2012 Grand Pacific Open

The surprise of the Canadian tournament season was the appearance of 6th in the world GM Hikaru Nakamura at the GPO!  Well of course they broke an attendance record, darlings :)  People were eager for a chance to see Nakamura in action, even if they didn't get near him on the table!

With the advent of Nakamura it didn't seem likely that last year's champion, WGM Nino Maisuradze, would repeat as champion.  She did, however, have a very creditable tournament, going 5.0/6 and finished in clear second place.  Nakamura was 6.0/6.  I would have fallen over in a faint if he hadn't finished with that score.

Congratulations to the winners of the Goddesschess prizes for chess femmes!

Report from the organizers:

Open Section:

1st: GM Hikaru Nakamura $1150 + Trophy 6 points

2nd: WGM Nino Maisuradze $700 5 points

3rd: Nicolas Haynes, Lucas Davies, Alisher Sanetullaev, Jack Yoos, Jamin Gluckie, Howard Wu: $75 each, 4.5 points

Top BC Player (qualifies for BC Closed): Lucas Davies.

U2100: Benedict Daswani (Trophy), Jason Cao, Janak Awatranami, James Chan, $200 each. 4 points.

Top Women (Courtesy of Goddess Chess): Nino Maisuradze $80 5 points, Becca Lampman $70 3 points, Lan Ma $70 3 points, Alice Xiao $60 2.5 points, Polly Wright $50 2.5 points, Jill Ding $40 2 points.

Top Junior (Courtesy Yaron Gvili): Tanraj Sohal, Lionel Han $50 each 4 points.

Furthest travelled: Adrian Check (Australia)!

Full Final Standings Open and U1800. 

6th Grand Pacific Open!

Goddesschess provides sponsorship for this great event in British Columbia that takes place over Easter weekend, now in its 6th year.  Preregistered players up to 90 - hope they break a record!

2012 Grand Pacific Open

April 6 - 9, 2012

Victoria, British Columbia

at the beautiful Grand Pacific Hotel

The latest news is that GM Hikaru Nakamura is registered and confirmed to play in the Grand Pacific Open.  Say what?  All I know is that HN is listed as a confirmed player and this has been confirmed by one of the organizers, Brian Raymer.  Soooo.....WOW.  Fricking WOW!

WGM Nino Maisuradze

WGM Nino Maisuradze, 2011 Champion with a perfect 6-0, is returning to defend her title!  Hooray!  Oh my, she's going to have to face Nakamura OTB.  Guess who I'll be rooting for - YOU GO GIRL! 

Games of Nino Maisuradze at chessgames.com

Register online for the Grand Pacific Open. 

We increased the prizes for the chess femmes a modest amount this year.  We hope to see a great chess femme turn-out - we were very pleased with last year's turn-out and hope to top it!  Goddesschess prizes are awarded in addition to any prizes a female player wins. 

So come on out and play, and who knows?  Maybe one of the rising young regional players in the GPO can humble the mighty GM.  Well, this is the stuff of which dreams are made...

2012 Grand Pacific Open

Prepare for an Easter holiday playing chess in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia at the 2012 Grand Pacific Open on the premises of the five-star Grand Pacific Hotel!  This is the second year Goddesschess is sponsoring special prizes just for the ladies in the Open, this year 80/70/60/50/40 Canadian.