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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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Earlier this year I together with the Southam family accepted an award from the London chess club on Todd Southam's behalf. I made a speech about Todd Southam because so many of the club members had no idea who Todd was. Recently after my move I found some revealing photos of projects we had shared. In 1995 Todd, myself, and Erin Matthews co-organised the 1995 Cadet Championship in our home in London, Ontario. You can see the faces of Canada's future in the picture. Todd had a blast analysing the games of each of the players and I was the chief TD. I can still recall the mayhem of sleeping bags all over the place and the bonding between these top youth players. The only ones of note missing were Pascal Charbonneau (too young by a year) and Eddie Teodoro (too old by a year).
Fast Eddie Teodoro (at age 16!) won the 1995 Canadian Junior at Christmastime in Windsor, Ontario. I went down and analysed and spectated, together with Milan Vukadinov, and, of course, stayed at Milan's place where we celebrated an old fashioned, old Banat Christmas together. Four weeks later I won the Ontario Championship ahead of Lawrence Day, Ian Findlay, Bryon Nickoloff, and Eddie Teodoro, amongst others. Awesome memories!
Glad to see you have good memories of such events, Hans. The following year, in 1996, the Cadet Ch was held in Winnipeg. I had just started playing competitive chess - in my 30's! ha ha - but I also got drawn into volunteering and such. I'm still playing and acting as TD now and then.
Anyway, the Organizer of the '96 Cadet Ch was Peter Stockhausen. He was a hotel manager in those days and the Cadet Ch was held at the hotel that he was manager of.
Somehow I got bamboozled into recording ALL of the games and putting them into some sort of presentable format. I think I used Fritz 5 or some such software. It was a ton of work for which I got, basically, zero credit. Ah well. The games are a permanent part of Canadian chess databases.
We billeted most of the kids; I think Doug Wu and Igor Zugic slept on my apartment floor which was a 15 min walk to the venue.
Despite some negatives my memories are mostly of a job well done and my own contribution to Canadian chess.
Best wishes from the ragged edge,
Nigel.
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
As for "the faces of Canada's future", let's see what lasting impact this group made on the CFC
Meng Lou: has not played CFC since 1998
Igor Zugic: has not played CFC since 2008
Lefong Hua: has not played CFC since 2009 but is still at least active as a streamer?
Peter Marshall: has not played CFC since 2005
Xin Guo: has not played CFC maybe ever after this tourney? no record on chess.ca
Stephen Glinert: has not played CFC since 2005
Shahin Mohamad Nabi: has not played CFC since 1997
Eric Bertrand: has not played CFC since 1998
Nathan McLean: has not played CFC since 1998
Joshua Henson: has not played CFC since 2005
Basically every player that the various provincial organizations and the CFC invested money into hosting this event was out of chess within 10 years at the most, and half the field was done with chess by their 18th birthday. Not money or organizational time well spent IMO, sorry to say.
Glad to see you have good memories of such events, Hans. The following year, in 1996, the Cadet Ch was held in Winnipeg. I had just started playing competitive chess - in my 30's! ha ha - but I also got drawn into volunteering and such. I'm still playing and acting as TD now and then.
Anyway, the Organizer of the '96 Cadet Ch was Peter Stockhausen. He was a hotel manager in those days and the Cadet Ch was held at the hotel that he was manager of.
Somehow I got bamboozled into recording ALL of the games and putting them into some sort of presentable format. I think I used Fritz 5 or some such software. It was a ton of work for which I got, basically, zero credit. Ah well. The games are a permanent part of Canadian chess databases.
We billeted most of the kids; I think Doug Wu and Igor Zugic slept on my apartment floor which was a 15 min walk to the venue.
Despite some negatives my memories are mostly of a job well done and my own contribution to Canadian chess.
Best wishes from the ragged edge,
Nigel.
Hi Nigel, Good to hear from you. and good to hear about your contributions to Canadian chess. I may not have thought so at the time but since have changed my mind about the importance of preserving games from top tournaments. What you did was one of the most important functions of junior events hosting a junior championship and preserving the games - and you can be proud of yourself for that - just ask Hugh Brodie.
As for "the faces of Canada's future", let's see what lasting impact this group made on the CFC
Meng Lou: has not played CFC since 1998
Igor Zugic: has not played CFC since 2008
Lefong Hua: has not played CFC since 2009 but is still at least active as a streamer?
