Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Who was that man ?

Several players asked me last Tuesday and again on Saturday, "Who was that young man that visited us".

It was local (but currently inactive) player John Burstow. Apart from being one of the top players in Manitoba for several decades, he also was deemed the 1963 Canadian Junior Champion (a mere 47 years ago) as the Top junior at 1962 Canadian Open Championship and was Canada's representative at the 1963 World Junior Championship.

If you were wondering how strong John and Fletcher Baragar were near their peak periods, take a look at this crosstable (the Canadians were grossly underrated in those days-look who they drew or defeated - very impressive):

From (http://www3.telus.net/public/swright2/vanicc.html)
FIDE Open

Vancouver, August 19811234567890
1Miles, Tony2593W18W24D13D11W9D19W5W3L2W77.5
2Suttles, Duncan2557W4L11W25W13W15L5D8W14W1W37.5
3Seirawan, Yasser2601D8D5W22W32W11W6W19L1W12L27.0
4Assmann, Thomas2240L2W30W17W26L6W32L16W23W18W87.0
5Taylor, Gordon2302W28D3D7D12W24W2L1W8D9D66.5
6Harper, Bruce2331L 0W12D19L15W4L3W9D7D14D56.0
7Donaldson, John2323W32D10D5L19W13W14D12D6W11L16.0
8Burstow, John2150D3L14W33W35W10W9D2L5W24L46.0
9Day, Lawrence2438D10W16W26W21L1L8L6W15D5W196.0
10Weber, Peter2200D9D7D12W27L8D18W26W32L17W206.0
11Baragar, Fletcher2241W20W2D14D1L3L12D15W16L7W175.5
12Cramling, Pia2235W30L6D10D5W16W11D7D13L3D145.5
13Zuk, Bob2222W17W21D1L2L7W15L14D12W19D165.5
14Piasetski, Leon2398W23W8D11D24D19L7W13L2D6D125.5
15Hund, Barbara2221D25D22W16W6L2L13D11L9W23W245.5
16Hawkes, Rob2254W31L9L15W18L12W21W4L11W27D135.5
17Forbes, Gerry1982L13W36L4W29W27W23L24D18W10L115.5
18Pupols, Viktors2318L1D20W35L16W26D10W32D17L4W255.5
19Macskasy, Elod2225W34W33D6W7D14D1L3D24L13L95.0
20Dougherty, Mike2021L11D18L24W36L25W22D30W26W21L105.0

1234567890
21Ferguson, Bobby1946W29L13W23L9L32L16W35W25L20W315.0
22Szabo Jr., Alex2002W36D15L3D28L23L20D31D33W26W 05.0
23Brown, Paul2062L14W34L21W25W22L17W27L4L15W285.0
24Berry, Jonathan2302D33L1W20D14L5W25W17D19L8L154.5
25O'Donnell, Tom2003D15W35L2L23W20L24W28L21W31L184.5
26Farges, Yves2003W35W27L9L4L18W28L10L20L22W 04.0
27Ellis, Steve1948W37L26W28L10L17W34L23W30L16L294.0
28Dimitrijevic, D2147L5W29L27D22D34L26L25W35W30L234.0
29Barclay, Wayne2153L21L28L34L17W35L30W36L31W32W274.0
30Kurtovic, Tom2139L12L4L32W33D31W29D20L27L28D353.5
31Petras, Mike1981L16L32D36D34D30D33D22W29L25L213.5
32Skulsky, Ian2041L7W31W30L3W21L4L18L10L29L 03.0
33Dubisch, Ralph1943D24L19L8L30W36D31D34D22L 0L 03.0
34Wilson, Steve1957L19L23W29D31D28L27D33L36L 0L 02.5
35Day, Angela1736L26L25L18L8L29D36L21L28W 0D302.0
36Phipps, Bill1789L22L17D31L20L33D35L29W34L 0L 02.0
37Rudolph, Alexey1873L27L 0L 0L 0L 0L 0L 0L 0L 0L 00.0
Source: 51-24

The third installment of the 1981 Vancouver Chess Congress was a FIDE-rated International Swiss, limited to players rated above 2000 (or juniors above 1900). Held in the Henry Angus Building at UBC, the tournament was originally scheduled for eleven rounds, but with only thirty-eight players entered this was changed to ten rounds and a rest day. The event saw the return to tournament chess of Duncan Suttles, who had not played since 1976. However, he faced tough competition from England number one Tony Miles and new U.S. champion Yasser Seirawan, along with IMs Leon Piasetski and Lawrence Day and other hungry hopefuls.

After eight rounds the three grandmasters were ahead of the pack: Miles (6.5) had just taken over the lead by beating Seirawan (6) while Suttles (5.5) was third. In round nine Suttles beat Miles and Seirawan won, leaving Yasser in the lead by half a point going into the last round. This saw the completion of the Cinderella story as Suttles beat Seirawan to tie for first with Tony Miles, who ground down John Donaldson; each scored 7.5. Seirawan tied for third with the unheralded young German Thomas Assmann, while current B.C. Champion Gordon Taylor was all alone in fifth place with 6.5. Gordon's result was sufficient for an IM norm, while Bruce Harper, Fletcher Baragar, and Elod Macskasy made FM norms and Pia Cramling an IGM norm.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Burstow sighting! Whaaat!?

May 20, 2010 at 9:42 PM

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