Victoria Chess Festival 2009

Page history last edited by brian raymer 15 years, 2 months ago

Link to 2010 Grand Pacific Open

3rd Annual Victoria Chess Festival

April 10-13 2009

The 3rd annual Victoria Chess Festival was well attended with 76 players in the main event, the Grand Pacific Open, as well as in a number of side events. Participants included a variety of champions including the BC champion FM Jonathan Berry, BC women's champion WCM Alexandra Botez, BC junior champion Tanraj Sohal, BC Active champion IM Vincente Lee, and the Estonian Women's champion WFM Valeria Gansvind. The last round top board game for all the marbles featured newly returned IM Leon Piasetski and IM Lawrence Day, a match up that would not have been out of place 35 years ago!. It was drawn which enabled a four way tie for first with Leon Piasetski taking home the 1st place trophy on tiebreak.

Media coverage included a spot on the evening news on the "A" channel and article in the Victoria News (Wednesday April 15).

This event could not have taken place without the efforts of many people. Many thanks to our sponsors Thrifty Foods, Black Press, and to the Grand Pacific Hotel for such a wonderful venue. TD Mark S. Dutton, IA did his usual professional job in the main event. The side events were run smoothly by TDs Greg Churchill and Elliot Raymer. Numerous volunteers helped out with the demonstration boards, live broadcasting of selected games through MonRoi, and manning the bookstall. Thanks to Chess and Math for providing the books! Thanks too, to our organizers Brian Raymer, Roger Patterson, Paul Leblanc, and Greg Churchill.

Grand Pacific Open Games: (pgn or Java replay)

Some untitled photos from Sunday and Monday (requires a Facebook account to view).

Our venue is already booked for next year. Make plans to be here in Easter 2010 for the 4th annual Victoria Chess Festival!

Our Winners:

IM Leon Piasetski (right) 1st on tiebreak with Brian Raymer

Left to right: IM Leon Piasetski, WFM Valeria Gansvind, IM Vicente Lee, IM Lawrence Day; all with 5 points

Grand Pacific Open Final Results

1st (on tie break) IM Leon Piasetski: $500 and trophy.

2nd, 3rd, 4th: WFM Valeria Gansvind, IM Lawrence Day, IM Vicente Lee: $500 each

IM Vicente Lee also wins the qualifying spot to the next BC Closed.

U2000:

1st, 2nd, 3rd: Jack Cheng, Mike Murray, WCM Alexandra Botez: $233 each

U1700:

1st, 2nd: Matthew Herdin, Richard Golden: $300 each

3rd (on tiebreak) Jacob Jenson

U1400:

1st, 2nd: Tian Tian Geng, Justin Wong: $300 each

3rd (on tiebreak): Jason Cao.

Biggest upset: Josh Wild $100 (over Nenad Ristovic: a difference of 600 points!)

Grand Pacific Scholastic

28 players participated in the 2nd annual Grand Pacific Scholastic tournament, including B.C. Junior Champion Tanraj Sohal. Each player received a souvenir medal. The winner in the section for grades K-3 was Jonah Lee. The winner in the section for grades 4-7 was Tanraj Sohal.

K-3

1st Jonah Lee (5.0/5)

2nd Jason Cao (4.0/5)

3rd Tristan Taylor (3.0/5)

4-7

1st Tanraj Sohal (4.5/5)

2nd John Doknjas (4.5/5)

3rd Ryan Lo (4.0/5)

Fischer Random:

1st: Roger Patterson

2nd Dylan Parker

Grand Pacific Midnight Blitz Final Results

Gold Medal and $250 Vicente Lee Silver Medal Tanraj Sohal Bronze Medal Howard Wu

Grand Pacific Bughouse Championship

The top teams in the Pacific Northwest assembled at the Hotel Grand Pacific on April13 for the 3rd Annual Grand Pacific Bughouse Championship. 14 Teams were in Victoria this year for this popular event. Top team was "Ben and Noam's Bugventure" with a perfect score of 5 out of 5. Click here for results.