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Hans Jung is well known in central Canada. Chesstalk has asked him to tell us about what is happening on the Canadian scene. Here is his first contribution. Tell us what you think of this feature.
The following artcle is by Canadian Master Hans Jung:
I have been asked to write articles that reflect the Canadian chess scene profiling tournaments and interesting players. This is the first article.
The Toronto area has a series of popular tournaments that are well run and often well attended. I want to touch on two that were held in February. The Guelph Winter Pro Am Feb 9&10 was the first of a series of 4 tournaments to be held in 2014. The tournament was stopped from breaking a record turnout by a wicked winter storm on Friday but 95 attended anyways, although several were forced to cancel including popular Canadian star player Aman Hambleton and popular TD Aris Marghetis both from Ottawa.
The Guelph Pro Am at the University of Guelph campus center, one hour west of Toronto, offered great conditions including play in the Peter Clark Hall which seats up to 300, free snacks and drinks for the players, and provided all clocks, sets, and boards.
Hal Bond, the organizer (also Canada’s FIDE representative), is a seasoned tournament director, very accommodating, and has good helpers. One of his regular helpers, Michael von Keitz (now past president of the CFC) played and finished second in the under 2000! – a very successful tournament for him. Richard Yam, a former student of Hal – and now a chess teacher! – and helper -won the under 2000. Richard Guo won the under 1600. Harmony Zhu continues to impress. ( I was watching!) She beat Mario Piccinin, KW club president, and no slouch (he’s recently beat masters!) Mario’s comment: “She’ll enter complications if she has too!” (at age 8!)
The Pro section which returns almost 100% of entries was well fought and very competitive. GM Bator Sambuev, IM’s Bindi Cheng and Nikolay Noritsyn and 11 other masters (27 players in total) battled it out to the end. The surprise of the tournament was 13 year old Razvan Preotu from Burlington who beat the tournament favourite GM Sambuev, knocking him out of first place. Razvan then lost to Nikolay and Nikolay lost to Bindi in the last round. First Prize IM Bindi Cheng, = 2nd IM Noritsyn, Razvan Preotu, GM Sambuev.
Rd 3 White: Razvan Preotu Black: GM Sambuev
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nfd7 6.c3 Nc6 7.Bd3 Be7 8.0-0 c4 Black’s idea is not to block the center but to eventually open the long white-squared diagonal and the square d5 as well as counterplay against the white center. In exchange he risks a kingside attack and White’s pieces transferring thru the e4 square. Interesting play but due to White’s Q + 2N risky !?!
9.Bc2 b5 10.b3 Nb6 11.bxc4 dxc4 12.Ne4 h6 13.Nfd2 b4 14.Qg4 Kf8 15.Ng3 bxc3 16.Nf3 Bb7 17.Nh5 g5 18.Be4 Rb8 19.h4 Nxd4 20.Bxb7 Ne2+ 21.Kh1 Nxc1 22.Raxc1 Rxb7 23.Rfd1 Rd7 24.Rxd7 Qxd7 25.Rxc3 Qd1+ 26.Kh2 Qe2 (26…Rg8 27.hxg5 Bxg5 would have given Black better play than in the game.) 27.Qd4 g4 28.Qxg4 Rg8 29.Qd4 Qf1 30.Ng3 Qb1 31.Nd2 Qxa2 32.Qf4 Bb4 Nice piece coordination by White. 33.Rf3 Rg7 34.Nde4 Qb2 35.Qf6 Be7 36.Qxe6 c3 37.Qxh6 c2 Hoping but 38.Nf6 is also a large threat. 38.Qh8+ Rg8 39.Rxf7+! Kxf7 40.e6+ Kxe6 41.Qxb2 Rc8 42.Ne2 Rc4 43.N4c3 Bxh4 44.g3 Bf6 45.Qxc2 Be5 Black could resign. 46.Qa2 Bb8 47.Nb5 Ke7 48.Nxa7 Ra4 49.Nc6+ Kd6 50.Qxa4 Nxa4 GM Sambuev gives Razvan the bonus pleasure of the next dozen moves. 51.Nxb8 Nc5 52.Nd4 Kd5 53.Nbc6 Nd3 54.Kg2 Ne1+ 55.Kf1 Nd3 56.Ke2 Nb2 57.Kf3 Nd3 58.g4 Nc5 59.g5 Ne4 60.g6 Nf6 61.g7 Kd6 62.Nf5+ 1-0 The pawn f2 will decide.
