2020 Maritime Chess Festival
— — Fred McKim
The 2020 MCF was held on Thanksgiving weekend at Credit Union Place in Summerside, PEI. Because of Covid-19 certain precautions had to be put in place to comply with Facility and Provincial standards.
A roped off playing area was used where anyone present inside were required to wear masks. Plenty of Hand Sanitizer was available and players were recommended to use it when coming and going from the playing area. Wipes were used on the pieces and boards between playing sessions. While masks were not required in the rest of the building a majority of players and parents kept them on all of the time. Please feel free to contact me if you are looking for any advice on putting on an event.
Friday night was the Maritime Blitz Championship. Robert DiDiodato captured first place while second went to Peter Turner. Ethan Saunders captured Top Under 1800.
This year our main event was the PEI Open. We instituted a special time control of 45/30 so that any one game would only last 2.5 hours max - for the comfort of players wearing masks. We had 21 players participating in the two day event. Peter Turner and Fred McKim tied for 1st, with Peter capturing the ANVO Pharma Trophy on tie-break. Second was shared between Philippe Cliche, Jason Manley, Jonathan MacDonald and Andrew Sullivan. Top Under 1800 was Brian Zhang, Under 1600 was Calix Marchand, and U1400 was Michelle Zhang. Andy Wang won the Top Junior prize (donated by Jonathan MacDonald).
On Monday we held 3 events. The Maritime Amateur (U1700) had a tie for 1st between Larissa Stevenson and Andy Wang. Under 1400 was shared by Andreas Doemer and Josh MacRitchie. Landon Cromwell was Top U1200 and Cecily Doemer was R-up in this group. Calix Marchand was Top Junior.
The Maritime Senior was a photo finish with a 3 way tie between Richard Bowes, Peter MacKean and Peter Turner.
The Maritime Junior (U1500) was won by Calix Marchand, while 2nd and 3rd were captured by Josh MacRitchie and Andreas Doemer. First and second in U1000 were Landon Cromwell and Cecily Doemer.
Finally I’d like to welcome everyone to the 2021 Maritime Chess Festival, at CUP on Thanksgiving weekend in a year’s time.
