The Journey home finished today, Yeah!!!

Although all of us arrived home on Wed, Oct 5th, the actual journey home hasn't ended until today since Michael luggage was just delivered to our door one hour ago after transferred back from Vancouver. Finally Emily got the gift (a nice colorful paint with signature) from his brother.

The 36 consecutive travel from Khanty-Mansiysk to Toronto (James should take about 2 more hours) was not easy to deal with. But I think with CHESS games, time can fly. :)

luggage packed together ready to go home

Made last fun together before departure

3 boards blitz in the hall way

Coach is bit tired while watching Michael and Caleb playing

On the plane leaving Khanty-Mansiysk

On the plane leaving Khanty-Mansiysk

Super tired at Moscow airport

nice luggage arrived home after 3 days extra trip to Vancouver

Round 9 and 10

It was just feeling like the ride of the Canada wonderland roller coaster in last two rounds. In R9 we got 3 wins (Eugene, Michael and Maili-Jade), two draws(Caleb and James), and 1 lost(Rachel). And after Michael's win in R9, he was paired with 2413 rated Rakotomaharo Fy Antenaina on Board 4. So with great expectation we followed the R10 games(plus it is Sunday morning, no worry about the work). However at the end it came out to be the worst results for us with only Cale managed a draw!

Ok, It is chess. If you want to continue on it, you have to accept these moments. Up and down, happiness and sadness, laugh and tears.. but only if you experienced and had fought, nothing to regret. If you keep your hard work, you will harvest at one day.

James fought till the last one in his row, and almost 5 hours before lost

Eugene was super concentrated during R10

Michael was so calm during R10

We all hope tomorrow will be much better (Ming Tian Hui Geng Hao) . Kids were still happy and playing some blitz with coach at middle night at hallway.

Blitz with coach at hallway

Finally add some sweet stuff before the end of today's post

Snack inside playing hall

Snack inside playing hall

Round 8 ends with mixed results.

Caleb P first came out with a win but then followed by losses by Michael S and James Li.

Rachel T then came out with a win which sheers up the situation before Eugene came out in tears.

According to Christina Tao ( HOD ) , both Michael and Eugene were winning but somehow lost due to time trouble. It was a very emotional for her to see the kids in tears.

Maili-Jade drew her game which overall summed up the day with 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses.

Round 9 next....

Good luck to the participants

http://chess-results.com/tnr239747.aspx?lan=1&art=25&fedb=CAN&flag=30&wi=821

Round 6 and 7

Time flies. It seems like still in the free day mode, however 2 rounds have done since then. Let's talk about today's Round 7 first. Since I was in some shift help, not available to access to internet until lunch time, I got all these results around noon time. James got first win for the team in 3 and half hours, and then Eugene got a draw afterword. After consecutive heart broken lose news for Caleb, Maili-Jade and Rachel, finally Michael brought the win (by Christina's word: Michael is making a miracle today. I don't know the detail why it was called miracle) after almost 5 hours battle against Alex TimerKhanov from Russia.

Actually in Round 6, we got pretty good result - 3 wins (James, Michael and Maili-Jade), 1 lost(Caleb), 1 draw(Eugene) and Rachel got 1 point bye.

I have to mention that two players in the team got 3 wins in a row - James and Michael from R5 and R7. We'll see how the winning steak is going, maybe continue to count, maybe stop right away. It is really competitive tournament. It even becomes harder and harder when last 4 rounds coming.

Eugene got 2 consecutive draws after R5 lost, which is still tolerated results from my point of view. Eugene has played 4 times with player rated higher than him. His rating +/- is best along the team (+30.40). For the details, follow http://www.chess-results.com/tnr239747.aspx?lan=0&art=25&fedb=CAN&flag=30&wi=821

Round 5 and Free day

Round 5 was held on Sep 26, and the next day is the only free day of the event. Players and accompany persons will take full day relaxing before the second half of the tournament.


