The Chilcotin’s Kai Richardson finished 27th during the weekend in Victoria at the 10th Annual Grand Pacific Open chess tournament.
Eighteen titled players and 150 players from around Canada and the U.S. competed at the tournament.
“The GPO is the biggest chess event in Western Canada and is becoming a nice international event on our island in the Pacific,” said Kai’s dad, Scott Richardson.
Kai, 13, won three out of his six matches at the event, which consisted of playing a U.S. chess master, Paul Ross.
“The key game was with Jason Kenney, 2,241 [FIDE rating] in the fourth round,” Scott said. “If he had won or drawn he would have played the next game within the top 10 boards.
“Kenney is a grad student at UBC. It was his first match with Kenney and Jason knew how to beat Kai this time with a line from the English opening.”
Scott said Kai’s loss against Kenney carried over into the next game an hour later in round five against 13-year-old Patrick Huang, 1,836 [FIDE rating] and lasted four-and-a-half hours.
“Great experience for a kid from the bush,” Scott said. “He picked himself up, slept and won the next game against Enayat Ganjian, 1,826 [FIDE rating]. Enayat came third in last year’s senior tournament with a rank of 1,944.”
Also of note, Vanderhoof is hosting a chess tournament in three weeks on April 23. If anyone would like to register they can contact Scott at wycc@caribooblades.com.