Short wins 2013 Canadian Open Championship

2013 Canadian Open Chess Championship

Report from Ottawa by John Upper

The 50th Canadian Open Chess Championship took place to Ottawa, from July 13-20, 2013. 178 players, including 12 GMs and 11 IMs, competed in a single-section, nine-round Swiss. GMs Nigel Short and Eric Hansen tied for first with 7.5/9, with Short taking the title on tie-break.

Going into the event, the favourite had to be GM Lazaro Bruzon of Cuba. Not only was he the top-rated player, he had just come from a very convincing victory at the Edmonton International with 8/9, where he had beaten two of his leading Canadian Open rivals: Nigel Short and Eric Hansen.

In the event, he was perhaps a bit unfortunate in his third-round pairing against fellow Cuban IM Rodney Oscar Perez Garcia, who held him to a draw. Bruzon fought back to tie for the lead after seven rounds, but draws in his last two games left him 1/2 point back of the winners. Here one of the key games:

Lazaro Bruzon prowls the Victoria Room venue

GM Ivan Sokolov (above right, playing Nigel Short in round six) made his first tournament appearance in Canada. While it would be silly to call a perennial 2600+ player with multiple tournament wins over Anand, Aronian, Topalov, Kortchnoi, Short, Shirov, and Carlsen, an “unknown quantity”, it is also true that most of Sokolov's tournaments are elite round-robins and not win-or-finish-out-of-the-prizes Swiss events. Then again, Sokolov has already proved he can excel in the win-or-die of a big money Swiss when he won the 2012 World Open in Philadelphia.

Sokolov turned in the result of a consummate tournament professional at the Canadian Open: winning his first five games to take the outright lead, before drawing his final four to cruise home in a tie for second place.

GM Eduardas Rozentalis (above), unlike Sokolov, is no stranger to Canada, having played many times in Ontario and Quebec, including twice tying for 1st at the Canadian Open (1995 in Toronto, 2008 in Montreal). This year he was not so successful, losing in round 6 on board 2 to Bruzon, and being held to draws by Canadian IM's Arthur Calugar, Raja Panjwani, and Ottawa Master Armando Valdizon.

GM Bator Sambuev first came to Canada for the 2007 Canadian Open in Ottawa (where he tied for second) and he hasn't left! Now a Canadian citizen living in Montreal with his wife and son, Bator is the defending Canadian Closed champion, and undisputed King of Canadian weekend Swiss tournaments, winning over 70 Canadian tournaments since he moved here. Bator didn't add to his total this week: losing to Iranian GM Elshan Moradiabadi and Canadian IM Arthur Calugar (a chess-scholarship student at UTD, who had an excellent tournament, drawing with Rozentalis and losing only to tournament winner Nigel Short).

GM Elshan Moradiabadi, Iran's #1 rated player, also made his tournament debut in Canada. In addition to giving private lessons to two lucky juniors, he gave a Monday morning lecture which combined the best of his GM and FIDE Trainer titles with his MBA studies: "How To Be Efficient in Your Tournaments or Play According to Your Core Competency."

In what was one of the best lectures I've attended, he compared Carlsen's strengths and weaknesses (not many) with Anand's, to reach what I thought was a persuasive and interesting conclusion: that Anand's strength at deep and sharp opening preparation is a perfect weapon against Carlsen's great strength at heuristic-guided manoeuvring.

GM Moradiabadi (above right, playing Eric Hansen in round six) contended all the way through, but finished out of the big-money after losses to the two winners.

Canada's #1 FIDE-rated player, and the defending Canadian Open champion, GM Eric Hansen did not disappoint, defeating GMs Vera and Moradiabadi, and drawing with Short and Sokolov. Friendly, if reserved, when not playing, Eric's intense concentration combined with his height and physical build might well make him an intimidating OTB opponent for many players. His strong showing this week not only earned him $4000 and a share of first place, it suggests he is coming into form as the World Cup approaches. Here one of his games at the Canadian Open:

GM Nigel Short tied for first and took the title on tie-break. Scoring 7.5/9 he conceded draws only to his closest rivals: Hansen, Sokolov and Bruzon.

Top final standings (after nine round)

• Results and standings of all 178 participants here

Despite the fact that he has to commute from Athens, Nigel's win could almost be described as a home-town victory, since (apart from GM Sambuev, who plays in Ottawa regularly) Nigel has played more chess in Ottawa than any of the other top players at the Canadian Open, including most of the Canadians. In addition to playing in the 2007 Canadian Open, Nigel has given simuls, lectures, and competed in a fund-raising event in Ottawa on three separate occasions. Most of the credit for this has to go to his super-host and sommelier, Gordon Ritchie. Thanks Gordon.

In 2007 Nigel came to the Canadian Open in Ottawa with his daughter Kyveli. That year he finished 1/2 point behind winner Bu Xiangzhi. This year, he was accompanied by his 14-year old son Nicholas, who also played in the Open. When both their round six games opened 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4 one might almost have suspected that Nigel had brought Nicholas as a second. In fact, Nicholas was playing in his first tournament.

Nicholas Short in a white t-shirt in the foreground of this panorama picture of the playing hall

Yes, his first. If you think having a world-famous Grandmaster father means the children will play chess, you just don't understand teenagers: Nicholas is getting into chess because his friends play, not because his dad does.

While we are at it, here's another scrollable panorama of the playing hall

The 2013 Canadian Open ended with one Short at the top of the crosstable, and another Short at the bottom. And this year there are a few players leaving Ottawa who can truthfully if a little disingenuously boast, “I played N. Short! He came all the way from Athens, and I won!”

Here a few additional game impressions from the 2013 Canadian Open:

Some video: Why Capablaca didn't play ...h6 - Sokolov-Hansen

GMs Ivan Sokolov (NED) and Eric Hansen (CAN) engaged in a 25-minute-long postmortem of their seventh-round game at the 2013 Canadian Open Chess Championship.

Hansen suffers for a long time in an Orthodox QGD, but will Ivan Sokolov be able to prove that Capablaca was right not to play ...h6.

More video reports: from rounds 3-6 and from rounds 7-9

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.