Local boy finishes 4th in the nation

Ken Johnston

Rainy River’s Marty Johnston competed in the Canadian Chess Championships last week in Kapuskasing, Ont.
Johnston, 15, was ranked 11th in a field of 16 going into the competition with a personal rating of 1441.
He won four out of seven matchs and had he won his last one he would have been in a three way tie for second. However, he admits that he messed up in the last game and lost to Allen Pauric who was rated 1948 and ended up in that three way tie for second overall.
His other two losses came at the hands of Jonathan Tayar (1959) who won the championship and David Peng (2115) who also tied for second.
His wins were over Shawn Mollison (1019), Martin Ho (1713), Adam Tessier (796) and Jason Carayanniotis (1578).
Johnston ended up in 4th place overall with 4 pts. The top player went 5-1-1 in tournament play and finished with 5.5 pts.