What was the best tournament you ever played in?

[Fred Henderson]

As I recall, Vlad ran two Toronto Closed. The first was a huge success, the 2nd was a dud. Not sure why. Anyways, the BGC was packed. Many more masters played. The tournament sections were strictly by rating. One parent we all know who, was pissed that his daughter got bumped and they decided to withdraw. No-one cared. I promoted it on the old chesstalk and did a pretty good html set of crosstables with weekly pgn updates on bayviewgamesclub.com. I'm sure that must be long gone. but I know Mr. Brodie has all the games in his CanBase. Was that the first Toronto Closed to go strictly by rating?

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

. I'm sure that must be long gone..

https://web.archive.org/web/20060810...hesstables.htm

[John Brown]

Canadian Open 2001 in Sackville New Brunswick was my most enjoyable. Cdn Open Montreal 2002 would be my 2nd most enjoyable and Third would be Cdn Open Hamilton 1978.

[Hugh Brodie]

1977 Canadian Open in Fredericton NB was my favourite. Airport pickups, banquet at the end (free) with presentations. University campus setting, so food and accommodation were cheap.
In contrast to what John Brown said, I thought Hamilton 1978 was the worst. No accommodation or food nearby - a long bus ride from the YMCA downtown. Poor organization, and no A/C in the arena-type setting. I think the schedule was changed at the last moment as well.

[John Brown]

Hi Hugh;
I think 1978 was my first out of town CDN Open.I knew nothing of what to expect. I stayed at the YMCA also and that was quite an experience for a 23 year old. But of course at 23 we usually hit the strip joint for food and beer before the long Barton bus ride. I met two of my long time friends there Henry Grayson and Robert Toth. So my experience was a first and not as the opinion of a seasoned CDN Open player as yourself..

[Fred Henderson]

https://web.archive.org/web/20060810...hesstables.htm

Wonderful. You are the man! That looks like all BGC. I did all of it. Including scanning all of Vlad's handwritten crosstables that you see.

[Fred Henderson]

Hah! The entire Bayview Games Club Website.

Bayview Games Club - Toronto Chess Go Backgammon Club (archive.org)

[Alex Ferreira]

http://www.bayviewgamesclub.com/chess.htm

Nice to see some really old photos. I don't recognize anyone from the 1400 Club photo though also further away.
But I am going to take a guess / identify some of the others.
These must go back nearly 20 years now.

Main Room 1 Photo
Clockwise, don't recognize blurred images, but...

Hazel Smith playing black in the pink t-shirt
Daniela Belc vs Robert Hamilton ?
Igor Divljan vs Nikolay Noritsyn
Standing: Steve Laughlin and a very young Roman Sapozhnikov

Main Room 2 Photo
Clockwise

I might take a guess at the youngster standing: Jesse Wang
Playing white pieces don't recognize.
Playing black pieces Fred Henderson
A very young Aquino Inigo standing in the white shirt
Matthew Ramenaden playing black in the far corner
Foreground:
Sam Hazi vs Dave Southam
Sheldon Pimentel with the white pieces

Analyzes & Skittles Photo
This actually looks like a Blitz tournament at BGC, yes taking place in the skittles room.

I don't recognize any player sitting with their back turned. But facing the cameras:
Slava Rek
Victor Plotkin
Dusan Miletic (green shirt)
Standing: Liam Henry, Sheldon Pimentel, Mr Inigo.

