2019 Canadian Chess Player of the Year

[Fred McKim]

Here are 10 players under consideration for 2019 honours ....... Comments are welcome, voting will begin on Tuesday

Evgeny Bareev
1st Canadian Closed Championship
Lost 1st Round World Cup
=7th Tata Steel Challengers RR (2570)

O-K Chiku-Ratte
1st Montreal Open
1st Laval Open
1st Montreal Winter Inv. IM Norm RR (2300)
1st RA Fall Open
1st COM (QC)
=1st RA March Open
=2nd Toronto Open
=2nd Contrecoeur Open (QC)
=8th Quebec Open
=1st Smith Falls Open
=1st Hart House Reading Week Open
=1st Brome-Missisquoi Open (QC)
=5th St Louis IM Congress RR (2310)
6th Montreal Summer IM Norm RR (2300)
World Open (2450) - 5/9

Svitlana Demchenko
Awarded WIM Title
=1st NA Youth GU18 Champ.
=5th World Youth GU16 Champ.
=3rd Susan Polgar Girls Inv.
=3rd Eastern Ontario Open
=2nd RA December Open
=3rd RA March Open
Youth U16 Olympiad Res. - 2.5/5
=8th Canadian Junior Champ.

Alex Lesiege
=1st Quebec Open
1st Canadian Int. Open (QC)
=2nd Contrecoeur Open (QC)

Agniezka Matras-Clement
1st Banff Open (AB)
=2nd South Sask. Open
4th Berkely Summer IM Norm RR (2230)
1st Fort McMurray Open
1st Lethbridge Open


Nikolay Noritsyn
=2nd Canadian Closed
=2nd Edmonton Int
1st Toronto Open
1st Aurora Fall Open
1st Aurora Spring Open
1st Century Richmond Hill Open
=1st Hart House Reading Week Open
=2nd Hart House Holidays Open

M-J Ouellet
1st America's Women's Continental (2160)
=5th Quebec Open
=5th NA Youth U18 Champ.
=4th Clash of Generations (QC)

Thomas Roussel-Roozman
=1st Quebec Open
=2nd Canadian Int. Open
2nd Laval Open
=2nd Contrecoeur Open (QC)

Bator Sambuev
=1st Quebec Open
=1st Ontario Open
=5th Capablanca Memorial Open (2380)
1st Golden Horseshoe Open (ON)
1st Eastern Ontario Open
1st Oakville Winter Open
1st National Capital Open
=1st RA March Open
2nd RA Fall Open
=2nd Contrecoeur Open (QC)

Kaiqi Yang
Awarded GM Title
1st 3rd Saturday GM RR 105 (SRB) (2420)
1st Paracin GM RR (SRB) (2390)
2nd 3rd Saturday GM RR 97 (SRB) (2390)
2nd 3rd Saturday GM RR 102 (SRB) (2390)
=7th Canadian Closed

So far:

2013 Hansen
2014 Kovalyov
2015 Hansen
2016 Preotu
2017 Sambuev
2018 Sambuev

[David Ottosen]

Well by my normal standadrs, Yang should be the choice given that there was a GM award title. However (fairly or unfairly) I will always have a few reservations about those Serbian xth Saturday tournaments, and the title is backed up by literally nothing else in terms of results on the year. If you want to go on quantity of results, probably O-K Chiku-Ratte. If you want to go on quality, probably Noritsyn.

I dunno, could be any one of 4-5 people here and I think it's fine.

[Fred McKim]

After the vote we now have our three finalists: Olivier-Kenta Chiku-Ratte, Nikolay Noritsyn, and Bator Sambuev. The winner will be announced at the upcoming Canadian Open.

[Fred McKim]

Nikolay Noritsyn received the 2019 Canadian Player of the Year Award and was honoured at the Canadian Open in Hamilton

[Hans Jung]

Congratulations Nikolay! Finally.