Edmonton Chess Festival 2008

Report by Vitaly Motuz

The 3rd Edmonton chess festival took place in the capital of Alberta, Canada, from July 29th to August 4th. This year's event was specially dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Edmonton chess club, one of the oldest clubs in the city.

The Edmonton chess festival was followed with lectures, simuls and tournaments. However, the main event was the Edmonton international which consisted of 25 players from 7 different countries. "This year's Edmonton international was even bigger and stronger than its predecessors" says Vlad Rekhson, the head organizer. This tournament was extremely competitive because it included 5 GMs: Alexander Moiseenko from Ukraine, Surya Shekhar Ganguly from India, Alexander Shabalov from US, Mark Bluvshtein from Canada and Jesse Kraai from US among with many other strong players.

GM Jesse Kraai's lecture
GM Jesse Kraai's lecture

GM Mark Bluvshtein giving a simul
GM Mark Bluvshtein giving a simul

After a close battle between the players, GM Alexander Moiseenko with the rating of 2632 managed to take the first place with the score of 7.0 out of 9. The second place went to GM Alexander Shabalov 2611 for scoring 6.5 points.

Round 6: GM Alexander Shabalov 2611 - GM Alexander Moiseenko 2632

[Event "Edmonton International"]
[Site "Edmonton Chess Club"]
[Date "2008/8/3"]
[Round "Round 6"]
[White "GM Alexander Shabalov"]
[Black "GM Alexander Moiseenko"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Board "1"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8.
Na3 b5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5 f5 11. Bd3 Be6 12. O-O Bxd5 13. exd5 Ne7 14. Qh5 e4
15. Be2 Bg7 16. c3 O-O 17. Nc2 f4 18. f3 f5 19. fxe4 fxe4 20. Bg4 Kh8 21. Rae1
Be5 22. Be6 e3 23. g3 Qb6 24. Kh1 fxg3 25. hxg3 e2 26. Rf3 Rxf3 27. Qxf3 Ng6
28. Ne3 Rf8 29. Nf5 b4 30. c4 Qa5 31. Qb3 Ne7 32. g4 Qd8 33. Qh3 Ng6 34. Qh6
Nf4 35. Kg1 Qf6 36. Qxf6+ Rxf6 37. Kf2 Bxb2 38. Kf3 Bc3 39. Kxf4 Bxe1 40. Ke3
Bg3 41. Kxe2 Be5 42. Kd3 a5 43. Kc2 Rg6 44. Nh4 Rh6 45. Nf3 Bf4 46. g5 Rh1 47.
Kb3 Rc1 48. Ka4 Rc3 49. Nd4 Ra3+ 50. Kb5 Rxa2 51. c5 dxc5 52. Kxc5 Be3 0-1

Left: Alexander Moiseenko; right: Alexander Shabalov
On the left is the winner of the Edmonton international, Alexander Moiseenko. Receiving 2nd place, Alexander Shabalov, is on the right.

A nice bonus to the tournament was that FM Raja Panjwani managed to obtain his 2nd IM norm that should make him one step closer to getting the title of an International Master. Congratulations Raja!

Round 3 of the Edmonton International: IM Joshua Friedel playing white against FM Raja Panjwani as black.
Round 3 of the Edmonton International: IM Joshua Friedel playing white against FM Raja Panjwani as black.

WFM Tamara Bolvary is playing white against Vladimir Pechenkin, a new Edmonton master.
WFM Tamara Bolvary is playing white against Vladimir Pechenkin, a new Edmonton master.

WFM Elizabeth Vicary 2145 from the United States.
WFM Elizabeth Vicary 2145 from the United States.

A round robin tournament was held for the lower rated group of players. It was devided by rating into 4 sections with 6 players in each. Roy Yearwood, 2131, from Calgary, won the top section gaining 3.5 points out of 5.

Edmonton International

The 3rd Edmonton chess festival ended up in a huge success thanks to the organizers and everyone who contributed to it. The new tradition of annual chess festivals in Edmonton will continue into the next years.

Vitaly Motuz has recently moved to Edmonton. He has been involved in chess for a couple of years and he started playing in the club in 2007. Vitaly has proven himself as a great TD for his responsibility. He is also the web designer and web developer of the ECF website and the one who set up the system for online broadcasting of the top games.