FIVE way tie in SAO

The Southern Alberta Open on Nov 15th and 16th 2008, had a fantastic turnout of 34 players. Many came from out of town including North Battleford, Saskatoon, Lethbridge, Edmonton and Leduc.

The 34 players was a record attendance since 2002 (when 36 attended.) This was pretty much the best attendance for the last 10 years. In fact, 34 is probably getting close to a maximum that we can support at the Calgary Chess Club location. One table had 3 boards crammed together, while others had a comfortable two games each.

Thanks goes to Jim Daniluk for helping get the word out on newsgroups and websites. He did a fantastic job as the organizer, even staying at the site on Friday with Stephan Vasilev to set up the room. Saturday morning, everything was ready to go!

Another nice attribute of the tournament was the wide range of ratings. There were players from the 1200's up into the 2200's, with a good uniform mix throughout. An even rating distribution is important so that all players can find opponents close to their rating range. This was certainly the case, as in the last round not a single game finished really early. All were tough
fights, right down to the bottom boards.

This may be a record, but FIVE players tied for 1st place with a score of 4.0/5. (Please see cross table below). Rob Gardner won the tie-break in terms of earning a qualification spot in the prestigious Alberta Closed. Brothers Victor and Thomas Kaminski, Keith MacKinnon, and Jan Lazo all scored four as well.

There was a total of $800 in prizes awarded as follows

Open $400
U2000 $150
U1800 $150
U1600 $105

The extra $5 in the U1600 came from a cell phone going off. We announced at
the start of the tournament that cell phone interruptions would be $5 for the first
offence, per player, and then a forfeit. Only one cell phone went off, and the
$5 was added to the prize money in that section.

Open (4 way tie)

1st Rob Gardner 4.0/5, $100
Victor Kaminski 4.0/5, $100
Thomas Kaminski 4.0/5, $100
Keith MacKinnon 4.0/5, $100

U2000

1st Jan Lazo 4.0/5, $90
2nd Rick Pedersen 3.5/5, $30
Adam Harris 3.5/5, $30

U1800

1st Bob Macfie 3.0/5, $90
2nd Mike Zeggelaar 2.5/5, $20
Samer Louise 2.5/5, $20
Shanker Raman 2.5/5, $20

U1600

1st Nicka Kalaydina 2.5/5, $75
2nd Bronislaw Swiecicki 2.0/5, $30

I tried to shush everyone as best as I could. Keep in mind if you were shushed
(rudely) by me, that while you were playing I was shushing everyone else (equally rudely)
on your behalf.

Thanks to the players for keeping the noise down quite well in general, and showing
respect to all their fellow players.

Excellent tournament - see you all again next year! Congratulations to the tournament winners,
section leaders, and of course all players that came out.

No Name Feder Intl Id Rtg Loc Total 1 2 3 4 5

1 Gardner, R 108323 2237 2220 4 27:W 5:W 9:W 2:D 3:D
2 Kaminski, V 127461 2284 1978 4 22:W 16:W 0:D 1:D 11:W
3 MacKinnon, K SK 133701 2206 4 17:W 6:D 14:W 7:W 1:D
4 Kaminski, T 130786 2060 1740 4 19:W 20:W 0:D 6:D 9:W
5 Lazo, J 148645 1942 1380 4 33:W 1:L 27:W 10:W 26:W
6 Pedersen, R 143057 1885 1544 3.5 29:W 3:D 15:W 4:D 8:D
7 Harris, A 139386 1859 1510 3.5 34:W 26:W 0:D 3:L 19:W
8 Vasilev, S 146955 2105 1636 3.5 18:D 13:D 21:W 17:W 6:D
9 Haessel, D 112476 2289 2042 3 21:W 15:W 1:L 13:W 4:L
10 Milne, A 101874 1878 1669 3 25:W 14:D 24:W 5:L 12:D
11 Yearwood, R 102743 2059 1881 3 24:L 18:W 22:W 14:W 2:L
12 Macfie, B 111989 1759 1501 3 14:L 32:W 0:D 24:W 10:D
13 Kalaydina, R 141148 1584 1334 2.5 23:W 8:D 0:D 9:L 21:D
14 Hughey, M 109502 2226 1878 2.5 12:W 10:D 3:L 11:L 18:W
15 Zhang, D 145883 1968 1518 2.5 28:W 9:L 6:L 32:W 17:D
16 Bentley, B 103443 1894 1730 2.5 32:W 2:L 0:D 19:L 28:W
17 Zeggelaar, M 144013 1738 1792 2.5 3:L 25:W 20:W 8:L 15:D
18 Raman, S 148420 1736 2.5 8:D 11:L 29:W 26:W 14:L
19 Louise, S 145256 1710 2.5 4:L 31:W 23:D 16:W 7:L
20 Sequillion, A 123727 1860 1477 2.5 31:W 4:L 17:L 22:D 30:W
21 Brodmann, D 111306 1835 1450 2.5 9:L 30:W 8:L 25:W 13:D
22 Wang, Y 147881 1823 1404 2.5 2:L 28:W 11:L 20:D 31:W
23 Daniluk, J 105606 1974 1830 2.5 13:L 0:D 19:D 28:D 29:W
24 Robertson, T SK 111334 1684 2 11:W 0:D 10:L 12:L 27:D
25 Swiecicki, B 101111 1523 1652 2 10:L 17:L 0:W 21:L 34:W
26 Tam, E 111298 2019 1825 1.5 30:W 7:L 0:D 18:L 5:L
27 Razzaq, A 148100 1799 1844 1.5 1:L 33:W 5:L 30:L 24:D
28 Janzen, T SK 144561 1574 1.5 15:L 22:L 34:W 23:D 16:L
29 Dunne, E 140419 1533 1531 1.5 6:L 0:D 18:L 33:W 23:L
30 Viminitz, P 110246 1622 1676 1.5 26:L 21:L 0:D 27:W 20:L
31 Shi, D 145882 1453 1402 1.5 20:L 19:L 0:D 34:W 22:L
32 Ahlquist, G 109727 1562 1567 1 16:L 12:L 33:W 15:L 0:
33 Bist, K MB 104604 1563 1 5:L 27:L 32:L 29:L 0:W
34 Todd, A 125516 1250 .5 7:L 0:D 28:L 31:L 25:L

Juraj Pivovarov

PS. Unclaimed prizes for Bob Macfie, Bronislaw Swiecicki, and Shanker Raman and Samer Louise were left with Tony Ficzere. I accidentally paid
Mike Zeggelaar $30 for a two way tie, instead of $20 for the actual
3 way tie. I hope you guys can work it out.

Tony Ficzere was kind enough to take over the submission of the event
and the submission of the numerous memberships to the CFC.

And thanks to Greg Huber for the two rides home!