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BC vs Washington International Match
(May 2, 2009)
Standings
The Intermat is over for another year.
I hope everyone had a good time. The Washington people
were very hospitable in this fun event. The food was great
and plentiful. Unfortunately the trophy did not make its
way back to BC, as Washington won this year’s event.
In the end BC needed 5 more wins to match the Americans.
BC won grades Grades 12, 7 and 4 and were even on 11,
5 and 3. Our K-3 representatives did remarkably well.
With opponents sporting twice the rating of our kids we
anticipated a good learning experience but not many points.
The Washington secret weapon in Kindergarten was girls!
Our boys were mesmerized by the young ladies and played
as if under a spell.
We’ll be better prepared next time.
In Grade 1 Jesse Li managed to defeat the Washington
Champion with twice his rating. Way to go Jesse!
Grade 2 was tough going. The Washington champions rating
of 1633 would be right at home in grade 6. That’s
twice the rating of our contender so no one was surprised
when we did not win here.
In Grade 3 Lionel and Jonah battled hard despite being
as much as 400 points lower rated than their opponents.
They scored a win and two draws for 2 valuable points.
Grade 4 saw Andy Qian pulling off an upset by drawing
the Washington Champion Daniel He, despite his 623 point
rating advantage. That ½ point combined with Janak’s
reliable 2 wins put BC ahead in grade 4.
Grade 5 saw Jacob and Hector match the American champions
move for move in a dead even heat.
We were overpowered in Grade 6, with Ryan and Alex managing
only a pair of draws against evenly matched opponents.
Another win here would have helped the cause.
Grade 7 was the first grade where we out rated our opponents
with Tanraj and Stephen both rated over 2000. Unfortunately
Megan Lee, younger sister of FM Michael Lee was not cooperating.
She stole a win from Stephen in the first round while
her partner found a draw against Tanraj in round one.
Those 1.5 points added to the Washington margin.
In Grade 8 we had a scramble to find players. Two days
before the event we still had not confirmed our entries.
The ladies came to our rescue, with Alexandra and NingNing
stepping up to protect BC’s honour. We were hoping
the girl’s charm would be the deciding factor at
the boards, but the Washington boys fought through the
distractions take the series 3 wins to 1.
In Grade 9 Josh Wild’s strong play surprised his
opponents. He scored a win and a draw in s grade Washington
expected to win easily.
We hoped to break even in Grade 10 but after Kamram Hughes
scored a draw against Richard in the last round we fell
behind.
Grade 11 was a great opportunity to sweep all the games.
Both of our 1700 rated players outranked the Washington
Champion, and a 1479 rated US player boosted from Grade
10 to fill an empty seat. Elliot won both his games but
Henry had trouble with his endgame theory and dropped
a pair. A win here, a win there and the tournament result
could have been different.
Optimism was rampant in Grade 12 where we enjoyed a rating
advantage of over 1000 points on our opponents. Unfortunately
one US player managed to steal draws against both Evan
and Noam, saving Washington from a sweep and taking away
a much needed win from BC.
So now it’s time to start planning for next year
when we host the Americans here. I hope you all will consider
helping in the planning and preparations.
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BC Youth Chess Championships (Apr.
25-26, 2009)
Standings
Full Report (coming)
Photos
(1 of 3)
Photos
(2 of 3)
Photos
(3 of 3)
Video (Day 1)
Video
(Day 2)
Thanks to all who have contributed to this tournament
and special thanks to Ken and Wolfram for the organizing,
Andrei for the videos, Lester for the photos and report....and
all the parent volunteers who made this possible.
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BC Chess Challenge (Apr. 4, 2009)
Over 230 players registered to compete in this year’s
BC Chess Challenge. All players qualified for this event
by demonstrating superior chess skill in one of five Regional
events. As expected the competition was intense. There
were many surprises before the day was done. Congratulations
to all!
The Champions:
Kindergarten Champion: Luke Pulfer
Grade 1 Champion: Zexi Jesse Li
Grade 2 Champion: Jingzhi Edwin Xu
Grade 3 Champion: Jonah Lee
Grade 4 Champion : Dezheng Kong
Grade 5 Champion : Hector Rathburn-Mackay
Grade 6 Champion : Thiruvaran Alex Sabaratnam
Grade 7 Champion : Tanraj S Sohal
Grade 8 Champion : Jack [Kun] Cheng
Grade 9 Champion : Jeff Anthony De Guzman
Grade 10 Champion : Tian Tian Geng
Grade 11 Champion : Henry Ji
Grade 12 Champion : Noam Davies
Ful
Report (Thanks to Ken and Lester)
Photos
1 of 3
Photos
2 of 3
Photos
3 of 3 (Thanks to Lester for all the photos)
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Fraser Valley Chess Challenge (Feb.
22, 2009)
The Fraser Valley Regional had a huge turnout with 181
players. Each section represented a grade from Kindergarten
to Grade 12 and players enjoyed 5 games each with 30 minute
time controls. Many grades ended up so close that 5-min
blitz playoff games had to determine the champions. Winners
and other players who scored 2.5 points or more qualified
to meet up with their Vancouver Regional and Vancouver
Island Regional counterparts in the Provincial Championships
on April 4, 2009 being held at BCIT.
Here are our 2009 Fraser Valley Regional Champions:
Kindergarten – Irena Datcu-Romano (after playoff
with Luke Pulfer)
Grade 1 – Joshua Doknjas
Grade 2 – Alexander Stolz
Grade 3 – Tim Sun (after playoff with Sumin Moon)
Grade 4 – John Doknjas
Grade 5 – Matthew Herdin
Grade 6 – Hanson Kang (after playoff with Jack Qian,
Harchetan Bhatti, and Alice Hu)
Grade 7 - Tanraj Sohal (after playoff with Chang He Li)
Grade 8 – Tse Ning Cheung
Grade 9 – David Don (after playoff with Karen Lam)
Grade 10 – Thomas Chow
Grade 11 – Henry Ji
Grade 12 – Madhav Goyle (after playoff with Sofwat
Omar)
Congratulations to all our players and their parents!
There is a long list of volunteers that helped make this
tournament a successful one. I apologize in advance as
I know that I am missing many names but I think it is
important to acknowledge the great many who gave up their
time for the sake of our kids.
