Tournament info
Name: Championnat Ouvert d’Échecs de Laval
When: June 23 – 25, 2017
Where: Holiday Inn Laval Montreal
2900 boulevard Le Carrefour, Laval, Quebec H7T 2K9
Organizer: Roxane Poulin
Chief Arbiter: Alexander Ber
Basic
Last year, Annual Laval Open was held at a community center, which is a routine venue for most local tournaments. However, last year the humid and high temperature at the tournament site was unbearable for participants. With the effort by the organizer this year, it was hosted at Holiday Inn Laval with air-conditioner on all the time. The organizer also did better job at marketing, and thus it attracted more players.
Just a little bit more thoughts, effort and a bit passion, things turned out to be so much different.
I especially like the organizer Roxane, a pretty lady with so much energy and more importantly, so dedicated to chess community. Her speech at the ceremony motivated and inspired many kids. It is always fun to have her in a tournament.
A little thoughts
Chess event might be one of the most difficult to market in the world. Chess players are considered as smart, strategic, forward-thinking and patient. However, people also think they are nerdy, geeky and …(period). All these are just misconceptions: our limited experience may have skewed our view.
Chess players come in all varieties. The image depends on individuals. Modern chess players don’t just stare at chess board 24 hours. They work out on regular basis, staying in shape to boost their energy levels and mental stamina for long games. They could be anything but nerdy.
Take the reigning champion, Carlsen, as an example: he is a western young guy with viking bone structure, non-smoking (seemingly) and seems to be sitting at the cool kids’ table all the time. Isn’t he the most marketable chess player ever since? He appears to be comfortable to be just himself, exploring the world opened in front of him.
In a word: he is no geek.
@ the tournament
The first round of the tournament started sharp at 7PM on Friday evening. Qiuyu managed a win against MoK Yuen Tak. MoK Yuen Tak is a strong player and he was section champion at annual Varenne Open at least once.
At the second round, Qiuyu got paired with Marin Sam, who is obviously underrated on all federation ranking. He is also a very serious chess player. When he is playing, he seems to be very dedicated to the board. Qiuyu won after a long positional play.
At the third round Qiuyu was paired with CHIKU-RATTE Olivier-Kenta, who is one of the fellow captains at Sunday Elite League, rated over 2300+. Both of them have had several encounters before. Unfortunately, Qiuyu lost the game.
At the fourth round, Qiuyu was again paired with an old friend: JOHNSON-CONSTANTIN Matthieu, who is one of his current team members at Sunday Elite League . Expert Matthieu is a dedicated chess play, who still makes efforts to balance his life between chess and hectic school schedule. Qiuyu won for this round. They went to analysis room to analyse the positions.
Matthieu had a cool hair style at the time. It surely required certain level of good maintenance each day…
The last round is stressful to those who think they have some chance in winning the tournament (top 3). Whoever got over 3 points after round 5 might start thinking about “winning/losing/drawing” scenarios. Lots of “if…then” run through their head. But whoever survived those crazy thoughts will get to have a real and serious play at round 6.
Qiuyu was paired with LOPEZ LINARES Lizandro Fernando for the last round. They have already had many encounters at the Wednesday chess club and those games usually involve many unexpected turns. There was no exception for this one.
In the beginning, both of them took their time to carefully develop their strategy and both avoided aggressive maneuver in the middle game. Inevitably, the slow development resulted in over-packed board when their time was down to few minutes. While they started to blitz away pieces to gain time, people gathered and surrounded the board, watching closely in dead silence. Massive exchanges were observed and done in a few seconds. Suddenly, something happened: people started whispering to each other while Fernando was desperately holding his head with rumbling fingers, biting his lip like crazy. The observers then put on those weird smiles on their face, walking away with their heads slightly shaking.
The truth was revealed immediately: due to time pressure, Fernando forgot to take one of Qiuyu’s piece. This was a mistake that cannot be mended as it was already in end game. Qiuyu won the game; no suspense here.
This win concluded Qiuyu as the second position of the entire tournament.
Outside the tournament room
I spent some fun time with Roxane. We had a good laugh over her impression of Qiuyu: he is a little smiling quiet Buddha to her. “He always appears to be calm and composed. No hint of stress on his face,” she said.
The tournament hall at Holiday Inn is huge. The air-conditioner was on all the time; which was an absolute opposite to last year. Friends and families can stay in the hall but complete silence was required as always.
The hotel provided their restaurant as the analysis room and offered free popcorn to players. It turned out to be the favorite place for young players. The popcorn and various playable machines attracted them.
Arranging a serious chess tournament is no easy job. The good thing is that with some efforts and thorough thoughts, there is always room to improve.
A big thanks to the organizer!
Photos:
Kids having lunch and popcorn at the lounge:
Analysis after a game: (With Mathiew and Gabriel):
I found this photo fun to look at: kids and the red pendant light: they are watching a sport game on TV:
