RR teen finishes 4th at the national chess championships

Ken Johnston
Editor

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 rated 1634.
In his second game later that day, he played the second highest rated player, Tomas Krnan there (2245). Johnston rated only 1291, said that he played a passive white game which is not his style. However, “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.” 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. It was 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 7 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 7 moves but he missed it because he was rushing.” Johnston beat him
That win had him sitting with 2.5 points and tied for 3rd place. Krnan was in first with 4 pts., three players were tied for second with 3 pts.
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 hind-sight is always 20/20.
Entering the final day of competition he 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 4 points, one better than his previous best national showing at Edmonton. However, he said that one of the 3 pts. in Edmonton was a bye so he feels he doubled his performance from 2 to 4 pts.
The top player at the end of the tournament was Tomas Krnan who finished with 6.5 out of a possible 7 points.
Then there were two players tied for second with 5 pts. One player had 4.5 pts for third and Johnston tied with two others for 4th place with 4 pts.
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. The kids from the bigger centers get to play in tournaments and leagues all the time.”
Irwin feels Marty would be rated much higher if he were able to play more rated games.