Cross-posted from the NLCA Facebook group (posted October 23, 2023). Author: Anthony Leonard

It wouldn’t be the NL Chess Open championship without a 2-3 day old results post. Sorry folks for the delay!

I’d like to thank everyone again for attending. Yet again we hit the highest entry count (34) for a CFC event in the province – the only event with more entrants that comes to mind is when the Canadian Open came to St. John’s in 1970! (Bent Larsen being the victor according to Wikipedia, thank you Roger Langen for reminding me of this event at the tournament.)

I’d also like to thank Christopher Anthony and Morgen Mills for all their help this weekend as well. The tournament would not have gone so smoothly without their assistance any time I needed it. I can be a mess of nerves during tournament weekend, so having the help means everything to me.

Finally, congratulations to Michael Penney on his well-earned victory and for being crowned Champion in a field containing so many previous winners. Having seen Mike improve the last few years has been inspiring, and a victory at an event like this could only be an eventuality given his dedication and love for the game.

[Note: NLCA director Chris White had Michael as a guest on his YouTube channel to review the ending of the final round. Please check it out:

Full Prize Winners are as follows:

1st Place and NL Open Champion, score 4.5/5: Michael Penney
T2nd, score 4/5: Morgen Mills, Anthony Leonard, Steve Martin, Muharrem Kemaoglu
Best U1800, score 4/5: Muharrem Kemaoglu
Best Juniors, score 3/5: Jonathan Furlong, Jonah Williams

Best Unrated, score 3/5: Jonathan Furlong, Robert Oberlander

Full results can be seen below. Rating reports will go to the CFC tonight, and should be seen updated later this week – membership expiry updates may come a few days later.
I’ve been sent a number of pictures from the event, and will upload these in an album shortly.

Unfortunately no group photo from this event, but I think we’d be hard pressed to get everyone in it this year!
Thanks again to everyone.
Anthony Leonard
NLCA Tournament Director

(Please view tables in landscape mode on mobile.)

Hello everyone!

I would like to start by thanking all attendees and spectators who attended the 2022 Newfoundland Open Chess Championship tournament this weekend. Our final count was a whopping 28 attendees, which may be one of the largest NL Opens ever held. It is incredibly motivating to see the sustained interest in chess within the province, along with some remarkable (and dramatic!) games that occurred as a result.

I’d like to thank Morgen Mills, Chris White, and Jordan Berson for their help this weekend with entering results and observing the tournament. Simply put, I could not have managed running this event without their assistance, especially while also participating as a player. Jordan also designed our scoresheets for the event and picked up some supplies (water and pens) for all players. It is things like this that really make for a great player experience. I’d also like to thank Heather May of the MUN Chess Club for booking the location of EN-4000 multiple times on our behalf, which was a great venue.

For those who have been following the fantastic photographs that have been uploaded to the Facebook group, these are the work of Brian Carey, a local photographer who also participated in the event. The expressions of focus and enjoyment have been captured in an astounding way, and those photos will be treasured by both participants and myself. Please consider checking out more of Brian’s work.

Prior to the final day, the trophy was in the care of Alick Tsui, who was running the NLCA when I first began competitive chess in 2009. While Alick hasn’t been directly involved with chess for a few years, his work does not go unnoticed, especially when it contributed to my formative years in the game I love today. We were also visited by Brian Oliver who had graciously donated six books from his large chess book collection, which were distributed by random draw prior to the final round. Brian happens to be my first rated chess opponent and so also holds a special place in Newfoundland chess.

I would like to give a special thank you to Roger Langen, a 7-time winner of the NL Open himself (including the very first in 1969, and as recent as 2018!). It was Roger who commissioned the trophy that has been passed from winner to winner since the very first event, and to have him say a few words prior to the final round really made the event something special. Roger and I are now in communication regarding potentially finding a public display location for the trophy to be homed, given it has a history of over 60 years of provincial chess behind it. With any luck he will increase that number to 8 wins in the future!

Of note was the participation of two Ukrainian players, Kostiantyn Myroniuk and Maria Nyzhnyk. Both players contacted me in the two weeks leading up to the event, and I was happy to see a strong performance from both. I hope to see both strong players at future events and will aim to work on my own knowledge of the Ukrainian language to become less reliant on Google Translate!

