Canadian Open Chess Championship

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.

It was organized every two years from 1956 until 1970. The tournament rotates around the country, and has been held in seven of Canada's ten provinces during its 57-year history. 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 the only perfect score (9-0) at Ottawa 1962. 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.

List of winners and tournament sites

# Year City Winner
1 1956 Montreal Larry Evans, William Lombardy
2 1958 Winnipeg Elod Macskasy
3 1960 Kitchener Anthony Saidy
4 1962 Ottawa Laszlo Witt
5 1964 Toronto Pal Benko
6 1966 Kingston Larry Evans
7 1968 Toronto Bent Larsen
8 1970 St. John's Bent Larsen
9 1971 Vancouver Boris Spassky, Hans Ree
10 1973 Ottawa Duncan Suttles
11 1974 Montreal Ljubomir Ljubojević
12 1975 Calgary Leonid Shamkovich
13 1976 Toronto Nick de Firmian, Lawrence Day
14 1977 Fredericton Jan Green-Krotki
15 1978 Hamilton Gyula Sax
16 1979 Edmonton Daniel Yanofsky
17 1980 Ottawa Lawrence Day
18 1981 Beauport Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov
19 1982 Vancouver Gordon Taylor
20 1983 Toronto Kevin Spraggett, Bozidar Ivanovic
21 1984 Ottawa Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Dave Ross, Brett Campbell, Denis Allan
22 1985 Edmonton Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Brian Hartman
23 1986 Winnipeg Artur Yusupov, Viktor Kupreichik
24 1987 Toronto Kevin Spraggett
25 1988 Toronto Lawrence Day
26 1989 Edmonton Vladimir Tukmakov
27 1990 Edmundston Georgi Timoshenko
28 1991 Windsor Walter Browne
29 1992 Toronto Alexei Barsov, Bryon Nickoloff
30 1993 London Kevin Spraggett
31 1994 Winnipeg Vladimir Tukmakov
32 1995 Toronto Kevin Spraggett, Eduardas Rozentalis, Deen Hergott,
Bryon Nickoloff, Ron Livshits
33 1996 Calgary Kevin Spraggett
34 1997 Winnipeg Julian Hodgson
35 1998 Ottawa Kevin Spraggett, Dimitri Tyomkin,
Michael Oratovsky, Evgeny Prokopchuk
36 1999 Vancouver Kevin Spraggett, Georgi Orlov
37 2000 Edmonton Joel Benjamin, Kevin Spraggett, Jonathan Rowson
38 2001 Sackville Tony Miles, Larry Christiansen
39 2002 Montreal Pascal Charbonneau, Jean Hebert, Jean-Marc Degraeve
40 2003 Kapuskasing Alexander Moiseenko
41 2004 Kapuskasing Alexander Moiseenko, Dimitri Tyomkin
42 2005 Edmonton Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov, Viktor Bologan,
Mark Bluvshtein, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury
43 2006 Kitchener Walter Arencibia, Abhijit Kunte
44 2007 Ottawa Bu Xiangzhi
45 2008 Montreal Alexander Moiseenko, Victor Mikhalevski, Eduardas Rozentalis,
Matthieu Cornette
46 2009 Edmonton Mark Bluvshtein, Edward Porper
47 2010 Toronto Luke McShane
48 2011 Toronto Walter Arencibia, Joel Benjamin, Dejan Bojkov
49 2012 Victoria, British Columbia Eric Hansen
50 2013 Ottawa Nigel Short, Eric Hansen
51 2014 Montreal Sergei Tiviakov (on Armageddon tiebreak, ahead of
Robin van Kampen and Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami)

See also

References

External links

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