BC Junior Chess

Welcome to “BC Junior Chess”, our new web site which provides information about junior chess players (from Kindergarten to Grade 12),  junior events and tournament activity in the Province of British Columbia, Canada.

NEXT TOURNAMENT!

See Calendar for full details

Canadian Youth Chess Championship July 3 to 6,   Sheraton Guildord, Surrey. 

That’s correct. Our next event is the BIG ONE.  Chess players from across the country will gather in Surrey for 4 days of chess fun.  The early registration discount ends June 1st and the hotel is filling fast. Sign up now and be part of a this historic event. See the CYCC tabs for all the details.

The Annual BC Washington International Match  happened Saturday at Lansdowne Centre in Richmond. BC went into this match on home turf defending it’s win from last season.  Some great chess was played, some friends were made and after the last king had fallen a remarkable thing occured.  For the first time in the history of the INTERMAT both sides were equal with 26 points.  The Intermat trophy will now spend 6 months in Washington before coming home for the following 6 months.  Complete INTERMAT results 

 BCYCC Results

BC Chess Challenge – Results

Fraser Valley Chess Challenge -Results

Victoria Chess Challenge Results

Vancouver Scholastic Chess Challenge  –Results.

 

Tanraj Sohal Wins North American Open

Tanraj Sohal won the prestigious 21st Annual North American Open Chess Championship (Under 2300 Section) held at Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on December 26-29, 2011. The $100,000 prize fund at the North American Open attracts top players from all over the world, including many Grand Masters.  Tanraj finished clear first in his elite rating section (Under 2300 Section just next to the Open Section) of 94 players which included title players. He was undefeated with a score of 6 out of 7.  See the results here.

Canada in the World Youth Chess Championships

(Brazil November 17-27)

 

BC Junior Championship -  November 12 & 13

Congratulations to the 2011 BC Junior Champion  John Doknjas.

This year’s edition of the B.C. Junior Championship was the strongest in recent memory, with five of the twelve players rated over 2000 (the last time that happened was in 1999).  One notable player who chose not to participate was B.C. co-champion Loren Laceste, who at eighteen is still eligible for the (under twenty) junior title.  In his absence the only master in the field was defending two-time junior champion Tanraj Sohal, who held a 150-point rating advantage over his next closest competitor, world under-10 champion Jason Cao.  The first two rounds went according to script, with the higher-rated winning all but one of the games.  However, high drama occurred in the game Cao - Matthew Herdin in the first round, with Herdin being up three pawns in a queen ending but having only the increment to play on (the time control was game/80 with a 10 second increment).  After a further fifty(!) moves Matthew tragically blundered into a mate, although he still retained a one-pawn advantage at that point.
 
Round three saw the first draws of the event, leaving three players tied for first with 2.5/3 after the first day: Sohal, Cao, and John Doknjas.  The tournament was largely decided by two games in the fourth round, both of them King’s Indians.  On board one Doknjas – Cao saw a sharp but balanced Sämisch; Jason ventured a risky sacrifice to open the position but blundered a rook shortly thereafter and resigned.  Against Jack Cheng on board two Sohal played an Exchange Variation but reached a rather passive middlegame; Jack obtained a passed pawn which proved decisive in the mutual time scramble which ended the game.  This left John with 3.5 points and Jack with 3.0 going into the last round.  In a Najdorf Sicilian Jack had the better minor piece but could make no progress against John’s kingside counterplay and a draw was agreed, thus assuring John of first place.  Congratulations to our new BC junior champion!  Jack Cheng and Tanraj Sohal tied for second with 3.5, while Matthew Herdin, Jeremy Hui, and Lionel Han shared the U2000 prizes.
 
The Reserves were limited to those players rated below 1500, but strangely there were actually no players above 1350 in the section (the championship had a similar gap from 1850-2000).  Four 1300s headed the twenty-five players in the section, but none of them finished in the top three places.  Instead it was Jingzhi (Edwin) Xu who deservedly took the first prize with 4.5/5, a half point ahead of Michael Su and Samuel Chen.  The U1200 prizes were won by Conrad Burgert, Paula Brewster, Kevin Hu, and Algerd Karavai.  And in the Booster section Alex Datcu-Romano, Daniel Du, and Maven Zhang came out on top with 4.5/5, while Kevin Low, Brenden Wu, and Milton Jang received medals for scoring four points each.  The total number of participants in all sections was eighty-one, which meant space was at a premium at the Vancouver Bridge Centre (obtained on short notice after other sites fell through), but playing conditions were generally good.  Ken Jensen was the organizer – many thanks to him and to all the volunteers, especially Beau Pulfer and Kapila Jayaweera.