Finally, it is with great pleasure to announce that our 2022 Newfoundland Chess Champion is Husam Al Rimawi, who moved from Jordan this year to study Data Science at Memorial University. From my conversation with Husam, he has already fallen in love with our province, and I am happy to see him awarded the trophy after an incredible perfect score of 5/5.

The final prize distribution can be seen below:

1st with 5/5: Husam Al Rimawi ($315)
Tie 2nd-5th with 4/5: Kostiantyn Myroniuk, Morgen Mills, Anthony Leonard, Ryan Pickard ($105 each)
Top Junior with 3/5: Evan Fang ($75)

Final Crosstable can be seen below, along with some pictures of the winners and the trophy taken from the updated gallery uploaded by Brian Carey.

I may not be able to submit the event in time for this week’s rating by the CFC (I have been catching up on work and some personal commitments), so ratings and memberships may not be updated until the following week. I will post again once new membership can be viewed.

The future of chess in the province is bright – please stay tuned as I plan for at least one other event to be held before the end of this year.

Regards,
Anthony Leonard
NLCA Tournament Director

The final crosstable of the 2022 Newfoundland Open Chess Championship

Winners with the trophy, from left to right: Kostiantyn Myroniuk, Morgen Mills, Husam Al Rimawi, Anthony Leonard

Top Junior: Evan Fang

2022 Newfoundland Open Chess Champion Husam Al Rimawi with head tournament director Anthony Leonard

NL Chess Open Championship Standings after Round 1, and pairings for Round 2, can be seen below. We have an even number of participants so there are no forced byes, e.g. all will be playing tomorrow.

Round 2 will begin at 10am. Please try to arrive a few minutes early so I know you are coming. If you running late, please reach out via email (anthonyleonard21@gmail.com) or my cell (included in the email sent to participants).

Regards,
Anthony Leonard

Hi all, an update on the upcoming Newfoundland Open Chess Championship, scheduled to take place this weekend October 21st-23rd.

We are currently at 25 pre-registered entrants. This is an astounding number for our province! As far as I can remember this number alone would make it the largest classical chess event since I began rated chess in 2009. Truly remarkable and very excited to see the turnout. Registered players include three former NL Open winners, and as well as other strong players who have recently moved to our province. I can make no guesses as to who may come out on top. If you are intending on playing and have not yet filled out the form, please do so – and similarly, if you have filled out the form and must withdraw, let me know as well.

With the tournament so close, I wanted to announce a few other policies/rules for the event.

PLAYING HALL RULES: While games are ongoing, there is to be no talking or communicating with players. You may leave the playing hall at any point to go to the bathroom which is nearby – please do not communicate with players or spectators on the way to or from the playing hall while you are still playing a game. Spectators are welcome but are subject to the same rules. Both players and spectators may walk around and view other games, but please do not linger at any one board in proximity as this may disturb the players.

ELECTRONICS POLICY: all mobile devices should be TURNED OFF and either stowed in a bag (not to be retrieved until end of game), or laid face up by the board clearly visible and to remain there. In the event of a phone going off mid-round, the owner of the device will immediately forfeit the game – no exceptions! These are the conditions under which the Maritime Open 2021 and Canadian Open 2022 were ran, and I would prefer to follow those as a guideline. I will make a verbal announcement prior to each round reminding everyone of these rules.

COVID-19 POLICY: While masks will not be mandatory in the playing hall, I will be bringing a box of disposable masks to be used by any player or spectator who wishes to avail of them. I ask that all participants respect the choice to wear a mask by anyone else in the playing hall.

TIEBREAKERS: No tiebreakers will be used. In the event of a tie for 1st, all players with the same score will have their name engraved on the NL Open trophy that has been maintained since 1969. For cash prizes, the prize money for all players at that score will be added together and distributed evenly. For example, if 1st place receives $200 with 2nd place receiving $100, and the top two finishers are tied at 4.5/5, they will each receive (200 + 100) / 2) = $150.

I think have covered everything. If there are any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Regards,
Anthony

Hi folks, it has been quite some time since my last post regarding rated CFC events here in the province. I have spoken to a few folks already at the regular meetups (at the Memorial University food court meetups on Wednesdays, and the Elixir Bar and Lounge meetings up on Thursdays) but I can now say that we have confirmed dates for this year’s NL Open Chess Championship! Here are the details.