I had the great pleasure of working with a fantastic bunch
of chess knowledgeable arbiters. They worked all day,
on their feet watching each game vigilantly and occasionally,
especially with the younger groups, took the time to do
a short chess lesson with the kids, like how to mate a
lone King with a Queen and a King. Many thanks to:
Ben Daswani , Anca Datcu-Romano (former BC Woman Champion),
Richard Reid, Teri Lydiard, Joe Meszaros, Henry Wilsenack,
Duane Qian, Owen and the other Richard who was so patient
with the kids and who worked so well with me in the Grade
2 section.
The Setup and Cleanup Crew who often go unnoticed setting
up long before the first player shows and who stays long
after the last player leaves. Thanks goes to: Wolfram
Herdin, Susan McFee, Jim Foote, Ken Jensen, Henry Wilsenack.
The friendly ladies who you met to register your kids:
Wendy Jensen and Teri Lydiard
Those in charge of lunch and the snack cart: Dianne Lifton,
Marnie Orr, Grace Morin
Award presentation: Susan McFee
Special thanks to Tournament Director Ben Daswani, and
Organizers Ken Jensen and Wolfram Herdin
-- Thanks to Victoria Doknjas for the report!
Photos coming soon.
Standings:
See
Results
-
Vancouver Regional Chess Challenge
(Feb. 21, 2009)
This years Vancouver Challenge was an unusually lively
one with a large number of tie breakers. some of which
in turn had to have their own tie breakers! Cameo appearances
were made by National Master Branimir Brebrich, former
BC Chess Federation president Tony Deline, and if you
are wondering who was the gentleman giving trophies to
Hector, Jeremy and Karl then that's Former BC Champion
Jack Yoos.
In grade one Andrea Botez finished tied for first but
lost the tie breaker to Jessi LI. Li won all his games
except the one he lost to the kindergarden contender Arman
Hosseinpour. Arman tied at the top of the K class with
Mircea Oprea and Neo Wu. A three way Tie! In the final
standings after the Tiebreakers, it was Neo, then Mircea
then Arman.
In grade 2 Edwin Xu had sole possession of first, however
second and third place were determined by a tie breaker.
Second place went to Qing Yang Liu, and third to Henrik
Parker.
Grade three renewed the rivalry between Lionel Han and
Provincial Champion Jonah Lee. Lionel emerged on top this
time, with Jonah in second and Humphrey Shao in third.
The titanic battle between Janak and Dezheng Kong didn’t
disappoint. The top two grade 4 players in the country
battled to a draw in regulation play. They ended the event
equal in points and had to settle the matter in a 5 minute
blitz shoot out. Janak emerged on top, maintaining the
status quo but this contest is not over. Ian Ang finished
in third place.
Hector Rathburn-Mackay showed steady form in his battle
with defending champion Jeremy Hui in grade 5. Hector
won all 5 games to finish ahead of Jeremy in second and
Karl Cui in third.
For grade 6 Alex Sabaratnam had to work hard for his
first place win over Ryan Lo in yet another tie breaker.
Third place went to Marcus Lee.
Grade 7 was interesting. Alice Xiao, having never been
to this venue before could not find the location, and
arrived late.and so forfeited the first round. Undetered,
She fought on and won her next 4 games! That left her
tied for first with Michael Gao. The tie breaker was a
tie. The second tie breaker went to Alice. In third place
was Conrad Burgert.
For grade 8 Alexandra Botez won her tie breaker over
Yiming Han and Kenneth Lam placed third.
9th grader Jeff Anthony De Guzman won his tie breaker
over his second place rival Zhang Tiger. Tied for third
were Dylan Parker and John Gong. Unfortunately a scheduling
conflict with Dylan's hockey pulled him away from the
tournament early and so sole third went to Gong.
In grade 10 Anderson Yee won 4.5 /5 to win the section
ahead of Marko Mitrovic in second and Jerry Lin in third.
In grade 11 Prince Tadiar had sole possession of first
but second, third and fourth were determined by tie breakers.
Second was Surbinder Bolina, and third was Kristian Jose.
The grade 12 section only had 2 entrants- Alex Kay finished
first, and Gurkaran Thiara was second.
-- Thanks to Lester and Ken for the report!
Standings:
See
Results
Photos:
Gallery
- By Lester Yee
Gallery
- By Maggie
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Sprott-Shaw New Year Open (Jan. 24-25,
2009)
News Flash: BC Junior Champion Beats
BC Active Champion! Current BC Junior Champion Tanraj
Sohal (#27 in the World Youth Chess Championship) was
victorious over current BC Active Champion Vicente Lee
Jr at the New Year Open! To put this achievment into perspective
Tanraj performed at an incredible rating of 2563 on those
2 days!
Just as in the last few Sprott-Shaw Opens, this one was
a mix of adult and junior (under 18) players. Tied for
first were Tanraj and Drago Milicevic (adult). Tied for
second was Dezheng Kong (junior from Manitoba) and Richard
Spaan (adult). Tied for 3rd were Vicente Lee Jr and Jofrel
Landingin (adult).
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Sprott-Shaw K-12 Scholastic (Jan. 25,
2009)
The K-12 Scholastic series of tournaments began its 2009
season with 79 players. This series of tournaments are
characterized by having one section per grade and uses
30 minute time controls. This tournament was good preparation
for the Vancouver Regional Scholastic and Fraser Valley
Regional Scholastic coming up soon. Those
are qualifiers for the BC Scholastic Tournament, which
in turn is a qualifier for the Canadian Scholastic.
Congratulations to the winners:
Kindergarten - Frances Anne Mcinnis
Grade 1 - Andrea Botez
Grade 2 - Jingzhi (Edwin) Xu
Grade 3 - Humphrey Shao and Mark Liu
Grade 4 - Iain Ang
Grade 5 - Jia Jia Zhang, Mehtaab Chandi & Filip Lozanoski
Grade 6 - Jack Qian
Grade 7 - Alice Xiao
Grade 8 - Kenneth Chiu & Darren Venables
Grade 9 - David Dong
Grade 10 -Anderson Yee
Grade 11 -David Hou
Photos:
Click
here for online slideshow.
-- Thanks to Lester Yee for the reports and
the great pictures!
