2014 BC Open Event Report

2014 BC Open

Richmond, BC

Feb.  8-10

The 2014 BC Open was held Feb. 8-10 in Richmond.   This was the 50 year anniversary of the event, first held in 1964 although there have been a number of years in which it was not held.  76 players participated - a historically high number for the event but similar to last year's count.

This year's edition saw some changes: a switch to 6 rounds from last year's 5, and a new restriction on how far player can play up a section.   These changes were generally well received but as almost all of the eligible to play up people did play up, we will be thinking on how to best address the needs of this group of people.

The winner of the 2014 BC Open was Tanraj Sohal who repeated as champion from last year.   For the most part, his opponents did not give him much trouble apart from Howard Wu who nicked him for a draw and Butch Villavieja who lost in a game that went down to the final minutes of the time scramble.   Howard drew his last round as well and wound up in clear second and took the qualification spot to this year's BC Closed.   Butch had a 5th round bye which when combined with his loss to Tanraj, put him out of contention for the top two places.   I'm told that the bye was needed for him to attend a swearing in Canadian citizenship ceremony so a different kind of win and congratulations are in order.    The last prize in the Premier section was the U2100 prize, won by Roger Patterson.

The U1800 section ended in a tie for first place between Hector Rathburn and Maven Zheng.    Hector was at the top by rating so no surprise there but Maven at 1268 was something of a dark horse.    Another dark horse who did well was Ben Zheng who won the unrated prize but was in contention for first until the last round.   The U1500 prize was split between Neil Doknjas, Aiden Zhou, and Victor Zheng.

For more details, pictures and full results : Victoria Chess Club Website