Date: Friday, October 21st – 23rd
Round 1: October 21st, 7pm (Registration closes at 6:30pm SHARP)
Rounds 2 and 3: October 22nd, 10am and 3pm
Rounds 4 and 5: October 23rd, 10am and 3pm
Location: EN-4000, 4th floor the of MUN Engineering building (CONFIRMED)
Tournament Format: Swiss
Time Control: Game in 90 minutes, plus 30 second increment from move 1.
Ratings: CFC-rated. A valid CFC membership is required to participate in this event (priced at $44 a year, $29 if born in 2002 or later). This can either be paid to me (on-site or via etransfer) or online at https://chess.ca. Good for all CFC events across the country.
Entry fee: $40 for existing CFC members – reduced to $20 if purchasing/renewing a CFC membership at the time of this tournament. For example, a new CFC member would pay $44 (membership fee) + $20 (entry fee) = $64.
Prizes: Cash prizes with the exact structure to be determined at the conclusion of Round 1. The total prize fund will be comprised of all entry fees minus applicable rating fees for the event (~$3 per player). In addition, the winner will be awarded the NL Open Chess Championship trophy, which has been passed on after each event since 1969(!). A picture of the trophy and historical winners can be viewed below at the appropriate link.

Pre-registration: https://forms.gle/RD86rVWqNtKKvCkd8
Trophy and Past Winners: https://nlchess.ca/nl-championships-and-winners/

If there are any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at anthonyleonard21@gmail.com(please include NL Chess Open in the subject). I suspect that we will see one of the most competitive classical events held in the province for many years due to the increase in players as well as some folks who have moved from other parts of the world. I greatly look forward to the event, both as an organizer and a player.

Regards,
Anthony Leonard
Tournament Director NLCA

Hi all!

I’d like to announce additional information on the two events planned for this month, as well as advance registration links.

APRIL RAPID WARM-UP (unrated)

Date: Saturday April 9th, from 1pm-5:30pm. Registration on-site to close at 12:40pm sharp. There will be short 5-10 minute break between rounds.

Location: EN-4000 (fourth floor of MUN Engineering building)
Format: Swiss (i.e. everyone plays all rounds). 5 rounds.
Time control: Game in 15 minutes, with 10 second increment added after every move.
CFC Membership: NOT REQUIRED
Entry fee: FREE
Prizes: I will be donating a few chess books – top 3 will get their choice in that order.

April Rapid Warm-up pre-registration (helps me understand likely attendance): Google Forms Link

APRIL OPEN (Classical CFC-RATED)

Date: Friday April 29th to May 1st.
Round 1: April 29th 7pm (Registration closes at 6:40pm SHARP)
Rounds 2 and 3: April 30th 10am and 2:30pm
Rounds 4 and 5: May 1st 10am and 2:30pm
Location:: EN-4000, 4th floor the of MUN Engineering building (CONFIRMED)

Format: Swiss (i.e. everyone plays all rounds). 5 rounds. 1 bye may be requested for a given round – you will be awarded 1/2pt for any requested bye that is not round 5.
Time control: Game in 75 minutes, with 30 seconds increment added after every move (games may be over 3 hours total).
CFC Membership: REQUIRED. Currently priced at $44 a year, or $29 for Juniors (birth year of 2002 or later). This can either be paid to me directly on-site or online at https://www.chess.ca. Good for all CFC events across the country.
Entry fee: $15 – Entry fee is WAIVED if you are a new or renewing CFC member (need only provide proof of renewal in April, or I can purchase on your behalf).
Prizes: Cash prizes with exact structure to be determined upon completion of Round 1. Prize fund = All Entry Fees – CFC rating fees ($3 per adult, $1.50 per junior)

April Open Pre-registration: Google Forms Link

Please note: Masks will be required at all times for these events to adhere to current MUN regulations.

If you are unsure about competing in a Classical event, the Warm-up event provides a great low-commitment opportunity to test the waters. As far as Classical events go, I want to hold a second event in the summer, followed by the Newfoundland Open in either late August or early September. This is essentially our provincial championship, with the holding the NL Open trophy for a year – this trophy has been passed from winner to winner since the 1960s. The current reigning champion is Jordan Berson, who won the last NL Open in 2019.

Any updates to the above information will be posted on the local chess Facebook group as well as the website at https://nlchess.ca (which we are looking at revamping). As always, if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me here or via email at anthonyleonard21@gmail.com.

