will step forward and use his excellent model of organizing. Toronto deserves a regular first class tournament like this one (and the players will come). This tournament created a buzz that I have not heard in years. Again congratulations Brian, well done!!
A noteable website report on Samsonkin's game vs Nakamura:
The Chess Mind
Author: Dennis Monokroussos.
This is a blog for chess fans by a chess fan who is more than a chess fan - other topics do creep in from time to time, per my interest.
All material here is copyrighted, and may not be reproduced without my prior permission.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Samsonkin-Nakamura, Toronto Open 2009
A reader wrote in mentioning that a player named Samsonkin had beaten Nakamura in very convincing fashion (unfortunately, he didn't send the game or say where it was played, but I eventually managed to find it), and he was right. Nakamura took too many liberties on the black side of a Kan Sicilian, and his IM opponent took the initiative and ran with it. It wasn't a difficult game to play after White's 17th move, but it was a nice one - have a look.
I want to congratulate the organizers and directors of this superb event -- the 2009 PWC Toronto Open -- and their important connection with significant tournament sponsorship should also be emphasized and greatly appreciated!! :):):)
I would have loved to play in it, but other obligations made it difficult. If a similar event is held next year, I will make it a priority to play.
Others have written in with their thanks, comments, and suggestions. I have one more to add: with this many strong players, and only five rounds, the organizers should have set up a separate U2200 section, so that a clear winner is easier to achieve, and so that points are more evenly valued across the event. With many people rated well under 2000 playing in the Open section, a win over an 1800 player is scored the same as one over a 2300 player, and this distorts the value of the tournament, especially for the stronger players.
Google finds K.Spraggett's story which probably was burnt or maybe still in preparation
"SPRAGGETT ON CHESS: Toronto: have you no shame?
Given this, it should come as no shock that the Toronto Open Chess Championship 2009, held over the April 17-19 weekend, provided some no less stunning ...
kevinspraggett.blogspot.com/2009/04/toronto-have-you-no-shame.html"
Last edited by Egidijus Zeromskis; Wednesday, 22nd April, 2009, 12:22 AM.
For those who haven't yet seen the hottest games of the tournament, I posted just a few from the superstars on www.chess5.com
A couple from each co-winner, and three games that generated a lot of interest from the public.
A potential major tournament that has the potential for another attraction will be the 2009 Holidays Open only if the organizer can find major sponsors.
The ever popular Labour Day Open (FIDE rated) will always be a contender.
The trend of getting major sponsorship will definite give a boost to the chess playing population and even players who were inactive over five (5) years came down to play. We just have one tournament which is the equivalent of the Canadian Open and hope to see similar tournaments coming up in the next few months.
Most excellent tournament, one way it could grow is to, if possible, have it slightly later, say last weekend in April or first weekend in May so that full time & part time university students such as me will be done exams & can participate more fully.
I think for the sponsors we are a good demographic, compared to equestrian events & golf events we are likely much less expensive to sponsor, compared to bridge we have a younger demographic although one that is largely male. A younger demographic in that many of our younger players are soon to establish careers or are just establishing them, along with an older demographic of players that already have established careers. All of these being an attractive demographic for all the sponsors. We are also a very multicultural group, so for the sponsorship they are able to connect with members of multi-communities at the same time.
We also have students like me (albeit older) that would be interested in working at PWC as Chartered accounting students. Even if I don't I'm still very impressed as an accounting major at Ryerson that PWC is sponsoring an event near & dear to me. Way to go PWC.
I have to say I was very impressed with the hotel staff (which is what I think they were) -especially the blonde woman who was a breath of fresh air, smiling and helping out everywhere. I really appreciate the hotel putting out glasses & fresh water all the time. I think they should also have had pop, tea & coffee for sale, I certainly would have bought some refreshments for me & to support the cause.
I think it was good to see everyone respecting the place, I do have to say that if you are going to eat McDonalds take out,that you should have the sense to have it at McDonalds, don't sit there eating it on the bar counter, but I saw only one person doing that. Also I've never had more people bump into the back of my chair while I was playing even though there was plenty of room between tables. Learn to walk in public people.
Last edited by Zeljko Kitich; Wednesday, 22nd April, 2009, 01:09 PM.
Precy and Zeljko both have great comments, but for the organizer to get them did you fill out and hand in the evaluation form that was part of the tournament package? Brian's first step in organizing this event was doing a player's survey at a tournament on Bayview. He very much pays attention to written feedback.
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