Gabuzyan Takes Philadelphia Open

The Philadelphia International was not the only big tournament in Philadelphia last weekend. A five round weekend swiss, the Philadelphia Open, was contested June 28th-30th, and it presented the top players with an interesting decision. The Open was less days, less games, and less competition than the International. But it also offered less money in prizes. Three Grandmasters opted for the Philadelphia Open, and GM Hovannes Gabuzyan won the tournament, earning $1500 for his efforts. That was more than all the GMs who tied for second in the International. GM Vladimir Belous won clear second and won $800, while GM Bryan Smith won $500 for third place. Smith tied with Joseph Mucerino, but Mucerino won $600 for his clear first Under 2200 prize. For the GMs, this tournament was essentially a round robin event. They all went 3-0 against the non-titled players and they all played each other to effectively decide the top prizes. Gabuzyan went 1.5/2 (draw Smith, win Belous), Belous went 1-1 (win Smith, loss Gabuzyan) and Smith went 0.5/2 (draw Gabuzyan, loss Belous). The first GM game was in round three. All the GMs were 2-0. Gabuzyan and Smith played a hard fought draw while Belous was paired down.

[pgn]

[Event "Philadelphia Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.06.29"]
[Round "3.1"]
[White "Smith, Bryan"]
[Black "Gabuzyan, Hovhannes"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B90"]
[WhiteElo "2518"]
[BlackElo "2713"]
[PlyCount "100"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. h3 e5 7. Nde2 h5 8. g3
Be6 9. Bg2 Nbd7 10. a4 Be7 11. b3 Rc8 12. f4 exf4 13. gxf4 Qa5 14. Qd4 Nb8 15.
Bb2 Nc6 16. Qd2 Nb4 17. Nd4 Qc5 18. O-O-O Nd7 19. e5 O-O 20. f5 dxe5 21. Ne4
Qb6 22. Nxe6 fxe6 23. Qxd7 Rc7 24. Qxe6+ Qxe6 25. fxe6 Rxc2+ 26. Kb1 Rxg2 27.
Rd7 Re8 28. Rxb7 Rg6 29. Rb6 Bf8 30. Rf1 a5 31. Rb5 Nc6 32. Bc3 Ra8 33. Rf5 h4
34. Bxe5 Rxe6 35. Ng5 Ree8 36. Bc3 Rad8 37. Rfd5 Rxd5 38. Rxd5 Re3 39. Bxa5
Rxb3+ 40. Kc2 Ra3 41. Bc3 Rxa4 42. Rd7 Ra6 43. Rc7 Ne7 44. Rc4 Nd5 45. Bd2 Ra2+
46. Kd3 Ra3+ 47. Ke2 Rg3 48. Rxh4 Rg2+ 49. Kd3 Be7 50. Rg4 Rxg4 1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

In round 4, Belous was the only 3-0. He faced Smith and won that game to get to 4-0. Meanwhile Gabuzyan was paired down and won to get to 3.5.

[pgn]

[Event "Philadelphia Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.06.30"]
[Round "4.1"]
[White "Belous, Vladimir"]
[Black "Smith, Bryan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E92"]
[WhiteElo "2592"]
[BlackElo "2518"]
[PlyCount "87"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. d4 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. d5 a5 8. Bg5 h6
9. Bh4 Na6 10. Nd2 Qe8 11. O-O Bd7 12. Rb1 Nh7 13. Kh1 h5 14. f3 Bh6 15. b3 Be3
16. a3 Bc5 17. Qc1 c6 18. Na2 Be3 19. b4 axb4 20. axb4 c5 21. Qc3 Bd4 22. Qc2
cxb4 23. Nxb4 Nc5 24. Nd3 Ba4 25. Qc1 Qc8 26. Be7 Qc7 27. Bxf8 Rxf8 28. Nxc5
Bxc5 29. Ra1 Qd7 30. Bd1 b5 31. Bb3 Rc8 32. Qd1 Be3 33. Bxa4 bxa4 34. Re1 Bf4
35. Re2 Rb8 36. Rxa4 h4 37. Nf1 Ng5 38. Raa2 Qc8 39. Reb2 Rxb2 40. Rxb2 Qxc4
41. g3 Qc3 42. Rc2 Qa3 43. gxf4 Nxf3 44. Rf2 1-0

[/pgn]

In the last round Belous had black against Gabuzyan. Belous only needed to draw to claim first place, but Gabuzyan won the game to finish at 4.5. Belous finished at 4-1 and Smith finished at 3.5.

[pgn]

[Event "Philadelphia Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.06.30"]
[Round "5.1"]
[White "Gabuzyan, Hovhannes"]
[Black "Belous, Vladimir"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B36"]
[WhiteElo "2713"]
[BlackElo "2592"]
[PlyCount "87"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. e4 Nxd4 7. Qxd4 d6 8.
f3 Bg7 9. Be3 Be6 10. Rc1 O-O 11. Qd2 a6 12. b3 Qa5 13. Be2 Rfc8 14. a4 Nd7 15.
Nd5 Qxd2+ 16. Kxd2 Bxd5 17. cxd5 Nc5 18. Rb1 b5 19. a5 e6 20. dxe6 Nxe6 21.
Rhc1 d5 22. Rxc8+ Rxc8 23. exd5 Rd8 24. Rc1 Rxd5+ 25. Bd3 Be5 26. g3 Nd4 27.
Bxd4 Rxd4 28. f4 Bd6 29. Ke3 Rd5 30. Rc6 Bc5+ 31. Ke2 Bg1 32. Rxa6 Kf8 33. Ra8+
Ke7 34. Rb8 Kd6 35. a6 b4 36. Rd8+ Kc5 37. Rxd5+ Kxd5 38. Bc4+ Kc6 39. Bxf7 Kd6
40. Bg8 h6 41. Bh7 g5 42. fxg5 hxg5 43. h4 gxh4 44. gxh4 1-0

[/pgn]

The section winners were: Under 2000 Pedro Espinosa & Miles Lee, 4.5-0.5, $900 Under 1800 Max Li, 5-0, $1200 Under 1600 Daniel Bell, 4.5-0.5, $1000 Under 1400 Bernie Rajamani & Vedmanvitha Ketireddy, 4.5-0.5, $750 Under 1200 Damir Dandic & Sukumar Paidi (camper), 4-1, $325 Under 1100 Siddharth Bose, 5-0, $700 Mixed Doubles Julia Miyasaka & Miles Lee, 7.5 points, $400 Blitz Tournament Rubens Cezila & Juan Tica 7-1, $79 NTD Bob Messenger directed for Continental Chess assisted by Korey Kormick, Andy Rea, David Hater, and Brian Yang. Full tournament details can be found at www.philadelphiaopen.net. Previous Continental Chess tournaments can be found at the Continental Chess website at http://www.chesstour.com/cross.html.