-----

Gone are the days... when we had a full head of dark hair

[Hans Jung]

1974 Canadian Open Montreal, 1975 Canadian Open Calgary, 1976 Canadian Open MacDonald Block Toronto, 1979 New York Open, 1981 Canadian Open Quebec City, 1982 World Open, 1985 Toronto International, 1985 New York Open, 1986 Reykjavik, 1986 World Championship London, 1987 Primorsko, 1988 World Chess Festival St John, 1988 Canadian Open Scarboro, 1989 Toronto Labour Day Open, 1990 Canadian Open Edmundston, 1991 Canadian Open Windsor, 1993 Canadian Open London, 1994 Canadian Open Winnipeg, 1994 North Bay, 1995 North Bay, 1996 North Bay, 1996 Ontario Closed Primrose Hotel and Queens Quay Toronto, 1996 Canadian Closed Tartu College Toronto, 1997 Ontario Closed, 1999 Canadian Closed Brantford, 2004 Canadian Closed Tartu College Toronto, 2006 Canadian Open Kitchener, 2009 Canadian Closed Guelph, 2010 Canadian Open Toronto, 2011 Spice Cup Texas, 2011 Canadian Closed Guelph, 2012 Spice Cup St.Louis, 2013 Spice Cup St Louis, 2014 Spice Cup St.Louis, 2014 Canadian Seniors Kitchener, 2015 Ontario Open Brantford, 2021 Banff Open. I cant choose one over the others. All had wonderful moments.

[Erik Malmsten]

https://web.archive.org/web/20060810...hesstables.htm

Toronto Closed 2006 won by Leonid Gerzhoy 2388 5-2, ahead of Nikolay Noritsyn 2435 4.5-2.5. 1st Reserves won by Raja Panjwani 2158 5.5-1.5 ahead of David Lavin 2172 5-2. 2nd Reserves won by Yevgeny Nahutin 2114 5-2 ahead of David Southam 2090 and Vladimir Semyonov 2031, 4.5. 3rd Reserves won by Aman Hambleton 1907 6-1 ahead of Bogdan Matiu 1929 and Alex Ferreira 1841, 4.5. 4th Reserves won by Haonan Zhou 1748 5.5, ahead of Roman Sapozhnikov 1722, 5. 5th Reserves won by Adrian Voicu 1453 6-1 ahead of Serge Jusyp 1465, 5.5.


The 2005 Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa-Quebec City Match was won by Ottawa.
Roman Pelts' Chess Academy (first board Nikolay Noritsyn) won the GTCL League ahead of Dutton Chess, Kitchener, Willowdale, Polonia, and Brampton.

BGC Blitz Ratings @ Feb 5, 2006

Rank Last First Rating
1 Shipov Sergei 2671
2 Huzman Alexander 2621
3 Zugic Igor 2593
4 Stevens Christian 2570
5 Teplitsky Yan 2568
6 Gerzhoy Leonid 2524
7 Milicevic Goran 2505

8 Tseitlin Mark 2497
9 Bluvshtein Mark 2484
10 Tyomkin Dimitri 2483
11 Divljan Igor 2454
12 Ochkoos Yuri 2437
13 Matveeva Svetlana 2435
14 Noritsyn Nikolay 2432
15 Rek Slava 2428
16 Plotkin Victor 2424
17 Thavandiran Shiyam 2411
18 Livshits Ron 2411
19 Gulko Andrei 2409
20 Bailey Doug 2406
21 Urquhart Eddie 2406

22 Panjwani Raja 2387
23 Buscar Michael 2386
24 Hamilton Robert 2371
25 Krnan Thomas 2362
26 Day Lawrence 2338
27 Nurmi Peter 2331
28 Allan Denis 2327
29 Gindi Shahar 2318
30 Findlay Ian 2313

31 Gurevich Artem 2297
32 Amos Bruce 2294
33 Henry Liam 2287
34 Aronov Yuri 2281
35 Puri Vinny 2279
36 Teodoro Eduardo 2277
37 Raheb David 2270
38 Blakely Matt 2259
39 Srinivasan Gajana 2253
40 Hutama Sandi 2252
41 Sellers Karl 2245
42 Dougherty Michael 2242
43 Vaingorten Yakov 2236
44 Peng David 2234
45 Molchanov Yevhen 2232
46 Brodsky Gregory 2231
47 Barron Michael 2220
48 Campbell Brett 2220
49 Cenanovic Matija 2213
50 Southam Dave 2204
51 Harper Ryan 2201

[Hans Jung]

Thanks Erik. Christian Stevens and Goran Milicevic were beasts in speed in those days with ratings ahead of several grandmasters. Do you remember those two?

