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Hi all,
The event took off with a lecture by Grandmaster Bator Sambuev. Over 30 people came in for that and had the pleasure to learn themes in "Tal - Art of Attack" --- No, we did not videotape the lecture. Next time, join us!
The winners!
Congratulations to IM Artiom Samsonkin for convincingly finishing ahead of a very competitive top section. 4.5/5, some rating points and a $1,500 prize!
GM Bator Sambuev & rising star FM Nikita Gusev split 2nd and 3rd places with 4.0/5. FMs Michael Dougherty and Michael Humphreys split the U2300 prize.
In the U2200, James Fu emerged victorious after securing an easy draw in the last round. With 4.0 a 5-way tie between Derick Joshua Twesigye, Wajdy Shebetah, Aquino Inigo and Hart House's duo of troublemakers Leon Perelman & Jonathan Yu.
Against all rating odds, Troy Hansen & Robert Li split the top of the U1900 Section. We ought to move these guys up! Pi Nasir, Randy Moysoski, Steve Nickoloff and Dora Liu took 3rd place.
The U1600 was a strange one. 63 players! We didn't want to move away from the advertised plan, so we created a couple of U1400 prizes, but perhaps increasing # of sections in the future may be in order. 63 players in a 5-round event is a rough deal. Yanchun Zhao & Patrick Huang claimed the top prizes with 4.5. Also at 4.5 but unable to claim prizes was newcomer Amir Mohammad Shafiee, a youngster to watch out for!
John Young, Daniel Molev, Michael Rogers and Richard Guo split 3rd. The best in U1400 prize category (not including Patrick Huang who had already claimed the bigger prize), were Daniel Muntaner, Graeme Knight and Vlad Nitu.
The Team Prize is always a hot race. Not so many teams entered taking into account the colossal turn-out. Maybe as many as in Labour Day. Once again, Artiom Samsonkin led the way, greatly supported by Dora Liu, Kyle France and Yinshi Li.
The links to the final tables can be found at:
http://hhchess.sa.utoronto.ca/hhopen
Refresh the page, one of the buttons should now say Standings, and find the sections. I haven't figured out how to make it as neat on chesstalk.
Huge Success ! 185 players competed, which is a record for us at Hart House. This includes the recently past Labour Day, and according to Bryan Lamb, we would have to go back about 10-12 years for a higher turn-out. Still not quite as big as Brian Fiedler's PwC Toronto Open (203 players?) or the Canadian Opens, but not too bad!
Definitely not without its challenges, we need to evolve and adjust if we are to be able to maintain such big crowds and aim to get even more people. Most of the feedback was quite positive, and we welcome constructive criticism. Many people filled out a survey and we've had a couple of e-mails with ideas as well.
Note that at Hart House tournaments, we give free entry to those who are playing in their first ever CFC tournament. It can be a turn-off paying an entry fee as well as membership dues to those starting out. 15 people took advantage of this, welcome to the tournament scene!
Bryan Lamb, great as always, Geordie Derraugh, superb in all fronts while also playing (!), and myself, take much of the credit by being in the spotlight at the tournaments. However there are a million little things that we needed help with, and I'd like to give a big thanks to Leon Perelman, Chris Wehrfritz, Ben Hahn, Lali Agbabishvili, Andrew McMillan, Kit Ng, Adie Todd, Jack Ding , Tyler Longo, Michael Humphreys, Day Milman & Aquino Inigo. They made the difference in making sure things ran as smoothly as they could. Without them the tournament would have been completely chaotic, disorganized, and unpleasant experience I am sure. We also always welcome help from High School students who are looking to do some volunteering, like Aquino. Students need to complete 40 (or 50?) hours of volunteer work as part of the curriculum to graduate, and we gladly provide a letter for some help. Chess background not a requirement, so tell your friends and relatives for our future tournaments!
That's all for now, but will try to post some games in the near future.
