Kudrin Defends Home Turf by Winning Stamford Open

Stamford resident GM Sergey Kudrin won on his home court, taking clear first in the Stamford Open with a score of 4 ½ - ½ and winning $1000.  He also padded his winnings by leading his team to the mixed doubles prize and adding $200 to his weekend payday. The event was held November 3-5, and, even though the prize fund ($8000) and attendance (172 players) are modest by CCA standards, the event did draw two GMs, two IMs, and four FMs in the 40 player Open section. The first two rounds produced mostly the expected results for the top players.  There were some enjoyable games though.  In the following game, white gets a nice attack and delivers a nice miniature.

[pgn][Event "Stamford Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.11.04"]
[Round "3.12"]
[White "Gu, Ethan"]
[Black "Wu, Eric"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B82"]
[WhiteElo "2093"]
[BlackElo "1900"]
[PlyCount "57"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. Qe2 d6 7. Nc3 Nbd7 8.
O-O Be7 9. Kh1 Qc7 10. f4 b5 11. Bd2 Bb7 12. Rae1 O-O 13. Rf3 Nc5 14. Rh3 Nxd3
15. Qxd3 h6 16. e5 dxe5 17. fxe5 Nh7 18. Bxh6 gxh6 19. Rxh6 Ng5 20. h4 Kg7 21.
hxg5 Rh8 22. Nxe6+ Kg8 23. Rxh8+ Kxh8 24. Nxc7 Rc8 25. N3d5 Bc5 26. Qh3+ Kg8
27. Qh6 f5 28. exf6 Kf7 29. Qg7# 1-0[/pgn]

In round three, both GMs were nicked for draws.  Top seeded Alexander Ivanov drew with FM Hans Niemann while second seeded Kudrin drew with FM Leif Pressman.  There were, however, two decisive games on the top boards which would setup a showdown for round four.  On board three, IM David Brodsky defeated FM Matthew Larson while on board four NM Lev Paciorkowski defeated NM Oliver Chernin.  This left Brodsky and Paciorkoeski as the only perfect scores entering the final day. On Sunday morning, Brodsky beat Paciorkowski to emerge as the only 4-0 score.  Ivanov and Kudrin remained in the hunt as they were paired down to experts and dispatched their opponents to remain ½ point back as the only players with 3 ½ out of 4.  In the last round, Brodsky at 4-0 would face Kudin at 3 ½ while Ivanov at 3 ½ would face Lev Paciorkowski at 3-1.  Both games were long games as would be expected.  Brodsky needed only the draw to at least tie for first while Kudrin needed to win to get first place.  Kudrin did emerge victorious in the following game:

[pgn][Event "Stamford Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.11.05"]
[Round "5.1"]
[White "Kudrin, Sergey"]
[Black "Brodsky, David"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B11"]
[WhiteElo "2545"]
[BlackElo "2482"]
[PlyCount "127"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e5 Ne4 5. Ne2 Qb6 6. d4 e6 7. Nfg1 f6 8. f3
Ng5 9. exf6 gxf6 10. f4 Ne4 11. Ng3 Bd7 12. Nf3 c5 13. Nxe4 dxe4 14. Nd2 cxd4
15. Nxe4 Be7 16. Qh5+ Kd8 17. Bd3 Nc6 18. O-O Kc7 19. a3 Rag8 20. b4 Nd8 21.
Qe2 Bc6 22. c4 Kc8 23. b5 Bxe4 24. Qxe4 f5 25. Qf3 a5 26. Bd2 Qc7 27. Rfe1 Rg6
28. b6 Qc6 29. Kf2 Qxb6 30. c5 Qc6 31. Bxa5 Bxc5 32. Rec1 b6 33. Rab1 Qxf3+ 34.
Kxf3 bxa5 35. Rxc5+ Kd7 36. Rxa5 Ke7 37. Ra4 Nf7 38. Rb7+ Kf6 39. Rxd4 Rg7 40.
Bc4 Ra8 41. Rd3 Rgg8 42. Re3 Rge8 43. Rb6 Nd8 44. Bb5 Re7 45. a4 Raa7 46. h3 h5
47. Rb8 Nf7 48. Ra3 Ra5 49. Rb6 Rc7 50. Ra6 Rxa6 51. Bxa6 e5 52. a5 exf4 53.
Be2 Ng5+ 54. Kxf4 Rc2 55. Ke3 Rc7 56. a6 Re7+ 57. Kf2 Ne4+ 58. Ke1 Ra7 59. Bxh5
Kg5 60. Be2 Kf4 61. g3+ Ke5 62. Ra5+ Kf6 63. g4 fxg4 64. hxg4 1-0[/pgn]

Ivanov had a chance to tie for first by winning.  He built a nice advantage in the early middlegame but went astray and allowed his opponent to get back in the game and equalize.  At the end of the game in severe time pressure with only seconds remaining (though with 10 second delay), Ivanov allowed Paciorkowski to take a piece for nothing in an equal position.

