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Event_Report_2018

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Saved by roger patterson
on April 5, 2018 at 11:58:41 am

12th Annual Grand Pacific Open

Victoria 2018

The 12th annual Grand Pacific Open attracted 144 participants in 4 sections over the 2018 Easter weekend. That was enough for us to require overflow space for a few boards for some of the rounds. Players came from across BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba as well as Nevada, California and Washington. The 6 players from Saskatchewan makes the GPO one of the largest Saskatchewan tournament groups in any Canadian tournament including Canada :-) . I understand it was -20 degrees in Saskatchewan at Easter so it's understandable what the attractions are of Victoria's cherry blossoms are.....

IM Mark Ginsberg was one of the furthest traveled but also a favourite to win. Old timers might remember the "Corporation" of Ginsberg, Tisdall, and Fedorowicz travelling throughout the US and Canada to tournaments, splitting expenses and prize money. In any event, Ginsberg is the 2018 Grand Pacific Open Champion with a score of 5/6. The win looks like a smooth story of the favourite taking a few draws and a bunch of wins to sew things up but had the stars been differently aligned, IM Raymond Kaufman, who finished well down the placings, could have been the champion. Kaufman was leading the tournament after 4 rounds but hit a roadblock. In the critical game against Ginsberg, he had an edge and Ginsberg either sacked a pawn or perhaps just lost it (hard to tell) leaving him with a comfortable plus until inattention to his back rank problems reversed the advantage. I didn't see the finish of the game but judging by Kaufman's score sheet, he was playing on increment for the last 20 moves or so. The final position, while probably lost, is not resignable so was probably lost on time. Kaufman's final game against WIM Agnieszka Matras-Clement was a mess with Matras-Clement offering a speculative piece sac in which Kaufman was not worse. But again, it didn't go his way. [and there should be a prize for figuring out the moves of that game from the largely illegible score sheet for the pgn file.]

Four players finished tied for second a half point behind Ginsburg - two of the strong Alberta contingent FM Ian Findlay, WIM Agnieszka Matras-Clement, Vancouver junior Andrew Hemstapat, and local Victoria resident Zulfikar Sali

PGN file

Prize Winners: ($5140 in prizes)

Premier Section:

1st: IM Mark Ginsberg $1000 + trophy

2nd-5th: FM Ian Findlay, Andrew Hemstapat, WIM Agnieska Matras-Clement, Zulfikar Sali; $250 each.

U2100: Louis Cheng (trophy), Naomi Bashkansky, Mike Murray $270 each

Top Women (Courtesy of Goddess Chess): WIM Agnieszka Matras-Clement $125, NM Valeria Gansvind $100, WIM Naomi Bashkansky, Anna Van (U2000 section) $50, Kate Jiang (U1700 section) $25.

U2000 Section:

1st-2nd: Jason Williamson (trophy), Ryan Leong (U1800 trophy) $350 each.

U1800 1st: Reza Sardari $225, 2nd-3rd: Lucian Wu, Victor Zhang $75 each.

U1700 Section:

1st-2nd: David Crook (trophy), Kent Cronin $175 each.

U1400: 1st: Haibo Sun $125+trophy, 2nd-3rd: Kate Jiang, Ivan Nicolici $40 each.

U1200 Section:

1st-5th: Barna Amjadi (Trophy), Amanda Yang (U900 Trophy), Pepi Eirew, Elaine Fan, Marc Moisan $35 each.

Top Unrated (any section): Suhao Hu.

Biggest Upset (478 points) Eric Jiang $50.

Organizers: Victoria Chess (Brian Raymer, Paul Leblanc, Roger Patterson.

TDs: NA Elliot Raymer, Marc Moisan (bughouse)