Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Medal statistics: Canada 9th place

Rk. FEDgoldsilverbronzeTotal
1AZEAZE3003
2CHNCHN2002
3USAUSA1203
4POLPOL1113
5KAZKAZ1113
6UKRUKR1012
7MGLMGL1001
8BLRBLR1001
9CANCAN1001
10INDIND0336
11VIEVIE0112
12SVKSVK0101
13IRIIRI0101
14ARMARM0101
15PERPER0101
16RUSRUS0033
17SWESWE0011
18NEDNED0011

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Jason at 2010 WYCC

The 2010 WYCC is a great experience for us, especially for Jason. He owes his success to so many people who helped and supported him.
Jason's school, Campus View Elementary in Victoria is one of the schools in Canada that introduced chess into the class. Jason felt that he was lucky that he could learn chess from his school. Mr. Gregory Churchill is Jason's chess teacher, who led Jason into the chess world and built a solid foundation for Jason to be able to continually improve. Jason believes Mr. Churchill is the best teacher. Jason benefits greatly from his school's chess program, he thinks that playing chess is good for his math, his reading and other school studies.
So many people helped Jason in the past two years. Thanks to the Victoria Junior Chess Club and to the Victoria Chess Club; and thanks to all the players who played chess with Jason or helped Jason.
Team Canada is like a big family. Andrei Botez, our delegation leader, did a great job! He helped, supported, and motivated Team Canada members with his hard work. Vlad Birarov is the only coach we had for the team and he helped Jason when he was not sure of some of his openings. Vlad also helped Jason prepare his games, and Jason said that he really liked the lines Vlad taught him. Vlad is a great coach! Victoria Doknjas, team players' mom, was the person who encouraged us to send Jason to 2010 WYCC and also efficiently post information on the team blog. Teresa Bellissimo, another team player's mom, was the person who helped to translate a lot of information from Greek into English and helped to monitor the U10 section. Andrew Giblon, team players' dad, helped with photos of Team Canada, updating the Team Canada blog, enhancing Team spirit by helping to organize the Team Awards Party. All other team members and their parents, whose names haven't been mentioned here, encouraged, supported and cheered Jason during the tournament.
We hope all parents and schools will see chess as a great sport for children to have the brain get exercised (chess is a sport in most countries). If Jason can be of any help in getting more children to play chess and getting more parents and schools to view chess as a great sport (not a game), he would be very happy.

Yes, chess is a great sport! GO CHESS!
Yunxu and Maureen (Jason Cao's Parents)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Jason performance in the news

In Victoria "The Colonist" newspaper
"Victoria boy, 9,takes first place in his age class at world chess tournament in Greece"

Read more

In Chessbase website:

"Another surprise was the Boys Under-10, which included top-seed American Samuel Sevian, rated 2105, yet which was won by unrated Canadian Jason Cao, who had a remarkable campaign throughout."

Canadian champion GM Spraggett blogging about WYCC

"Jason Cao shines at World Youth!"

"But the real story of Canada's participation this year was Victoria's Jason Cao gold medal in the Under-10 section!  Congrats Jason!!  Jason has earned bragging rights to being the strongest 9-year old in the world by virtue of his 8 wins, 2 draws and only 1 loss."



Read more on his blog.


Andrei

More video from WYCC will be posted here..

Now that I'm back to normal internet connecting speed I will post all the video's I got during the tournament. I will put together all the clips I got with each player. In maximum 2 weeks all the video will be uploaded.

Hope that everyone made it home safe.

Andrei

World chess champion: Jason Cao

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Canadian Team Awards (Tournament Ending Party)

Thank you Andrew and Andrei for making this tournament ending party a wonderful and memorable time for the Canadian Team Members.  GO Canada GO!
-- Victoria Jung-Doknjas

2010 WYCC Canadian Team

Andrea Botez (U8 Girls)  – Most Wins by Canadian Girl in WYCC – 6 wins

Nicole Birarov (U8 Girls)  - Most Wins as Black by a Canadian Girl in  WYCC - 4 wins

Joshua Doknjas (U8 Boys) - Best Performance by a Canadian Boy Against the Russian Players  (2.5/ 3 games)

Kelly Wang (U10 Girls) -  Outstanding Performance in the second third of WYCC (undefeated with 3 pts/3 games)

Minya Bai (U10 Girls) - Best Performance Ever by a Canadian Player from Windsor at WYCC
Janet Peng (U10 Girls) - Best Results by a Sibling Team at WYCC (Janet to accept prize for the Sibling Team)

Yuan Chen Zhang (U10 Boys) – Best start at the WYCC by a Canadian Boy (2 wins/2 games) 
Jason Cao (U10 Boys) – Most Wins by a Canadian Boy in WYCC – 7 wins 
Joseph Bellissimo (U10 Boys) – Most Draws by a Canadian Boy in WYCC – 6 draws (tie)

