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Ottawa Autumn Open: the event report
Late September marks the traditional beginning of the EOCA GP (Eastern Ontario Chess Association Grand Prix), with the Ottawa Autumn Open (formerly RA Fall Open). 64 players registered for the 2010 edition, building a nice prize fund of $2500 across 4 sections. The plan had been to have 5 sections, but there were very few players only in the U1800 range, and so that section was paired up into the U2000 section, with a class prize added. The rest of the sections all had enough players to make for easy pairings, and so we will continue with at least 4 sections. In order to avoid any forced byes, there was some floating of Amateur players between sections. As a result, if you played any games as a floater, or against a floater, please note that the resulting CFC crosstables might include you in more than 1 section. In addition, all games between players in the Top & U2200 Sections are also being rated FIDE.
The Top Section, now restricted to a very strong pool of players rated at least 2200, was headlined by GM Bator Sambuev, IM Brian Hartman, and IM Tom O'Donnell. Quite unpredictably, all 3 of these top players lost during the first 3 rounds, and then things got really strange for Tom! After his late game on Saturday evening, he arrived at his apartment only to find that the lock on his front door was broken, and that he could not get in. His wife was already asleep, with the phone turned off, and so after banging for a while, Tom actually slept in the hallway! To his credit though, there was no way that he was going to leave his opponent waiting for a forfeit the next morning, and was there on time in good spirits. However, as the fatigue kept creeping in, Tom confirmed early on Sunday that he would miss the last round. This contributed to a remarkably great pairing in the last round, on the 1st board, between the 2 top-seeded players, GM Bator and IM Brian. To add to the suspense, this game was the very last one to finish, a good 4 hours into the 5th round.
To the relatively untrained eyes of many of the observers, this championship game appeared as if it would require a monumental grinding effort, that Brian could potentially win, but then very dramatically, Bator shocked us all with a sudden mating threat that won him the $600 1st place prize with a 4-1 score.
This result on the 1st board also completed a wonderful story for Michael Humphreys, who started the tournament as the lowest-ranked player in the Top Section, but then went on to defeat both of the IMs, finishing with a score of 3.5-1.5 to capture the $400 2nd place prize. Rounding out the Top Section, the $200 3rd place prize was shared by IM Hartman with the relatively lower-rated, but strong-performing, Lloyd Mai and Nicolas Arsenault, who all scored 3-2.
Moving on to the U2200 Section, which is also being rated FIDE, Christopher Pace led the whole way, cruising in with draws on Sunday to finish with a score of 4-1, and capturing the $300 U2200 1st place prize. The only players who could catch Christopher in the last round, John Upper and Alexandre Levkovsky, were paired together and drew after a very long king and pawn endgame, finishing tied at 3.5-1.5, and sharing the $100 U2200 2nd place prize.
The U2000 section was the biggest, including the handful of players from the U1800 subsection. In recognition of the number players in this section, there was more prize money for this section than any other section except the Top one. Youngster Zhiyuan Zhang finished the tournament very strongly with 3 straight wins, scoring 4-1, and walking away with the $300 U2000 1st place price. The $200 U2000 2nd place prize was shared by 4 players who were right behind with 3.5-1.5, namely Gilles Groleau, Danail Donev, Adam Murray, and Ruokai (David) Li. Kar-Fai Gee also had 3.5-1.5 but was playing as Amateur.
The $100 U1800 class prize within the U2000 Section was won by the quite young Yuanchen Zhang, who started off very strong in the early rounds, and looked like he would be challenging for the U2000 leaderboard. In my humble opinion, having also observed him at the recent 2010 North American Youth Chess Championships in Montreal, this young fellow should be stealing many rating points in the next few months from players rated higher than himself!
Finishing off with the U1600 Section, this winner was the most dominating of all the sections. Young Francesco Dunne drew in the last round to still finish untouchably in the lead with 4.5-0.5 to earn the $200 U1600 1st place prize. The only player even remotely close, and also much ahead of the rest of the field, was Jacob Krolczyk, who finished very strong, only losing to the eventual winner Francesco, thus scoring 4-1 for the $100 U1600 2nd place prize.
As usual, I would like to conclude this event report by thanking those special people who helped make this tournament a success. The weekend started with Alex Ferreira and Stuart Brammall, all the way from Hart House, being the very first people at the playing site! Alex demonstrated his moving skills by getting the rooms set up in record time, and then between rounds, adjusting the layouts to maximize available space, and take advantage of the areas that had better air circulation. Stuart also helped with setup, and then rather than playing, acted as Assistant TD for the whole tournament. His tremendously capable presence genuinely made the whole weekend much easier and more enjoyable for myself, and he is also ensuring that the CFC and FIDE ratings submissions are as optimized as possible. Throughout the rounds, and especially on Sunday morning when there were multiple surprise withdrawals, we benefitted from the conscientous flexibility of floater player Marc D'Aoust, helping ensure that no one ever got hit with a forced bye. In closing, an event report of mine would not be complete without food references! The Levkovsky family provided me with a series of delicious homemade sandwiches, which really hit the spot during the critical last round. Finally, thanks again to Billy Carroll for his latest Timmies gift card, and for singlehandedly saving me at least an hour of cleanup, and doing so while selflessly staying late way after the end of his game. To these awesome folk, and others I missed, 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.
