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National Capital Open: the event report
The Ottawa contingent of the EOCA (Eastern Ontario Chess Association) has been tweaking their weekend tournament structure for a couple of years now, and it was nice to see this year's National Capital Open come together like it did. The sunny weather we have been having all Autumn surely didn't hurt, and perhaps combined with some organizational adjustments, resulted in almost 60 players, a prize fund over $2K (including $500 for 1st place, and $1000 for the top 3 places), and as far as I know, our first ever (I sincerely apologize if my memory is failing me) U2400 class prize for an EOCA weekender in Ottawa?! We had not planned for an U2400 class prize, but with so many good players registering, it clearly seemed like the right thing to do. In addition, squeezing the best players into a modestly sized Top Section, led to many awesome battles right from the first round! Also interestingly, there were far fewer byes than usual taken for the 3rd round, which has traditionally been at 6pm on the Saturday evening. I would be interested in any thoughts why?!
Back to the tournament, for pairing purposes, the Top Section was for players rated 2000 and up, and is being rated both CFC and FIDE. After that, there were also U2000 and U1600 sections, which are being rated CFC. There were also classes within the sections for class prizes, described further below.
3 FIDE title players headed up the Top Section, led by GM Bator Sambuev, and IMs Artiom Samsonkin & Leonid Gerzhoy. Please note that we welcome GMs & IMs to register for free by email, and that the earlier they register, then more players consider joining in order to get chances to play/watch them!
Back to the results, even though the GM & IMs were each nicked for 1.0-1.5 points, their professional perseverance shone through, as they all rallied to control the top 3 places. Of these 3 guys, Artiom had by far the toughest Sunday schedule, but he took charge to finish clear first with a score of 4-1, which earned him a nice $500. Right behind at 3.5-1.5, Bator and Leonid shared the 2nd and 3rd prizes, for $250 each. On top of that, the games of these 3 stars of the tournament were very popular, as they always went for it! For example, the draw in the last round between Artiom and Bator was anything but a grandmaster draw! The opening was very open, with pieces flying around, and when the dust had settled, the guys worked a N+Ps vs. B+Ps endgame for very long before finally agreeing to a draw. In fact, there was no other game affecting any cash prize, that took longer than this critical 4 hour bout.
As mentioned above, a class prize was added for the relatively many players between 2400 & 2200, and coincidentally, many players tied for it. The $200 was split between 4 players who scored 3-2, namely, Kevin Pacey, Karoly Szalay (who remarkably drew against Bator and Artiom back-to-back!), Jerry Xiong (not one of the 4 winners, as was playing as an Amateur), Hugues Masse (please email your address to receive your cheque), and Bill Doubleday.
On the other hand, the $200 U2200 class prize was won outright by Halldor Palsson, also with a score of 3-2. This is actually quite impressive, as Halldor only lost his first game, despite being paired up for all 5 rounds, and yet still scored over 50%! Halldor is also a wonderful ambassador for our events to Bator, our regular GM attendee. Similarly, Sanjiv Kalra also deserves recognition for billeting top players like Artiom and Roman at many of our events.
Shifting focus to the U2000 Section, this biggest section of the tournament was absolutely dominated by Laurent Allard from Laval, Quebec. In the end, his score of 4.5-0.5, a full point ahead of his nearest competition, rewarded him with the chunky $300 U2000 1st place prize. As this section included relatively many non-Amateur players, we also added a $100 U2000 2nd place prize. It was fitting that this was shared by Alex Danilov and Roger Hubley, who drew their last round game with each other. In retrospect, we were fortunate that the last round pairings worked especially well in deciding the U2000 prizes.
The $100 U1800 class prize was shared by young men Dan Liu & Kevin Zhang, who with scores of 2.5-2.5, performed well in the tough big U2000 section.
Wrapping up with the U1600 section, there was not as much drama here, as little Kevin Wan continued his remarkable ascent, coasting undefeated with a score of 4-1, to win $200. Being so young, it is cool how much money this little fellow has won, and very cutely, he can recite the total without hesitation!
Finally, thanks to everyone who helped us all weekend, from Assistant TD David Gordon who is ensuring all of our CFC and FIDE ratings are done most effectively, to Wei Xiong who played so many games as a floater player to ensure that no one ever got hit with a forced bye, and to the many people who helped set up and take down the playing area and skittles room. Your nice helpfulness was very timely, and tremendously appreciated! Again, thank you!
Please visit the weblink below for a PDF of the wall chart. It should be up a day or so after the event, and will eventually also link to the CFC crosstables.
P.S. John Upper was collecting scoresheet copies that were left at the front, and might write a game analysis article for the CFC email newsletter. Please also check out the EOCA weblink below, as we hope to post expanded versions of his articles, not just from this weekend, but also from the RA Fall Open.
