Artiom Samsonkin, a student at St. Patrick Catholic Secondary School in Toronto, won the Canadian Junior Championship, held in that city, and will represent Canada at the World Junior Championship in Ankara, Turkey in August.
Here is the decisive game from the Canadian Junior. Mr. Samsonkin had White against Jonathan Tayar.
1.e2-e4 e7-e5 2.Nb1-c3 Ng8-f6 3.f2-f4
In the Vienna Gambit, much of the theory is more than a century old.
3. ... d7-d5! 4.f4xe5 Nf6xe4 5.Ng1-f3 Bc8-g4
More frequently played is 5. ... Bf8-e7.
6.d2-d3 Ne4xc3 7.b2xc3 c7-c5
A rare move. Black could develop a piece, or even play 7. ... d5-d4!?
8.Ra1-b1 Qd8-d7
A more active square was c7.
9.h2-h3 Bg4-h5 10.Bf1-e2 Bf8-e7 11.O-O O-O 12.d3-d4 Nb8-c6 13.Bc1-e3 c5-c4
The position resembles a Winawer Variation, except that Black has kept his dark square Bishop and has the other Bishop outside the French Defence pawn chain. But the strength of White's pawn at e5 trumps both of those considerations. Also in analogy with the French Defence, White threatened d4xc5, winning a pawn, securing d4, and opening up play along the d-file. True, the tripled pawns present a curious aspect, but each one controls an important central square. If 13. ... f7-f6 14.d4xc5! f6xe5?! 15.Nf3xe5! (highlights the exposed position of Black's Queen) Nc6xe5 16.Be2xh5, White holds the advantage.
14.Nf3-h2 Bh5xe2 15.Qd1xe2 f7-f5
Black admits that his opening strategy did not work. After 15. ...
f7-f6 16.Nh2-f3 f6xe5 17.d4xe5, White stands well.
16.g2-g4
This clarifies White's central superiority.
16. ... b7-b6 17.Qe2-g2 f5xg4 18.Nh2xg4 Kg8-h8 19.Be3-d2 Ra8-d8 20.Ng4-e3 h7-h6 21.Rf1xf8+ Be7xf8 22.Rb1-f1 Nc6-e7 23.Bd2-e1 Qd7-e6 24.Be1-h4 Kh8-h7 Diagram: 25.Ne3xd5
The combinational solution. Also good is 25.Qg2-g4.
25. ... Rd8xd5 26.Rf1xf8 Ne7-g6 27.Rf8-d8?
The move lets the genie out of the bottle. After the normal-looking 27.Qg2-e4 Rd5-a5, there is a complex continuation: 28.Bh4-f6!? Ra5xa2 29.Qe4-b7 Ra2-a1+ 30.Kg1-h2 Ra1-h1+! 31.Qb7xh1 Ng6xf8 32.Qh1-e4+ Kh7-g8 33.d4-d5 and White's connected passed pawns look good.
27. ... Rd5xd8 28.Bh4xd8 Qe6-d7! 29.Qg2-a8 Qd7xh3 30.Kg1-f2
Since the solid-looking Qa8-e4 could lead to a trade of Queens. It is easy to imagine that the players were in time trouble by now.
30. ... Qh3-h2+
The computer recommends 30. ... Qh3-f5+ 31.Kf2-g3 Qf5xc2 32.Qa8-f3 Qc2xa2 33.e5-e6 Qa2-d2, but White's pawns could become strong.
31.Qa8-g2 Qh2-f4+ 32.Kf2-g1 Qf4-f8
Better would be 32. ... Qf4-e3+, when both 33.Qg2-f2 Qe3-e4! and 34.Kg1-h2 Ng6-f4! leave Black deliciously centralized.
33.Qg2-d5 Qf8-f4 34.Qd5-g2 Qf4-f8 35.Bd8-c7
Objectively, it is the best move - the best try to avoid losing!
35. ... Qf8-f4
Moving instead to f5 leaves f4 open for the Knight.
36.Qg2-e2 Qf4-g3+ 37.Kg1-f1 Qg3-f4+
Here, for example, 37. ... Qg3xc3 38.Qe2-e4 Qc3-h3+ 39.Kf1-f2 Qh3-h2+ 40.Kf2-f3 b6-b5 41.d4-d5?! h6-h5 leaves White no way to advance the pawns farther.
38.Qe2-f2 Qf4-c1+ 39.Kf1-g2 Ng6-f4+? 40.Kg2-h2
Black has managed to activate the Knight with gain of time, but on the negative side, has not won any pawns, and, worse, the Queen has been shunted into inactivity.
40. ... g7-g5 41.e5-e6 Kh7-g7?
It's the losing move. After 41. ... Qc1-d1, White has nothing better than a drawish Queen ending.
42.d4-d5! h6-h5 43.Bc7-e5+ Kg7-f8? 44.d5-d6! Kf8-e8 45.d6-d7+ Ke8-e7 46.Be5-f6+
Black resigned. A difficult and spirited game.
Mr. Tayar placed second.
***
The 20th annual Canadian Chess Challenge brought together the provincial champions in Grades 1 through 12. The teams finished in order of population, down to 5th place, with Manitoba only narrowly losing out to Alberta. Among the less populous provinces, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland did well.
Ontario won five grade championships: Christopher Knox (Grade 5), Nikita Gusev (Grade 7), Roman Sapozhnikov (Grade 8), Haonan Zhou (Grade 11) and (soon to be International Master) Zhe Quan (Grade 12). Three provinces took two grades each. Quebec: Kelly Wang (Grade 2, becoming the first girl ever to repeat as grade champion), and Louie Jiang (Grade 9). B.C.: Janak Awatramani (Grade 3) and Tanraj Sohal (Grade 6).
Alberta: Ian McCullough (Grade 1) and Eric Hansen (Grade 10). Adam Dorrance of Nova Scotia won in Grade 4.
The Chess and Math Association ran the playdowns, and the finals at Edmonton.
***
The Canadian Open will be in Montreal, July 19 to July 27, with 11 grandmasters so far in the top section, and a prize fund of $25,000.