Marty Johnston, 14, of Rainy River, won his first game last Monday in the Canadian National Chess Championships at Kapuskasing in the Under 16 Boys category. He defeated Alex Livingston, with a rating of 1634.
In his second game later that day, he played the second highest rated
player there, Tomas Krnan (2245). Johnston, rated only 1291, said that he played a passive white game which is not his style. However, he added, “It was close for a long time but then he beat me.”
Tuesday morning he squared off against Sadiq Juma, rated 1628. “It was back and forth then entire game, but no matter what we did it was going to be a draw,” said Johnston. And that is what happened.
Later that afternoon Johnston played the longest game he has ever played and the third longest of the tournament thus far, at 3 hours, 45 minutes and 15 seconds.
Johnston told his father Irwin he took advantage of the opponent’s time and thought his moves out as far as seven ahead. His challenger was Jonathan Chi, ranked 1816, and he took a lot of time to make his moves.
Players are only allotted 1.5 hours for their first 30 moves and 1 hour for the rest of their game. Towards the end of the game Johnston still had about 16 minutes left on his time clock and Chi only had three.
“He was under time pressure and had to move fast. I saw a way that he could have had me in seven moves but he missed it because he was rushing,” said Johnston, who ended up beating him.
That win had him sitting with 2.5 points and tied for third place. Krnan was in first with four points, with three players tied for second with three points.
Wednesday morning, Johnston was paired against Yuri Yatsenko, rated 1499. “He played more of a position game, a good position game,” said Johnston.
While it was close, Yatsenko defeated Johnston after 3.5 hours.
In the afternoon Johnston faced his old friend from past tournaments,
Francois Nadeau, who was also the hometown favourite. Nadeau, rated 1336,
traded off a lot of pieces and in the end they finished with a draw.
Johnston said that after the game he looked at the situation again and feels he could have won, but hindsight is always 20/20.
Entering the final day of competition, Johnston knew he could not win it all, but knew he had a shot at being in the top of the pack. He played William
Korner, rated 1063, and beat him in 1.5 hours.
That left Johnston with four points, one better than his previous best national showing at Edmonton. However, he said that one of the three points in Edmonton was a bye so he feels he doubled his performance from two to four points.
The top player at the end of the tournament was Krnan, who finished
with 6.5 out of a possible seven points. There were two players tied for second with five points. One player had 4.5 points for third and Johnston tied with two others for fourth place with four points.
While Johnston did not win, his father, Irwin, said, “We are very proud of
him and he keeps on getting better each year.”
He also explained that Marty’s rating of 1291 is misleading in that he only gets to play a limited number of rated games each year.
“He plays five here and five at the provincials in Thunder Bay each year,” said the senior Johnston. “The kids from the bigger centres get
to play in tournaments and leagues all the time.”
He added Marty would be rated much higher if he were able to play more rated games.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
