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Bob Gillanders
11-24-2008, 06:08 PM
2008 National Capital Open

By the weekend before American Thanksgiving, the air in Ottawa is getting chilly, which is perfect for spending the weekend playing chess! 65 players had the same idea, and got together at the RA Centre on scenic Riverside Drive for the 2008 National Capital Open. As Organizer/TD, I noticed that, besides having more participants, there were also quite a few new faces, and previous players returning from extended absences. One of the nice effects of such a player distribution was that, especially in the middle rating ranges, there were many games between players who had never played each other before.

It was especially neat to welcome back 3 generations of the Mirabeau family from the Ottawa area. This paragraph might seem corny to younger readers, but as a family man, I found it wonderful to see them enjoying the weekend together playing chess. My favorite scene was the 4th round, when grandfather Guy and grandson Anthony both had the white pieces on adjacent boards. Thanks to Laurent, the father, for bringing your nice chess family to our event.

Speaking of chess families, I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate the classy Xiong family from Ottawa. Jerry and Sonja are just great kids to have in your tournament, and it has been a lot of fun watching them improve over the years, challenging stronger players every time out. On top of that, their father Wei is an incredibly helpful chess parent if I need anything. For example, he spent the whole day Sunday acting as a floater player to even out odd numbers, to ensure that we never had any forced byes. Thanks also to Alan Tomalty and Peter Arseneau for doing the same on Friday and Saturday.

My final family thanks goes to the Renaud-Shaw family, who overheard me early Sunday morning lamenting the breakfast I should have had, and went out and brought back a delicious Timmies combo that they treated me to! Thanks again, and also to the fathers who would get me Cokes from the machine!

But now, let's get to the results! The 65 players were split across 3 sections. Section A for 2000 and up, Section B for U2000, and Section C for U1600. There was $1600 in prizes set aside for the top 3 finishers, and after that, there was a $300 class prize for every 200 rating points from U2200 to U1600, and a $100 class prize for U1400. All results are being submitted for CFC and FIDE rating, and at least Quebec players will be submitted for FQE rating.

GM Bator Sambuev absolutely dominated the event with a perfect score of 5-0, and entertained us all with fascinating games. Everyone was also quite impressed with how he kept playing for the win in the last round, even though he didn't need to. He loves playing, and he has become a very well-liked regular at our EOCA weekend events. Bator earned $800 for his efforts, and FM Robert Hamilton earned $500 for clear second place with a score of 4-1. He only lost a point to Bator, and both of these titled players played very strong games throughout. IM Tom O'Donnell was also entered, but unfortunately, he wasn't feeling well, and did not complete the tournament. I believe that this is the time of year when some of us are catching some version of the flu! :(

Rounding out Section A, there was a $300 prize for 3rd place, and a $300 class prize for U2200. 4 players (Kevin Pacey, Joey Qin, Patrick Kirby, David Dunn) had identical scores of 3-2. However, Joey was playing as an Amateur, and so the other 3 gentlemen split the $600 3 ways, each taking home $200. We often remember the titled players and their successes, but these 4 players should also be recognized, as they battled through some tough pairings and results, wrestled rating points away from higher ranked players, and finished the tournament very strongly on the Sunday. Veritable chess warriors!

Section B consisted of 2 $300 class prizes, for U2000 and U1800. In the U2000 subsection, 3 players (Gabriel Brown, Alex Danilov, John Bleau) finished with scores of 3.5-1.5, but as Alex was playing as an Amateur, Gabriel and John split the $300 just between them. Congratulations to Gabriel for battling back to tie for this prize, and it was nice seeing John again after decades. Between him and his friend Robert, they had enough money to cover dinner! :)

In the U1800 subsection, there was no other player even remotely close to David Li, who captured the $300 class prize with his own perfect score of 5-0. This might very well have been the single most impressive result of the whole tournament, as David, even though he was in the U1800 subsection, he was paired 4 times with higher ranked players from the U2000 subsection, and yet finished with a perfect score, 1.5 points ahead of anyone else in Section B!

Section C was also won by a perfect score of 5-0 for the U1600 class prize of $300, this time by Yuanhao Wei, who is rapidly increasing his rating. Closing out the prizes was a $100 class prize for U1400, which was won by Tom Jarmyn, who had the best score, 3.5-1.5, in his mostly Amateur U1400 subsection.

In closing, I wanted to share another story from the weekend that readers might find interesting. I am not much of an artist, and I was really fascinated by observing newcomer Matt LeBlanc, who after his game would finish, would pencil sketch other players whose games were still in progress. Many of us do not move much during our games, which allowed Matt plenty of time to capture wonderful chess action portraits. Thanks Matt for sharing your special skill.

Finally, I would like to say thanks to David Gordon for his support on Sunday, and most of all to Stijn De Kerpel, who was awesomely helpful all weekend, especially for setup and takedown, and easily saved me hours of effort. These guys are always so ready to lend a hand, and I really appreciate it, thanks!

Yours in chess,

Aris Marghetis, Organizer/TD
http://www.eoca.org/htm/tournaments%202008-09.html

My next event will be the RA Frosty Active on December 7th, and my next weekend tournament will be the RA Winter Open on January 16th-18th. I will be posting and emailing the event details soon. If you would like to be added to my private email distribution, please email arismarghetis at rogers dot com