Canadian Open Chess Championship, Edmonton 2005
Report by Adrien Regimbald, Co-organizer
The excitement has been building for a long time now, and the Canadian Open
Chess Championship 2005 is exceeding everyone’s expectations. It’s
not very often that we get to see the world’s top players in Canadian
tournaments, and now we have three Super GMs right here in Edmonton, Alberta.
With all these chess superstars playing in the tournament, it’s no surprise
that a large number of chess players have descended on Edmonton to get a piece
of the action. In total, 215 players are playing in the tournament, and this
is an exceptional number for a Canadian Open in Western Canada.
Top three boards at the start of round one
The three most famous players participating in the tournament are Super GMs
Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov and Viktor Bologan. Joining these elite players
are GMs Alexander Moiseenko, Alexander Shabalov, Igor-Alexandre Nataf, Mark
Bluvshtein and Dmitri Tyomkin, as well as IMs Pascal Charbonneau (current Canadian
Closed Champion), Irina Krush, Michael Mulyar, Thomas Roussel-Roozmon and Eric
Lawson. To top it all off, the Indian national teams are also playing in the
tournament. The men’s team consists of GMs SS Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte
and Sandipan Chanda as well as IMs S. Kidambi, MR Venkatesh and SR Chowdhury.
The women's team includes WGMs Nisha Mohota and Swathi Ghate and WIMs Bhagyshree
Thipsay and Anupama Gokhale.
Young guns: IM Charbonneau, IM Krush, GM Bluvshtein
On the first day of the tournament, everyone was treated to an interesting
lecture by Alexei Shirov. Everyone associates Shirov with exciting and tactical
play, but the subject of this lecture was of a more quiet nature. It centered
around quiet positions and how it is often still possible to break through.
Shirov’s lecture was interspersed with humour and anecdotes, and was
a real crowd pleaser for the 100 or so people who attended.
"Fire-on-the-board" Alexei Shirov lectures on "quiet positions"
The Canadian Open is a 10 round open swiss event, running over 10 days at
the Delta Centre Suites Hotel. So far two rounds have been completed and there
have been no upsets on the top boards as of yet. Over the next few rounds,
we should start to see some major tilts on the top boards. There will be plenty
of side events to keep the players busy throughout the week, including simuls
from Ivanchuk, Krush, Bluvshtein, Shabalov and Bologan. Some events are targeted
specifically at juniors, such as the Bluvshtein simul which will be held at
West Edmonton Mall, and a quick chess session with Roussel-Roozmon. Besides
these events with the featured players, there will also be a speed chess tournament
and a bughouse tournament.
For those who are not familiar with the city of Edmonton, it is the capital
city of the province of Alberta, one of the western provinces of Canada. Edmonton
is probably most famous for West Edmonton Mall, the largest indoor mall in
the world. The river valley area in Edmonton makes up the largest park area
in North America and is 21 times larger than Central Park in New York. Edmonton
is also known as a festival city, with plenty of events coming throughout the
summer. Some of the events which will be going on this summer include the World
Masters Games, Champ Car Grand Prix of Edmonton, Klondike Days, the Street
Performer’s Festival, blues and jazz festivals and plenty more to match
anyone’s interests. Other attractions include Fort Edmonton Park, where
one can relive Edmonton’s early history, the Muttart Conservatory, featuring
over 700 species of plants, and the Odyssium, which is an interactive space
and science museum.
1 Moiseenko, Alexander 2704 gm 3
2 Ivanchuk, Vassily 2792 gm 3
3 Shirov, Alexei 2745 gm 3
4 Nataf, Igor-Alexandre 2623 gm 3
5 Bluvshtein, Mark 2529 gm 3
6 Krush, Irina 2492 im 3
7 Yoos, Jack 2441 fm 3
8 Chowdhury, SR 2421 im 3
9 Lawson, Eric 2373 im 3
10 Kunte, Abhijit 2601 gm 3
11 Roussel-Roozmon, Th. 2417 im 3
12 Quan, Zhe 2396 fm 3
13 Mulyar, Michael 2449 im 3
14 Ganguly, SS 2636 gm 3
15 Krnan, Tomas 2462 fm 3
16 Bologan, Viktor 2740 gm 3
17 Shabalov, Alexander 2633 gm 3
18 Tyomkin, Dmitri 2549 gm 3
19 Charbonneau, Pascal 2527 im 3
20 Reeve, Jeff 2364 3
21 Chanda, Sandipan 2600 gm 2.5
22 Venkatesh, MR 2475 im 2.5
23 McGowan, Gary 2249 2.5
24 Haessel, Dale 2230 2.5
25 Henson, Joshua 2221 2.5
26 Neven, Knut 2233 2.5
27 Miller, Brian 1870 2.5
28 Sasata, Robert 2323 2.5
29 Kidambi, S. 2524 im 2.5
30 Ghate, Swathi 2281 wgm 2.5
31 Peter, Steven 2297 2.5
32 Aird, Ian 2053 2.5
We will be providing more updates as the tournament progresses, but for the
most up to date pairings, crosstables, etc, you can visit the official
website.
Edmonton Photo Gallery
Alberta Legislature Building
Muttart Conservatory
Edmonton City Hall
View of downtown Edmonton
The Edmonton Queen Riverboat on the North Saskatchewan River
