David Begoray interview

Chess Today, Irish GM Alex Baburin's daily mass e-mail of chess games and news, went out yesterday night with the subject line: "CT-2436 - Short, Tiviakov and Begoray lead Canadian Open..."

Its global readership was surely familiar with super-GMs Nigel Short and Sergei Tiviakov, who had scored 3.5 points after four rounds. But who's that Begoray guy?

That would be be David Begoray, shown at left. He's a Burlington, Ont., player with a CFC rating of 2063 whose 3.5/4 earned him the white pieces in Round 5 against Indian GM Abhijit Kunte, last year's Canadian Open co-champion.

Not a bad start at all for David's second tournament in seven years. A night-shift worker, David has few opportunities to play in weekend Swisses or even in club events. David says was prompted to enter the 2007 Canadian Open because of the event had confirmed a slew of GMs. "There's no two ways about it," he says.

After a first-round draw, David scored wins against two 1900 players and then against Ottawa master Dusan Simic. As a result, he was paired in Round 5 against GM Kunte.

[Date "2007.07.10"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Begoray, David"]
[Black "Kunte, Abhijit"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2063"]
[BlackElo "2532"]
[PlyCount "59"]
[EventDate "2007.07.07"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nge2 c5 7. O-O cxd4 8.
exd4 Nc6 9. Bg5 Be7 10. cxd5 Nxd5 11. Bxe7 Ncxe7 12. Qd2 b6 13. Rad1 Bb7 14.
Ne4 Ng6 15. Bb1 Qe7 16. f4 Nh4 17. N2g3 g6 18. Rde1 Rad8 19. Rf2 Rfe8 20. Rfe2
Qc7 21. Rf2 Qd7 22. Rd1 f5 23. Nc3 Nf6 24. Qd3 Qg7 25. h3 g5 26. Qe3 gxf4 27.
Qxf4 Ng6 28. Qd2 Kh8 29. Qe2 Nh4 30. Rd3 Ba6 0-1

Well OK, the GM stopped the Canadian expert's winning streak pretty convincingly. And quickly too. "He used no time," David told listeners last night in the spectators room where IM Deen Hergott presides. "He used about the time it takes to move the pieces. I was really happy when it (GM Kunte's clock) went below 1:40."

"Me, I'm just milling pieces around and praying," David said.

Result aside, David enjoyed his encouner with GM Kunte. "He a very nice guy," David said. "It was a pleasure to play with him and discuss the game afterwards."

"My tournament's basically made," David added. "I beat a master and I got to play a GM... the rest is gravy."

-- by Peter Hum