GM Rohde Wins Schenectady Open

The Schenectady Open is not a major stop on the CCA calendar but it continues the efforts to bring weekend chess to other parts of New York.  The $2000 guaranteed prize fund was good enough to attract 74 players including 1 GM, 1 FM, and 2 WFMs.  GM Michael Rohde was the lone GM and outrated the field by nearly 200 points.  The second seed was FM Boris Privman and there were two other masters as well as some former masters in the 25 player Open section. In this tournament, the final rankings were very close to the original wall chart ranking.  GM Rohde finished in clear first with 4 ½ out of 5 and won $400.  He gave up a draw only to second seeded FM Boris Privman.  He beat NM David Carter, WFM Samadashvili as well as two other experts enroute to his victory.   Here is Rohde’s victory over David Carter.

[pgn] [Event "Schenectady Open"] [Site "Schenectady, NY"] [Date "2016.07.16"] [White "Rohde, Michael A"] [Black "Carter, David"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E01"] [WhiteElo "2513"] [BlackElo "2208"] [PlyCount "53"] [EventDate "2016.07.??"] [EventRounds "5"] [EventCountry "USA"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 e6 3. d4 c6 4. Qc2 Nf6 5. g3 Bd6 6. Bg2 Nbd7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. O-O h6 9. b3 Qe7 10. Bb2 b6 11. e4 dxe4 12. Nxe4 Nxe4 13. Qxe4 Bb7 14. Rad1 Rad8 15. Rfe1 Rfe8 16. Bc3 f5 17. Qc2 Qf7 18. b4 b5 19. cxb5 cxb5 20. Ng5 hxg5 21. Bxb7 Rb8 22. Bg2 g4 23. Qb3 Re7 24. Bd2 Nf8 25. Rc1 Rc7 26. Rxc7 Bxc7 27. d5 1-0[/pgn]

Second seeded Privman finished in clear second with 4-1 having drawn Rohde and 4^th seeded David Carter. Carter finished tied for third with Original Life Master Dale Sharp both with 3 ½. In the Under 1850 section, John Phillips won with 4 ½ out of 5.  Philips won his first four games and then drew round 5 to secure first place.  Phillips entered the last round 1 ½ points ahead of everybody else and finished the tournament 1 point ahead of second place!  The critical game occurred in round three when Philips defeated top seeded frequent CCA competitor Abhinav Chinnambeti rated 1849!  Philips used a nice tactic at the end of the game to simplify the queen ending to a pawn ending or deliver checkmate

[pgn] [Event "Schenectady Open U1850"] [Site "Schenectady, NY"] [Date "2016.07.16"] [White "Chinnambeti, Abhinay"] [Black "Phillips, John L"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B07"] [WhiteElo "1843"] [BlackElo "1849"] [Annotator "Townsend,William"] [PlyCount "82"] [EventDate "2016.07.??"] [EventRounds "5"] [EventCountry "USA"] 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 c6 4. Nf3 Bg4 5. Be2 e6 6. Be3 d5 7. e5 Nfd7 8. Nb1 c5 9. c3 Nc6 10. O-O Bxf3 11. Bxf3 Qb6 12. Qd2 Rc8 13. Be2 cxd4 14. cxd4 Bb4 15. Nc3 O-O 16. f4 f5 17. Rf3 Na5 18. Bf2 Nc4 19. Bxc4 Rxc4 20. Rh3 Rfc8 21. Rc1 Qa5 22. Qe2 Bxc3 23. Rhxc3 Rxc3 24. Rxc3 Rxc3 25. bxc3 Qxc3 26. g3 a6 27. Kg2 b5 28. h3 Nb6 29. g4 Qc4 30. Qd2 b4 31. gxf5 exf5 32. e6 Nc8 33. Qe3 Ne7 34. Bh4 $2 (34. Qe5 $11) 34... Qxa2+ 35. Kf3 Kf8 36. Bxe7+ Kxe7 37. Qe5 Qb3+ 38. Kg2 Qc2+ 39. Kg3 Qd3+ 40. Kh4 g5+ 41. Kxg5 (41. fxg5 Qe4+) 41... Qg3+ 0-1[/pgn]

Chinnambeti finished with 3 ½ and tied for second with Varun Rao who won the Under 1650 prize. The only perfect score of the tournament was in the Under 1450 section where Brendan Polo finished with a perfect score and finished a point ahead of second place.  The Under 1450 section was also the section that determined the mixed doubles prize.  Brother and sister Blaise Loya and Melody Loya each scored 4 points. They tied for second (with Kiho Kwon) wining $73.34 each, but their combined 8 points won the mixed doubles team prize of $100.  It is becoming more and more common that brothers and sisters team up on mixed doubles teams, sometimes with significant success! One interesting note of this tournament is that there was not a single forfeit.  Considering that this was the largest Schenectady Open and noting the relative frequency of forfeits in today’s tournaments, this is significant. NTD Steve Immitt directed the tournament for CCA assisted by William Townsend. The full tournament results are at www.schenectadyopen.com. Previous Continental Chess tournaments can be found at the Continental Chess website at  http://www.chesstour.com/cross.html.