Peter Marshall: has not played CFC since 2005
Xin Guo: has not played CFC maybe ever after this tourney? no record on chess.ca
Stephen Glinert: has not played CFC since 2005
Shahin Mohamad Nabi: has not played CFC since 1997
Eric Bertrand: has not played CFC since 1998
Nathan McLean: has not played CFC since 1998
Joshua Henson: has not played CFC since 2005
Basically every player that the various provincial organizations and the CFC invested money into hosting this event was out of chess within 10 years at the most, and half the field was done with chess by their 18th birthday. Not money or organizational time well spent IMO, sorry to say.
I should have added one more word - "immediate" future. Igor Zugic was a Canadian Champion and came within one norm of getting the GM title. Stephen Glinert set his mark and also came within one norm of the GM title. He would have achieved more imo if his father hadnt passed away at that time. Peter Marshall and Joshua Henson were young masters for some time and contributed much to Canadian chess. Lefong Hua is a successful streamer and did much coaching and teaching and playing over the years. Xin Guo is the proud father of two young talents and also played. I caught up recently with him at a team match in Toronto.
I think several of them made their mark and the track record is good for Canadian chess at that time.
I should have added one more word - "immediate" future. Igor Zugic was a Canadian Champion and came within one norm of getting the GM title. Stephen Glinert set his mark and also came within one norm of the GM title. He would have achieved more imo if his father hadnt passed away at that time. Peter Marshall and Joshua Henson were young masters for some time and contributed much to Canadian chess. Lefong Hua is a successful streamer and did much coaching and teaching and playing over the years. Xin Guo is the proud father of two young talents and also played. I caught up recently with him at a team match in Toronto.
I think several of them made their mark and the track record is good for Canadian chess at that time.
Stephen Glinert I believe went into a career of International banking. His father, Ed Glinert passed away suddenly in 2011, so I do not think that is why Stephen stopped playing. His father was very well known in the music industry and I would bump into him at Socan Christmas parties.
Hi Nigel, Good to hear from you. and good to hear about your contributions to Canadian chess. I may not have thought so at the time but since have changed my mind about the importance of preserving games from top tournaments. What you did was one of the most important functions of junior events hosting a junior championship and preserving the games - and you can be proud of yourself for that - just ask Hugh Brodie.
i agree with the idea of keeping a record of important games. When I was in Manitoba they acquired the onerous habit of collecting many top games and with the development of the internet and some skilled hands ... I recall a great website by the late Jack Woodbury (who combined many talents to do so) who, frankly, put the provincial chess magazine out of business (of which I was Editor at the time - ha ha!) with his brilliant work. Woodbury IMHO combined the talents of a University English Prof - able to read the most horrific chicken scratch - with his indefatigable efforts simply to record so many games .. and the wisdom of an experienced and high-raking tournament player .. and, finally, someone with the time and ability to set up a great and timely website for Manitoba chess. And the time to comment on many interesting games. It was a herculean task as i saw it.
Stephen Wright puts out a regular provincial bulletin out here in BC that is far too under-appreciated. I worry that we have people to carry on the tradition that people like Hugh Brodie and Stephen are continuing. Hats off to both of them. We are spoiled now, with chess engines and live, often free, analysis of the games of the strongest players on the planet ... and perhaps we dishonour our own top players because of it. I have memories of a little, mimeographed or photocopied provincial chess magazine back in the early 1980s that I looked at with admiration ...and a few issues of the Canadian chess magazine En Passant that I received, dreaming, wide-eyed, of the publication of my own games and so on.
Damn, I'm turning into a grumpy old man. ha ha.
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
Basically every player that the various provincial organizations and the CFC invested money into hosting this event was out of chess within 10 years at the most, and half the field was done with chess by their 18th birthday. Not money or organizational time well spent IMO, sorry to say.
I've seen Igor Zugic with his kids. He has played in non-rated blitz tournaments.
There are many sports organizations for kids. Parents pay thousands for hockey, yet only 1% of players become pro. Does developing young talent have a goal of making an Olympiad team of chess professionals? A kid sacrifices a social life to become a FM or IM. Then what? Dozens of junior chess masters have become part-time chess teachers, and a few have tried being streamers. Many more of these chess masters have gone on to regular houred jobs, often higher paid, and raising families.
At their strength, they can't just drop into a tournament, One inactive master told me that before playing he would have to spend weeks researching the current theory in their openings, see what the current elite are playing, and look at what other Canadian masters are playing. Then, lose ratings to the internet-playing, GM-coached juniors. Chess is exciting when you're representing your school and winning tactical battles against other kids, not as much spending your days off of work grinding it out for a draw.
I really disagree with the idea that its a failure if they dont keep playing chess. I believe Doug Wu became a doctor that strikes me a success story. I'm not saying the chess made him a doctor but it couldn't have hurt. My oldest daughter went to the Susan Polgar chess camp 6-7 years ago. She has moved on from chess but that was a great memory and something I am very glad that she was able to do and in some small way contributes to the person she is today. To me you can't really determine if it was a success or not without knowing what they have gone onto in life. Its impossible for me to believe that kids playing elite chess as kids is not a net positive in their life.