-
BCCF Bulletin
#156 by Stephen Wright (Jan. 21, 2009) B.C. Chess
Magazine, 1918-1919
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BC Active Championship (Jan. 17-18, 2009)
The initial edition of this championship (or at least
the first such championship within recent memory) attracted
thirty-eight players to the Vancouver Bridge Centre. Vicente
Lee Jr. breezed through the Open Section with 8.5/9, winning
$300 as a result. Second and third were Roman Jiganchine
6.5 ($170) and Roger Patterson 6.0 ($100). The previously
unkown Jenesis Bugaoan won the U1800 Section with 7.0/9,
good for $170; Juni Caluza and Alex Sabaratnam were a
half-point back and earned $50 each. The event was organized
by Luc Poitras, Toni Deline was the TD.
Crosstable, Open Section: http://www.chess.ca/xtableSQL.asp?TNum=200901070
Crosstable, U1800 Section: http://www.chess.ca/xtableSQL.asp?TNum=200901069
Some photos:
http://www.wcjc.blogspot.com/
and Click
here for online slideshow.
Thanks to Stephen Wright for the article and Luc Poitras
+ Lester Yee for the great photos!
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Jill Ding Interview (Jan. 15, 2009)
Just before the Victoria City Junior Championships the
subsequent winner of the Grade 4-7 Section, Jill Ding,
was interviewed on Victoria Channel 'A' TV's morning show:
http://victoriajuniorchess.pbwiki.com/
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BCCF Bulletin
#155 by Stephen Wright (Jan. 7, 2009) Robert Topic
and Von Sarac; 1st Diamond Jubilee Open
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Sprott-Shaw December Open and Junior Tournament
The December Open was a big hit amongst old and young
alike, with a good mix of Juniors and Adults. There were
26 competitors in the Open Section about 15 Juniors and
11 Adults. The field was much stronger than the October
Open-- there were 6 players with ratings over 2000. I
think word has gotten out that this is great place for
a two day event and very well run too. .
Congratulations go to the following.
First place went to Romanian born Radu-Laurentiu Roua
(2007 and 2008 Oregon State Champion). Radu loves to coach
juniors in his hometown of Portland. http://chessvision.net/coaches
Second Place went to Vicente Lee jr (winner of this years
leap year open).
3rd place was a three way tie amongst Kirk Gornall, Joe
Soliven and Jofrel Landingin.
The top Juniors were Tanraj S Sohal, Jack Cheng and Yifei
Han with 3.0 points out a possible 5.0
And now a few word from Ken Jensen, "We received
some heartwarming compliments from the adult players.
Many were pleased to play with kids and impressed by the
skill displayed.One said he was inspired by the fact that
he was helping develop our young talent. The adults seemed
to like the comfort and convenience features of the event.".
Ken also announced that there was a new National Junior
Team training program starting in January and to contact
him if you are interested.
In the U1500 division the ever improving Anderson Yee
(member Golden Knights) placed first with 3.0 out of a
possible 3.0. Second went to David Hou with 2.0 out of
3.0-- pretty good for his 4th tournament. And third went
to Matthew Herdin also improving over his performance
at his last tournament.
In the U1200 Division, First went to Humphrey Shao 5.0
out of 5.0. This kid's chess is improving at an amazing
rate I know because I played him several times in last
3 months. Second went to Evan McFee 4.0 out of 5.0 probably
got this good at the Golden Knights. Third went to Ivo
Wright with 3.5 out of 5.0. Ivo gets his practice in at
the UBC Thursday Nights.
In the U800 section Mark Liu and Andy Qian tied for First
(both Golden Knights members). In second place was
Jon Lattimer. And in third place was Ross Drew.
Thanks for coming out everyone, especially the parents
and volunteers! See you again in January at the K-12 Scholastic
Open.
-- Thanks to Lester Yee for the report!
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BCCF Bulletin
#154 by Stephen Wright (Dec. 10, 2008) Bob Wade; 2008
Canadian Chess Player of the Year
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BCCF Bulletin
#153 by Stephen Wright (Nov. 20, 2008) BCCF
MEMBERSHIP RESTRUCTURING
[N.B. the following only applies to the BCCF portion
of the membership fee, currently $12 for an adult. The
CFC portion, $36 for an adult player, remains unchanged
- ed.]
The BCCF has decided to change its membership structure.
As of Jan. 1, 2009, the BCCF will no longer charge an
annual membership. In its place, the BCCF will charge
a per player, per event fee for BCCF sanctioned events.
This fee will be $2 per player for 1 day events, $4 per
player for multiple day events, and $0 for exclusively
junior events. For CFC rated events, the fees will be
submitted to the CFC by the tournament organizer / TD,
which will in turn submit them to the BCCF. To the extent
that the CFC remits a portion of CFC tournament membership
fees to the BCCF, organizers will be credited with that
amount against the required per player BCCF fees. At time
of writing, the CFC has a motion in place that starting
Jan. 1 no amount of tournament membership fees will go
to the BCCF although we understand that that motion may
be rescinded or altered.
Members of the BCCF will be those who, in the preceding
12 months, have played in, directed, or TD?d an event
for which the fees have been paid. BCCF life memberships
will be no longer sold. Existing BCCF life memberships
will be honored by being exempt from the above fees. A
list of BCCF members is posted on the BCCF website.
Existing annual BCCF memberships will also be honored
through exemption of the above fees for the transition
period Jan.1 2009 to Jan. 1 2010.
The BCCF is undertaking these changes to a) lessen the
fees charged for first time and occasional players, b)
to account for CFC life members who are not presently
paying BCCF dues, c) to ensure that players using CFC
tournament memberships contribute to the BCCF, and d)
generally to ensure that those active in the BCCF community
are BCCF members. The amount of the fees has been set
to generate approximately the same amount of revenue that
the BCCF raised previously from memberships.
If you have questions /comments about this change or
how your tournament is affected by this change, you can
contact the BCCF president, Roger Patterson, at bccf.president@gmail.com.
The full text of the resolution passed by the executive
is posted at the BCCF website: http://www.chess.bc.ca/membership.shtml
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BC Junior Championhips (Nov. 8-9, 2008)
Booster Section (5 Round Swiss - Saturday Nov 8,
2008) - By Victoria Doknjas
While the BC Junior Championships are still underway
(final round on Nov 9/08), the Booster Section attracted
23 young players. Even though three of the players were
unrated and just starting out in tournament chess competition,
there were also some young "veterans" on hand.
