Stephen Wright
[Back issues of the Bulletin are available on the above webpages.]
JACK TAYLOR MEMORIAL
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the passing of Jack Taylor, which occurred on September 9th, 1974. A five-time B.C. champion (see below), Jack was a very popular player, and after his death his family sought a suitable way to remember him. They generously donated a beautiful trophy, the Jack Taylor Memorial Trophy, which was originally given to the winners of the B.C.C.F. Diamond Jubilee Tournaments. This annual event began in 1974 to celebrate the founding of the B.C.C.F.; it was one of B.C.'s premier events for a number of years, but declining participation led to its cancellation after the 1978 tournament. The trophy lay unused for several years, until it was decided in 1984 (the tenth anniversary) to hold an actual tournament in memory of Jack Taylor. In 1987 the tournament became an annual event, and has been held continuously ever since.
See http://www3.telus.net/public/swright2/taylormem.html
This year's edition of the Jack Taylor Memorial attracted twenty-one players to the University of Victoria. Scheduled for five rounds (three on Saturday, two on Sunday) with a five-hour playing session per game, the tournament ran into problems on the first day: not many lower-rated players were available at the start, which meant the usual round one mismatches were replaced by hard-fought games of considerable length. Consequently there was insufficient time to hold three games on the Saturday, so round three was cancelled and the tournament became a four-round event.
[Personally I feel it is a bit much to ask players to potentially play more than 10 or 12 hours of chess in a day; either the time control for the first couple of rounds should be shortened, or a round should be held on the Friday night, or the event should be scheduled for just four rounds - ed.]
When all was said and done, Ian Martinovsky and Jack Yoos tied for first with 3.5/4 - they drew with each other and won the rest of their games (although Yoos was fortunate to survive, let alone win, his first round game with Matthew Struthers). Five players scored 2.5 points: Dan Scoones and Paul Brown split the third-place prize, while Noam Davies, Manfrei Aquino and Paul Leblanc tied for the U2000 prizes. Josh Wild came first U1600.
Lynn Stringer directed with her usual energy, despite having suffered a serious fall just before the tournament - we wish you a swift recovery, Lynn! Greg Churchill organized the tournament, which was the second event in the 2004/2005 Island Grand Prix; the third is the Dan MacAdam Memorial in January.
A smaller than usual field of 11 participated in the annual Silver Star Challenge, Interior Qualifer for the B.C. Closed.
Notable results were Chai Phonchiangkwong of Vernon who is rapidly improving and finished undefeated with two draws and 4 points. Chai is invited to the B.C. Closed.
Also, junior Kevin Goodman of Vernon with a rating of 1429 had an outstanding performance of 3.5. Kevin drew one game and defeated two players with ratings at least 400 points higher than his.
Peter Labik lost only once to share first place with 4 points. The A class prize was won by Wally Steinke with 2.5
As previously reported, the 2004 WYCC took place in Heraklio, Crete from November 4-14. The Canadian delegation included B.C. players Alexandra Botez (U10G), Tiffany Tang (U14G), and Stefan Trandafir (U14B); they scored 5.5 (43rd out of 84 after tiebreaks), 5 (58th out of 93), and 3.5 (118th out of 123) respectively in the eleven-round event. Congratulations to you all: may this experience stand you in good stead in your future chess endeavours.
Commentary at The Knights chess club site (home club for Alexandra and Stefan):
http://romanians.bc.ca/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=13
Normally only games from the top ten boards in each section are generally available; the following games were provided by our players, with special thanks to Alexandra Botez for her annotations.