Toronto Closed History The Toronto Closed Chess Championship has been running annually, with only a couple of breaks, for a 100 years. The oldest record of a Toronto Championship was 1854 (unearthed by Larry Fyffe). Until recently, it was a tournament of the top players in Toronto. Multiple winners include Harry Belson 7, Geza Fuster, Frank Anderson, George Eastman 6, and Lawrence Day 5. Fuster played in 19, which includes 11 in a row! John S. Morrison had 35 years between victories, 1910-45.
It’s hard to say which was the strongest one. The highest rated ones were in 1997 and ’98, average rating of 2330 and 2332, won by Nickoloff (2606 performance rating!) and 15-year-old Igor Zugic. 17-year-old Nikolay Noritsyn won 9-0 in 2008 (2644 performance rating). Other youth to have won the Championship include Tomas Krnan, Stephen Glinert, Todd Southam, Peter Nurmi, Frank Anderson, and John S. Morrison; Geza Fuster would be the oldest winner at 61 in 1971. Lawrence Day won an all-master Championship in 1995. In 1987 the average rating was 2301 and first was shared by Harry Kaminker and Gordon Taylor; in 1986 average was 2273 and won by Ian Findlay. Zvonko Vranesic won in 1972 against an average rating of 2173 which, given inflation might be 2300 today, and 9-0 in 1959. Lawrence Day had 10.5-0.5 in 1983, Eduardo Teodoro 10-1 in 2000, Peter Nurmi 10-1 in 1974 and Todd Southam 9-2 with a two-point lead in 1990.
There has been at least ten ties for first, 1999 and 1984 had three-way ties for first, and groups close to the top, 1997 had two tied for first and three tied for second, half a point behind. The top rated has won less than half the time. Bob Krstic in 1974 was the biggest upset winner, the lowest rated in a field that included 3 IMs! The lowest rated winner was Peter Murray 2009 in 1979 (although he was 2196) and the last non-master was Goran Prpic 2148 in 2003. In the years of 12-player round-robins an average of 18 of the 66 points were scored by the lower half. The years with the biggest points by the lower half were 1967 (24), 1974 (23), 1973 (22), 1971 (20), and 1986 (20). Notable upsets have been in 2002 Warren Dutton defeated Ian Findlay (399 rating point difference), 1997 Paul Williams defeated Bryon Nickoloff, ’90 Zvonko Vranesic lost to Peter Kasinski and Gevork Taschian ; in ’86, Ruperto Frilles defeated Vinny Puri, ’84 David Lavin defeated the top two finishers, Day and Polacek while Raymond Stone defeated Polacek and Morrison; in ’83 Alex Kuznecov defeated Ian Findlay and Robert Morrison; in ’79 Nava Starr defeated Roman Pelts; in ’78 Lavin again defeated Day; in ’77 Jack Patty defeated Day; in ’74 Mohan Rajagopal defeated Day; in ’73 John Wright, Victor Dzera and Shimon Shahar defeated Day; in ’72 Robert Wachtel defeated Day; in ’71 Vranesic lost to Harry Posner and Slobodan Krstic, in ’70 John Kegeldefeated George Kuprejanov, Slobodan Krstic defeated Denis Allen, and George Berner defeated winner Vranesic (but the result didn’t count); in ’69 Milan Zagar defeated the top two finishers, Fuster and Dobrich; and in ’67 Alvis Zuntaks defeated Vranesic and Milan Zagar defeated Bruce Amos. Biggest comeback is when Fuster went from last in ’68 to first in ’69 and Krstic from last in ’72 to first in ’74. In ’68 Fuster and Alex Panayotou were tied for last with 3.5, the highest points of a last place finisher.
There has been two people who have won both a Toronto Closed and a Toronto Closed Reserves, Vlad Dobrich and Zoltan Sarosy. For many years the winner of the Reserves was seeded into the next year’s Closed. Rising juniors who had won the Reserves and did well in the next year’s Closed were lowest rated Jonathan Schaeffer in 1975, fourth with 7.5, lowest rated Peter Matsi fifth-seventh in 1973 with 5.5, and Vinny Puri in 1985 sixth-seventh with 6.5. Sometimes the winners qualified for the Canadian Closed. Giving a list of just the winners is boring, so I mention the major history.