The Unofficial 2015 Niagara Falls Open Report

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  • The Unofficial 2015 Niagara Falls Open Report

    Since there has been so much interest in a report for this event over the past week... Unofficial because I was not the organizer, just a player.

    Not just any player, mind you. A defending co-champion. :) Wenyang Ming and I tied for first last year.
    This was the fifth Niagara Falls event I've played in. As usual, it was run by John Erickson and John Brown.

    Round 1 was played in St. Catharines, at the Sts. Cyril and Methodious Ukranian Catholic Church. While the church basement isn't anything special, the outside of the church is stunning - probably the most beautiful building I've ever played chess in. I was psyched for the first round. I'd never played in St Catharines before, but it happens to be the city where I was born, and hey, I was there to defend my share of the title. The accelerated pairings meant I got paired up in the first round, and faced Michael Buscar. Michael hadn't played competitive chess since 2007. No matter, he squashed me, like a juicy bug. So much for defending the title...

    The remaining rounds were held at the Niagara Shrine Club. An interesting venue because of the large mural painted on one wall. And convenient, because you can buy lunch (hot roast beef sandwiches and all sorts of beverages) on the premises.

    The top two players, Razvan Preotu and Roman Sapozhnikov, met in round 4. Razvan ended up converting a N and g+h pawn vs N and "a" pawn ending against Roman en route to a perfect 5-0 score.

    Local Joseph Lentini took 2nd place, with 4.5 out of 5. His only draw came against Buscar, whom he happened to be hosting for the event, in an early round.

    Wenyang Ming and I both laughed when we saw the round 5 pairings - we were paired against each other, just as we had been in round 5 last year. This year I got lucky in time trouble, and ended up tying Roman, Keith Wight and ??? for third through sixth place, with 4-1 scores.

    One of the more unusual aspects of the Niagara Falls event each year is the large number (>10) of non-cash prizes awarded for "upsets". Beat someone 400 points above you, and you earn 400 "upset points"; draw somebody 600 points above you and you earn 300 upset points. Those with the most upset points after round 5 win the upset prizes. Lee Hendon had over 1200 upset points after the first three rounds, and unsurprisingly ended up with the most upset points. His prize was a 1-year CFC membership, donated by John Brown in memory of Jaime Solis, a past regular at this event.

    Three things I especially enjoyed this year. 1. Finally getting to meet the rating auditor, Paul LeBlanc, who flew out from BC to play. 2. Seeing Michael Buscar play. As we all know, most kids eventually give up chess. It's hard to come back as an adult, after a long layoff. I hope Michael keeps playing. He pulled off an amazing bishops-of-opposite-color win against Lee Hendon in Round 4. 3. Witnessing (yet again) Razvan's utter love for the game. After the fourth round Razvan asked if he could join some of us in blitz. Even though we were all much weaker than him, and he knew it, he just wanted to "play chess". I found his attitude inspiring.

  • #2
    Re: The Unofficial 2015 Niagara Falls Open Report

    Thanks!

    Good report.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: The Unofficial 2015 Niagara Falls Open Report

      Thanks Walter for the report. It is much appreciated, but was not required. It is a joy to have a friend and a fellow chess player help out.

      This is one of the reasons I love to run a chess tournament. Players who come to enjoy the atmosphere and are happy whatever the outcome may be. That's the way I try to do as well. I have tried to thank every TD at every event I play.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: The Unofficial 2015 Niagara Falls Open Report

        Originally posted by Walter De Jong View Post
        Since there has been so much interest in a report for this event over the past week... Unofficial because I was not the organizer, just a player.

        Not just any player, mind you. A defending co-champion. :) Wenyang Ming and I tied for first last year.
        This was the fifth Niagara Falls event I've played in. As usual, it was run by John Erickson and John Brown.

        Round 1 was played in St. Catharines, at the Sts. Cyril and Methodious Ukranian Catholic Church. While the church basement isn't anything special, the outside of the church is stunning - probably the most beautiful building I've ever played chess in. I was psyched for the first round. I'd never played in St Catharines before, but it happens to be the city where I was born, and hey, I was there to defend my share of the title. The accelerated pairings meant I got paired up in the first round, and faced Michael Buscar. Michael hadn't played competitive chess since 2007. No matter, he squashed me, like a juicy bug. So much for defending the title...