Like Edwin Jingzhi Xu (the 2008 Grade 1 Provincial Champion),
who tied for first place with Humphrey Shao. Both Edwin
and Humphrey went undefeated with 4.5 out of 5.0 pts.
Michael Gao (2nd place) and Sumin Moon (third place) also
had a strong tournament finishing with 4.0 out of 5.0 pts.
All players were well behaved and very "professional",
playing with chess clocks (time control 30 mins, no increment).
Many players also notated their games (which is no small
feat, especially for the very young players in Kindergarten
and Grade 1).
Congratulations to all the Booster section players and to
their parents!
Championship and Reserve Sections (Sat Nov 8 - Sun
Nov 9, 2008) - By Lester Yee
Another BC Junior Championship is in the books and Tanraj
Sohal is the 2008 BC Junior Champion! Congratulations!
Tanraj was the top finisher from a field of 15 of the best
junior chess players in BC. His final score was 4.5 out
of a possible 5.0 points drawing with Jack Cheng-- the second
place finisher-- in the final round. Tied for second place
went to Alexandra Botez who like Jack ended the tournament
with 3.5 out of a possible 5.0 points. Henry Ji and Ryan
Lo were the Top U1700 finishers, both with 3.0 points. Henry,
as you may recall drew with Nakamura, and Kudos to Ryan
for over-achieving as the underdog who was promoted from
the reserve section.
In the Reserve Section (rating range 1000-1499) there were
16 competitors. Jonah Lee took first place with a very impressive
perfect score of 5 out of 5! Congratulations! The win is
a good demonstration of his competitive spirit because Jonah
was also fighting a cold on both days of competition. Second
place went to Jeremy Hui with 4.0 out of 5 points, his only
loss was to Jonah in Round 4. Third place went to Anderson
Yee with 3.5 out of 5 points- not bad for a rookie! The
top U1200 players in the Reserve Section were Marko Mitrovic,
Jill Ding and Iain Ang all with 3.0 points, and thanks to
Jill and Hao Tian Geng for coming all the way from Victoria.
Standings can be found here.
--- Thanks Victoria and Lester for your reports
and Neena for the picture.
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BCCF Bulletin
#152 by Stephen Wright (Nov. 2, 2008) 2008 World Youth
Chess Championships
This year's WYCC took place in Vung Tau, Vietnam from
October 19 to 30. Twenty-four Canadians participated,
including three from B.C. - Jonah Lee (U8), Chang He Li,
and Tanraj Sohal (both U12). The Canadian team had
one of its best results ever, placing three players in
the top ten in their respective age categories: Kelly
Wang (U08 girls), Eric Hansen (U16), and our own Jonah
Lee. Jonah's score of 7.5/11 equals the previous
two best scores by B.C. players in this competition,
achieved by Janak Awatramani last year and Andrew Ho in
1995. Our other participants Chang He Li and Tanraj
Sohal also had good results, scoring 6.0 and 6.5 respectively,
largely against FIDE-rated competition.
For the first time (as far as I am aware ) the tournament
also had a team component, based on the combined scores
of a country's best three results in a given section.
Canada won a silver medal in the U16 Section, courtesy
of Eric Hansen (8.0), Lloyd Mai (6.0), and Alexander Martchenko
(5.5) - their total might have been even higher had
Hansen not been paired against Martchenko and Mai in the
first two rounds. Congratulations to the entire
Canadian team who represented us so well!
Official
website (all games available in PGN)
Canadian
results
Jonah's
blog
All games
by B.C. players
-
BCCF Bulletin
#151 by Stephen Wright (Oct. 19, 2008) 2008 World
Championship Match - Anand vs Kramnik
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BC Women's Championship (Oct. 12-13, 2008)
Place: Vancouver Bridge Centre, 2776 East Broadway (at
Kaslo), Vancouver.
TDs and Organizers: Lynn Stringer and Stephen Wright
Participants: WCM Alexandra Botez, Anca Datcu-Romano,
Victoria Jung-Doknjas, Joanne Foote
After several years of absence, Lynn Stringer and Stephen
Wright revived the previously annual BC Women Championship
over the Thanksgiving long weekend.
The tournament was a round robin and even though all the
games were "hotly contested", there couldn't
have been a better exhibition of great sportsmanship and
goodwill among all the participants, especially from the
two younger ones, Joanne and Alexandra. Appropriately,
on the last day, the two highest rated players, Alexandra
and Anca, both with 2 wins each at the time, played for
the Championship title.
Congratulations to Alexandra Botez, the 2008 BC Women
Champion!
Congratulations also to Anca and Joanne, who were delightfully
fierce competitors and who also had a fine tournament.
Thanks to Lynn and Stephen for organizing and TD-ing this
event.
Also, to Andrei Botez for providing and presenting all
the participants with a lovely, framed group photo keepsake.
Finally, thanks to all the participants and their parents.
The young women who will carry forward women's chess,
Alexandra and Joanne, are both champions at the board
and off the board because of their great sportsmanship,
great integrity, and great fighting spirit!
-- Special Thanks to Victoria Doknjas for the great report!
-
Sprott Shaw October Junior and Open Events (Oct. 4-5,
2008)
The chess season was initiated by an army of supportive
parents who organized and ran the Sprott Shaw October
Junior tournament in addition to the new two-day Open
event that is catered to both juniors and adults. Many
thanks go out to all the parents that helped out and special
thanks go out to Wolfram Herdin for organizing the volunteers
and Lara and Michael Lo for managing registration. Thanks
to all the parents who have stepped up to help out TD,
manage the awards/concession and to those parents that
came early and stayed late to setup and cleanup the site
after the event.
Summary of results is as follows:
U800 Michael Gao (5 points - 1st), Hasara Samayawardhena
(4 points - 2nd), Jason Chang (3 points - 3rd), Alan Xui
(3 points)
U1200 Justin C. Wong (5 points - 1st),
Raaj Chatterjee (4 points - 2nd), Angie Dong (3.5 points
- 3rd)
U1500 Jeff Anthony De Guzman (3 points
- 1st), Jeremy Hui (2 points - 2nd), Anderson Yee (2 points
- 3rd), Hector Rathburn-mackay (2 points)
Final
Standings for the Junior Event.
