Canadian University championships - any report and/or games?

[Hugh Brodie]

I have seen virtually nothing about the Canadian University team championship which took place recently. Does anyone have a report or games?

[Grey Guo]

the only information I got is this picture

[Alex Ferreira]

Hi all,

What I heard was that University of Toronto A team won the competition.
Mark Plotkin, Qiyu Zhou, Joseph Bellissimo, Zehn Nasir and James Fu playing for University of Toronto A team.

Alex F.

[John Upper]

UofT A beat defending champs Waterloo A, with little Plotkin defeating IM Michael Song on board 1, and WGM Qiyu Zhou drawing Joey Qin on board 2...
I don't have more details than that, but you can find pix and more here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=89b90ac53f

[Zach Dukic]

Let's make one thing clear. Mark didn't beat Michael Song, he drew. UofT drew their individual match with Waterloo 2-2.

Going into the last round, Western had 3.5/4, UofT had 3/4 and UOttawa had 3/4. UofT played their B team in round 5, and Western played UOttawa. A win by Western against UOttawa would clinch the gold medal for them. UofT was basically guaranteed the match point against their B team and therefore a final score of 4/5. However, if UOttawa were to beat Western in the final around, if only 2.5-1.5, they would have more cumulative points than Toronto and would win on tiebreaks. Therefore, 3 schools were very much in the running for first place in the last round.

UofT A beat their B team 3-1, losing on board 2. However, this loss changed nothing in terms of the match situation, we (UOttawa) still needed to beat Western for the title. 2.5-1.5 would be enough for first. Our board 4 was the first to finish. Jikai Zhang (2174, UO) drew Tony Huang (1722, Western) with black. 0.5-0.5. Next, our board 2 Misha Voloaca (2323, UO) lost to Adam Cormier (2236, Western). This made the score 1.5-0.5 in favour of Western. At this point, two games remained, and in order to win the tournament we needed 2/2. If Western were to win the tournament, they needed 1/2. If UofT were to win the tournament, they needed UOttawa to get exactly 1.5/2 in the final two games. Any other outcome would have resulted in another team winning the title.

Our board 3 game was the second last to finish. Francesco Dunne (2218, UO) was up an exchange for a couple pawns against Brendan Adamo (1839, Western). He opted to repeat moves, as he felt that if he played on he ran the risk of being worse. Still, whether he drew or lost, we still would have come third place. Had he played on, we would have at least had a chance of winning. If he had played on, a decisive result was much more likely, and once again, a team other than UofT would have emerged victorious. Instead, he offered a draw. This made the score 2.0-1.0 for Western.

My game was the final one of the whole tournament. I was white (2350, UO) vs FM Guannan Terry Song (2211, Western). By the time Francesco drew, I had a clearly winning position, with 4 pawns for the exchange. If I were to win my game, UofT would win the tournament. When Mark realized that Francesco had drawn and I had a winning position, he began laughing at me. He knew that UOttawa had no chance to win the tournament. It was my last chance to win the CUCC title and there was nothing I wanted more. If I, by chance, offered my opponent a draw, Western would win the tournament. I must admit that after feeling openly ridiculed by Mark's behaviour, it crossed my mind to do so. Never have I experienced such poor sportsmanship in ten years of playing chess. Still, I couldn't come to offer a draw in a position that I, my opponent, and the other 100 spectators knew was winning for me. I went on to checkmate my opponent's king on e1 and clinch a UofT tournament win, which, with 2 games remaining, had only a 20% chance of happening. Congrats, UofT.

As you can probably tell, this frustrates me. There is virtually no recognition of UOttawa or Western anywhere, but hundreds of photos of UofT's team floating around the internet because of a streak of fortunate results. If UO had gotten one 0.5 point more, we would have won the tournament. If Western had gotten one 0.5 point more, they would have won. It was the tightest and most competitive race for first that I've witnessed in my 4 years as a university student. While I'm extremely disappointed and saddened by this result, I am extremely grateful for my teammates Misha Voloaca, Francesco Dunne and Jikai Zhang, who gave us the best possible chance to win the title in my final year. I love you guys.

