Golden Knights Chess Club News 2006-07

Year in review
Last updated: Mar 29th, 2007

August - December, 2006
This school year our activity was been divided more careful into level groups with the purpose to improve our activity, as well as to encourage all students to get involved more. Our level groups:
Golden Knights (under Eugen) - advanced players; test required to join
Silver Knights (under Andrei) - beginners/ intermediate players

BC Junior Championship Qualifier
Since there was a lack of tournaments offered to juniors, we have requested and received approval from BC Chessⁱ Federation to run a qualifier for the 2006 BC Junior Championship scheduled for the Remembrance Day long weekend from November. You can read more details about this HERE

BC Junior Championship
We accounted for 1/3 of the field (11 out of 32 players) participating at the BC Junior Championship: 4 players in the Championship group and 7 in the Reserves group. We dominated the Reserves group as can be seen here:

BC - WA Intermat
Team BC, scheduled to play in the annual match vs Washington State, selected this year 1/3 of the team lineⁱ-up from our club. Unfortunately our results were not very good; team BC lost the match and we were partially responsible for that. Details HERE

Starting Nov 22nd, 2006 the new BC Junior Coordinator is Ken Jensen, father of Jacob Jensen from our advanced group. Ken will have the task to continue the good work by Stephen Wright and Katherine Davies during the past few years. He will receive help from a Parents Committee put together by another chessⁱ enthusiast Jay Zhao.

Near the end of the calendar year it was due to have some fun during the last 2 club meetings. We held a blitzⁱ tournament won by Nicholas (Golden Knights) and Bill (Silver Knights), as well as a team tournament where teams of two (one Golden + one Silver Knightⁱ) faced each other in a Swiss format.

January - July, 2007
Every year in January we start the quest for crowning our club and the beginners' group Champions. This year was no different and despite a snowy month of January, the traditional groups were formed. The lineⁱ-ups were adjusted a few times as new players joined and regular players dropped out.

Still in January the club reached an important milestone: Eugen was awarded the title of FIDE Instructor by FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs/ World Chessⁱ Federation). More details HERE

The annual chessⁱ workshop took place in mid February and proved as successful as ever. More details HERE

January, February and March were special this time around. BC Junior Coordinator Ken Jensen together with TDs Andrei and Eugen, plus an enthusiastic group of volunteer parents (special mention goes to Jensen, Lee and Doknjas families) started this year on a high note by organizing the first series of 3 Grand Prix tournaments. More details HERE

April saw two important tournaments scheduled:
1. The school team championship (elementary and secondary). Port Moody Secondary tried to defend their title with a weaker lineⁱ-up. Read HERE what happened!

2. BC Chessⁱ Challenge took place in Victoria on the island, hosted by our good friends led by TDs Brian Raymer, Greg Herringer and Greg Churchill. The tournament was top notch, bringing back very nice memories from CYCC 2005. Grand Pacific Hotel of Victoria, BC was again an excellent host. Quite a few of us - 18 more precisely - made it there with their families, played tough games and had a great time. Unfortunately me and Andrei could not make it there this year. Final result are HERE

Canadian Chessⁱ Challenge (national final) took place on May 20-21, 2007 in Quebec City. Team BC continued the strong play from recent years finishing tied for 3rd place with Alberta. The traditional powerhouse teams of Ontario and Quebec finished again 1st and 2nd. The final standings and comments HERE

BC Youth Chessⁱ Championship (May 22nd): 58 players (18 from our club) chose to participate this time around in the provincial finals. Looking at the bright side we can say they are the best prospects of the day in our province. Their efforts should be appreciated, supported and encouraged! Those who decided not to come missed a good chance to play some very good games and get a fair shot at having their names engraved on the traditional trophies by age, rewarding the provincial Champions. Final result are HERE

In June John Doknjas became the blitzⁱ club champion one full point ahead of second place and after an exciting 5 rounds Swiss tournament with 29 players. The best Silver Knights at the end of it were: Tommy Andrews, Josh Doknjas, Jeremy Hui, West Tomelden and Karen Lam.

Shortly after the blitzⁱ tournament we had the pleasure to award the club titles:
Nicholas Sorko - Club Champion
Jeremy Hui - Rookie Champion

10 students from our club made the trip to Ottawa to play in their respective age groups at the national finals and a chance at winning the title and qualifying for the Canadian national team (top 3 per age group).

Canadian Open chessⁱ Championship (July 7-15): last but not least and for the first time an important tournament for us. Find out why HERE