Ontario Open report

[Rob Gashgarian]

The 2015 edition of the Ontario Open has concluded and here's a quick synopsis.

Firstly I want to thank everyone behind the scenes that offered their help:
Lee Hendon and John Vlasov for their organizational assistance.
Chris Osborne, Robin Johnston and others from our local club that helped with setting up and taking down the the tournaments site. Your help throughout the process of getting this off the ground was immense.
IA Hal Bond and good friend Tony Ficzere, coming from Calgary, handled the arbiting with great expertise. Tony also took on the task of creating and maintaining the website, no small task.
Our sponsors' support helped us hold a quality event by giving us the funds to invite GMs Bator Sambuev, Maxim Dlugy and John Fedorowicz. Thank you to all three, you were a pleasure to have here and of course to our sponsors.
Jim Koudounis, owner of Embracewood in London, ON, donated a beautiful custom chess table and pieces for the first place prize in the Open section and two desktop sets for first prize in U2000 and U1600 sections. Local pottery maker, Rose Risi, created unique chess-themed trophies for first place in each of the four sections.
The City of Brantford, with a healthy financial contribution and Ela Stypa and Heather McEwen from the Tournament Capital of Ontario, for their invaluable assistance with media contact and community outreach. Councillor David Neumann and Liberal MP candidate Danielle Takacs added prestige to our fundraisier Living Chess Game in Harmony Square May 9. FM Hans Jung and NM Adam Cormier ably assisted our political players.

At the opening of the tournament, town crier David McKee officially announced the tournament beginning with a cry specifically chess themed. Councillor Neumann, representing the mayor offered welcome to all contestants.
Rose also created a commemorative plaque that was presented to WFM Qiyu Zhou, for her 2014 WYCC U14 Girls championship. We also collected money locally and with the help of the OCA and SWOCL raised $800 to help Qiyu offset costs of pursuing further titles.
After a ceremonial first move and with the obligatory lateness :( , the first round began.

Two days later, the following winners were determined:

Open section (two way tie for 1st with 5 pts $900 ea)
1st (tiebreak) GM Maxim Dlugy King trophy and custom chess table
Tied first FM Shiyam Thavandiran

3-way tie for third 4 1/2 pts, $234 ea
GM Bator Sambuev, IM Artiom Samsonkin and IM Thomas Krnan

U2000
1st 5 1/2 pts Anthony Maulucci $800 Queen trophy and portable chess board
2nd 5 pts Mario Piccinin $400
3rd 4 1/2 pts Daniel Liu $300

U1600 (the U1200 was played in this section due to lack of entries)
Six!! way tie for 1st (4.5/6, $233.33 ea)
1st (tiebreak) John R. Brown Bishop trophy and portable chess board
tied first
Henry Hill-Tout
Andrew Colvin
Hugo Ortiz
Avery Jones
Allan Masterson

U1200
1st 3 1/2 pts Ronan Uthayakumar $250 and Knight trophy
tied 2nd 3pts, $75 ea
Austin Hunter and Andrew Court

This was my first direct attempt at an event of this magnitude and as can be expected, there were a few hiccups, but overall I believe the greatest number were happy with the tournament. I would like to thank everyone of the participants for making our tournament a permanent positive memory for me.

Rob Gashgarian

[Mark Biong]

Re: Ontario Open report

The 2015 edition of the Ontario Open has concluded and here's a quick synopsis.

Firstly I want to thank everyone behind the scenes that offered their help:
Lee Hendon and John Vlasov for their organizational assistance.
Chris Osborne, Robin Johnston and others from our local club that helped with setting up and taking down the the tournaments site. Your help throughout the process of getting this off the ground was immense.
IA Hal Bond and good friend Tony Ficzere, coming from Calgary, handled the arbiting with great expertise. Tony also took on the task of creating and maintaining the website, no small task.
Our sponsors' support helped us hold a quality event by giving us the funds to invite GMs Bator Sambuev, Maxim Dlugy and John Fedorowicz. Thank you to all three, you were a pleasure to have here and of course to our sponsors.
Jim Koudounis, owner of Embracewood in London, ON, donated a beautiful custom chess table and pieces for the first place prize in the Open section and two desktop sets for first prize in U2000 and U1600 sections. Local pottery maker, Rose Risi, created unique chess-themed trophies for first place in each of the four sections.
The City of Brantford, with a healthy financial contribution and Ela Stypa and Heather McEwen from the Tournament Capital of Ontario, for their invaluable assistance with media contact and community outreach. Councillor David Neumann and Liberal MP candidate Danielle Takacs added prestige to our fundraisier Living Chess Game in Harmony Square May 9. FM Hans Jung and NM Adam Cormier ably assisted our political players.

