The Canadian Open Chess Championship is Canada's Open chess championship, first held in 1956, and held annually since 1973, usually in mid-summer. It is organized by the Chess Federation of Canada. The event celebrated its 50th rendition in 2013.

History

It was organized every two years from 1956 until 1970. The tournament rotates around the country, and has been held in eight of Canada's ten provinces during its 63-year history, missing only Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The format has usually been a Swiss system with nine or ten rounds, usually over a nine-day period. It is open to all players who wish to enter, from Grandmasters to beginners.

The Championship's list of winners has included some of the world's strongest players, including Grandmasters Boris Spassky (in 1971, while he was World chess champion), Bent Larsen, Alexei Shirov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Viktor Bologan, Artur Yusupov, Bu Xiangzhi, Alexander Moiseenko, Kevin Spraggett, Ljubomir Ljubojević, Larry Evans, Pal Benko, William Lombardy, Gyula Sax, Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Walter Browne, Tony Miles, Larry Christiansen, Joel Benjamin, Eduardas Rozentalis, Vladimir Tukmakov, Jonathan Rowson, Luke McShane, Vladimir Epishin, Vladimir Malaniuk, Pentala Harikrishna, Alexander Shabalov, Nigel Short, Eric Hansen, and many other top stars.

The first tournament in Montreal 1956 was noteworthy for the presence of 13-year-old Bobby Fischer, a future World chess champion, who tied for 8-12th places. Montreal 1974 saw the largest attendance to date, with 648 players. Ottawa 2007 set a tournament record with 22 Grandmasters participating. Canadian Grandmaster Kevin Spraggett has the record for most titles with eight (either clear first or shared). Laszlo Witt made a perfect score (9-0) at Ottawa 1962; this was matched by Alexander Cherniev at Regina 2019. Mark Bluvshtein is the youngest champion, at age 17 at Edmonton in 2005. Daniel Yanofsky was the oldest champion, at age 54, also in Edmonton in 1979. Toronto has hosted the most Opens with ten, followed by Ottawa with seven and Edmonton with six.

The 2014 edition was held in Montreal from July 19–26. In 2015, no tournament was held. In 2018, the Open was held in Quebec City on July 6–13. In 2019, it was held in Regina, Saskatchewan, the first time ever in that province.

For both 2020 and 2021, the championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 championship was held July 12–17 in Hamilton, Ontario. The 2023 championship was held in Calgary, July 22-30.

List of winners and tournament sites

# Year City Winner 1 1956 Montreal Larry Evans, William Lombardy 2 1958 Winnipeg Elod Macskasy 3 1960 Kitchener Anthony Saidy 4 1962 Ottawa Laszlo Witt 5 1964 Toronto Pal Benko 6 1966 Kingston Larry Evans 7 1968 Toronto Bent Larsen 8 1970 St. John's Bent Larsen 9 1971 Vancouver Boris Spassky, Hans Ree 10 1973 Ottawa Duncan Suttles 11 1974 Montreal Ljubomir Ljubojević 12 1975 Calgary Leonid Shamkovich 13 1976 Toronto Nick de Firmian, Lawrence Day 14 1977 Fredericton Jan Green-Krotki 15 1978 Hamilton Gyula Sax 16 1979 Edmonton Daniel Yanofsky 17 1980 Ottawa Lawrence Day 18 1981 Beauport Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov 19 1982 Vancouver Gordon Taylor 20 1983 Toronto Kevin Spraggett, Božidar Ivanović 21 1984 Ottawa Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Dave Ross, Brett Campbell, Denis Allan 22 1985 Edmonton Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Brian Hartman 23 1986 Winnipeg Artur Yusupov, Viktor Kupreichik 24 1987 Toronto Kevin Spraggett 25 1988 Toronto Lawrence Day 26 1989 Edmonton Vladimir Tukmakov 27 1990 Edmundston Georgi Timoshenko 28 1991 Windsor Walter Browne 29 1992 Toronto Alexei Barsov, Bryon Nickoloff 30 1993 London Kevin Spraggett 31 1994 Winnipeg Vladimir Tukmakov 32 1995 Toronto Kevin Spraggett, Eduardas Rozentalis, Deen Hergott, Bryon Nickoloff, Ron Livshits 33 1996 Calgary Kevin Spraggett 34 1997 Winnipeg Julian Hodgson 35 1998 Ottawa Kevin Spraggett, Dimitri Tyomkin, Michael Oratovsky, Evgeny Prokopchuk 36 1999 Vancouver Kevin Spraggett, Georgi Orlov 37 2000 Edmonton Joel Benjamin, Kevin Spraggett, Jonathan Rowson 38 2001 Sackville Tony Miles, Larry Christiansen 39 2002 Montreal Pascal Charbonneau, Jean Hébert, Jean-Marc Degraeve 40 2003 Kapuskasing Alexander Moiseenko 41 2004 Kapuskasing Alexander Moiseenko, Dimitri Tyomkin 42 2005 Edmonton Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov, Viktor Bologan, Mark Bluvshtein, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 43 2006 Kitchener Walter Arencibia, Abhijit Kunte 44 2007 Ottawa Bu Xiangzhi 45 2008 Montreal Alexander Moiseenko, Victor Mikhalevski, Eduardas Rozentalis, Matthieu Cornette 46 2009 Edmonton Mark Bluvshtein, Edward Porper 47 2010 Toronto Luke McShane 48 2011 Toronto Walter Arencibia, Joel Benjamin, Dejan Bojkov 49 2012 Victoria Eric Hansen 50 2013 Ottawa Nigel Short, Eric Hansen 51 2014 Montreal Sergei Tiviakov (on Armageddon tiebreak, ahead of Robin van Kampen and Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami) 52 2016 Windsor Gergely Antal 53 2017 Sault Ste. Marie Razvan Preotu, Aman Hambleton 54 2018 Quebec City Bitan Banerjee (on tiebreak, ahead of Raymond Kaufman) 55 2019 Regina Alexander Cherniaev 56 2022 Hamilton Nikolay Noritsyn, Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux 57 2023 Calgary Alexei Shirov 58 2024 Laval Jorden van Foreest 59 2025 Surrey FM Ryan Yang (Vancouver), Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux, FM Tymur Keleberda (Edmonton) and FM Stephen Willy (Washington State). All scored 7/9.

See also

External links

  • 2009 Canadian Open official website
  • 2013 Canadian Open official website
  • 2014 Canadian Open official website
  • 2016 Canadian Open official website