Canadian Open Chess Championship

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The Canadian Open Chess Championship is Canada's Open chess championship, first held in 1956, and held annually since 1973, usually in mid-summer. It is organized by the Chess Federation of Canada. The event celebrated its 50th rendition in 2013.

Contents

History

It was organized every two years from 1956 until 1970. The tournament rotates around the country, and has been held in eight of Canada's ten provinces during its 63-year history, missing only Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The format has usually been a Swiss system with nine or ten rounds, usually over a nine-day period. It is open to all players who wish to enter, from Grandmasters to beginners.

The Championship's list of winners has included some of the world's strongest players, including Grandmasters Boris Spassky (in 1971, while he was World chess champion), Bent Larsen, Alexei Shirov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Viktor Bologan, Artur Yusupov, Bu Xiangzhi, Alexander Moiseenko, Kevin Spraggett, Ljubomir Ljubojević, Larry Evans, Pal Benko, William Lombardy, Gyula Sax, Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Walter Browne, Tony Miles, Larry Christiansen, Joel Benjamin, Eduardas Rozentalis, Vladimir Tukmakov, Jonathan Rowson, Luke McShane, Vladimir Epishin, Vladimir Malaniuk, Pentala Harikrishna, Alexander Shabalov, Nigel Short, Eric Hansen, and many other top stars.

The first tournament in Montreal 1956 was noteworthy for the presence of 13-year-old Bobby Fischer, a future World chess champion, who tied for 8-12th places. Montreal 1974 saw the largest attendance to date, with 648 players. Ottawa 2007 set a tournament record with 22 Grandmasters participating. Canadian Grandmaster Kevin Spraggett has the record for most titles with eight (either clear first or shared). Laszlo Witt made a perfect score (9-0) at Ottawa 1962; this was matched by Alexander Cherniev at Regina 2019. [1] Mark Bluvshtein is the youngest champion, at age 17 at Edmonton in 2005. Daniel Yanofsky was the oldest champion, at age 54, also in Edmonton in 1979. Toronto has hosted the most Opens with ten, followed by Ottawa with seven and Edmonton with six.

The 2014 edition was held in Montreal from July 19–26. In 2015, no tournament was held. In 2018, the Open was held in Quebec City on July 6–13. In 2019, it was held in Regina, Saskatchewan, the first time ever in that province.

For both 2020 and 2021, the championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 championship was held July 12–17 in Hamilton, Ontario. [2] The 2023 championship will be held in Calgary, July 22-30. [3]

List of winners and tournament sites

#YearCityWinner
11956 Montreal Larry Evans, William Lombardy
21958 Winnipeg Elod Macskasy
31960 Kitchener Anthony Saidy
41962 Ottawa Laszlo Witt
51964 Toronto Pal Benko
61966 Kingston Larry Evans
71968 Toronto Bent Larsen
81970 St. John's Bent Larsen
91971 Vancouver Boris Spassky, Hans Ree
101973 Ottawa Duncan Suttles
111974 Montreal Ljubomir Ljubojević
121975 Calgary Leonid Shamkovich
131976 Toronto Nick de Firmian, Lawrence Day
141977 Fredericton Jan Green-Krotki
151978 Hamilton Gyula Sax
161979 Edmonton Daniel Yanofsky
171980 Ottawa Lawrence Day
181981 Beauport Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov
191982 Vancouver Gordon Taylor
201983 Toronto Kevin Spraggett, Božidar Ivanović
211984 Ottawa Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Dave Ross, Brett Campbell, Denis Allan
221985 Edmonton Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Brian Hartman
231986 Winnipeg Artur Yusupov, Viktor Kupreichik
241987 Toronto Kevin Spraggett
251988 Toronto Lawrence Day
261989 Edmonton Vladimir Tukmakov
271990 Edmundston Georgi Timoshenko
281991 Windsor Walter Browne
291992 Toronto Alexei Barsov, Bryon Nickoloff
301993 London Kevin Spraggett
311994 Winnipeg Vladimir Tukmakov
321995 Toronto Kevin Spraggett, Eduardas Rozentalis, Deen Hergott,
Bryon Nickoloff, Ron Livshits
331996 Calgary Kevin Spraggett
341997 Winnipeg Julian Hodgson
351998 Ottawa Kevin Spraggett, Dimitri Tyomkin,
Michael Oratovsky, Evgeny Prokopchuk
361999 Vancouver Kevin Spraggett, Georgi Orlov
372000 Edmonton Joel Benjamin, Kevin Spraggett, Jonathan Rowson
382001 Sackville Tony Miles, Larry Christiansen
392002 Montreal Pascal Charbonneau, Jean Hébert, Jean-Marc Degraeve
402003 Kapuskasing Alexander Moiseenko
412004 Kapuskasing Alexander Moiseenko, Dimitri Tyomkin
422005 Edmonton Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov, Viktor Bologan,
Mark Bluvshtein, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury
432006 Kitchener Walter Arencibia, Abhijit Kunte
442007 Ottawa Bu Xiangzhi
452008 Montreal Alexander Moiseenko, Victor Mikhalevski, Eduardas Rozentalis,
Matthieu Cornette
462009 Edmonton Mark Bluvshtein, Edward Porper
472010 Toronto Luke McShane
482011 Toronto Walter Arencibia, Joel Benjamin, Dejan Bojkov
492012 Victoria Eric Hansen
502013 Ottawa Nigel Short, Eric Hansen
512014 Montreal Sergei Tiviakov (on Armageddon tiebreak, ahead of
Robin van Kampen and Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami)
522016 Windsor Gergely Antal
532017 Sault Ste. Marie Razvan Preotu, Aman Hambleton
542018 Quebec City Bitan Banerjee (on tiebreak, ahead of Raymond Kaufman)
552019 Regina Alexander Cherniaev
562022 Hamilton Nikolay Noritsyn, Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux
572023 Calgary Alexei Shirov
582024 Laval Jorden van Foreest

See also

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References

  1. chess.ca, crosstable for 2019 Canadian Open, Regina, Saskatchewan
  2. chess.ca, tournament listings March 6, 2022
  3. chess.ca, events file for July 2023.