Shearwater Fall OpenChess Tournament Results
Shearwater Fall Open
The accelerated first round had one upset and one near miss. Newcomer James Kempt won over Steve Karis, playing very solidly, commanding more space and generally taking over the board. No "piece dropping" upset there. Steve Saunders was probably objectively lost against George Beals (he later admitted as much) but somehow managed to squeak out a win. Perhaps with his confidence diminished, Steve would draw with John Klapstein in the next round, foregoing his pet Polugaevsky Najdorf for something less sharp. Meanwhile the other expert in the event, Alvah Mayo, was cruising along winning against McGrath, Poirier, and Fleury with relative ease, through technique and not his usual tactical strokes. Saunders would lose to Brian Burgess in the third round, a rather unfortunate pairing which could not be avoided. Burgess had sacrificed a N unsoundly on h3 after lining his forces against g2 with a Q&B along the long diagonal. Steve defended correctly at first but moved a necessary defender and lost rather inexplicably.
The other story of day one was the heat, or lack of it. Most players kept their jackets on while playing as it was just cold enough in the large room to make it uncomfortable. One player withdrew after the second round as a result.
The next morning provided a few interesting games. Alvah would defeat
Burgess from a closed position where he at last gained control of an
opened h-file. All his pieces would come crashing through eventually as
he slowly built-up to a winning combination. See photograph left.
Joe Shea won against Harold
Uuetoa in quite a long endgame. David Poirier would lose to John
Klapstein in a position where he rather uncharacteristically sacrificed
a piece in front of John's king early on. The attack proved to be
miscalculated (or a shot-in-the-dark) when John was able to fend it off
successfully.
The final round was rather anticlimatic. Klapstein-Mayo was drawn after four moves on Alvah's offer. Understandable given the standings but indicative of a problem in the game of tournament chess. (Incidentally I also heard afterward of another game in this event where a draw was offered before the start of a game. Thankfully it was not accepted and a real game emerged.) Saunders would defeat Bruce Fleury from a very closed Sicilian.
Shearwater Fall Open Nov 7-8, 1998 Player CFC# Rating rd1 rd2 rd3 rd4 rd5 total 1.Steve Saunders 103353 2060 +11 =6 -4 +13 +5 3.5 2.Alvah Mayo 105142 2055 +12 +7 +5 +4 =6 4.5 3.Gary Phillips 104589 1843 +13 =8 -6 +10 +4 3.5 4.Brian Burgess 108219 1811 0 +18 +1 -2 -3 2.5 5.Bruce Fleury 109707 1787 +14 +10 -2 +9 -1 3.0 6.John Klapstein 108446 1770 +15 =1 +3 +7 =2 4.0 7.David Poirier 106289 1751 +16 -2 +8 -6 +12 3.0 8.Harold Uuetoa 101504 1716 +17 =3 -7 -14 +10 2.5 9.Steve Karis 104771 1702 -18 +20 +15 -5 =14 2.5 10.Ken Cashin 103179 1634 +19 -5 =14 -3 -8 1.5 11.George Beals 105503 1601 -1 -15 -0 -0 -0 0.0 12.Brain McGrath 120927 1600 -2 -16 +19 +18 -7 2.0 13.Phil Boyle 110332 1588 -3 +17 +16 -1 +15 3.0 14.Joe Shea 109017 1576 -5 +19 =10 +8 =9 3.0 15.P.Mahendranathan 123434 1532 -6 +11 -9 +16 -13 2.0 16.Steve Toth 102861 1447 -7 +12 -13 -15 -17 1.0 17.Jim Livingstone 123143 1297 -8 -13 +0 -19 +16 2.0 18.James Kempt new unr +9 -4 -20 -12 +19 2.0 19.Chris Brown new unr -10 -14 -12 +17 -18 1.0 20.Trevor Tonks 122493 1173 0 -9 +18 -0 -0 1.5 TD/Org: Kim Tufts
Also held in conjunction with this tournament was the Nova Scotia Cadet Chess Championship.
Many thanks to Joe Shea for handling the room details and of course the necessary coffee.
-report by Kim Tufts
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