Newfoundlanders playing chess

How popular is chess in Newfoundland today? I remember chess in the late 80s being somewhat active. Who would be the top players of today and yesterday from Newfounland?

Although I know nothing of the 80s (not being alive at the time...)  I started played chess in St. John's in 2009.  It's mostly been the same players since then that have been at the top and that are frequent visitors in tournaments.  The die-hards, who have been playing for ages, are Brian Oliver, Samir El-Gohary, Alick Tsui (a big part of NL chess who directs nearly every tournament and assists the Newfoundland and Labrador Scholastic Chess Association) among others.  

As for the top players, the top spot almost certainly goes to FM Grant Spraggett, brother of Canadian GM Kevin Spraggett.  Grant won the Newfoundland Open from 2003-2007, only giving one draw in those years!  He no longer plays much, pursuing other interests.

Other former champions: Dustin Cole won the title in 2008.  In 2009, Jordan Berson (who uses to be part of this group under the name WarrenPeace until he decided chess.com wasn't for him) won the title after he defeated me 3-1 in a playoff (we had tied for first with 4/5 in the tournament).  And finally, Morgon Mills won the title in 2010 with 4.5/5, ahead of me with 4/5 and Jordan with 3.5/5.  Morgon also played in the Canadian Closed championship and scored an astonishing 5/9 against some of the best players in Canada.

The 2011 Newfoundland Open is in less than two weeks, in fact.  With many of the above names not playing (Grant and Jordan in semi-retirement, Dustin has not been seen since, and Morgon has recently become a father so he has other obligations) it looks like the top contenders are Nihad Dervesivec, formerly from Yugoslavia who has tied for the title in 2001-2002, and myself.

Thank you Twan for the information. I wish you the best of luck in the upcoming Newfoundland Open. It would be nice to follow your progess at the tournment. I assume in will be held in St. John's. Is the tournament open to spectators?

Where is the Newfoundland open being played? When I played in the Newfoundland Open it was played at the University either played at the Queen Elizabeth II Library or one of the rooms in the Science Building.

The players I played against were Warrick Walker, Keith Hanlon, Cameron Locke, and Newfoundland's first 2000 player Jim Duffett.

Good Luck Anthony and the other players.

Keep us informed of the leader board.

Dougrob

http://www.chess.nl.ca/NLCA/2011/NLOpen_2011_Info.html

This is the recent news posting about the tournament.  Note that you can go to www.chess.nl.ca/NLCA to view nearly all previous tournaments and results as well.  The tournament is held in a room in the Health Science building and I don't think there is a problem with observers (other than the obvious don't disturb other players!) There is a Tim Horton's nearby for refreshments and there's usually a few empty rooms around, which we usually conduct post mortems in.

Jim Duffett is a player I forgot to mention.  He is one of the few players I've played a tournament game with that I haven't managed a single win against (I'm currently at one loss and one draw).  He is an incredibly tough player to beat.  He has since dropped below 2000 and also has not played in over a year, likely due to his interest in pool as of late (from what I hear, a team he plays with won a trip to Las Vegas to play pool, so he must be quite good!).

Cameron Locke resides on the west coast so we don't really hear much from him.  He's more involved with teaching chess I think.  I had the opportunity to speak with him at the Canadian Chess Challenge Provincials as we were both adjudicators, and he is also quite a strong player.  Both he and Jim have won the championship in a previous year.

Another interesting link: http://web.ncf.ca/bw998/CanadianChess/History/CanadianChessChampionsNL.html

I will do a report on the tournament, either during or after it has concluded.

The Newfoundland Open concluded today.  It was 4 rounds long.  Here are all of my games from the tournament:

Congrats on your winning the title. How many players were there for the event?

9 I believe, although it was closer to 8;  Blair Ozon could only play a few rounds so Alick Tsui played the rest so we would still have an even number of players each round (there were 4 games played each round).

I wished I could have come into St.John's to play in the tournament. Are there many tournaments being played. There used to be a team competition 10-15 years ago.

There is a tournament the last week of every month, but you have to be a CFC member to play in them.

The Newfoundland Chess Association, now the Newfoundland & Labrador Chess Association, was founded in 1969. The first Newfoundland Chess Open was played in the same year. The trophy for the event was donated by the Downtown Development Corporation and first won by Roger Langen , winner of the event on six other occasions, most recently in 2017 and 2018. The trophy has recently been accepted for permanent recognition as a significant historical object. It will be housed sometime in 2023 at the Newfoundland historical museum, The Rooms. 

I’m only here and joined cuz I have two dogs that are from Newfoundland and are newfoundlands so can I stay?