Gorovets Wins the Manhattan Open

IM Andrey Gorovets won the Manhattan Open with a score of 4 ½ - 1/2, taking the $2000 first prize and $100 clear first bonus.  His path to victory was slightly unusual, but was very dominant.  Two of Gorovets’ opponents tied for second with 4-1 scores, losing only to Gorovets. Gorovets also defeated the tournament’s top seeded player GM Yaroslav Zherebukh. What makes Gorovets’ path slightly unusual is that he played in the two-day schedule and opted for a half point bye in round 3. Thus, he scored 4-0 in played games.  There were a total of seven GMs ad 5 IMs in the tournament, but with the exception of Zherebukh, Gorovets didn’t face any of them because he was facing the junior players who were tearing up the field! After a routine win against a “mere” master, Gorovets faced FM Brandon Jacobson who is the highest rated 13-year-old in the country. Gorovets had white, and he did win that game, but he admits to being in some trouble in that game. In round three, Gorovets opted for the half point bye. I suspected that there might be some tournament strategy in that decision and I was right, but that only tells half the story.  The tournament strategy was that Gorovets wanted to avoid playing Zherebukh with black.  There is more to the story: Gorovets said he did not sleep well the previous night and was very tired.  Regardless of his motivations, it must have worked out.  However, the next morning Gorovets played the black pieces against GM Zherebukh. Gorovets must have been well rested because he won that game! Even though Gorovets may have been well rested, he had some help from his opponent.  Zherebukh was better most of the game and did turn down a draw offer.  Zherebukh did correctly sacrifice an exchange and was winning, but right before time control the tables turned.  Zherebukh could have played 37. a6, and his a pawn will be decisive.  However, he let Gorovets rooks get too active, and, even though he could queen the a pawn, he would get checkmated.

[pgn][Event "Manhattan Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.08.20"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "Zherebukh, Yaroslav"]
[Black "Gorovets, Andrey"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A05"]
[WhiteElo "2711"]
[BlackElo "2596"]
[PlyCount "80"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. Nf3 e6 2. g3 b5 3. Bg2 Bb7 4. O-O c5 5. d3 Nf6 6. e4 d6 7. a4 b4 8. a5 Nfd7
9. Nbd2 Nc6 10. Nc4 Ba6 11. Bf4 Bxc4 12. dxc4 Nde5 13. c3 Rb8 14. Nxe5 Nxe5 15.
cxb4 Rxb4 16. Bd2 Rxb2 17. Bc3 Rb8 18. f4 Nc6 19. e5 Rc8 20. exd6 Qxd6 21. Qxd6
Bxd6 22. Bxg7 Rg8 23. Bc3 Nd4 24. Kf2 Rb8 25. Rab1 Kd7 26. Bb7 h5 27. a6 h4 28.
Rfe1 Bc7 29. Red1 hxg3+ 30. hxg3 Ke7 31. Rxd4 cxd4 32. Bxd4 Rbd8 33. Bxa7 Rd2+
34. Kf1 Rxg3 35. Bc5+ Bd6 36. Bxd6+ Kxd6 37. Rb6+ Kc7 38. Rc6+ Kd7 39. a7 Rb3
40. Bc8+ Ke8 0-1[/pgn]

In the last round, Gorovets was on board one in a must win situation for first place.  There was one 4-0:  Robert Perez.  Perez was the only perfect score in the tournament, having defeated GM Niclas Huschenbeth, IM Kaiqi Yang and GM Sergey Kudrin in rounds 2, 3, and 4.  Gorovets did win that game and guaranteed himself at least a tie for first.

[pgn][Event "Manhattan Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.08.20"]
[Round "5.1"]
[White "Gorovets, Andrey"]
[Black "Perez, Robert"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D93"]
[WhiteElo "2596"]
[BlackElo "2487"]
[PlyCount "71"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 c5 7. dxc5 Ne4 8. Rc1
Nd7 9. cxd5 Qa5 10. Nd4 Nxc3 11. bxc3 Nxc5 12. Bc4 Bd7 13. O-O Rac8 14. Bb3 Qa6
15. c4 Rfd8 16. Qe2 e5 17. dxe6 Nxe6 18. Nxe6 Bxe6 19. Rfd1 h5 20. Rxd8+ Rxd8
21. e4 Rc8 22. Be3 Qa3 23. Qd1 Bb2 24. Rb1 a5 25. c5 Bxb3 26. axb3 Ra8 27. Qd5
Qa2 28. Rf1 a4 29. bxa4 Qxa4 30. Qxb7 Be5 31. Qd5 Re8 32. c6 Qc2 33. Rc1 Qe2
34. Qd7 Ra8 35. c7 Bxc7 36. Qxc7 1-0[/pgn]

One player had the opportunity to catch Gorovets.  GM Mark Paragua started the round at 3 1/2 and could catch Gorovets if he could beat GM Huschenbeth with the black pieces.  The game was the last one to end in the open section, going to a complicated rook and pawn ending.  Huschenbeth, though, had all the winning chances and did bring home the full point, and, thus, was in the tie for second at 4-1.  Perez also finished at 4-1, as did Jacobson.  T he final player to tie for second was GM Niaz Murshed.  Murshed finished with 3 wins and 2 draws.  He gave up draws to IM Yang and NM Brandon Nydick when he had the black pieces.  He won all three games with white against Jason Liu, FM Kyron Griffith and FM Levy Rozman.  Here is his last round win over FM Rozman.