Yours in chess,
FIDE Arbiter Aris Marghetis
Organizer/TD, EOCA President
http://www.eoca.org/htm/tournaments_2009-2010.html
My next event is the RA Winter Open, scheduled for February 5th-7th. Stay tuned for event details, which include early registration discounts!
If you would like to receive details on this event directly via email, please email arismarghetis@rogers.com to be added to my private email list.
Back to the tournament, for pairing purposes, the Top Section was for players rated 2000 and up, and is being rated both CFC and FIDE. After that, there were also U2000 and U1600 sections, which are being rated CFC. There were also classes within the sections for class prizes, described further below.
3 FIDE title players headed up the Top Section, led by GM Bator Sambuev, and IMs Artiom Samsonkin & Leonid Gerzhoy. Please note that we welcome GMs & IMs to register for free by email, and that the earlier they register, then more players consider joining in order to get chances to play/watch them!
Back to the results, even though the GM & IMs were each nicked for 1.0-1.5 points, their professional perseverance shone through, as they all rallied to control the top 3 places. Of these 3 guys, Artiom had by far the toughest Sunday schedule, but he took charge to finish clear first with a score of 4-1, which earned him a nice $500. Right behind at 3.5-1.5, Bator and Leonid shared the 2nd and 3rd prizes, for $250 each. On top of that, the games of these 3 stars of the tournament were very popular, as they always went for it! For example, the draw in the last round between Artiom and Bator was anything but a grandmaster draw! The opening was very open, with pieces flying around, and when the dust had settled, the guys worked a N+Ps vs. B+Ps endgame for very long before finally agreeing to a draw. In fact, there was no other game affecting any cash prize, that took longer than this critical 4 hour bout.
As mentioned above, a class prize was added for the relatively many players between 2400 & 2200, and coincidentally, many players tied for it. The $200 was split between 4 players who scored 3-2, namely, Kevin Pacey, Karoly Szalay (who remarkably drew against Bator and Artiom back-to-back!), Jerry Xiong (not one of the 4 winners, as was playing as an Amateur), Hugues Masse (please email your address to receive your cheque), and Bill Doubleday.
On the other hand, the $200 U2200 class prize was won outright by Halldor Palsson, also with a score of 3-2. This is actually quite impressive, as Halldor only lost his first game, despite being paired up for all 5 rounds, and yet still scored over 50%! Halldor is also a wonderful ambassador for our events to Bator, our regular GM attendee. Similarly, Sanjiv Kalra also deserves recognition for billeting top players like Artiom and Roman at many of our events.
Shifting focus to the U2000 Section, this biggest section of the tournament was absolutely dominated by Laurent Allard from Laval, Quebec. In the end, his score of 4.5-0.5, a full point ahead of his nearest competition, rewarded him with the chunky $300 U2000 1st place prize. As this section included relatively many non-Amateur players, we also added a $100 U2000 2nd place prize. It was fitting that this was shared by Alex Danilov and Roger Hubley, who drew their last round game with each other. In retrospect, we were fortunate that the last round pairings worked especially well in deciding the U2000 prizes.
The $100 U1800 class prize was shared by young men Dan Liu & Kevin Zhang, who with scores of 2.5-2.5, performed well in the tough big U2000 section.
Wrapping up with the U1600 section, there was not as much drama here, as little Kevin Wan continued his remarkable ascent, coasting undefeated with a score of 4-1, to win $200. Being so young, it is cool how much money this little fellow has won, and very cutely, he can recite the total without hesitation!
Finally, thanks to everyone who helped us all weekend, from Assistant TD David Gordon who is ensuring all of our CFC and FIDE ratings are done most effectively, to Wei Xiong who played so many games as a floater player to ensure that no one ever got hit with a forced bye, and to the many people who helped set up and take down the playing area and skittles room. Your nice helpfulness was very timely, and tremendously appreciated! Again, thank you!
Please visit the weblink below for a PDF of the wall chart. It should be up a day or so after the event, and will eventually also link to the CFC crosstables.
P.S. John Upper was collecting scoresheet copies that were left at the front, and might write a game analysis article for the CFC email newsletter. Please also check out the EOCA weblink below, as we hope to post expanded versions of his articles, not just from this weekend, but also from the RA Fall Open.
Yours in chess,
FIDE Arbiter Aris Marghetis
Organizer/TD, EOCA President
http://www.eoca.org/htm/tournaments_2009-2010.html
My next event is the RA Winter Open, scheduled for February 5th-7th. Stay tuned for event details, which include early registration discounts!
If you would like to receive details on this event directly via email, please email arismarghetis@rogers.com to be added to my private email list.
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