At the opening of the tournament, town crier David McKee officially announced the tournament beginning with a cry specifically chess themed. Councillor Neumann, representing the mayor offered welcome to all contestants.
Rose also created a commemorative plaque that was presented to WFM Qiyu Zhou, for her 2014 WYCC U14 Girls championship. We also collected money locally and with the help of the OCA and SWOCL raised $800 to help Qiyu offset costs of pursuing further titles.
After a ceremonial first move and with the obligatory lateness :( , the first round began.

Two days later, the following winners were determined:

Open section (two way tie for 1st with 5 pts $900 ea)
1st (tiebreak) GM Maxim Dlugy King trophy and custom chess table
Tied first FM Shiyam Thavandiran

3-way tie for third 4 1/2 pts, $234 ea
GM Bator Sambuev, IM Artiom Samsonkin and IM Thomas Krnan

U2000
1st 5 1/2 pts Anthony Maulucci $800 Queen trophy and portable chess board
2nd 5 pts Mario Piccinin $400
3rd 4 1/2 pts Daniel Liu $300

U1600 (the U1200 was played in this section due to lack of entries)
Six!! way tie for 1st (4.5/6, $233.33 ea)
1st (tiebreak) John R. Brown Bishop trophy and portable chess board
tied first
Henry Hill-Tout
Andrew Colvin
Hugo Ortiz
Avery Jones
Allan Masterson

U1200
1st 3 1/2 pts Ronan Uthayakumar $250 and Knight trophy
2nd 3pts Austin Hunter $150

This was my first direct attempt at an event of this magnitude and as can be expected, there were a few hiccups, but overall I believe the greatest number were happy with the tournament. I would like to thank everyone of the participants for making our tournament a permanent positive memory for me.

Rob Gashgarian

Excellent Job TEAM ROB! Generous prize fund and distributions to all sections. Ultra-fast update and report of tournament results. A tournament model worth of imitation and envy. BIG CONGRATULATIONS to your TEAM!!!

[John Brown]

Re: Ontario Open report

Hi Rob;
I think your team needs a standing ovation for keeping the works moving with all the setbacks. Three cheers hip hip hooray!!!

I also feel the lack of air conditioning in the main hall really played havoc on results. I know I was 3-0 and then by the Sunday night game the heat had done me in.
Andrew and I took a quick draw after Henry won on board 2. Monday morning was no better as it was one hot weekend.
Rd 6 keyed upon how Avery did as he had the only lower rated player with 3.5 points. I had a slight edge against Hugo but the heat as causing me to miss some counter play.
When I finally saw Avery had drawn, and me being (Let's share the wealth kinda guy) I offered Hugo a draw which he accepted and Andrew and Henry agreed to a draw shortly after that.
Allan came from behind to catch us 5 to make it a 6 way tie.
My First round opponent Austin ended up netting second in the U1200.

This should be an example to other organizers that even if you think you are getting a cheaper rate for rent make sure that you are not getting a cheaper service package as well.

This team went beyond the call of duty and kept most of us playing until the end.

[John Upper]

Re: Ontario Open report

This team went beyond the call of duty and kept most of us playing until the end.

Ditto... plus they held a Blitz tournament which went until after 11 pm on Sunday.


In case anybody missed it, I posted pix from Sunday's rounds 3 and 4 and the Blitz tournament in an album on the CFC facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chess...63031117086480

and on a Google page:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1...57324139164833


Also, the organizers and I are hoping to get a few pix from the final awards ceremony. If anybody has some that we can post, could they post to this thread, or PM me?