Alex Ferreira
Hart House Chess Club
The event took off with a lecture by Grandmaster Bator Sambuev. Over 30 people came in for that and had the pleasure to learn themes in "Tal - Art of Attack" --- No, we did not videotape the lecture. Next time, join us!
The winners!
Congratulations to IM Artiom Samsonkin for convincingly finishing ahead of a very competitive top section. 4.5/5, some rating points and a $1,500 prize!
GM Bator Sambuev & rising star FM Nikita Gusev split 2nd and 3rd places with 4.0/5. FMs Michael Dougherty and Michael Humphreys split the U2300 prize.
In the U2200, James Fu emerged victorious after securing an easy draw in the last round. With 4.0 a 5-way tie between Derick Joshua Twesigye, Wajdy Shebetah, Aquino Inigo and Hart House's duo of troublemakers Leon Perelman & Jonathan Yu.
Against all rating odds, Troy Hansen & Robert Li split the top of the U1900 Section. We ought to move these guys up! Pi Nasir, Randy Moysoski, Steve Nickoloff and Dora Liu took 3rd place.
The U1600 was a strange one. 63 players! We didn't want to move away from the advertised plan, so we created a couple of U1400 prizes, but perhaps increasing # of sections in the future may be in order. 63 players in a 5-round event is a rough deal. Yanchun Zhao & Patrick Huang claimed the top prizes with 4.5. Also at 4.5 but unable to claim prizes was newcomer Amir Mohammad Shafiee, a youngster to watch out for!
John Young, Daniel Molev, Michael Rogers and Richard Guo split 3rd. The best in U1400 prize category (not including Patrick Huang who had already claimed the bigger prize), were Daniel Muntaner, Graeme Knight and Vlad Nitu.
The Team Prize is always a hot race. Not so many teams entered taking into account the colossal turn-out. Maybe as many as in Labour Day. Once again, Artiom Samsonkin led the way, greatly supported by Dora Liu, Kyle France and Yinshi Li.
The links to the final tables can be found at:
http://hhchess.sa.utoronto.ca/hhopen
Refresh the page, one of the buttons should now say Standings, and find the sections. I haven't figured out how to make it as neat on chesstalk.
Huge Success ! 185 players competed, which is a record for us at Hart House. This includes the recently past Labour Day, and according to Bryan Lamb, we would have to go back about 10-12 years for a higher turn-out. Still not quite as big as Brian Fiedler's PwC Toronto Open (203 players?) or the Canadian Opens, but not too bad!
Definitely not without its challenges, we need to evolve and adjust if we are to be able to maintain such big crowds and aim to get even more people. Most of the feedback was quite positive, and we welcome constructive criticism. Many people filled out a survey and we've had a couple of e-mails with ideas as well.
Note that at Hart House tournaments, we give free entry to those who are playing in their first ever CFC tournament. It can be a turn-off paying an entry fee as well as membership dues to those starting out. 15 people took advantage of this, welcome to the tournament scene!
Bryan Lamb, great as always, Geordie Derraugh, superb in all fronts while also playing (!), and myself, take much of the credit by being in the spotlight at the tournaments. However there are a million little things that we needed help with, and I'd like to give a big thanks to Leon Perelman, Chris Wehrfritz, Ben Hahn, Lali Agbabishvili, Andrew McMillan, Kit Ng, Adie Todd, Jack Ding , Tyler Longo, Michael Humphreys, Day Milman & Aquino Inigo. They made the difference in making sure things ran as smoothly as they could. Without them the tournament would have been completely chaotic, disorganized, and unpleasant experience I am sure. We also always welcome help from High School students who are looking to do some volunteering, like Aquino. Students need to complete 40 (or 50?) hours of volunteer work as part of the curriculum to graduate, and we gladly provide a letter for some help. Chess background not a requirement, so tell your friends and relatives for our future tournaments!
That's all for now, but will try to post some games in the near future.
Alex Ferreira
Hart House Chess Club
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