2008 RA Spring Open
Round 1 of the 2008 RA Spring Open fell on Leap Day, February 29th, and the snow fell all weekend, likely pushing towards a seasonal snowfall record! It was quite pretty, and over 45 players didn't let it hold them back, with many players travelling in from various places between Montreal and Kitchener.
Chess celebrities in attendance included the Russian-Canadian GM Bator Sambuev, local teaching legend IM Tom O'Donnell, and IA Hal Bond, a great Organizer/TD who I just keep learning stuff from!
This tournament featured an experimental new mechanism in having multiple sections without any forced byes whatsoever, and it seemed to be a real success. I am always open to feedback, and for other TDs out there, when I find some more time, I'm hoping to write an article explaining what we did.
In the top Section A, for players rated over 2000, GM Bator Sambuev ripped through the field, only giving up one draw, to the fearless Ottawa youngster Joey Qin. Bator's clearly winning score of 4.5/5 earned him the top prize of $419. In addition, thanks to Halldor Palsson, who billets Bator in Ottawa!
Determining the 2nd & 3rd place prizes took longer on Sunday evening, with an endgame in the final round on the second board, between Michael Humphreys, a rapidly improving nice young man from Kitchener, and IM Tom O'Donnell. In the end though, Tom yet again demonstrated his battle-hardened IM skills, and with a score of 3.5/5, finished in sole possession of 2nd place, for that prize worth $200.
Rounding out the prizes in the top section, David Gordon and Jerry Xiong shared the $100 3rd place prize for $50 apiece. Jerry, Tom took your prize, and said that he would give it to you at school?!  ;)
In Section B, for players between 2000 and 1600, the pairings worked out perfectly, pitting in the last round, Mate Marinkovic vs. Michel Desjardins, with Mate needing to win, and Michel just needing to draw. At stake was a nice $300 class prize for players rated between 2000 and 1800, and after the dust had settled on one of the longest games, Michel had a dominating perfect score of 5/5 to win!
Section B also featured a class prize for the handful of players rated between 1800 and 1600, and teenager Daniel Soucy from Cornwall, despite being the lowest rated player in the whole section, scored three victories towards an impressive score of 3/5, taking home this class prize of $100.
In Section C, for players rated U1600, the vast majority of the players were playing as Amateurs, and so there was one $100 prize for the section. Amateur Agastya Kalra officially won the section with a score of 4/5, as he finished strong with four straight wins. However, the prize money was claimed by Dan Liu with a score of 3.5/5, who back in the 4th round, had beaten his last remaining competitor for the money. Also scoring 3.5/5 was Tim Bouma, but he also played as an Amateur for this weekend.
In closing, on behalf of all of us from the RA Spring Open, we would like to send our best wishes to George Raletich and Karoly Szalay. George fell going down some stairs between rounds 2 and 3, incurring a nasty gash that earned him a trip to the hospital to be on the safe side. Thankfully, Alex Danilov was there with George to assist him, and at last report, I believe that George is recovering well. As for Karoly, the poor kid really wanted to play, but he just couldn't shake a lingering fever.
Finally, thanks to Robert Hawley and Peter Arseneau, who even though they weren't officially in the tournament, always seemed to be around at the right time, covering for players like injured George.
Your in chess,
Aris Marghetis
Organizer/TD
P.S.    My next chess tournament will be the 2008 Eastern Ontario Open, scheduled for May 30th - June 1st, 2008. My plan is to post the event details in April at the regular EOCA tournament website (the link is included below), or please feel free to send me your email address at arismarghetis@rogers.com