2021 Jack Taylor Memorial Event Report

Well, chess tournaments have finally returned after a nearly two year hiatus.   The 36th annual Jack Taylor Memorial was one of several tournaments held across Canada the weekend of Nov. 14th  and the first in BC since the 2020 BC Open.   Notwithstanding the ongoing pandemic, it seems people are ready to play and the event drew  95 players, smashing the previous in person event records.

As you might imagine, planning for this year's event was not without drama.    Normally, we would book the hotel roughly a year before as opposed to only 4 months out.  Our usual venue had been sold to the city to use as a residence for homeless people.   Finding a new place proved difficult and expensive - hence the change to a two day event instead of having a round on Friday evening.   Mixed reactions on that decision - it's convenient for out of town players who have difficulty making a Friday round but hard for players of a certain age to play 3 long games on Saturday.

And then there is the question of how many people would show up.   Would people have just quit chess?   Be gun shy about playing with COVID still around? Or would health regulation even permit the event to happen?   Well, as it turned out people were more than ready to play after so long, the Netflix series Queen's Gambit inspired many new players to play in a tournament, and the health regulations tightened up, then loosened, and finally allowed the event to play under (almost) normal conditions.

The turnout of 95 players was a surprise.    At this point, we are used to large numbers of juniors showing up but in fact the turn out was boosted mostly by new adult players, many of whom were fans of the Queen's Gambit series.   A Beth Harmon boom for the 2020s.....   Although new to the CFC and tournament chess, they were not newbies.   Typically they were online regulars with online ratings from 1200 to 1800 so hardly beginners.

Nothing quite like the sight of a tournament hall ready for action.....

..... and during the event.

In the end, NM Jason Kenney had a fairly uneventful road to clear first with a perfect score of 5-0.    His post tournament trip home was not nearly so uneventful as he made the decision to wait until Monday to drive the Malahat and take the Nanaimo ferry.   With Monday's record breaking rainfall and extensive flooding, it's a decision he ... er ... regrets.

Tied for 2nd a full point back were Eduardo Moura and Aiden Leong.     Aiden was the big surprise here - he entered the tournament with the lowest possible rating to qualify for the Premier (1400) and came 2nd!. 

Eduardo Moura and Jason Kenney in the last round...

The U1600 section was larger than normal for a 5 round event so a perfect score was necessary to win.    Fred Giroux took top honors with 5 points while newly resident to BC Azher Hossain took clear 2nd half a point back.   

The organizer (R. Patterson)  and 2nd place U1600 Azher Hossain.

Once again, this event was sponsored by the Jack Taylor Family, for which we are grateful.

Game File (pgn):  Top 5 boards.

Prize Winners:

Premier:

1st: Jason Kenney:    $500

2nd & Top U2000: Eduardo Moura, Aiden Leong:   $250 each

3rd-4th:  Patrick Huang, Sloan Setiadikurnia:  $75 each

U1800:  Isaac Trenton:   $200

U 1600:

1st: Fred Giroux  $250

2nd:  Azher Hossain:  $150

U1300:  Peter Mingrone, Sebastien Coste, $125 each.

Final Standings

Premier Section

U1600 Section