Eastern Ontario Chess Association

L'Association des échecs de l'est-Ontario

EOCA - AEEO

2009 RA Spring Open

The first day of Spring this year, coincided with the first round of the RA Spring Open. Unfortunately, this was also the same weekend as the huge tournament in Trois-Rivieres, and we had a modest attendance of 30 players. The TD explicitly blames the Organizer for this atrocious planning! ;)

It was a good weekend, and exceptionally smooth. The only exception was a double fire alarm during round 3, giving us all the chance to catch some fresh spring air on a big balcony outside the playing room. It was later revealed that a troubled lady, who had absolutely nothing to do with anyone at the chess tournament, became very agitated, to the point that the police had to physically restrain her, in order to end her abuse of RA employees and fire alarms! :)

Back to the safe environment of our little chess tournament, the 30 players were split into 2 sections, across the 1800 rating line. In addition, there was a $100 class prize for every 200 rating points between U2200 and U1400. The pairings worked out well, in that all the prizes were decided in the last round.

Section A featured IM Artiom Samsonkin, who did not disappoint, by dominating with an undefeated score of 4.5-0.5, thus capturing the 1st place $400 prize. 2nd place was also captured by a single player, young Roman Sapozhnikov, whose only loss was to the IM in the 4th round, for a total of 3.5 points.

Awarding the 3rd place prize was not as straightforward, as it ended up being combined with the U2200 class prize. What happened was that the U2200 subsection was incredibly tight, with all 3 of the non-Amateur players entering the last round with 2 points. Then, in the last round, Bill Doubleday and David Dunn both won, vaulting both of them into sharing the 3rd place $100 prize, and also the U2200 $100 class prize, therefore each winning $100.

The U2000 subsection saw Alex Danilov face the toughest competition in that subsection, and still win it outright with a strong performance of 2 points.

Section B was reserved for players rated U1800, with a 1st place prize of $200. Agastya Kalra was the highest rated player in this section, and proved it by recording the only perfect sheet for the weekend. 5 wins in 5 games, and battling right to the end, even though he needed just a draw in the last round.

The U1600 subsection provided a curious finish, as Nicholas Pace was alone in the lead after 4 rounds with 3 points, but then he chose to miss the last round in order to participate in a local Chess&Math event. This left Nicholas' brother, Anthony, as the only player who could catch Nicholas in the last round, and the little fellow pulled it off with a final win when only that would do! Father Frank accepted the cheque to split between Anthony and Nicholas.

The U1400 subsection saw Kyle France play all his games against higher-rated opposition, scoring 2 points to clearly capture the U1400 class prize.

Finally, thanks to Eric Van Dusen, who acted as a floater player for the rounds where we had an uneven number of players, especially in Section A.

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

My next events will be the RA Tulip Active in April, the 2009 Ontario Open on the Victoria Day long weekend, and the Eastern Ontario Open in June.

If you would like to receive details on these events directly via email, please email arismarghetis@rogers.com to be added to my private email list.