As far as game PGNs go, there were no carbon copies given out throughout the event. No advertising was done on chesstalk nor on chesscanada.info, no preregistered lists or anything of the kind. I hope this kind of organization is not something students should expect for future CUCC events.

Zachary Dukic
President, UO Chess

[Terry Song]

Well summarized Zach.

[Zach Dukic]

Since Chesstalk only allows 2MB files, here are links to team photos of UOttawa and Western with their medals.

UOttawa: https://postimg.cc/Cz9FwNFC Left to right: Alvin Leenus (organizer), Francesco Dunne, Misha Voloaca, Zachary Dukic, Andrew Leber (organizer)

Western: https://postimg.cc/QKWymcRs Left to right: Tony Huang, Terry Song, Brendan Adamo, Adam Cormier.

[Toy Chack Kwan]

there's a report here from Qiyu Zhou on Chessbase's website: https://en.chessbase.com/post/toront...ng-of-the-cucc

[Hugh Brodie]

Great report! But it's odd that I have to go to the Chessbase site for a report on a Canadian event.

[Victor Plotkin]

Let's make one thing clear. Mark didn't beat Michael Song, he drew. UofT drew their individual match with Waterloo 2-2.

Going into the last round, Western had 3.5/4, UofT had 3/4 and UOttawa had 3/4. UofT played their B team in round 5, and Western played UOttawa. A win by Western against UOttawa would clinch the gold medal for them. UofT was basically guaranteed the match point against their B team and therefore a final score of 4/5. However, if UOttawa were to beat Western in the final around, if only 2.5-1.5, they would have more cumulative points than Toronto and would win on tiebreaks. Therefore, 3 schools were very much in the running for first place in the last round.

UofT A beat their B team 3-1, losing on board 2. However, this loss changed nothing in terms of the match situation, we (UOttawa) still needed to beat Western for the title. 2.5-1.5 would be enough for first. Our board 4 was the first to finish. Jikai Zhang (2174, UO) drew Tony Huang (1722, Western) with black. 0.5-0.5. Next, our board 2 Misha Voloaca (2323, UO) lost to Adam Cormier (2236, Western). This made the score 1.5-0.5 in favour of Western. At this point, two games remained, and in order to win the tournament we needed 2/2. If Western were to win the tournament, they needed 1/2. If UofT were to win the tournament, they needed UOttawa to get exactly 1.5/2 in the final two games. Any other outcome would have resulted in another team winning the title.

Our board 3 game was the second last to finish. Francesco Dunne (2218, UO) was up an exchange for a couple pawns against Brendan Adamo (1839, Western). He opted to repeat moves, as he felt that if he played on he ran the risk of being worse. Still, whether he drew or lost, we still would have come third place. Had he played on, we would have at least had a chance of winning. If he had played on, a decisive result was much more likely, and once again, a team other than UofT would have emerged victorious. Instead, he offered a draw. This made the score 2.0-1.0 for Western.

My game was the final one of the whole tournament. I was white (2350, UO) vs FM Guannan Terry Song (2211, Western). By the time Francesco drew, I had a clearly winning position, with 4 pawns for the exchange. If I were to win my game, UofT would win the tournament. When Mark realized that Francesco had drawn and I had a winning position, he began laughing at me. He knew that UOttawa had no chance to win the tournament. It was my last chance to win the CUCC title and there was nothing I wanted more. If I, by chance, offered my opponent a draw, Western would win the tournament. I must admit that after feeling openly ridiculed by Mark's behaviour, it crossed my mind to do so. Never have I experienced such poor sportsmanship in ten years of playing chess. Still, I couldn't come to offer a draw in a position that I, my opponent, and the other 100 spectators knew was winning for me. I went on to checkmate my opponent's king on e1 and clinch a UofT tournament win, which, with 2 games remaining, had only a 20% chance of happening. Congrats, UofT.