The following artcle is by Canadian Master Hans Jung:
I have been asked to write articles that reflect the Canadian chess scene profiling tournaments and interesting players. This is the first article.
The Toronto area has a series of popular tournaments that are well run and often well attended. I want to touch on two that were held in February. The Guelph Winter Pro Am Feb 9&10 was the first of a series of 4 tournaments to be held in 2014. The tournament was stopped from breaking a record turnout by a wicked winter storm on Friday but 95 attended anyways, although several were forced to cancel including popular Canadian star player Aman Hambleton and popular TD Aris Marghetis both from Ottawa.
The Guelph Pro Am at the University of Guelph campus center, one hour west of Toronto, offered great conditions including play in the Peter Clark Hall which seats up to 300, free snacks and drinks for the players, and provided all clocks, sets, and boards.
Hal Bond, the organizer (also Canada’s FIDE representative), is a seasoned tournament director, very accommodating, and has good helpers. One of his regular helpers, Michael von Keitz (now past president of the CFC) played and finished second in the under 2000! – a very successful tournament for him. Richard Yam, a former student of Hal – and now a chess teacher! – and helper -won the under 2000. Richard Guo won the under 1600. Harmony Zhu continues to impress. ( I was watching!) She beat Mario Piccinin, KW club president, and no slouch (he’s recently beat masters!) Mario’s comment: “She’ll enter complications if she has too!” (at age 8!)
The Pro section which returns almost 100% of entries was well fought and very competitive. GM Bator Sambuev, IM’s Bindi Cheng and Nikolay Noritsyn and 11 other masters (27 players in total) battled it out to the end. The surprise of the tournament was 13 year old Razvan Preotu from Burlington who beat the tournament favourite GM Sambuev, knocking him out of first place. Razvan then lost to Nikolay and Nikolay lost to Bindi in the last round. First Prize IM Bindi Cheng, = 2nd IM Noritsyn, Razvan Preotu, GM Sambuev.
Rd 3 White: Razvan Preotu Black: GM Sambuev
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nfd7 6.c3 Nc6 7.Bd3 Be7 8.0-0 c4 Black’s idea is not to block the center but to eventually open the long white-squared diagonal and the square d5 as well as counterplay against the white center. In exchange he risks a kingside attack and White’s pieces transferring thru the e4 square. Interesting play but due to White’s Q + 2N risky !?!
9.Bc2 b5 10.b3 Nb6 11.bxc4 dxc4 12.Ne4 h6 13.Nfd2 b4 14.Qg4 Kf8 15.Ng3 bxc3 16.Nf3 Bb7 17.Nh5 g5 18.Be4 Rb8 19.h4 Nxd4 20.Bxb7 Ne2+ 21.Kh1 Nxc1 22.Raxc1 Rxb7 23.Rfd1 Rd7 24.Rxd7 Qxd7 25.Rxc3 Qd1+ 26.Kh2 Qe2 (26…Rg8 27.hxg5 Bxg5 would have given Black better play than in the game.) 27.Qd4 g4 28.Qxg4 Rg8 29.Qd4 Qf1 30.Ng3 Qb1 31.Nd2 Qxa2 32.Qf4 Bb4 Nice piece coordination by White. 33.Rf3 Rg7 34.Nde4 Qb2 35.Qf6 Be7 36.Qxe6 c3 37.Qxh6 c2 Hoping but 38.Nf6 is also a large threat. 38.Qh8+ Rg8 39.Rxf7+! Kxf7 40.e6+ Kxe6 41.Qxb2 Rc8 42.Ne2 Rc4 43.N4c3 Bxh4 44.g3 Bf6 45.Qxc2 Be5 Black could resign. 46.Qa2 Bb8 47.Nb5 Ke7 48.Nxa7 Ra4 49.Nc6+ Kd6 50.Qxa4 Nxa4 GM Sambuev gives Razvan the bonus pleasure of the next dozen moves. 51.Nxb8 Nc5 52.Nd4 Kd5 53.Nbc6 Nd3 54.Kg2 Ne1+ 55.Kf1 Nd3 56.Ke2 Nb2 57.Kf3 Nd3 58.g4 Nc5 59.g5 Ne4 60.g6 Nf6 61.g7 Kd6 62.Nf5+ 1-0 The pawn f2 will decide.
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