Four Tie in Indianapolis Open

Four players finished tied for first in the Indianapolis Open held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Indianapolis Airport from August 27-29.  GM Priyadharshan Kannappan, IM Ron Burnett, SM Mika Brattain and NM Jason Wang all scored 4-1 to tie for first and take $975, with Brattain taking an extra $100 for the best tiebreaks. Mika started as the second seed and was 3-0 on Saturday in the two day schedule. He then drew with Burnett in round 4 and Kannappan in round 5.  Here is Brattain’s round two win over NM Michael Wiseman Sr.

[pgn][Event "Indianapolis Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.08.26"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Brattain, Mika"]
[Black "Wiseman, Michael"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A85"]
[WhiteElo "2480"]
[BlackElo "2219"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "2017.08.29"]
[SourceDate "2017.08.29"]1. Nf3 d6 2. d4 f5 3. c4 Nf6 4. Nc3 g6 5. e3 Bg7 6. Be2 O-O 7. b4 c6 8. O-O Na6
9. Qb3 Nc7 10. a4 h6 11. Ba3 g5 12. b5 Qe8 13. a5 Be6 14. d5 cxd5 15. Nd4 Ne4
16. Nxe4 fxe4 17. Nxe6 Nxe6 18. Rad1 Rc8 19. Bg4 Nc5 20. Bxc5 Rxc5 21. Be6+ Kh8
22. Bxd5 Qc8 23. Bxe4 Rxc4 24. Bxb7 Qc5 25. Bc6 Rb8 26. Qd3 a6 27. Bd5 Rc3 28.
Qg6 Qxb5 29. Be4 Kg8 30. Qh7+ Kf7 31. Bd5+ e6 32. Qf5+ Kg8 33. Qxe6+ Kh8 34.
Qxd6 Qxa5 35. Qxb8+ 1-0[/pgn]

Brattain’s last round draw with Kannappan was a relatively quick draw, but the round 4 game was a fighting draw.  In fact, the Brattain - Burnett game was one of the last games of the round to finish.

[pgn][Event "Indianapolis Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.08.27"]
[Round "4.1"]
[White "Brattain, Mika"]
[Black "Burnett, Ron"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B58"]
[WhiteElo "2482"]
[BlackElo "2420"]
[PlyCount "87"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nf3 h6 8. O-O
Be7 9. Re1 O-O 10. h3 a6 11. a4 Be6 12. Bf1 Nb4 13. b3 Qc7 14. Bb2 Rfe8 15. Nd2
Rad8 16. Nc4 d5 17. Nxd5 Nfxd5 18. exd5 Rxd5 19. Qe2 Bf6 20. Rad1 Red8 21. Rxd5
Rxd5 22. Rd1 Nc6 23. Rxd5 Bxd5 24. Ne3 Be6 25. Ng4 Bxg4 26. Qxg4 Nd4 27. Bd3 g6
28. Qe4 Kg7 29. g3 a5 30. Kg2 Ne6 31. Bc4 Nc5 32. Qd5 b6 33. h4 e4 34. Bc1 Qd7
35. Bf4 Qxd5 36. Bxd5 Bd4 37. Kf1 f5 38. Ke2 Na6 39. f3 exf3+ 40. Bxf3 Nc5 41.
Kd2 Ne6 42. Kd3 g5 43. hxg5 hxg5 44. Bd2 1/2-1/2[/pgn]

Burnett took a similar path to the winner’s circle.  He also played in the two day schedule and had very favorable pairings as he was typically the lowest rated top player in the perfect score group after round one.  He played two experts and an A player on Saturday before drawing Brattain and NM Gopal Menon on Sunday.  Burnett said he had an advantage against Menon and was going to play for a win but made a few inaccuracies and had to settle for a draw.

[pgn][Event "Indianapolis Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.08.27"]
[Round "5.2"]
[White "Burnett, Ron"]
[Black "Menon, Gopal"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E61"]
[WhiteElo "2420"]
[BlackElo "2338"]
[PlyCount "52"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. Nf3 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 g6 4. Nc3 Bf5 5. Nh4 Bd7 6. e4 Bg7 7. Be2 O-O 8. Nf3
c5 9. O-O Nc6 10. d5 Na5 11. h3 e5 12. Bg5 h6 13. Bh4 b6 14. b3 Nb7 15. Qd2 Kh7
16. Rae1 Qe8 17. Nh2 g5 18. Bg3 Ng8 19. Ng4 f5 20. exf5 Bxf5 21. Ne3 Bg6 22.
Bd3 Ne7 23. f3 Kh8 24. Ne4 Bh7 25. Bh2 Ng6 26. g3 Qf7 1/2-1/2[/pgn]

Kannappan was the tournament’s top seed and, as such, faced slightly more difficult pairings.  After routine wins in rounds one and two, he surrendered a draw to Menon in round three and started Sunday 1/2 point behind the leaders.  Kannappan’s round two game may have been routine for him, but he played a very nice combination against Ben Inskeep.  Can you spot the tactic?

Ben Inskeep vs. Priyadharshan Kannappan

Black to move.

Show Solution Kannappan played NM Joshua Postuma in round four and won to catch the leaders as Brattain and Burnett drew.