Melissa Giblon (U12 Girls) - Best “upset draw” – she drew a girl rated 800 points above her (2124), and also had a WYCC performance rating 250 points above her CFC rating

Jackie Peng (U12 Girls) – Best Rating Performance by a Canadian Girl in WYCC – 1901

Guannan Terry Song (U12 Boys) – Most Draws by a Canadian Boy in WYCC – 6 draws (tie)

Edward Song (U12 Boys) – Outstanding Performance in the first third of WYCC (undefeated with 3 pts/4 games)

Mark Plotkin (U12 Boys) – Winner Takes All Prize – 5 wins, 0 draws

John Doknjas (U12 Boys) – Best Performance by a Canadian Boy in his “junior year” of his age section (rating performance 1806)

Rebecca Giblon (U14 Girls) - Great comeback win – from down 2 pawns in an end game
Regina-Veronicka Kalaydina (U14 Girls) - best resistance against an Olympic team member - Dinara Sauakassova from Kazakhstan (now Girls U14 World Champion too).
Tanraj S. Sohal (U14 Boys) - Great Performance as White - 4 points

David Itkin (U14 Boys) – Best Performance by a Canadian Boy over current FIDE rating (current rating:  1819, rating performance 1940)

Alexandra Botez (U14 Girs) – Best Performance by a Canadian Girl in her “junior year” of her age section (rating performance 1605)

Boys u-16 Roman Sapozhnikov – Best Rating Performance by a Canadian Boy in WYCC - 2262

Jerry Xiong (U16 Boys) - Most “upset draws” over an FM – 2 in round 1 & 2

Marguerite Fan Yang (U18 Girl) - Best Performance by a Canadian Girl over current FIDE rating (current rating:  1574, rating performance 1703)

Vlad and Andrei were presented with a WYCC poster signed by all the Canadian Team






Thanks to Canadian parents

I would like to recognize and thank all of the Canadian parents (and other adults accompanying our team) who helped out to make this a true team effort:
  • Andrei Botez did everything necessary to get us organized and motivate the team, ran the daily team meetings, and even drove to the next town during the power outage to get to a web site for children playing against Romanian players.
  • Vlad Birarov was tireless in his work for the team, from compiling our opponents' games prior to the CYCC, to running the puzzle contest, to making himself available for pre-game pre and post-game analysis.
  • Victoria Jung-Doknjas took photos, posted information on the blog, created the team awards categories, and was a general all around helper.
  • Leo Song took daily photos in the main playing hall - please post them when possible!
  • Teresa Bellissimo and Maureen Yao did "hall / bathroom monitor" duty for the U10 section. Teresa was also generally an all around helper.
  • Victor Itkin compiled our daily team +/- scores.
  • Dr. Parmjit Sohal, Alex Kalaydina, and Aris Marghetis who served as arbiters.
- Andrew Giblon

Team Canada photos

Some pictures of the team awards and the awards ceremony:

- Andrew and Rebecca Giblon

Team photo

Team photo - we're #1!

Team Canada on the podium

Jason Cao, his parents, Vlad Birarov, Andrei Botez

Jason the Champion!

Greek dancers

Photos for rounds 9-11

Here are the photos for rounds 9 to 11 for the sections U12 - U18
- Andrew and Rebecca Giblon


 Round 9


Melissa Giblon, Girls U12

Jackie Peng, Girls U12

John Dokjnas, Boys U12

Mark Plotkin, Boys U12

Terry Song, Boys U12

Nicka Kalaydina, Girls U14

Rebecca Giblon, Girls U14

David Itkin, Boys U14

Tanraj Sohal, Boys U14

Alexandra Botez, Girls U16

Jerry Xiong, Boys U16

Roman Sapozhnikov, Boys U16


Round 10

Melissa Giblon, Girls U12

Jackie Peng, Girls U12

Terry Song, Boys U12

Mark Plotkin, Boys U12

John Doknjas, Boys U12

Rebecca Giblon, Girls U14

Nicka Kalaydina, Girls U14

Tanraj Sohal, Boys U14

David Itkin, Boys U14

Alexandra Botez, Girls U16

Roman Sapozhnikov, Boys U16

Jerry Xiong, Boys U16


Round 11
Melissa Giblon, Girls U12

Jackie Peng, Girls U12

Edward Song, Boys U12

Mark Plotkin, Boys U12

Terry Song, Boys U12

John Doknjas, Boys U12

Rebecca Giblon, Girls U14
Nicka Kalaydina, Girls U14

David Itkin, Boys U14

Tanraj Sohal, Boys U14

Alexandra Botez, Girls U16

Jerry Xiong, Boys 16

Roman Sapozhnikov, Boys U16

Marguerite Yang, Girls U18