Regards,
Anthony Leonard (NL Tournament Director)

— The below is a copy of a post made to the NLCA Facebook group. Updates will be posted both to the group and the website while we revamp the NLCA. — -AL

Hi all,

First, I wanted to thank everyone who filled out the survey in my previous post. It gave us a lot of information on interest for events this coming year, and there is definitely a lot of interest from all skill levels and backgrounds!

I wanted to provide some updates for those wondering about events. I am hoping to run TWO events in the month of April:

• Unrated Rapid – A 4-5 round Swiss event that will not require a CFC membership. For time control it will likely be something similar to 15 minutes + 10 second increment that you’d see on the Champions Chess Tour that has been pretty popular. The whole event would take about 4-5 hours to complete. The goal here is to introduce over-the-board tournament play to those who are unsure about participating in CFC events going forward. We may run one of these from time to time but the focus will be on Rated events.

• Rated Classical – a 4-5 round Swiss event that will require a CFC membership, for NL this is $44 a year. These events are rated by the Chess Federation of Canada, which is the national governing body for chess in the country. Classical events are basically a weekend committment – typically the format is one round on Friday night, two rounds on Saturday, and one or two rounds on Sunday (5th round only if registration numbers require it). Time controls for NL events used to be anywhere from 75 to 90 minutes with 30 second increment, so expect games to last 3-4 hours each. 1/2 pt requested byes can be provided for all except the last round if advance notice is given.

The target dates are April 9th or 10th for the Unrated Rapid, and the weekend of April 29th-May 1st for the Rated Classical. I am waiting to hear back on bookings at the University to confirm exact dates and times, so keep an eye out. A few additional notes:

• Currently, the university requires masking for university events, which will extend to these tournaments as well. If there are any updates to university policy I will post them once confirmed.
• Depending on the rooms we are able to get, we may need to impose a cap on entrants. As a result, advanced registration will be required. This will make things easier on the tournament director (myself) in terms of pairings, byes, etc.

This is mostly preliminary information to keep people in the loop. Any updates, confirmed dates/times, and registration will be posted here as well as the site at https://nlchess.ca. While the site is a out of date we are looking at potentially modernizing it, but I want to ensure these updates are also there for reference (or if you want to share it with someone who is not a member of this group).

If there are any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me in the comments here or at anthonyleonard_21@gmail.com.

Regards,
Anthony Leonard

It’s rare for a Grandmaster to play in St. John’s or Newfoundland. GM Mark Bluvshtein played a Canadian Chess Challenge as an IM near Memorial University around 2002. And in 2013, GM Aman Hambleton (former NL resident, then an IM), participated in and won the NL Open. Big congrats to Aman on recently achieving his GM title!

Much earlier, GM Bent Larsen, GM Pal Benko, and GM Walter Browne played a Canadian Open held in St. John’s in 1970 (48 years ago!). I was able to find a detailed article on the event written by Vojin Vujosevic, who participated in the tournament. Check it out

It was a real treat that GM Eric Hansen was able to come play our weekend swiss event (February 16-18). He’s still just 25 years old and his chess resume, to name just a few items I’m aware of, includes:

• two-time winner of the Canadian Open
• currently rated 2629 FIDE (a personal best)
• challenger to world champion Magnus Carlsen in lengthy online blitz and bullet matches
• live commentator for prestigious events in Saint Louis and the recent 2018 Tata Steel masters tournament in Wijk an Zee
• creator of Chessbrah channels and business. The original chessbrah

The chessbrahs are very popular chess streamers on Twitch and YouTube. They often play bullet (1-minute), time odds games, and blindfold games at a ridiculously high level – often while listening to dance/techno music. They also provide commentary for many popular high level chess tournaments such as the Candidates. Eric, Aman Hambleton, Robin Van Kampen, and other chessbrah members have done a lot to promote chess in Canada and their fanbase extends beyond that as well. http://www.twitch.tv/chessbrah

Part of Eric’s motivation for coming to Newfoundland was to fulfill rated game requirements to play the chess Olympiad later this year in Georgia. He also wanted to visit the province since he hadn’t been here before. It was really awesome of him to give his time to play this event, and to hang out and chat.