[pgn][Event "Indianapolis Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.08.27"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "Posthuma, Joshua"]
[Black "Kannappan, Priyadharshan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E05"]
[WhiteElo "2308"]
[BlackElo "2593"]
[Annotator "Hater,David"]
[PlyCount "78"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Ne5 Nc6 8.
Bxc6 bxc6 9. Nxc6 Qe8 10. Nxe7+ Qxe7 11. Qa4 c5 12. Qxc4 cxd4 13. Qxd4 e5 14.
Qh4 Qb7 15. Nc3 Qc6 16. Bg5 Bb7 17. f3 Qb6+ 18. Kg2 Nd5 19. Nxd5 Bxd5 20. Be7
Rfc8 21. Rad1 Bxa2 22. Rd2 Rc4 23. Bd8 Qb5 24. Qe7 h6 25. Ra1 Ra4 26. b4 Be6
27. Rxa4 Qxa4 28. Ba5 e4 29. Rd8+ Rxd8 30. Qxd8+ Kh7 31. fxe4 Qa2 32. Qd1 Bb3
33. Qf1 Bc4 34. Kf2 Qc2 35. Ke3 Qc3+ 36. Kf2 Qd4+ 37. Kf3 Be6 38. Qf2 (38. Qc1
g5 39. Qe3 Qf6+ 40. Kg2 Bh3+ 41. Kxh3 Qf1+ 42. Kg4 Kg6) 38... Qf6+ 39. Kg2 Bh3+
0-1[/pgn]

The surprise of round four occurred on board three where Menon drew with expert Glenn Snow.  The game was a short draw, and I was trying to figure out why.  The draw would not get Menon an easier pairing in the last round.  Several of the strongest players thought Menon was in trouble after Snow sacked an exchange.  Snow did finish right behind the leaders at 3 ½ - 1 ½.  Snow won $800 for clear first Under 2200.  Snow had a great tournament, going undefeated as he drew with NMs Joshua Posthuma Gopal Menon, and Rachel Ulrich and won his games against the players below 2200.  He gained over 50 rating points!

[pgn][Event "Indianapolis Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.08.27"]
[Round "4.3"]
[White "Menon, Gopal"]
[Black "Snow, Glenn"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C10"]
[WhiteElo "2338"]
[BlackElo "2047"]
[PlyCount "28"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. e5 Ne4 6. Bd3 Bb4 7. Bd2 Nxd2 8.
Qxd2 f6 9. a3 Bxc3 10. Qxc3 O-O 11. exf6 Qxf6 12. Bb5 Qg6 13. O-O Rxf3 14. Qxf3
Nxd4 1/2-1/2[/pgn]

The last player in the tie for first was NM Jason Wang.  He did it the hard way as he lost in round one to Bernard Parham.  Parham may not be as high rated today, but he is a former National Master having first gone over 2200 in 1992, many years before Wang was even born.  Parham is now 72 years old and still active on the tournament circuit!  After losing in round one, Wang went 4-0 defeating NM Garret Smith in the last round.  Wang even managed to gain a few rating points for the tournament! There were two players who scored 5-0 in the tournament.  Both players finished one point ahead of their competition.  Noah Fields went 5-0 in the Under 1200 section while Khalid Shawkat went 5-0 in the Under 1600 section.  Noah was the top seeded player in the Under 1200 section at 1198.  He played every round on board one of that section and gained over 100 rating points!  It is somewhat unusual for the top seeded player in a class tournament to win the section, so Noah is definitely to be congratulated.  Both players won over $600 and had to provide a social security number so their winnings could be reported to the IRS.  Noah is a junior player and did not have his SSN number with him, so he had to be mailed the prize.  Maybe even as the top seed, he wasn’t planning to come in clear first.  Khalid on the other hand provided his SSN to CCA before the tournament started!  I thought that was extreme confidence in expecting to win the section, but Khalid said he thought all players had to do provide the information in advance. The Saturday night blitz tournament drew 20 players, which is a normal amount, but what was slightly unusual is that many of the top players opted to play.  One thing I noticed is that 8-0 scores in the blitz are exceedingly rare, but in this blitz event, we had four players who had previously won CCA Blitz event with perfect scores. The top 4 seeds all previously won a blitz event with an 8-0 score:  GM Priyadharshan Kannappan, NMs Gopal Menon and Joshua Posthuma and Brian Yang.  Menon won the blitz even with 7 ½ - ½ to win $100.   Menon almost always plays in and wins the blitz events as his blitz rating is nearly 200 points higher than his standard rating.  Posthuma and Yang tied for second at 6 ½ - 1 ½.  It looked like there was going to be a 4-way tie for first as Kannappan looked like he would win his second game against Menon, and all four players would finish at 6 ½.  Menon came back though to sweep Kannappan 2-0 and win the event.  The only draw Menon surrendered was to Brian Yang, who he defeated 1 ½ - ½. The section winners were:

Under 2000

Nathaniel Criss & Dennis Geisleman. 4 ½ - ½, $1050

Under 1600

Khalid Shawkat, 5-0, $1200

Under 1200

Noah Lewis, 5-0. $700

Mixed Doubles

Rachel Ulrich & William Nesham, 7 ½ - 2 ½, $300 each

Blitz Tournament

Gopal Menon, 7 ½ - ½ $100

            NTD David Hater directed for CCA assisted by Bill Buklis. For more information, visit:

• Indianapolis Open Website
• Continental Chess Crosstables