Event Report: 8th Annual Grand Pacific Open
Easter, 2014
The organizers, Brian Raymer, Paul Leblanc, and Roger Patterson were pleased that we managed to break a new record for attendance: 123 players from across Canada, the US, as well as Mexico and Vietnam. The GPO has only failed to break record attendance twice and it is encouraging to think we can still grow! Not many weekend tournaments get attendees from such a wide geography - 6 provinces coast to coast, three US states, also coast to coast, and 4 countries.
Such an event does take a lot of people to be successful and we would like to thank all those who contributed, starting with our head TD Mark S. Dutton IA, IO, side event TDs Jill Ding and Elliot Raymer, and all those who volunteered for tournament set up, tear down, and other duties great and small. A number of people made financial contributions - you can find a list on our Sponsors page along with our corporate sponsors: the Hotel Grand Pacific, Goddess Chess, the Flying Otter, Sam's Deli & Bistro, and The Soda Shop. We again were lucky to have the services of Blue Giraffe Photography who documented the event with some very nice photography. You can check those photos out at his website.
The Grand Pacific Open is not just one event of course. Combined with the 6 round main event are the Victoria Youth Chess Championship, a four round Active event, Midnight Biltz, and Bughouse to round off the weekend. Apart from a modest fee for the Youth Championship, the side events are free to all (including people not in the main event). Results for these side events are at the end of this report.
The tournament hall (photo Blue Giraffe Photography)
The Premier Section of the main event drew 64 players, a very nice number for a chess tournament :-), particularly for a 6 round Swiss. The early rounds saw a number of the leading players, including Yoos, Sohal, and Rohonyan nicked for a half point in quasi upsets. By round four, only 3 perfect scores remained, Jonathan Berry, Peter Lessler, and the local Victoria favourite, Jason Cao. Cao and Berry drew while Lessler took out Yoos. In round five Cao drew Lessler and ultimatly after 6 rounds, Berry and Lessler both had 5.5./6, with Lesser taking the trophy on tiebreak (cumulative score) by virtue of having the fortune of drawing Cao one round later than Berry. Jason Cao wound up in clear third with 5 points. It was a pleasure to see Jonathan Berry back in action. He has been retired from tournament play for the last five years (last event was the 2009 GPO) and the break apparently hasn't hurt his play.
Our 2014 Champions
Jonathan Berry (2nd on tiebreak), Peter Lessler along with organizer Roger Patterson.
In the background are Paul Leblanc (organizer) & Mark Dutton (TD)
The U1800 group was won convincingly by Mathew Geng. Local players know that his pre-tournament rating of 1258 is way too low (his club rating is 1444) but still, this was a breakout performance for him. 2nd place finisher Kyle Zheng actually took the U1500 prize and was also low rated at 1399. The biggest upset also came from this section by Aaron Ananddji rated 730 with an upset difference of 651 points. The higher rated players had a hard time in this section. T
A special prize was announced at the tournament - $100 for the 'most beautiful game' split equally between the winner and loser courtesy of WGM Katerina Rohonyan. Submitted games from rounds 1 through 5 were judged by Katerina (with some interested spectators) and the winner was Daniel Sutherland:
Nathan Shao (1849) - Daniel Sutherland (1645)
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. dxe6 Bxe6 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Be2 Bc5 7. O-O O-O 8.
a3 Nd4 9. Nxd4 Qxd4 10. d3 Rfe8 11. Qc2 Bg4 12. Nc3 Rad8
White tries to solve his issues by giving up 2 rooks for the black queen but there is a counter shot.... The trapper trapped.
13. b4? Bxe2 14. Nxe2 Qxa1 15. Bb2 Bxf2! 16. Kxf2 Ng4 17. Kg3 Qxf1 18. Nf4 Nh6 19. Qd2 c6 20. h3 Qe1 0-1
Sponsors:
Prize Winners:
$5000 guaranteed. (actually, adds up to $5130 due to rounding up and extra prizes)
Premier section:
1st-2nd: Peter Lessler $925 + Trophy, Jonathan Berry $925 + qualification to BC Closed
3rd: Jason Cao $450
U2100 1st: Michael Murray $475 + Trophy
U2100 2nd-3rd: Robert North, Zachary Burrows $285
Top Women: 1st-2nd: Becca Lampman, Alice Xiao $75 each
Top Women: 3rd: WGM Katerina Rohonyan $60
Top Women: 4th: Rinna Yu $50
Top Women: 5th: Sangeeta Dhingra $40
Most beautiful game: Daniel Sutherland, Nathan Shao $50 each
U1800 Section:
1st: Mathew Geng $425 + Trophy
2nd-3rd: Robert Hamm, Elroy Deimert $165 each
U1500 1st: Kyle Zheng $350 + Trophy
U1500 2nd: Leo Qu
Top Women: Polly Wright $20
Top Unrated Hannan Lohrasbipeydeh $100
Biggest Upset Aaron Anandji $100
Games:
Photos:
Mark Dutton's Facebook Photo Album
Crosstable:
Side Event Reports:
Victoria YCC: Report to come
GPO Active Event:
The GPO active is a four round Swiss active event held concurrently with the YCC just before the main event. 8 players participated with Jose Kagaoan and Jofrel Landingin finishing on top with 3/4. Jose finished first on tiebreak and took home the medal.
left: Organizer Roger Patterson right: Active Winner Jose Kagaoan
Midnight Blitz:
The midnight blitz event was very popular this year with 40 players in the 5 double round event. A four way tie for first at 8/10 between Jack Yoos, Tanraj Sohal, Katerina Rohonyan, and Ozgur Tarim was worth $25. (Ozgur actually took the U1800 prize) The announced prize fund was increased by $25 to provide a U1500 prize won by Victor Zheng with 6/10.
Bughouse:
Team "Kings" and "The Brutal Bros" dominated the 9 team event with "The Kings" winning their individual encounter to take first place.
Blue Giraffe Photography has a folder of bughouse photos here:
The organizers & head TD prior to the award ceremony.
Left to right: Brian Raymer, Paul Leblanc, Mark S. Dutton IA, Roger Patterson
Organizers: Brian Raymer, Paul Leblanc, Roger Patterson
TD: Mark S. Dutton, IA
Contact us at: grandpacificopen@gmail.com
Previous Grand Pacific Opens