        The remaining rounds were held at the Niagara Shrine Club. An interesting venue because of the large mural painted on one wall. And convenient, because you can buy lunch (hot roast beef sandwiches and all sorts of beverages) on the premises.

        The top two players, Razvan Preotu and Roman Sapozhnikov, met in round 4. Razvan ended up converting a N and g+h pawn vs N and "a" pawn ending against Roman en route to a perfect 5-0 score.

        Local Joseph Lentini took 2nd place, with 4.5 out of 5. His only draw came against Buscar, whom he happened to be hosting for the event, in an early round.

        Wenyang Ming and I both laughed when we saw the round 5 pairings - we were paired against each other, just as we had been in round 5 last year. This year I got lucky in time trouble, and ended up tying Roman, Keith Wight and ??? for third through sixth place, with 4-1 scores.

        One of the more unusual aspects of the Niagara Falls event each year is the large number (>10) of non-cash prizes awarded for "upsets". Beat someone 400 points above you, and you earn 400 "upset points"; draw somebody 600 points above you and you earn 300 upset points. Those with the most upset points after round 5 win the upset prizes. Lee Hendon had over 1200 upset points after the first three rounds, and unsurprisingly ended up with the most upset points. His prize was a 1-year CFC membership, donated by John Brown in memory of Jaime Solis, a past regular at this event.

        Three things I especially enjoyed this year. 1. Finally getting to meet the rating auditor, Paul LeBlanc, who flew out from BC to play. 2. Seeing Michael Buscar play. As we all know, most kids eventually give up chess. It's hard to come back as an adult, after a long layoff. I hope Michael keeps playing. He pulled off an amazing bishops-of-opposite-color win against Lee Hendon in Round 4. 3. Witnessing (yet again) Razvan's utter love for the game. After the fourth round Razvan asked if he could join some of us in blitz. Even though we were all much weaker than him, and he knew it, he just wanted to "play chess". I found his attitude inspiring.
        Thanks a lot Walter for the final report and for covering someone who can now type on the keyboard after 9 days!

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: The Unofficial 2015 Niagara Falls Open Report

          Mark:

          If you were to look at past Niagara Falls Opens, you will notice that a report was posted within a couple of days. I have NEVER, I repeat NEVER, have posted a cross table. So, to ask me to post one now, no matter how polite you are, is wrong. Please do some research and quit giving me grief about this. I don't post a report ASAP once, and get criticized.

          If the moderator of this forum, wants me to post a report, I will. Otherwise, it would superfluous and taking away from the Ontario Open, being played this weekend. This should be the focus, not a report from a small tournament that you didn't play in. If I posted a small report, you might say it was too short, or something else.

          John Erickson
          Hopefully this is the last of this as I am getting very PO'ed from this topic.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: The Unofficial 2015 Niagara Falls Open Report

            Originally posted by Egidijus Zeromskis View Post
            There is a link to chess-results (a common CAN list) http://chess-results.com/fed.aspx?lan=1&fed=CAN
            You could have provided a link similar to 2015 Aurora Open's like this one.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: The Unofficial 2015 Niagara Falls Open Report

              Originally posted by Mark Biong View Post
              You could have provided a link similar to 2015 Aurora Open's like this one.
              You could have played in the NFO if you are so interested.
              This is getting tedious and all you have managed to do is annoy a number of people who (up until now) volunteer tirelessly.
              Constructive criticism is useful; moaning that a volunteer organizer wasn't willing to spend even more of his money and time is nonsense.
              ...Mike Pence: the Lord of the fly.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: The Unofficial 2015 Niagara Falls Open Report

                Originally posted by Kerry Liles View Post
                You could have played in the NFO if you are so interested.
                This is getting tedious and all you have managed to do is annoy a number of people who (up until now) volunteer tirelessly.
                Constructive criticism is useful; moaning that a volunteer organizer wasn't willing to spend even more of his money and time is nonsense.

                It seems that Mark should be and perhaps will be one of those people who start out in chess and eventually transition over to poker. The type of tournament he likes can be done in poker much more so than in chess (Niagara Falls even has a quite large casino), and the variance is much higher which should also be to his liking. Perhaps he likes chess much more as a game than poker, and is frustrated by the limitations of chess tournaments. But coming down on the organizers isn't going to change that.
                Only the rushing is heard...
                Onward flies the bird.

                Comment

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