We got relative good result in Rd 5, with 4 wins(Michael, James, Caleb, and Maili-Jade) and 2 loses(Eugene and Rachel). After 5 rounds, the score and standing of our team members:

Name	Score	Standing in group	Group
Michael	3/5	26/65	U18 O
James	2/5	58/88	U16 O
Caleb	2/5	69/88	U16 O
Eugene	3/5	21/75	U14 O
Rachel	.5/5	51/52	U18 G
Maili-Jade	3/5	27/71	U14 G

for the full results, follow http://www.chess-results.com/tnr239747.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=5&flag=30&wi=821

Free day city tour of Khanty-Mansiysk (Capture and pictures from Christina)

Bronze mammoth sculptures in Archeopark

After a long uphill walk, we finally came close to these amazing bronze mammoth sculptures

Rachel Tao from U18 Girl

From left: Alex, Maili-Jade, Rachel, Celeb

Maili-Jade with her mom

Coach with all the players

James Li from U16 Open

Caleb Peterson from U16 Open

Eugene Hua from U14 Open

Michael Song from U18 Open

Michael with team coach Alex

Our HOD, Photographer and team care giver Christina Tao

Round 4

Today's result for Canada team is moderate. We got one win (Eugene), two draws(Michael and Caleb) and three lost (Maili-Jade, James and Rachel).
Eugene scored 3 of 4 so far, and stands at #11 in U14 Open standing. Tomorrow he is going to play at board 6 vs Artur Davtyan (2280) from ARM. Go Eugene go!
Maili-Jade's game finished in 2 and half hours, with a blunder. What a pity that she lost two games in a row after 2 of 2 at the beginning. But it is still 7 games to go, who knows what is going to happen.
For the full result:
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr239747.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=4&flag=30&wi=821

Other than games, lucky thing is the tournament photographer captured lots of pictures of our team members when they got off from morning bus, however Michael and Maili was not on the same bus. See these pictures (there are all in the official website of Round 4)

James Li getting off bus before Round 4

Rachel Tao shows off Maple leaf

Rachel Tao before Round 4

Eugene Hua holding Canada flag

Eugene Hua making funny face before Round 4

Rachel with her lovely mom Christina(HOD)before Round 4

Team is boarding morning bus for Round 4

Finally here is some individual pictures right before the round:

Rachel Tao at Round 4

Michael Song at Round 4

Eugene and the group before Round 4

Round 2 and 3

Have some fun after Round 3 with coach Alexander Cherniaev

Have some fun after Round 3 with coach Alexander Cherniaev

can't be happier than these 3 boys

Group picture before Round 2

Eugene Hua in Round 2

Michael Song in Round 3

Rachel Tao in Round 3

Caleb Petersen in Round 3

James Li in Round 3

Eugene Hua in Round 3

Maili-Jade Ouellet in Round 3

Round 2 is great for Canada team. We got 2 wins(James, Maili-Jade) , 3 draws(Michael, Caleb and Eugene) and 1 lose(Rachel). It is so great that Eugene drew with a 2400+ player from UZB(#4 ranked player in the U14O), and James Li go first win against 2039 rated player from DEN. Here is full results:

Round 2 on 2016/09/23 at 1500
Board	No			Name	Rating	Pts		Pts		Name	Rating		No
12	51			Sukovic Andrej	2114	1	½ - ½	1	FM	Song Michael	2413		13
43	65			Kristensen Bjarke Hautop	2039	0	0 - 1	0		Li James	0		86
31	73			Petersen Caleb	1884	0	½ - ½	0	FM	Shkurkin Andrey	2190		50
3	4			Yakubboev Nodirbek	2431	1	½ - ½	1	CM	Hua Eugene	2142		27
23	46		WCM	Tao Rachel Long-Xin	1649	0	0 - 1	0		Parhomenko Margarita	1940		35
12	18		WCM	Ouellet Maili-Jade	1992	1	1 - 0	1		Bellahcene Meriem	1729		43

Day 3 is not lucky for us. We only got two draws (Engene and Rachel). But Maili-Jade played on Board 1 vs Adel Rahman (2320 rated from RUS, top rated in U14 G). Engene is only undefeated player in team Canada.

Round 3 on 2016/09/24 at 1500 Board No Name Rating Pts Pts Name Rating No 12 13 FM Song Michael  2413 1½ 0 - 1 1½ FM Rahman Adel  2324 30 30 86 Li James  0 1 0 - 1 1 Trubchaninov Timur  2233 44 34 52 Kalinouski Siarhei  2169 ½ 1 - 0 ½ Petersen Caleb  1884 73 10 27 CM Hua Eugene  2142 1½ ½ - ½ 1½ FM Miyasaka Marcus M  2269 12 25 41 Toshali V  1766 0 ½ - ½ 0 WCM Tao Rachel Long-Xin  1649 46 1 1 WFM Solozhenkina Elizaveta  2320 2 1 - 0 2 WCM Ouellet Maili-Jade  1992 18