Kingston CC Championship 2026: Results summary, some notes

[Frank Dixon]

The 2026 Kingston Chess Club Championship finished on Monday, March 30th. We had a six-round Swiss event, one round per week, with 22 players, ratings controlled. The annual competition was for the Dr. George Danilov Memorial Trophy; George was a medical doctor, longtime Kingston strong stalwart player, 1961 Canadian Closed competitor, newspaper columnist, and father of Dr. Alex Danilov, who passed away in 1975, but this event dates from before World War II!!

Head TD: Maxim Busse; Assistant TDs: NTD Frank Dixon, Jake Van Rooy. Time control: G/60' + 30".

Top finishers: 1. Dr. Bessil Hakim, 5/6, champion for 2026; 2-3. Christopher Lee, Frank Dixon, 4.5/6; 4-6. Noah Kozior, Ben Beardall, Rob Hutchison 4/6.

Some brief notes:
1) No one managed to go unbeaten this year, indicating a very hard-fought, competitive tournament.
2) Bessil lost to Noah, I lost to Noah, Chris Lee lost to Bessil, Noah lost to Chris Lee, Ben lost to Bessil.
3) We had players with ages 16 to 83 competing!! Chris Lee and Noah are both high school students; Rob and I are both age 65+!!
4) The Appeals Committee, consisting of Rob Hutchison, Ben Beardall, and Roman Polywkan, never had to meet! Overall, excellent sportsmanship!
5) KCC President Jake Van Rooy, with the Club's top CFC rating, did not compete this time; Jake has recently begun a new job which is putting much pressure on his schedule. Jake will be back into KCC competition soon!!

A full event cross-table will be posted shortly on this thread, along with some of the better games!

Respectfully submitted,
Frank Dixon
NTD, Kingston

[Frank Dixon]

Here is the first game to be posted from this event.

John Lukezich (1442) -- Frank Dixon (1842)
Kingston 2026, played March 23
Kingston Chess Club Championship 2026, rd. 5 of 6
TD: Maxim Busse; Assistant TDs: NTD Frank Dixon and Jake Van Rooy
Time control: G/60' + 30"
English, Symmetrical, A30
Clock times in brackets
Notes by Frank Dixon

1.Nf3
[John is in his 80s, and returned to competitive chess after he reached age 65!! John competes several times per year, in out-of-town events in Ottawa, and is a tough customer. He won a prize at his latest Ottawa event, and defeated TD Maxim Busse, a man some 40 years younger, in this event! Twice a graduate of Queen's University, he is a retired engineer, retired high school teacher, and retired lawyer, former Kingston City Councillor, and former Treasurer of KCC, whose dedicated work in that role put the Club on a solid financial footing! I think that John represents one of the best stories in Canadian chess today!! He drew with me in a hard-fought tournament game several years ago!!]
1...c5 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.O-O e6 6.e3 Qb6!?
[Looking to leave well-travelled paths; this move is probably somewhat dubious.]
7.Nc3 Qc7 8.a3 a6 9.Rb1 Nge7 10.d4 cxd4 11.exd4 O-O 12.Re1 d6 13.d5!? Na5! (17,8) 14.Bf1 Nxc4 15.Bxc4 Qxc4 16.Re4!?
[Looks strange, but this sharp move is actually quite effective.]
16...Qc7 17.Bd2 e5!
[I could have played 17...exd5, but didn't like the look of doubled, isolated d-pawns on an open file. Black plays to build a strong center, and threatens 18...Bf5! winning the Exchange.]
18.Rc1! Qb8 19.Be3 f5! 20.Rb4! b5 21.a4!? Bd7 22.axb5 a5! (31,13)
[This was unexpected, and works nicely, creating play on the Queenside, but, in returning the pawn, I give White a passed b-pawn, which will have to be monitored carefully.]
23.Rb3 a4! 24.Rb4 a3 25.Ng5!? axb2 26.Rxb2 Ra3!
[You Rook Marvelous! John told me his computer, at home after the game, evaluated this position as about equal.]
27.Ne6 Bxe6 28.dxe6
[White now has two passed pawns, and these will cause concern, but the passed e-pawn is currently blockaded securely by the N/e7.]
28...f4! 29.gxf4 exf4 30.Bd4 Bh6!
[We are at the key juncture of the game. White absolutely must play 31.Qf3!, seizing the key long diagonal, with a still complex position, where Black seems a bit better. John did not realize how weak his Kingside would be, with Black's coming attack, catching him by surprise. But White has exchanged off his Kingside pieces: the light-squared bishop, his King's knight, and now will exchange his King's rook; all three being exchanged for Black's Queenside pieces, leaving Black's mainly Kingside pieces free rein to invade: Black's Queen, dark-squared bishop, R/f8, and dangerous f-pawn. White's own pressure winds up being too late.]
31.Rb3? Rxb3 32.Qxb3 Qb7! (41,20)
[I couldn't find a defense for White from here on.]
33.Ra1 Qf3! 34.Ra7 Qg4+! 35.Kf1 f3! 36.Be3 Qg2+ 37.Ke1 Bxe3!, 0-1. (56,27)
[On 38.fxe3 f2+ 39.Kd2 f1Q#! If 38.Ke1 Qg1+ 39.Kd2 Qxf2+ 40.Kc1 Bxa7 avoids mate, but would leave Black up a rook and a piece.]

[Frank Dixon]

I am going to use this thread to post both current and historical games, with a Kingston connection.

Dr. Peter Sibbald (2050) -- Wayne Coppin (2050)
Kingston 1997, played April 7
Kingston Chess Club Championship, top group
TD: Frank Dixon; Assistant TD: Dr. James Cairns
Time controls: 30/90', SD/60'
King's Gambit, Cunningham, C35
Light comments by Frank Dixon

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Be7 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Ng5!?
[Not listed in any of the major sources I have consulted. This includes ECO C first (1974) and second (1981) editions, BCO, NCO, MCO, IM Al Horowitz's 1964 manual Chess Openings: Theory and Practice, the 1988 King's Gambit booklet with 100 recent games (and many more threads) edited by postal master Alexander Bangiev, the 1981 book by GM Viktor Korchnoi and IM Vladimir Zak, and GM Joe Gallagher's book. Nor does the site 365chess.com have any examples. Most games at this juncture have 5.e5, and now 5...Ng4 is the main line, although 5...Ne4!? is a seemingly sound rare alternative.]
5...d5 6.exd5 O-O 7.O-O Nxd5 8.Nxh7!? Ne3!? 9.dxe3 Qxd1 10.Rxd1 Kxh7
[Some fascinating and double-edged play for the past several moves!, yielding a sharp middlegame without Queens, which still has a lot of play.]
11.exf4 Bc5+ 12.Kf1 Bg4 13.Rd5 Nd7 14.Nc3 Bb4 15.Bd3+ Kg8 16.Bd2 Nc5 17.Re1 Be6 18.Rd4 Nxd3 19.cxd3 c5 20.Rde4 Rfd8 21.a3 Rxd3 22.axb4 Rxd2 23.R1e2 Rxe2 24.Kxe2 cxb4 25.Rxb4 b6 26.Ke3 Rc8 27.h3 Rc4 28.Rxc4 Bxc4 29.g3 a5 30.Kd4 Bf1
[Reaching the first time control. The ending looks drawish, but the players continue to battle it out!]
31.h4 Kh7 32.Nd5 b5 33.Ne3 Be2 34.Kc5 Kg6 35.Kb6 a4 36.Kc5 Kh5 37.Kb4, 1/2--1/2.
[Drawn on White's offer. A highly interesting and original game, and credit to both players!]