We had a number of talented new players come out to play, including Xingbo Huang, Brandon Fudge, Nithum Thain, and Curtis Mullaly. Multi-time NL Open champion Anthony Leonard also participated after a bit of a layoff, which was great to see. There was a lot of excitement in the air, for sure. Big thanks to Mohammad Kowsari for reserving the MUN Engineering Lounge for the event.

February Knights – Round 2. Photo by: Michael Pickard

The 5-round, 3-day tournament kept everyone pretty busy, but we were still able to bring Eric to O’Reilly’s on George Street in downtown St. John’s for some traditional music and drinks, and to see some local people. A group of us also had dinner and chatted with Eric at a restaurant/brewery called Yellowbelly on Sunday evening. It is really impressive that he has higher ambitions with his chess and with his Chessbrah business, which continues to grow rapidly.

Eric also encouraged us all to come out for dinner and blitz after round 3 on Saturday. He dominated the games from what I could tell, but it was a blast.

Fun blitz after Round 3. Credit: Michael Pickard

At the tournament itself, which was played at 60 minutes per player with 30 second increments, Eric won with a score of 5/5 against Ryan Pickard, Nihad Dervisevic, Anthony Leonard, Jordan Berson, and Steve Martin. He was never really in trouble in any of the games! Congratulations! As mentioned previously, some new players had some very nice performances. Xingbo made draws with Anthony and Mohammad, Brandon won against 2017 NL Open co-champ Jiaying and he drew against Anthony, Curtis drew against Steve, and Nithum gave Nihad a really hard fight in a losing effort. Full standings here.

Here are two of Eric’s games against Jordan and Steve (Jordan, Mohammad, and I shared second place):

[Event “February Knights”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Jordan S. Berson”]
[Black “Eric Hansen”]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 { E00 Catalan Opening } c5 4. Nf3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Nc6 6. Bg2 Bc5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Nc3 b6 10. Nd4 Bb7 11. Bf4 Na5 12. Bxb7 Nxb7 13. e4 Bb4 14. e5 Bxc3 15. exf6 Bxd4 16. Qxd4 Qxf6 17. Be5 Qg6 18. Qxd7 Nc5 19. Qd1 h5 20. h4 Rad8 21. Qe2 Nd3 22. Bc3 e5 23. Rad1 e4 24. Qe3 f5 25. Qg5 Qf7 26. Kh2 Rd6 27. f3 Rg6 28. Qxh5 Nf4 29. gxf4 Rg2+ 30. Kxg2 Qxh5 31. Rd7 Rf7 32. Rxf7 Kxf7 33. Be1 Qg6+ 34. Bg3 Qf6 35. b3 e3 36. Re1 Qb2+ 37. Kf1 Qd2 38. Re2 Qd3 39. Bh2 Qd1+ { White resigns. } 0-1

[Event “February Knights”]
[Round “5”]
[White “Eric Hansen”]
[Black “Steve Martin”]
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. f4 Nf6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Bd3 { B09 Pirc Defense: Austrian Attack, Weiss Variation } Nc6 7. e5 dxe5 8. fxe5 Nd5 9. Nxd5 Qxd5 10. c3 Bg4 11. Qe2 Rad8 12. Be4 Bxf3 13. Qxf3 Qb5 14. Qe2 Qxe2+ 15. Kxe2 f6 16. exf6 Rxf6 17. Bf3 Rf7 18. Bg4 Kf8 19. Be6 Rf6 20. d5 h6 21. g4 g5 22. h4 gxh4 23. g5 hxg5 24. Bxg5 Rxe6+ 25. dxe6 Rd6 26. Raf1+ Ke8 27. Rxh4 Rxe6+ 28. Kd1 b5 29. a4 b4 30. cxb4 Bxb2 31. b5 Nd4 32. Rf2 Bc3 33. Bd2 Rd6 34. Rh3 Bxd2 35. Rxd2 c6 36. Rh4 e5 37. Rh5 cxb5 38. Rxe5+ Kd7 39. axb5 Ne6 40. Rh5 Rxd2+ 41. Kxd2 Kc7 42. Kc3 Nd8 43. Kb4 Nb7 44. Rh6 Nd6 45. Ka5 Nc8 46. Ka6 Nd6 47. Rxd6 Kxd6 48. Kxa7 { Black resigns. } 1-0

Thanks to everyone for coming out, and big thanks to Eric for playing and spending time here.