# Canadian Open Chess Championship

The Canadian Open Chess Championship is Canada's Open chess championship, first held in 1956, and held annually since 1973, usually in mid-summer. It is organized by the Chess Federation of Canada. The event celebrated its 50th rendition in 2013.

## History

It was organized every two years from 1956 until 1970. The tournament rotates around the country, and has been held in eight of Canada's ten provinces during its 63-year history, missing only Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The format has usually been a Swiss system with nine or ten rounds, usually over a nine-day period. It is open to all players who wish to enter, from Grandmasters to beginners.
The Championship's list of winners has included some of the world's strongest players, including Grandmasters Boris Spassky (in 1971, while he was World chess champion), Bent Larsen, Alexei Shirov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Viktor Bologan, Artur Yusupov, Bu Xiangzhi, Alexander Moiseenko, Kevin Spraggett, Ljubomir Ljubojević, Larry Evans, Pal Benko, William Lombardy, Gyula Sax, Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Walter Browne, Tony Miles, Larry Christiansen, Joel Benjamin, Eduardas Rozentalis, Vladimir Tukmakov, Jonathan Rowson, Luke McShane, Vladimir Epishin, Vladimir Malaniuk, Pentala Harikrishna, Alexander Shabalov, Nigel Short, Eric Hansen, and many other top stars.
The first tournament in Montreal 1956 was noteworthy for the presence of 13-year-old Bobby Fischer, a future World chess champion, who tied for 8-12th places. Montreal 1974 saw the largest attendance to date, with 648 players. Ottawa 2007 set a tournament record with 22 Grandmasters participating. Canadian Grandmaster Kevin Spraggett has the record for most titles with eight (either clear first or shared). Laszlo Witt made a perfect score (9-0) at Ottawa 1962; this was matched by Alexander Cherniev at Regina 2019. Mark Bluvshtein is the youngest champion, at age 17 at Edmonton in 2005. Daniel Yanofsky was the oldest champion, at age 54, also in Edmonton in 1979. Toronto has hosted the most Opens with ten, followed by Ottawa with seven and Edmonton with six.
The 2014 edition was held in Montreal from July 19–26. In 2015, no tournament was held. In 2018, the Open was held in Quebec City on July 6–13. In 2019, it was held in Regina, Saskatchewan, the first time ever in that province.
For both 2020 and 2021, the championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 championship was held July 12–17 in Hamilton, Ontario. The 2023 championship was held in Calgary, July 22-30.

## List of winners and tournament sites

    #YearCityWinner 11956MontrealLarry Evans, William Lombardy 21958WinnipegElod Macskasy 31960KitchenerAnthony Saidy 41962OttawaLaszlo Witt 51964TorontoPal Benko 61966KingstonLarry Evans 71968TorontoBent Larsen 81970St. John'sBent Larsen 91971VancouverBoris Spassky, Hans Ree 101973OttawaDuncan Suttles 111974MontrealLjubomir Ljubojević 121975CalgaryLeonid Shamkovich 131976TorontoNick de Firmian, Lawrence Day 141977FrederictonJan Green-Krotki 151978HamiltonGyula Sax 161979EdmontonDaniel Yanofsky 171980OttawaLawrence Day 181981BeauportIgor Vasilyevich Ivanov 191982VancouverGordon Taylor 201983TorontoKevin Spraggett, Božidar Ivanović 211984OttawaIgor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Dave Ross, Brett Campbell, Denis Allan 221985EdmontonIgor Vasilyevich Ivanov, Brian Hartman 231986WinnipegArtur Yusupov, Viktor Kupreichik 241987TorontoKevin Spraggett 251988TorontoLawrence Day 261989EdmontonVladimir Tukmakov 271990EdmundstonGeorgi Timoshenko 281991WindsorWalter Browne 291992TorontoAlexei Barsov, Bryon Nickoloff 301993LondonKevin Spraggett 311994WinnipegVladimir Tukmakov 321995TorontoKevin Spraggett, Eduardas Rozentalis, Deen Hergott, Bryon Nickoloff, Ron Livshits 331996CalgaryKevin Spraggett 341997WinnipegJulian Hodgson 351998OttawaKevin Spraggett, Dimitri Tyomkin, Michael Oratovsky, Evgeny Prokopchuk 361999VancouverKevin Spraggett, Georgi Orlov 372000EdmontonJoel Benjamin, Kevin Spraggett, Jonathan Rowson 382001SackvilleTony Miles, Larry Christiansen 392002MontrealPascal Charbonneau, Jean Hébert, Jean-Marc Degraeve 402003KapuskasingAlexander Moiseenko 412004KapuskasingAlexander Moiseenko, Dimitri Tyomkin 422005EdmontonVassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov, Viktor Bologan, Mark Bluvshtein, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 432006KitchenerWalter Arencibia, Abhijit Kunte 442007OttawaBu Xiangzhi 452008MontrealAlexander Moiseenko, Victor Mikhalevski, Eduardas Rozentalis, Matthieu Cornette 462009EdmontonMark Bluvshtein, Edward Porper 472010TorontoLuke McShane 482011TorontoWalter Arencibia, Joel Benjamin, Dejan Bojkov 492012VictoriaEric Hansen 502013OttawaNigel Short, Eric Hansen 512014MontrealSergei Tiviakov (on Armageddon tiebreak, ahead of Robin van Kampen and Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami) 522016WindsorGergely Antal 532017Sault Ste. MarieRazvan Preotu, Aman Hambleton 542018Quebec CityBitan Banerjee (on tiebreak, ahead of Raymond Kaufman) 552019ReginaAlexander Cherniaev 562022HamiltonNikolay Noritsyn, Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux 572023CalgaryAlexei Shirov 582024LavalJorden van Foreest