[pgn][Event "Manhattan Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.08.20"]
[Round "5.3"]
[White "Murshad, Niaz"]
[Black "Rozman, Levy"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D22"]
[WhiteElo "2560"]
[BlackElo "2451"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bg4 5. Bxc4 e6 6. h3 Bh5 7. Nc3 Nc6 8. O-O
Bd6 9. Be2 O-O 10. a3 a6 11. b4 Qe8 12. b5 Na5 13. a4 Qe7 14. Bd2 c5 15. Ne5
cxd4 16. exd4 Bxe2 17. Nxe2 Bb4 18. Bg5 Qd8 19. Bxf6 gxf6 20. Ng4 f5 21. Ne3
axb5 22. axb5 Qd7 23. Qd3 b6 24. Rfd1 Rfd8 25. d5 Qd6 26. Nd4 Bc5 27. Nc6 Nxc6
28. Rxa8 Rxa8 29. dxc6 Qf4 30. Qd7 Bxe3 31. fxe3 Qxe3+ 32. Kh1 Qe2 33. c7 Kg7
34. Rc1 Ra2 35. Qc6 1-0[/pgn]

All the players who tied for second won $500.  Two up and coming juniors won the top U2400 prize: 15-year-old Brandon Nydick and 13-year-old Wesley Wang each scored 3 ½ to win $450. A puzzle/combination from the tournament comes from round one when IM Aleksandr Ostrovskiy defeated NM Juan Sena.  Ostrovskiy has sacrificed a pawn and built a very active position.  Can you find the finishing combination?

Aleksandr Ostrovskiy vs. Juan Sena

White to move.

Show Solution The last game of the tournament had a highly unusual finish.  Igor Kovalchuk underpromoted to a knight to deliver checkmate and tie for first in the Under 2200 section.  He finished at 4 ½ and won $1000.  In the final position, if white queens, it will be a draw, and any move other than a pawn promotion loses, but the underpromotion checkmates!

Igor Kovalchuk vs. Vladimir Polyakin

White to move.

Show Solution Another unusual occurrence comes to us from the Under 1000 section.  Zenchi Sun was paired against his father Anthony Sun in round four. Neither player brought the pairing to the attention of the TD.  We probably would have changed it if they had brought it to our attention in time, but in the penultimate round the pairing software won’t look as hard to change such pairings.  They welcomed the opportunity to play.  Zenchi called a TD to complain that his father committed a touch move violation!  I guess rather than wait until they got home to deal with it, the lower rated father just checkmated his higher rated son! Both finished the tournament with a plus score. More fun from the Under 1000 section. Three unrateds won money.  They are limited to $100. Two of the three won less than $100, so there is no issue.  However, Avtandil Chanadiri was playing in his first event and scored 5-0.  He could only win $100, even though first place is $500.  For those that want to know where the other $400 goes checkout “How do you pay this prize fund” in “Running Chess Tournaments” on the US Chess Forums.  (That was a shameless plug for US Chess Forums as well as an attempt not to bore readers who may not be interested in esoteric topics).   ? The section winners were:

Under 2200

Igor Kovalchuk & Jeremy Berman, 4 ½ - ½, $1000

Under 2000

Tristan Dalhouse, 5-0, $1300

Under 1800

John Ciardi, 5-0. $1300

Under 1600

Jean Chavannes & David Colon, 4 ½ - ½, $750

Under 1400

Liam Murphy, 5-0, $1000

Under 1200

John Incantalupo, 5-0, $500

Under 1000

Avtandil Chanadiri, $100 (prize limited due to being unrated)

Frank Randazzo & Linyue Ren, 4 ½ - ½. $375.

Mixed Doubles

Charlie Reeder & William Chen and Aliana Fausto & Shawn Martinez, $500 each team

Blitz Tournament

IM Ahuja Rohan, 7-1, $80

            NTD Steve Immitt directed for CCA assisted by David Hater, Harold Stenzel, Harold Scott, Sophia Rohde, and Danny Rohde. For more information, visit:

• Manhattan Open Website
• Continental Chess Crosstables