Thanks.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Ontario Open report

If anybody has some that we can post, could they post to this thread, or PM me?

My pictures at https://picasaweb.google.com/1143172...eat=directlink
(on Facebook as well)

To make more picturesques Rob's report:

Jim Koudounis, owner of Embracewood in London, ON, donated a beautiful custom chess table and pieces for the first place prize in the Open section and two desktop sets for first prize in U2000 and U1600 sections.

At the opening of the tournament, town crier David McKee officially announced the tournament beginning with a cry specifically chess themed.

My mistake; a video was much much more desirable.

Councillor Neumann, representing the mayor offered welcome to all contestants.

Who gave a special certificate

WFM Qiyu Zhou, for her 2014 WYCC U14 Girls championship. We also collected money locally and with the help of the OCA and SWOCL raised $800 to help Qiyu offset costs of pursuing further titles.

Unfortunately, I accidentally switched my lens to a manual focus and pictures with Qiyu became blurred during these presentations... Anyway, chessplayers are better captured at the chess board when they sit still.

After a ceremonial first move and with the obligatory lateness , the first round began.

Two days later, the following winners were determined:
Open section (two way tie for 1st with 5 pts $900 ea)
1st (tiebreak) GM Maxim Dlugy King trophy and custom chess table
Tied first FM Shiyam Thavandiran

3-way tie for third 4 1/2 pts, $234 ea
GM Bator Sambuev, IM Artiom Samsonkin and IM Thomas Krnan

Bator


Artiom


Thomas

[Nicolas Haynes]

Re: Ontario Open report

I really enjoyed the tournament, thanks to the organizers for putting on a well run event.

[Caleb Petersen]

Re: Ontario Open report

Fantastic tournament guys! You had a couple difficult situations with the heat in the room and the internet not being able to transfer the dgt games but you handled them very well. The only thing that was really off was my playing with black. I think perhaps one thing that would've been good would be to have a designated place with boards for skittles as for the first few rounds there were no boards, but again fantastic job you guys. I'm looking forward to you hosting more events like this. Also congratulations to Anthony Maulucci who won the U2000. He seemed like he was under pressure in a few of his games, however he handled those positions very well defending the positions and either winning, or holding the draw. Definitely a deserved win!

[Hans Jung]

Re: Ontario Open report

A lot of thoughtfulness went into this great event which is especially noteworthy because Brantford is such a small club which shows that even small clubs can organize great events. Well done! I especially liked the choice of celebrities. Max Dlugy, the Fed, Bator, Qiyu, all were down to earth,friendly, willing to share thoughts, and dynamic individuals.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Ontario Open report

My own personal encounters with the Fed were a highlight. A very interesting game, then the lecture where Max and the Fed not only shared chess knowledge but dynamic interaction with the audience. Max bowed out after the alloted time (because of young family) but the Fed was willing to keep going to the delight of the participants. Every question was answered. The Fed was willing to interact with everybody.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Ontario Open report

The next day I was sitting in Tim Hortons and the Fed asked if he could join me! He was willing to chat and answer questions for two hours! (we had never connected like this before). What a chess legend he is! Life score against Smyslov 2 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses, wins against all the Polgar sisters, Reshevsky 8 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss, many Reshevsky stories, many other stories - chockful of stories - should write a book. Willing to do lessons for 40 hour or case of beer what ever comes first! Loves playing in Canada! What a character!

[Hans Jung]

Re: Ontario Open report

Congratulations to Shiyam for tying for first! and winning the blitz!!! (ahead of alot of worthys) Couldnt happen to a nicer guy.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Ontario Open report

the Fed was willing to keep going to the delight of the participants. Every question was answered. The Fed was willing to interact with everybody.

Then he stayed till 12 pm or later telling stories in the bar, and did it both nights.



Most likely he was listening to a Hans' question :)

[Peter McKillop]

Re: Ontario Open report

A good tournament for you, Hans. Congratulations!