Open (Adult/Junior) Jofrel Landingin
(4 points - 1st), Louis Cheng and Henry Ji (3.5 points
- tied for 2nd), Tanraj Sohal, Moise Herringer, Dylan
Parker, and Jacob Lim (3 points - tied for 3rd)
Final
Standings for the Open Event. Photos are
coming.
-
BCCF Bulletin
#150 by Stephen Wright (September 24, 2008) BC Championship.
-
BC Juniors won class prizes at 3rd Langley Labour Day
Open (Sept. 2, 2008)
BC Champion Brian McLaren took the Labour Day Open Champion
title this year. Sixteen juniors joined this 40-player
annual event. Juniors winning class prizes are Yiming
Han (Class A), Henry Ji and Alex Sabaratnam (Class C)
and Ryan Lo (Class D). Thanks to Victoria Doknjas for
this
report. Standings can be found here.
-
BC Juniors won medals at Quebec City, CYCC 2008 (July
28, 2008)
More than 20 players joined this annual national competition.
Receiving silver medals are Jonah Lee (U8 Boys) and Changhe
Li (U12 Boys). Three players who won bronze are Jack Cheng
(U14 boys), Tanraj Sohal (U12 Boys) and Tse Ning Cheung
(U14 Girs). Final standings here.
These medal winners are also qualified to play in the
World Youth Chess Championship in Vietnam. Deadline to
commit Aug. 12th, 2008. A blog
has been created for the members of the official team
that will represent Canada. Please feel free to post,
exchange ideas, ask questions, provide information, and
keep up to date.
-
BC Juniors won top prizes at 33rd Keres Memorial (May
19, 2008)
Eighteen juniors joined this 79-player event, organized
and directed by Stephen Wright with assistance from Katherine
Davies and Lyle Craver. In Open section, FM Bindi Cheng
tied first with IM George Orlov with 5.5/7.0. Changhe
Li won U2000 section with 5.5/6.0 and Alexandra Botez
tied for second with 4.5. Jacob Jensen won U1700 prize
with 4.0. In U1600 section, Henry Ji won the first prize
with 5.0/6.0. Dylan Parker and John Doknjas tied for third
with 4.0. Hector Rathburn-Mackay won U1300 prize with
3.5. Please see Final
standings, and games in PGN download
here.
-
Canadian Chess Challenge in Edmonton, Alberta (May 19,
2008)
Twelve BC top players (one per grade) joined this national
event and 4 of them won trophies (a
team photo). Overall Team BC placed third,
after Ontario and Quebec. Continuing a multi-year success,
Janak Awatramani (grade 3) and Tanraj Sohal (grade 6)
won championships with perfect scores of 9.0/9.0. Other
BC's trophy winners are Jonah Lee (grade 2) second place,
and Yifei Han (grade 7) third place. Follow these links
for overall
team results and BC's individual
results. Thanks to Gyan for these
nice photos, capturing the spirit of the
event.
-
GM Nakamura Simul: 35 wins and 2 draws (May 10, 2008)
Although the organizers had little time to prepare and
promote this junior chess fund raising event, this 37-board
simul was a success. In the end, GM Nakamura, often moved
with an amazing speed, defeated 35 challengers and only
conceded two draws to Len Molden and junior Henry Ji.
Thanks to GM Nakamura for his support of BC junior chess,
and Junior Coordinator Ken Jensen and Richmond Chess Club
organizer Norm Conrad for organizing the event, Kirsten
Schrader of Richmond Culture Centre for securing the site
with a short notice, parent volunteers Lara, Wolfram and
the chess club members for helping out during this exciting
evening. GM Nakamura's bio with interesting links here.
A photo album here
thanks to Marina for some of the photos. Some of the games
were broadcasted live and will be available soon.
-
BCCF Bulletin
#142 by Stephen Wright (April 30, 2008) 2008 BC-WA
Intermat
-
BC Youth Chess Championship Results (April 27, 2008)
More than 70 young players joined the last provincial
level junior event of the season. After two days intense
competition, the BCYCC 2008 champions for each age group
are: Maggie Macinnis (U8 Girls), Jonah Lee (U8 Boys),
Leah Lifton and Ola Kubiak (U10 Girls, co-champion), Janak
Awatramani (U10 Boys), Joanne Foote (U12 Girls), Tanraj
Sohal (U12 Boys), Tse Ning Cheung (U14 Girls), Jack Cheng
(U14 Boys), Richard Huang (U16 Boys) and Bindi Cheng (U18
Boys). The success of the event is only possible because
of hard work and dedication of many volunteers, in particular,
BC Junior Chess Coordinator Ken Jensen as organizer, Eugen
Demian and Luc Poitras as tournament directors, Glen,
Wolfram, Lara and many parent volunteers who helped in
any way they can. See the photo
album and
final standings.
-
BC Team won 2008 Intermat with a Wide Margin (April
20, 2008)
This annual friendly international team match between
the Province of BC and the State of Washington took place
on April 19 at Sprott-Shaw
Community College, New Westminster (BC), thanks to
Ken Jensen and Glen Lee of K-12 Chess Association, the
host of this year's match. Also, thanks to Elliot Neff
for coordinating WA team and acting as team captain. Stephen
Wright is the tournament director. BC players did well
in both rounds (15-11 in the morning playing white and
17-9 in the afternoon playing black), winning this
trophy back with 32-20. Although Washington's
lower grade players performed very well, 10 out of the
total 20 points were from grade K-2. BC's higher grade
players determined the final outcome by winning grade
3, drawing grade 4 and winning grade 5-12. Individual
results here,
and a photo album here.
Thanks to Vince Tsang, BC's team photographer, who provided
an album with photos
of every member of the BC team. WA players
photo album linked here,
thanks to Vince and Todd (WA) (See 2006
results, photos
and a
video clip).
-
Juniors at Victoria Chess Festival (March 25, 2008)
Grand Pacific Scholastic Winners: Iain Ang (4.5/5.0)
in K-3
section (results) , Yiming Han (4.5) 4-7
section and Dylan Parker (5.0) 8-12
section. Grand Pacific Open (36 out of 83
players are juniors): FM Bindi Cheng won the event with
a perfect score (6.0/6.0). Jack Cheng, Jingzhou (Peter)
Lai and Tanraj Sohal shared U2000 prizes with 4.0/6.0.