[Ian Findlay]

So many memories. 1) David Lavin's 1985 Toronto International with Korchnoi, Benjamin, Wilder, Norwood, Fedorowicz and Ivanov to name a few.
2) Mike Miklausic's Croatian Internationals with lots of GM's including Vaganian , Benjamin, Kovacevic, Hulak, Tukmakov.
3) David Lavin's Ontario Open / Toronto Open where he would invite Fedorowicz, Ginsburg and Tisdale. Lawrence Day and Kevin Spraggett were the local favourites.
4) Ian Findlay's Banff Opens 2022,2021,2019,2018,2017,2016. They got bigger and better every year, but the scenery and venue was tough to beat.
5) North Bay Internationals - I got to play Susan Polgar and talk with Bent Larsen in between rounds. Such a gentleman and the most wonderful stories.
6) Some very strong Edmonton Internationals run by Micah Hughey and Rafael Arruebarrena with GMs like Shirov, Shankland, Ganguly, Shabalov.

My list could be very long but those are my top six.

[Fred Henderson]

Toronto Closed 2006 won by Leonid Gerzhoy 2388 5-2, ahead of Nikolay Noritsyn 2435 4.5-2.5. 1st Reserves won by Raja Panjwani 2158 5.5-1.5 ahead of David Lavin 2172 5-2. 2nd Reserves won by Yevgeny Nahutin 2114 5-2 ahead of David Southam 2090 and Vladimir Semyonov 2031, 4.5. 3rd Reserves won by Aman Hambleton 1907 6-1 ahead of Bogdan Matiu 1929 and Alex Ferreira 1841, 4.5. 4th Reserves won by Haonan Zhou 1748 5.5, ahead of Roman Sapozhnikov 1722, 5. 5th Reserves won by Adrian Voicu 1453 6-1 ahead of Serge Jusyp 1465, 5.5.


The 2005 Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa-Quebec City Match was won by Ottawa.
Roman Pelts' Chess Academy (first board Nikolay Noritsyn) won the GTCL League ahead of Dutton Chess, Kitchener, Willowdale, Polonia, and Brampton.

BGC Blitz Ratings @ Feb 5, 2006

<snip>

All of this and much more is on the archived website, per my previous post.

Mr Ferriera's link is dead. There is no bayviewgaesclub.com. My link is archived.

[Frank Dixon]

1987 PanAmerican Intercollegiate Team Championship, Columbus, Ohio.
This was the first-ever entry for Queen's University into this prestigious event. I did most of the organization of our team, and drove the team to and from the tournament. Everything worked out well. Very good organization by the USCF.
Queen's tied for first in U2000, with this group: Board 1 Maher Saleh 2016, Board 2 Paul Williams 2028, Board 3 Sylvain Landry 1978, Board 4 Frank Dixon 1785.
In round 6, we scored what was called, by one of the organizers, Glenn Peterson, later editor of Chess Life magazine, as the biggest upset in the history of the PanAms, when we defeated Rhode Island College, an all-Master team, all on chess scholarships, by 2.5--1.5, in round 6. RIC had won the team title two years earlier, with three of the players we faced.
In that match, I scored my first tournament win over a Master, defeating NM Sharon Burtman (2212). She was a WIM and Interzonalist three years later. In the post-mortem, she exclaimed disbelief at my rating. But I had simply not played very much tournament chess. She complimented my performance.
All the other Queen's players had strong events, as well. I think Maher had a performance rating over 2300. He would earn a 2300 rating within a few years. Paul also got his rating over 2300 later on. Sylvain wrote a chess book in French, with a rating nearly 2200 at his peak.
It was a breakout event for our team.

[Fred Henderson]

Toronto Closesed, 20 years ago

https://www.365chess.com/tournaments...sed_2003/31097

:).

https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=2825208