[pgn][Event "Stamford Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.11.05"]
[Round "5.2"]
[White "Paciorkowski, Lev"]
[Black "Ivanov, Alexander"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A41"]
[WhiteElo "2397"]
[BlackElo "2555"]
[PlyCount "129"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. d4 d6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 dxe5 4. Qxd8+ Kxd8 5. Nc3 c6 6. f4 Bd6 7. Ne4 Bb4+ 8.
Kf2 Nh6 9. fxe5 Ng4+ 10. Kg3 Be1+ 11. Kf4 h6 12. g3 Bb4 13. Be3 g5+ 14. Kf3
Nxe5+ 15. Kg2 Bf5 16. Nf2 Nbd7 17. Bd4 c5 18. Bxe5 Nxe5 19. e4 Be6 20. Nf3 Nxc4
21. Bxc4 Bxc4 22. a3 Ba5 23. Rac1 Be6 24. Nd3 g4 25. Nh4 Ke7 26. Nxc5 Rad8 27.
Rc2 Rd2+ 28. Rxd2 Bxd2 29. Rd1 Be3 30. Nxe6 Kxe6 31. Nf5 Bb6 32. Kf1 h5 33. Ke2
Rc8 34. Rd6+ Ke5 35. Kd3 Rd8 36. Rxd8 Bxd8 37. Ng7 h4 38. Nf5 hxg3 39. hxg3 Bg5
40. b3 Bc1 41. a4 Ba3 42. Ne3 Ke6 43. Kd4 Bd6 44. Nf5 Be5+ 45. Ke3 Bc7 46. Kd3
Bb6 47. Ng7+ Ke5 48. Nf5 Bf2 49. Nh6 Bxg3 50. Nxg4+ Ke6 51. Ne3 Bf2 52. Nc4 Be1
53. Na3 Bb4 54. Nb5 Bc5 55. Nc3 Ke5 56. Nd1 Bd4 57. b4 a6 58. a5 Bg1 59. Nb2
Bf2 60. Nc4+ Ke6 61. Nb2 Ke5 62. Nc4+ Ke6 63. Na3 Be1 64. Nc2 Ke5 65. Nxe1 1-0[/pgn]

So, Kudrin emerged as the only player with 4 ½.  Brodsky, Paciorkowski, and Pressman all finished at 4-1 to share second place and take $266.67. Most of the time, the articles focus on the Open section and the GMs.  However, there is a game from a lower section that deserves some mention.  In the Under 1410 section Warren Kennedy-Nolle scored 5-0.  In the last round, he played a sophisticated queen trap that was a 6 move combination!  Once he lost his queen, his opponent then had the class to resign, which does not always happen in lower sections!  Kennedy-Nolle won $600 for his efforts and picked up 158 rating points.

[pgn][Event "Stamford Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.11.05"]
[Round "5.45"]
[White "Kennedy-Nolle, Warren"]
[Black "Awasthi, Rohan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B50"]
[WhiteElo "1327"]
[BlackElo "1396"]
[PlyCount "35"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bc4 e6 5. d3 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Be3 Nc6 8. Bb3
Bd7 9. Ne2 b5 10. a3 a5 11. Ng3 Qc7 12. Qd2 d5 13. e5 Nxe5 14. Nxe5 Qxe5 15.
Bf4 Qxb2 16. Rfb1 Qd4 17. c3 Ne4 18. Nxe4 1-0[/pgn]

The section winners were:

Under 2010

Skuli Sigurdarson, 4 ½ - ½. $800

Under 1710

Ryan Wantroba, 4 ½ - ½, $800

Under 1410

Warren Kennedy- Nolle, 5-0, $600

Under 1110

Erik Nebylovych, 5-0, $300

Mixed Doubles

Megan Chen & GM Sergey Kudrin, 8-2, $200 each

Blitz Tournament

Nick Figorito, 8-0, $70

              NTD Steve Immitt directed for CCA assisted by Jabari McGreen and Maya McGreen. Full tournament details can be found at www.stamfordopen.com. Previous Continental Chess tournaments can be found at the Continental Chess website at  http://www.chesstour.com/cross.html.