Joshua Renaud (3.5), Jeremy Hui and Malcolm Bowles (3.0)
won U1600 prizes. Justin Wong, Alejandro Torres Lopez
(2.5) and Daniel Lee (2.0) won U1200 trophies. See this
page for detailed results. And 200 photos!
Also, watch Josh Doknjas being
inteviewed by Victoria TV Channel A (Warning:
Windows Media Player needed for Windows / Mac users).
-
K-12 BC Chess Challeng Finals (March 9, 2008)
More than 200 qualifed players, some of them coming
from BC's far away places, joined this well organized
annual event. Here is a pre-tournament newspaper
article. The 2008 BC Chess Challenge grade
champions are: Joshua Doknjas (Kindergarten), Jingzhi
Xu (grade 1), Jonah Lee (2), Janak Awatramani (3), Jeremy
Hui (4), Frank Cheng (5), Tanraj Sohal (6), Yifei Han
(7), Joshua Renaud (8), Richard Huang (9), Elliot Raymer
(10), Tedging Pan (11) and Bindi Cheng (12). The success
of the event should be credted to organizer Ken Jensen,
Glen Lee and their families, chief TD Eugen Demian and
many parent voluenteers. Selina and Vince provided the
photos
of K-5 players. The trophy winners and standings here.
-
Leap Year Open Results (March 3, 2008)
Thanks to Stephen Wright for organizing and directing
this event of two-section, 36 players. IM Vicente Lee
won the open section wtih 4.5/5.0. Junior player Changhe
Li tied for 4th with 3.5/5.0. In U1600 section two junniors
Frank Cheng and Hector Rathburn-Mackay tied for first
with 4.5/5.0. Standings here
and games online.
-
GMs Seirawan and Suttles Junior Simul on March 15 (Feb.
20, 2008)
More details available regarding this rare and exciting
event. Please see details
and sign up ASAP to reserve your seat (Only
first 25 seats are guaranteed).
-
Vancouver and Fraser Valley Regional Results and Photos
(Feb. 19, 2008)
Thanks to organizer Ken Jensen, TDs Andrei Botez, Eugen
Demian and teams of dedicated parent volunteers, both
events went well. Congratulations to players who made
their best effort and those qualified for BC K-12 Provincial
Chess Championship. You can find standings on the result
page. Online
registration is now open to all qualified
players. This March 8 event will be held at BCIT. Details
on the event
page. Thanks to Vince for the photos of K-4
and 5-12
at Vancouver Reigional. Photos of Fraser Valley Regional
linked here.
-
Vancouver Elementary Team Tournament (Feb. 2, 2008)
About 80 chess players of elementary schools joined
this event of 17 teams. St. George's School won the team
tournament in both Division A and B. Thanks to Luc Poitras,
the organizer and TD, Toni Deline as assistant TD and
Janet England as a helper, and the support of St.
John's School (Mr. Sukhbir Bolina and many
St. John's staff and students made this event a success).
In Division B, St. George's team B won the competition
with a wide margin, 18/20, followed by Osler (13.5) and
Chartwell B (11.0). A much tighter race took place in
Division A. Going into the last round, St. George's A
was only one point ahead of Chartwell A (11.5 vs. 10.5).
Chartwell A needed to win 4-0 against Seaforth to tie
or overtake St. George's A, who was against Westcot. Both
teams played well with a 3-1 victory, but not the margin
Chartwell had hoped for. Final result: St. George's A
won the Division A with 14.5, followed by Chartwell A
(13.5) and Vancouver Christian A (12.0). Although not
winning a team trophy, many players had good individual
results and made great contributions to their teams: e.g.
Jack Cheng of St. John's, Jeremy Hui of Seaforth and Hector
Rathburn-Mackay of L`École Bilingue. Detailed results
here,
standings
and a photo album here.
-
Sprott-Shaw Scholastic Open (Jan. 29, 2008)
More than 40 young players joined this K-12 event, which
was divided into 3 sections. Final standings here
thangs to TD and organizer Ken Jensen.
-
Vancouver Regional and Fraser Valley Regional Details
Announced (Jan. 27, 2008)
All K-12 players and their parents should be aware that
these two events are "pre-registration
only (click)" events. There will be
no on-site registration. Pairing will be done 24 hours
before the tournament starting time. Please follow
the event page and sign up now. Also, you
may want to bring this notice (for
Vancovuer shools and Fraser
Valley schools) to your school principal
or chess club coach to get your school team ready.
-
January Junior Open: a New Start with a Bang (Jan. 21,
2008)
Fifty-two players joined this first junior event of
2008, and many of them are new players. In beginner section,
a new arrival, grade 3 player George Gu from Shanghai,
took the first place trophy with a perfect score (5.0).
Jeremy Hui won the intermediate section (4.5/5.0), and
Jacob Jensen won the advanced section, also with a perfect
score (3.0/3.0). Fierce competions took place in the open
section. Twin brothers Yiming Han, Yifei Han and Foster
Tom tied for first with 2.0/3.0. Yiming won the first
prize by tie break. Full standings here.
A nice photo collection
is provided by Vince Tsang. In additon to the effort of
organizer Ken Jensen and his whole family, the success
of the event is also due to parent voluenters, such as
Vince, Felix, Wolfram and others. Next event this Sunday
(Jan. 27), a K-12
event by grade. Maybe it is time to get a
trophy to show you are on top of your grade. Please sign
up online
ASAP.
-
Junior Player Rating Lists Updated (Jan. 17, 2008)
Thanks to Bob Gillanders (new CFC Executive Director)
and CFC staff, now the CFC rating database is updated
weekly. Last weekend's Vancouver Open (news below) has
been rated. Also, as January 1, 2008, BC's top U10 players
of last year, Jingzhou (Peter) Lai, Donovan Zhao and Alex
Sabaratnam have moved into U12 age group. See updated
BC U18 and Canada U10 player rating list here.
-
Vancouver January Open (Jan. 13, 2008)
Thanks to the organizer and TD Stephen Wright, thirty-three
players joined this first CFC rated event in BC for 2008.
