2017 US National G30 & G60 Championship: Showtime of the Grandmasters

During the weekend of September 23-24, BayAreaChess had the honor and privilege of hosting the 2017 National G/30 and G/60 Championships. The two National Championships attracted no less than 11 grandmasters. GM Daniel Naroditsky, GM Zviad Izoria, GM Enrico Sevillano and GM Conrad Holt represented the Bay Area grandmaster contingent. GM Ray Robson and GM Alex Shimanov traveled from St. Louis to participate. GM Timur Gareyev, GM Meliksek Khachiyan, GM Zbigniew Pakleza, GM Vladislav Kovalev and GM Carlos Matamoros rounded out the other high-profile attendants, traveling from across the US and the world to compete. The tournaments attracted a total of 349 players, with 140 participating in the faster G/30 time control, and 209 players in the slower G/60 time control. The scholastic side events also attracted a total of about 200 players. On average, there was about a fifty percent increase in entries from last year’s tournaments! The G/30 championship on Saturday had 5 rounds. As with almost every shorter time control tournament, the National G/30 Championship produced interesting games and a range of surprising results. GM Robson and GM Naroditsky both won their last round games to tie for first. Eeswar Kurli secured his win in the u1900 section with a clear 5/5 record. Ahyan Zaman, a rising talent whose father also competed in the Open section, took clear first in the u1600 section. Tim Erwin placed first with a clear 5/5 record in the u1300 section. Annotated below is GM Robson’s last round victory against Adrian Kondakov.

[pgn][Event "US G/60 Championship"]
[Site "Santa Clara"]
[Date "2017.09.24"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "Robson, Ray"]
[Black "Kondakov, Adrian"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C19"]
[Annotator "Vignesh Panchanatham"]
[PlyCount "63"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[WhiteClock "0:17:12"]
[BlackClock "0:11:53"]1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. a4 b6 8. Bb5+
Bd7 9. Bd3 c4 {Black may have already overextended by allowing the
dark-squared bishop to reign.} 10. Be2 Nbc6 11. Nf3 Qc7 12. Ba3 O-O-O $2 {With
an attack already forming, kindside castling would have been a much better
option.} (12... O-O 13. O-O Rfe8 14. Qd2 Nf5 $14) 13. a5 b5 14. Bd6 Qb7 15. a6
Qb6 16. Bc5 Qb8 {Black is pinned down in every direction.} 17. Ng5 Rdf8 18. f4
f6 19. Nf3 Rf7 20. O-O Nf5 21. Qd2 h5 22. g3 g5 $6 {An attempt at
counterattacking, but there is not enough kingside support to make it
plausible.} (22... Kd8 23. Rfb1 Rh6 24. Bf1 h4 25. g4 $16) 23. fxg5 $18 fxe5
24. Nh4 Rg7 25. dxe5 Qxe5 26. Nxf5 exf5 27. Rae1 Qc7 28. Bf3 h4 {Every line is
open for white to take advantage of.} 29. Bd4 Nxd4 30. Qxd4 Bc6 31. Re6 Rgh7 (
31... hxg3 32. Rxc6 Qxc6 33. Qxg7 Qb6+ 34. Qd4 $18) 32. g6 1-0[/pgn]

Sunday’s G/60 tournament had 4 rounds. Due to the large amount of entries, every section used accelerated pairings. In fact, the final result wasn’t clear until the very last game, a draw between GM Gareyev and GM Shimanov. Their draw led to a 5-way tie for first place in the Open section among GMs Gareyev, Shimanov, Robson, Khachiyan, and Izoria. Chris Xiong won clear first in the A section, upsetting several higher-rated players along the way. Venka Doddapaneni, Anish Somani, and Omya Vidyarthi won clear first in the B, C, and D sections, respectively, all with perfect scores. Section E had a two-way tie of two unrated players, G/30 winner Tim Erwin and Daman Singh. Annotated below is GM Naroditsky’s decisive game against GM Shimanov. Let it serve as a reminder that everyone makes mistakes in time pressure.

[pgn][Event "US G/30"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.09.23"]
[Round "5.2"]
[White "Naroditsky, Daniel"]
[Black "Shimanov, Alex"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D02"]
[Annotator "Vignesh Panchanatham"]
[PlyCount "71"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[WhiteClock "0:08:40"]
[BlackClock "0:04:45"]1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. Nf3 c5 5. c3 Nc6 6. Nbd2 cxd4 7. exd4 Nh5 8.
Bg5 f6 9. Be3 Bd6 10. g3 O-O 11. Nh4 g6 12. Be2 Ng7 13. c4 {White attempts to
break in the center to take advantage of black's awkward piece placement.} Ne7
14. O-O b6 15. Ng2 Bb7 16. Bf3 Qd7 17. b3 Ngf5 18. Qe2 e5 19. dxe5 Bxe5 20.
Rad1 Rad8 21. cxd5 Nxd5 22. Ne4 Qf7 23. Rd2 (23. Nf4 Ndxe3 24. fxe3 Kh8 25. Nf2
Bxf4 26. gxf4 $15) 23... Ndxe3 24. fxe3 Qe7 25. Rfd1 Kg7 26. Rxd8 Rxd8 27. Rxd8
Qxd8 {After the trades, black is better in the endgame due to his better
pieces and coordination - and the two bishop advantage.} 28. g4 Ne7 29. Nd2 Bc8
30. Nf4 g5 $6 {There was no real reason to allow the white knight onto h5.} (
30... b5 31. Nd3 Bc7 32. Nf4 Qd6 $15) 31. Nh5+ Kh6 32. Nc4 Ng6 33. Be4 Ba6 $4
34. Nxe5 $1 {Nf7# is coming!} Nxe5 35. Qxa6 Qd1+ 36. Qf1 {With the extra piece,
Naroditsky would have been able to convert quite easily.} 1-0[/pgn]

The scholastic side event was quite popular, specially the faster time control, that usually better suits the young players. More than 110 players rated under 1000 competed in 5 sections for the many trophies and medals and, of course, the section titles. School and Club team competition was an added bonus, resulting in Weibel and Harker School teams’ in in G/30 and G/60 Championship, respectively.                  

Congratulations to the National Champions and to the winners of each section!

Tournament results can be viewed here: G/30 Championship: https://www.bayareachess.com/events/17/0923sp G/60 Championship: https://www.bayareachess.com/events/17/0924sp The next upcoming tournaments are the Bay Area Chess Championship on October 21-23 to be held in Milpitas, CA and the annual California Warfare Championship over the Thanksgiving weekend when we are back at the Santa Clara Convention Center. More information: www.bayareachess.com/champs and www.bayareachess.com/tg The tournament was organized by 2017 Organizer of the Year and BayAreachess Executive Director Dr. Judit Sztaray and directed by Chief TDs: NTDs John McCumiskey, NTD Thomas Langland, and STD Jordan Langland. To find out more information about all upcoming Bay Area Chess events, visit www.bayareachess.com or email Click here to show email address.  

---

About the Authors

Dr. Judit Sztaray is the Executive Director of Bay Area Chess. She won the 2017 US Chess award for "Organizer of the Year".       Vignesh Panchanatham is an International Master, ranked 5th in the U.S. for 17-year-olds. In addition, he is a 2017 SuperNationals Co-Champion, 2016 National High School Co-Champion, and 2014 Pan-American Youth U16 gold medalist.