Yours in chess,
FIDE Arbiter Aris Marghetis
Organizer/TD, EOCA President
http://www.eoca.org/htm/tournaments_2010-11.html
My next event is the National Capital Open, November 12th-14th. Stay tuned for details, including early registration discounts, and guaranteed prizes!
If you would like to receive details about that event directly via email, please email arismarghetis@rogers.com to be added to my private email list.
The Top Section, now restricted to a very strong pool of players rated at least 2200, was headlined by GM Bator Sambuev, IM Brian Hartman, and IM Tom O'Donnell. Quite unpredictably, all 3 of these top players lost during the first 3 rounds, and then things got really strange for Tom! After his late game on Saturday evening, he arrived at his apartment only to find that the lock on his front door was broken, and that he could not get in. His wife was already asleep, with the phone turned off, and so after banging for a while, Tom actually slept in the hallway! To his credit though, there was no way that he was going to leave his opponent waiting for a forfeit the next morning, and was there on time in good spirits. However, as the fatigue kept creeping in, Tom confirmed early on Sunday that he would miss the last round. This contributed to a remarkably great pairing in the last round, on the 1st board, between the 2 top-seeded players, GM Bator and IM Brian. To add to the suspense, this game was the very last one to finish, a good 4 hours into the 5th round.
To the relatively untrained eyes of many of the observers, this championship game appeared as if it would require a monumental grinding effort, that Brian could potentially win, but then very dramatically, Bator shocked us all with a sudden mating threat that won him the $600 1st place prize with a 4-1 score.
This result on the 1st board also completed a wonderful story for Michael Humphreys, who started the tournament as the lowest-ranked player in the Top Section, but then went on to defeat both of the IMs, finishing with a score of 3.5-1.5 to capture the $400 2nd place prize. Rounding out the Top Section, the $200 3rd place prize was shared by IM Hartman with the relatively lower-rated, but strong-performing, Lloyd Mai and Nicolas Arsenault, who all scored 3-2.
Moving on to the U2200 Section, which is also being rated FIDE, Christopher Pace led the whole way, cruising in with draws on Sunday to finish with a score of 4-1, and capturing the $300 U2200 1st place prize. The only players who could catch Christopher in the last round, John Upper and Alexandre Levkovsky, were paired together and drew after a very long king and pawn endgame, finishing tied at 3.5-1.5, and sharing the $100 U2200 2nd place prize.
The U2000 section was the biggest, including the handful of players from the U1800 subsection. In recognition of the number players in this section, there was more prize money for this section than any other section except the Top one. Youngster Zhiyuan Zhang finished the tournament very strongly with 3 straight wins, scoring 4-1, and walking away with the $300 U2000 1st place price. The $200 U2000 2nd place prize was shared by 4 players who were right behind with 3.5-1.5, namely Gilles Groleau, Danail Donev, Adam Murray, and Ruokai (David) Li. Kar-Fai Gee also had 3.5-1.5 but was playing as Amateur.
The $100 U1800 class prize within the U2000 Section was won by the quite young Yuanchen Zhang, who started off very strong in the early rounds, and looked like he would be challenging for the U2000 leaderboard. In my humble opinion, having also observed him at the recent 2010 North American Youth Chess Championships in Montreal, this young fellow should be stealing many rating points in the next few months from players rated higher than himself!
Finishing off with the U1600 Section, this winner was the most dominating of all the sections. Young Francesco Dunne drew in the last round to still finish untouchably in the lead with 4.5-0.5 to earn the $200 U1600 1st place prize. The only player even remotely close, and also much ahead of the rest of the field, was Jacob Krolczyk, who finished very strong, only losing to the eventual winner Francesco, thus scoring 4-1 for the $100 U1600 2nd place prize.
As usual, I would like to conclude this event report by thanking those special people who helped make this tournament a success. The weekend started with Alex Ferreira and Stuart Brammall, all the way from Hart House, being the very first people at the playing site! Alex demonstrated his moving skills by getting the rooms set up in record time, and then between rounds, adjusting the layouts to maximize available space, and take advantage of the areas that had better air circulation. Stuart also helped with setup, and then rather than playing, acted as Assistant TD for the whole tournament. His tremendously capable presence genuinely made the whole weekend much easier and more enjoyable for myself, and he is also ensuring that the CFC and FIDE ratings submissions are as optimized as possible. Throughout the rounds, and especially on Sunday morning when there were multiple surprise withdrawals, we benefitted from the conscientous flexibility of floater player Marc D'Aoust, helping ensure that no one ever got hit with a forced bye. In closing, an event report of mine would not be complete without food references! The Levkovsky family provided me with a series of delicious homemade sandwiches, which really hit the spot during the critical last round. Finally, thanks again to Billy Carroll for his latest Timmies gift card, and for singlehandedly saving me at least an hour of cleanup, and doing so while selflessly staying late way after the end of his game. To these awesome folk, and others I missed, 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.
Yours in chess,
FIDE Arbiter Aris Marghetis
Organizer/TD, EOCA President
http://www.eoca.org/htm/tournaments_2010-11.html
My next event is the National Capital Open, November 12th-14th. Stay tuned for details, including early registration discounts, and guaranteed prizes!
If you would like to receive details about that event directly via email, please email arismarghetis@rogers.com to be added to my private email list.
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