As you can probably tell, this frustrates me. There is virtually no recognition of UOttawa or Western anywhere, but hundreds of photos of UofT's team floating around the internet because of a streak of fortunate results. If UO had gotten one 0.5 point more, we would have won the tournament. If Western had gotten one 0.5 point more, they would have won. It was the tightest and most competitive race for first that I've witnessed in my 4 years as a university student. While I'm extremely disappointed and saddened by this result, I am extremely grateful for my teammates Misha Voloaca, Francesco Dunne and Jikai Zhang, who gave us the best possible chance to win the title in my final year. I love you guys.

As far as game PGNs go, there were no carbon copies given out throughout the event. No advertising was done on chesstalk nor on chesscanada.info, no preregistered lists or anything of the kind. I hope this kind of organization is not something students should expect for future CUCC events.

Zachary Dukic
President, UO Chess

Your sportsmanship is greatly appreciated! You bravely decided not to draw your last round game and eventually won it. Good job. I will talk to CFC president about some very special reward for you.

So, Zach you are the main hero of this event. Not Adam Cormier who scored 5/5 (3 games against higher rated opponents) and not Mark Plotkin who scored 4.5/5 (draw with M.Song, 4 wins on board 1). You are the hero!

I am very sad for you, you missed just 0.5 point to fill your long-term dream. You could be next-in-the-line for the group of very strong players, who needed just one win (or draw) to fill the dream. Bronshtein, Korchnoi, Leko, Gelfand, Karjakin, Caruana ... and now Dukic. You are in a good company, Zach!

[Kerry Liles]

Your sportsmanship is greatly appreciated! You bravely decided not to draw your last round game and eventually won it. Good job. I will talk to CFC president about some very special reward for you.

So, Zach you are the main hero of this event. Not Adam Cormier who scored 5/5 (3 games against higher rated opponents) and not Mark Plotkin who scored 4.5/5 (draw with M.Song, 4 wins on board 1). You are the hero!

I am very sad for you, you missed just 0.5 point to fill your long-term dream. You could be next-in-the-line for the group of very strong players, who needed just one win (or draw) to fill the dream. Bronshtein, Korchnoi, Leko, Gelfand, Karjakin, Caruana ... and now Dukic. You are in a good company, Zach!

Ah, mocking people in the great tradition started and perfected by Trump. Seems to me that Zach honestly recounted his feelings from the moment.

[Victor Plotkin]

Ah, mocking people in the great tradition started and perfected by Trump. Seems to me that Zach honestly recounted his feelings from the moment.

His feelings? And how about feelings of other people? His comments about Mark's "the most poor sportsmanship... he experienced in 10 years". What was exactly poor? To be happy with your teammates after a great tournament?

If we want CT to be a better place we should not protect this kind of comments.

[Nikolay Noritsyn]

Ah, mocking people in the great tradition started and perfected by Trump. Seems to me that Zach honestly recounted his feelings from the moment.

It seems to me, both sides are being emotional here. We readers don't really know what it is Mark did that demonstrated bad sportsmanship, but its great that the results of the competition were fair and no points or half points were thrown based on favouritism - which would be cheating and absolute disrespect to the game and other participants, in my opinion.

[Kerry Liles]

It seems to me, both sides are being emotional here. We readers don't really know what it is Mark did that demonstrated bad sportsmanship, but its great that the results of the competition were fair and no points or half points were thrown based on favouritism - which would be cheating and absolute disrespect to the game and other participants, in my opinion.

Fair enough. Unlike Victor, I have nobody related to me involved in the discussion. Nevertheless, I did not take any great offence to what Zach had posted but I did find what Victor replied was over the top. Those were just my reactions; I am curious who else (if anyone) felt Victor's reply was more harsh than warranted? Clearly Zach was quite upset by whatever it was that Mark did. Being overjoyed with the possible outcome is one thing - perhaps that was misinterpreted by Zach - I have no idea. Anyway, peace everyone - it is not as if anyone was wearing shorts.

[Victor Plotkin]

Yes, Kerry you have nobody related to you involved in the discussion. Sure, this fact gives extra points to your opinion. I don't argue about it.

About harsh reply or harsh initial post... I believed that "the worst sportsmanship in 10 years" - it's very harsh.

Young people can argue or even fight for many reasons or sometimes for no reason at all, which is absolutely fine. However, using public forum for this - looks like unnecessary.