Canadians in places you might not expect...
With big tournaments around the world, it's no surprise to see Canadians playing chess away from home on Canada Day. But some of the details might surprise...
World Open
June 30- July 4, 2016
Philadelphia
It's no surprise that Canadians play in the World Open every year: it has a huge prize fund, and the participation of lots of titled players means that Norms are available for those daring to play in the Open section. At least 13 Canadians are in the Open Section, and there are more going for the money in the lower sections.
Open: IM Razvan Preotu, IM Raja Panjwani, FM Michael Song, FM Terry Guannan Song, FM Tanraj Sohal, FM Yuanchen Zhang, FM Victor Plotkin, Richard Chen, Mark Plotkin, William Graif, Janak Awatramani, David Filipovich, IM Nha Thanh Duong.
U2200: Maili-Jade Ouellet, Victor Dzera, Hairan Liang, Kevin Yie, Patrick Huang
U2000: Michael Su, Zhanhe Liu, Kevin Low, Marc Sarra-Bournet, Dennis Shamroni
U1800: Rene Preotu, David Davidian, Prince Eric Guipi Bopala, Francis Molloy
While that's no surprise, it might be a small surprise to see that in round 3, Canadian IM Razvan Preotu is on board 1 against US GM Gata Kamsky.
You can follow that game live on Canada Day here:
http://chessevents.com/live-games/
As of move 31, Razvan is up one safe pawn, with no losing chances but with minimal winning chances.
Homepage
http://chessevents.com/worldopen/
Canadians at World Senior Teams
June 26-July 4, 2016
Radebeul, Germany
It's not a surprise that Canada has a team in the 50+ group at the World Senior Teams, but some of the players -- at least two of whom haven't played a rated game in Canada for years -- will be a surprise.
The Canadian 50+ team is:
- IM Jean Hebert
- IM Deen Hergott
- IM Tom O'Donnell
- IM Dave Ross
- FM Paul Ross
Of particular note is Deen Hergott's performace: despite not playing a rated game since 2007, Deen has scored +3 =2 -0, for a performance rating of 2537! Go Deen!
After 6 rounds, Germany 1 leads with the maximum 12 match points. Canada is in =4th with 9/12, along with England 1, a team featuring the all-GM line of Dr John Nunn, Jon Speelman, Mark Hebden, Keith Arkell, and Glenn Flear.
Round 7 (July 2, 2016) sees Canada on board 2 against Emanuel-Lasker-Gesellschaft: GM Artur Yussupov, GM Alexander Graf, GM Jokob Meister and Dr Gerhad Kohler (avg 2454).
You can replay games here:
http://www.schachfestival.de/world-team-championship-50-65-2016-en/live-games/games-50-current.html
Canadian in New in Chess Yearbook 119
New in Chess is widely regarded as the best chess magazine in the world: 8 issues per year, analysis and interviews with the world's top players, interesting articles, full colour photos. Its Yearbook is less well known: 4 issues per year, 1000 pages, mostly devoted to detailed opening surveys, but with a few articles and book reviews too.
The current issue, #119, has a short article in the "Forum" Section called "Attacking the Berlin" by Canadian Junior Joshua Doknjas. You can see the main game he starts from -- Wei Yi - Navara -- as well as some of his analysis in the game viewer below. For more, order a copy of NiC Yearbook #119.
Happy Canada Day!
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