I'm not saying that chess wasn't a positive impact on these kids. It almost certainly was - probably helped their self-confidence, taught them how to compete, gave them some great memories, maybe they stayed in touch with some of their old friends made via chess, etc.
What I take issue with is the CFC and it's never-ending insistence that these elite youth events somehow grow the game in Canada. They don't. The money, volunteer time, and organizational effort would always have been better spent on regular membership retention or elite-level adult competitions.
The mandate of the CFC is "is to promote and encourage the knowledge, study, and play of the game of chess in Canada.". If you take the time and effort to run a national level tournament, and half the players quit chess in the next 2 years, and the rest are out of chess within a few more, that is a failure to execute on the CFC mandate. And I say this as a former Canadian Junior Coordinator who organized and ran a Canadian Junior - it was an interesting experience for the kids, and for me, but it did little or nothing for chess in Canada longterm, and my time could have been way better spent.
This is a fascinating thread, with many interesting posts. I will aim to add my perspective.
The 1995 Cadet Champion, Meng Lou of Windsor, won the 1996 Ontario HS Championship at Queen's University in Kingston, an event I assisted in running. I was very impressed with his play; he was clearly stronger than his rivals, and had pushed his CFC rating over 2200. And Peter Marshall of Ottawa, 1995 Cadet competitor, was a regular in EOCA events in the Ottawa region, including the Kingston Open, which I directed for over a decade.
My two main competitive sports are golf and chess, and I have been continuously involved with both since about age ten, in the late 1960s, in a variety of settings (player, coach, volunteer, writing, governance).
I do find it quite striking that such a high chess drop-out rate occurred among Canada's top young players, as posted on this thread. But this phenomenon is not unique to this particular cohort, either, as I and others have previously observed. Perhaps it is a combination of several factors: post-secondary education, career development, and family development all occur following the end of youth chess. It becomes much tougher to make time for chess and still keep one's playing standard at a high level. Other priorities and interests come into play. I would believe, however, that most of those 1995 Cadet players who are still alive are at least in touch with chess, playing online, and keeping up with chess happenings. Some of them may return to the competitive scene in the future. Parents were also funding youth chess for their children, and that would stop after high school, making it tougher to stay involved.
As others have posted, I certainly agree that chess involvement, at any level or playing standard, does have a positive impact on virtually all youth who participate. I have seen it first-hand!!
The contrast with golf is stark: a very high proportion of Canada's top young golfers stay with the sport as they move into their later lives. For excellent players, golf does offer many more career possibilities than chess, to be sure. At my golf peak, in my late 20s, I held a '+' handicap, meaning my average score was consistently under par; perhaps the equivalent of a 2400 chess rating. I had considered playing golf professionally, but passed on that, after rounds with world-famous players such as Ernie Els, Colin Montgomerie, Mike Weir, and so forth. I figured: 'I will remain a geophysicist, and let them play championship golf for glory and fortune!' On a world level, it is tougher for Canadians in golf, because of our challenging climate, meaning a six-month playing season for most of the nation. Most Canadians who succeed at the professional golf Tour level are late bloomers, finding success in their late 20s and on into their 30s. The great exception is our current female superstar Brooke Henderson, who first won on the LPGA Tour as a teenager, after passing up the chance to play college golf in the USA on a golf scholarship. Now 28, she has 14 LPGA Tour wins, the most top-level wins of any Canadian ever. I competed against Brooke's uncle Tom Henderson (older brother of Brooke's dad Dave) at the eastern Ontario elite level, back in the day.
In chess, I did not reach my peak rating of 2090 until my early 40s, having never had the chance (for various reasons) to play much CFC-rated chess until my late 20s. I had made golf my main sporting priority; I was better at it than at chess, to start!! University and career development dominated my life until my late 20s; chess went for lengthy periods without me playing a tournament. But I was looking at games on virtually a daily basis, even while inactive as a tournament player.
But most of the good young golfers of my cohort, and others, remain involved in golf, at least as recreational players, at the club level, and maintain a high standard of play.
Chess at its essence, at the higher levels, is an intensively competitive rivalry battle, and that can be draining and very stressful; players are inside, at constant close quarters with rivals, with the clock ticking; it is a grinding experience. Golf is also intensively competitive, at the highest levels, but players are outside in beautiful settings, getting some exercise between shots, chatting with playing partners; it is a much more social setting during a tournament round. That makes it far less stressful, at a personal level, in my opinion.
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