Sharing the first and second prizes are Bindi Cheng, Lucas
Davies and Pavel Trochtchanovitch (4.0/5.0). Changhe Li
and Jack Cheng shared the U1900 prize. In Reserve section:
first - Shahrouz Khoraman, second - Frank Cheng . See
final
standings and games.
Stephen will organize Leap
Year Open at the end of Febuary. Please sign
up now by sending him an e-mail.
-
Web Site Statistics (2006-2007) (Jan. 4, 2008)
In the last 24 months, juniorchess.ca (this web site)
has been visited by 30,620 visitors from 128 countries,
mainly Canada (46%) and USA (29%) with a total pageviews
of 171,400 times. The most popular pages are "BC
Junior News" (16,568), followed by "Junior Chess"
(16,567), "Events" (13,573), "BC Players"
(11,001) and "Washington Player Search Page"
(8,638). Details here.
-
Fritz 11 Available from Local Supplier ChessFirst
(Dec. 12, 2007)
You can take chess lessons and read books to improve
your chess skills. However, a good computer chess program
can help you go farther. Fritz is such a program. What's
new in Fritz 11? A new training function for Fritz 11
is calculation training. Contact Vas
(a photo)
to order your copy.
-
St. George's Junior Open (Dec. 9, 2007)
Despite the cold weather, twenty-six youngsters spent
this wintery Sunday playing chess, thanks to St.
George's Junior School and Luc Poitras, the
organizer and TD. Many members of St. George's chess club
joind the tournament. A few of the players played their
first tournament games. The sections are divided by grades,
except for secton A (open). Winners (top 3 in each section)
recieved medals, chess books and special chess sets as
prizes. The first place winners for sections A, B, C and
D are: Donovan Zhao (3.5/4.0), Daniel Lee (4.5/5.0), West
Tomalden (3.0/4.0) and Jiwhan Moon (4.5/5.0). Two first-graders
Alex Tsang and Maggie Macinnis placed third and fourth
in section D. Full results and photos can be found here.
The success of the event was also due to the help from
volunteers, such as Pierrette Savard (registration) and
James Chan (assistant TD), who is also running the free
junior
chess club at Vancouver Central Library (downtown).
-
Sprott-Shaw December Junior Open (Dec. 2, 2007)
Twenty-four brave young souls ignored the snow storm
and ventured out to play. Jack Qian scored a perfect 5.0
to win the Beginners section. An impressive new face Nathaniel
Knox took second a point behind. Alex Tsang and Maggie
MacInnis tied for third with Alex winning the tie breaker.
The intermediate section had close competition with Kyle
Zheng coming out on top half a point ahead of Algerd Karavai,
who in turn was half a point ahead of Jeremy Hui. Tanraj
Sohal won the Open section, ahead of Foster Tom and Alex
Sabaratnam. Full standings here
thanks to organizer Ken Jensen.
-
Results of Team Canada at WYCC 2007 (Nov. 29, 2007)
Twenty-five
young Canadian players (up from 12 players last year)
joined The
World Youth Chess Championship in Antalya,
Turkey from November 17 to 29. IM
Yan Teplitsky is the team coach and captain. Ninety-one
federations and 1436 players are competing with the world's
best (including 143 titled players). BC juniors Janak
Awatramani, John Doknjas (U8 Boys), Jingzhou (Peter) Lai
and Donovan Zhao (U10 Boys) are members of the Canadian
team. After the final (11th) round, Janak scored 7.5,
highest scorer in the team, John 5.0, Peter 6.0 and Donovan
5.5. This
page shows details of Canadian players' performance
and their opponets' info. Thirteen players have scored
5.5 (50%) or higher. You can read Jonathan
Berry's article of The Globe and Mail. A
slide show is available.WYCC
2008 has been awarded to Vietnam, 2009 to Turkey (same
tournament site!) and 2010 to Greece according to FIDE's
78th Congress' press release. Results of WYCC 2005 here
and 2006 here.
-
BC Junior Championship (Nov. 12, 2007)
FM Bindi Cheng successfully defended his title with
a perfect score (5.0/5.0). Taranj Sohal, Changhe Li and
Foster Tom tied for second in the championship section
with 3.5/5.0. In the Reserves Jacob Jensen and Dylan Parker
tied for first and the third place prize was shared by
John Doknjas, Frank Cheng and Trevor Passey. The final
standings here
and a photo album linked here.
-
Bindi Cheng's Simul at University
of BC (Nov. 9, 2007)
In the afternoon of November 9, 2007 (a usual Friday
club time), members of the
UBC Chess Club received a special treat:
a simul exhibition against FIDE Master Bindi Cheng. Thanks
to Bindi and the club president Julian Doczi, the event
was free to all club members.
UBC Chess Club is one of the most active university chess
clubs in Canada. It has more than 70 members. WFM Amy
Wang and former BC junior champion Andrey Kostin are members
of the club. The members are mainly undergraduate and
graduate students of UBC. However, players from nearby
communities are welcome to join for a fee of $5 per year.
Barely recovered from recent illness, Bindi wanted the
simul to go ahead, rather than re-schedule at another
time.
About 20 players joined the event, and some of them
were surprised to find out that this FIDE master is only
17 years old, younger than almost all of them. Some were
interested to know if Bindi has any IM norm (one) and
in which tournament the norm was achieved (Canadian Open
2007). To let the players fully enjoy the event, passes
were allowed and players who lost quickly were allowed
to start another game. The simul lasted about 2 hours.
At the end, Bindi won all the games. You can replay one
of the games, Bindi
Cheng against Jingzhou (Peter) Lai, one
of the grade 5 players of the club. A photo album here.
-
Sprott-Shaw November Junior Open (Nov. 8, 2007)
Forty-two players joined this 4-section event. This
is also a BC Championship Qualifier event, as the winner
of U1500 section will be seeded to play in BC Junior's
Championship section. Jakab Tardos is the winner (3.0/3.0)!
In Open section (4-player quad) Peter Lai won with a perfect
score. New tournament player Matthew Cheah won U1200 section
and Ryan Lo won the beginner (U800) section. The standings
can be found here.
The success of this event should be credited to everyone
involved. The organizer is Ken Jensen, TDs are Bindi Cheng,
Wolfram
Herdin and Gord Passey. Many parent volunteers
helped in anyway they can. Next Junior
Open December 2, 2007.