See Results of BC Junior Championship with updated ratings here 
See the games in an online viewer.

See Results of October Junior Chess Tournament

2012 Canadian Youth Chess Championship

BC Junior Chess will host the 2012  Canadian Youth Chess Championship July 3rd to 6th at  the
Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel in Surrey.  Watch for details coming soon.

2011 Canadian Youth Chess Championship

BC players put in a good showing at the recently completed CYCC in Richmond Hill, On.  Young Harmony Zhu placed third in Under 8 girls, despite being two years younger than her competition and possibly the youngest player at the tournament.   Luke Pulfer placed second in the Under 8 Open section. Both have been invited to join team Canada for the World Youth Chess Championships in Brazil next November.

The future is bright for BC players as young Neil Doknjas and Patrick Huang scored second and third respectively for players under age 7 .  Joshua Doknjas was the top player under age 9.  We’re hoping for great things from these young talents in the future.

In U12 John Doknjas tied with BC’s World Champion FM Jason Cao and 5 others for second place with a score of 5.0 out of 7.  All are invited to represent Canada in Brazil.

Joanne Foote  won the U14 Girls section with a remarkable performance and 5  wins from 6 games.

Tanraj Sohal tied for the top player under age 15 in a U16 section that featured 10 players rated over 2000.

Many did not know who Loren Laceste was when the tournament started, despite his title as Canadian Grade 12 Champion.  Rated 7th going in and 400 rating points behind the favourites he was not given much chance of success by the locals.  Then the games started and the big guns fell one after another. In the end Loren was crowned U18 Champion.  For more check out this story in the Vancouver Sun.

I apologize in advance as I did not mention every BC player among the 242 competitors.

BC Junior Chess has submitted a bid to host the CYCC here next year. Stay tuned for the outcome of the CFC vote. We are looking for people to help with the organization.  This is your chance to find out what you can do for Junior Chess in BC.  Get involved!

2011 Canadian Chess Challenge

On May 22-23, 2011, Victoria, BC hosted the 23nd Annual Canadian Chess Challenge (CCC), where each provincial team brought forth their top Grade 1 to 12 students to compete for the National Championship by grade level.  This was the first time that British Columbia has ever hosted this National Championship. Read full report http://www.bcjuniorchess.com/canadian-national-chess-challenge-2011/

Get the Results   http://www.bcjuniorchess.com/canadian-chess-challenge-2011/

BC – Washington International Match

Team BC met Team Washington for the 20th annual International Match on May 14th. In the closest contest anyone can remember Team BC came out ahead by a single point  to bring the trophy to BC.  More on the event can be found on the Team BC page.

BC Youth Championship 2011

BC’s Youth Chess Champions for 2011

This tournament was held in Richmond on April 30/May 1 2011.

Tournament Results

Tournament Report

Photos

BC Chess Challenge Results

Alexandra Botez wins $105,000 chess scholarship to University of Texas.

A local girl who’s gone south in pursuit of chess dreams has just won first place at the All Girls National Championship in Chicago.  Many local players got their start when they were taught by Alexandra’s dad Andrei.  Although Alexandra plays extensively in the US she is still considered a BC girl and is a regular at local events. Check out the full story on the USCF website here.

Karsten McVay, Alexandra Botez and Michael Khodarkovsky,

Photo by Betsy Dynako, with thanks to The United States Chess Federation

See the Chess in the Schools story on USA TODAY

Check out this great student  news story on chess in the schools that just aired on CNN.

Results And Commentary From Recent Events

The second BC Junior Chess  scholastic tournament at Lansdowne Mall  (Feb 20th) saw 73 kids compete in all grades from K to 12.   Get the results crosstables.

Mayo Fuentebella won the Valentines Open with 4.5 points out of 5 in a strong field with three players rated over 2300 and 6 over 2000.

The first scholastic tournament of the new year (Jan 16th) welcomed 88 kids to the first BC Junior Chess  tournament  at the Lansdowne Mall location. Read the full commentary,  and get the results crosstables.

You can access all Results (most of them with crosstables) and get Chess News and commentary. Also, don’t forget out Photo Gallery, which has thousands of photos from many junior chess events.

2010 Highlight! Jason Cao – U10 Open World Champion!!

BC’s Jason Cao won the 2010 World Chess Championship for Boys Under 10 in Greece.

Nine year old Jason earned a FIDE Master title in the process making him the youngest chess master in the country. Jason competed in a field of 150 champions from across the globe. He played strong opponents from Brazil, the Ukraine, Belarus, Ireland, Spain, Italy. The toughest challenges came from India and the US. In the end he scored 8 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss for 9 points out of a possible 11.

Congratulations Jason.

Jason Cao, 2010 World Under 10 Chess Champion