-
Island Junior Open #3 (Nov. 6, 2007)
Last Sunday on the beautiful University of Victoria
campus (Victoria, BC), twenty-eight players joined the
third Island Junior Open in three sections, including
a few first time tournament players. In novice section,
Matthias So took the first place medal with a perfect
score (5.0/5.0). Six years old Jack Levelt played his
first tournament and achieved 2.5/5.0. Winner of Intermediate
section was Kieran Atkinson with another perfect score.
Sam Churchill and Elliot Raymer tied for first in the
Advanced section with 4.0/5.0. The standings of all Island
Junior Open can be found here.
The event was organized by
Victoria Junior Chess Society. Many people
volunteered their time and effort: organizers Brian Raymer,
Leah Shaw, Pierre Renaud and tournament directors Howard
Wu, Perry Ruiter and Bill Liu. Malcolm Bowles and Miranda
Meijer were helpers of the event among many others. Also
thanks to the generous support of University
of Victoria for the great tournament site.
Next Island Junior Open is on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008. Full
Victoria Junior Chess Society tournament schedule here.
-
Grand Pacific Open and Victoria Chess Festival Announced
(Oct. 29, 2007)
Chess organizers in Victoria, BC (on the beautiful Vancouver
Island) announced the second Grand Pacific Open and Victoria
Chess Festival to be held from March 21 to March 24, 2008
(Easter long weekend) at Hotel
Grand Pacific with a special room rate of
$95/night. The main event of the Festival, the Grand Pacific
Open (GPO) will be a 6 round FIDE rated Swiss with a Guaranteed
Prize Fund of $2000! In addition, there will be a junior
tournament on March 21 and a Bughouse Tournament following
the GPO on Monday March 24. Please check the
event web site for details and updates. The
player
list has been posted and many
juniors have signed up already! If you missed this event
last year, here are the slide
show and final
standings. If you intend to join other chess
players from BC, Washington and other regions, please
send in the form at the end of this
flier and book the hotel ASAP.
-
North America Youth Chess Championship Results and Photos
(Oct. 16, 2007)
This year's NAYCC was held in Aguascalientes, Mexico,
October 5-7 with 182 players. Details at the
Official Web Site. BC's Alexandra Botez won U12 Girls
championship with 6.0/7.0. Other Canadian juniors also
had good results: Jonah Lee U8B 4th place (5.0), Jacob
Jensen U10B fourth place (5.0), Tanraj Sohal U12B 5th
place (4.5), Stefan Trandafir U16B 6th place (4.0) and
Justin MacDonald 8th place (3.5). You can replay some
of their games here
(thanks to Stephen Wright). Thanks to Andrei Botez for
the link of these
photos, showing all Canadian players at NAYCC. The
final scores and medal standings for each age/gender group
can be found in this official
bulletion.
-
Sprott-Shaw October Junior Open Results (Oct. 15, 2007)
Thanks to strong support from chess parents (setup,
registration, food ordering, concession and clean up,
too many names to list here), thirty-four junior players
of all levels enjoyed this Saturday event. Washiington
player Leanne Hwa (who won U11 section of BC All Girls
Open last month) won the beginner section with a perfect
socre (5/5). Jeff De Guzman won the intermediate section
on tie-break. Jacob Jensen took the first place trophy
in advanced section and Tanraj Sohal came first in the
open section. The event was organized by Ken Jensen. Eugen
Demian and Anca Dactu-Romano were tournament directors.
The final standings can be found here.
Photos to follow. Online registration has started for
next event.
-
BC Juniors to Receive FIDE Titles (Oct. 11, 2007)
Congratulations to Bindi Cheng and Alexandra Botez for
their achievement and receiving FIDE Master and Women
Candidate Master titles, respectively. Bindi had outstanding
performance during Canadian Open and Quebec Open in the
summer of 2007. According to the newly published FIDE
October rating list, Bindi's
rating gained 69 point to reach 2307 and
became BC's youngest FM. Alexandra Botez won gold medal
for U12 Girls in recent NAYCC. This not only qualifies
her for Pam American Games, but also a FIDE title of Women
Candidate Master (see the certificate
in Spanish).
-
More CYCC 2007 Games Online (Sept. 30, 2007)
Thanks to Hugh Brodie of CanBaseII
for compiling some of the games
of CYCC 2007 (now 590 games, including some of the
playoff games). There were 26 players from BC at Canadian
Youth Chess Championship, Ottawa, July 3-6. (news below).
-
BC Girls Open
Tournament (Sept. 29, 2007)
Thanks to BC Junior Coordinator Ken Jensen, TD Andrei
Botez and sponsor Sprott-Shaw Community College, the event
went smoothly. Alexandre Botez won Open/U13 section, Washington
player Leanne Hwa won U11 section and Leah Lifton won
U9 section. Congratulations to all. Standings
here, some photos here
and more to follow thanks to Andrei Botez.
-
Labour Day Open Games and Photos (Sept. 26, 2007)
Thanks to Lynn Stringer, Langley Labour Day Open games
and photos are available here.
-
BC Juniors at Seattle Fall
Open (Sept. 24, 2007)
Three BC juniors joined this 5 round swiss/two-section
event, organized and directed by Fred Kleist of the
Seattle Chess Club. In Open section Arik
Miner tied for first with Washington player Dereque Kelley
(4.0/5.0). In Reserve section (U1700) Donovan Zhao tied
for second (3.5/5.0). Thanks to Fred for organizing this
well run event and sending the results to USCF so quickly:
final
stanings.
-
BC Juniors Won Prizes at Langley Labour Day Open (Sept.
3, 2007)
IM Vicente Lee of Alberta won this year's Labour Day
Open with 5.5/6.0. The event was organized by Langley
Chess Club (Hugh Long) and directed by Lynn Stringer.
Junior players Bindi Cheng and Yiming Han shared the second
prize with 5.0. Forty-four players showed up at the event,
and 18 of them (41%) were juniors. Other juniors winning
class prizes include Arik Milner (U2000), Alexandra Botez
(U1800), Donovan Zhao, Alex Sabaratnam (U1600) and Joshua
Cruz (unrated). Lynn has provided final
standings.
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