Las Vegas Chess Festival: Three Tie for First at National Open, Putnam Wins Edmondson Cup

In Las Vegas, everything is a capital-E Event. So, it’s fitting that, every June, the National Open isn’t just a tournament, but instead, just one part of the all-encompassing Las Vegas International Chess Festival.

This year, the self-described “chess vacation of the year,” took place from June 10 through 14 at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort. For these five days, chessplayers could feast on a buffet of rapid and blitz side events, the prestigious Walter Browne Memorial Blitz Tournament, game analysis from GM Kayden Troff, and a simultaneous exhibition from GM Ben Finegold.

Guest grandmaster Ben Finegold during his simul. Check the above link for a few of his games from this event! (Photo courtesy of the organizers)

In the “main event,” 112 players competed in the Open section of the National Open (with over 1,000 more players filling out the other sections). Three players tied for first with 7/9 scores: GM Christopher Yoo, GM Arman Mikaelyan, and IM Liam Putnam. Each player won $5,834. Putnam won the Edmondson Cup on tiebreaks.

Liam Putnam won the Edmondson Cup on tiebreaks. (Photo courtesy of the organizers)

Putnam was the only co-winner to go undefeated for the nine-round event, narrowly missing out on a GM norm. His last-round victory over GM Ehsan Ghaemmaghami was particularly impressive:

Of Mikaelyan’s games, his penultimate round victory over IM Oleksii Bilych was particularly impressive. Chessplayers often think of openings a double-fianchetto setup as a way of avoiding theory. But Mikaelyan showed us why this can be dangerous. After one misstep from Black, the game was over:

Yoo bounced back from a second-round loss (more on that in a moment) to go 6/7 the rest of the way. By the time he faced IM Avi Kaplan in Round 5, he had clearly found his form. In response to an opening surprise from Kaplan, Yoo played impeccably:

In the first round of these tournaments, there’s generally a discrepancy of a couple hundred points between players on the top boards. But that didn’t stop Oregon’s WGM Zoey Tang from scoring the best win of her career (so far!) in Round 2, beating the eventual co-champion.

Zoey Tang scored the best win of her career (so far) during Round 2 of the National Open. (Photo courtesy of the organizers)

Enjoy Zoey’s annotations on her big win below:

Tang missed out on an IM norm by an unfortunate technicality. She did not play enough players from enough federations for her tournament to be eligible for a norm, and the tournament fell just short of meeting the Super Swiss threshold (1.4.3d). This was the same reason Putnam did not earn a GM norm. But, as Tang said, the journey to 2400 continues. We’ll see her next month at the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship!

Texas’s FM Elbert Fang did manage his own IM norm, though. With a very tenacious win against IM Alice Lee as one of the highlights, it was a well-deserved norm, too!

All results from all sections can be found here, and games from the top boards can be reviewed on Chess.com.

The first two days of the festival also featured the competitive U.S. Women’s Open and its $5,000 prize fund. WIM Davaakhuu Munkhzul and WFM Norovsambuu Badamkhand, both playing under the Mongolian flag, split top honors with 4½/5 scores, earning $1,150 apiece. Full standings from the 60-player event are available here.

Below is a very instructive victory from Munkhzul and a come-from-behind thriller from Badamkhand:

Norovsambuu Badamkhand (L) came back against Megan Lee to secure her share of the U.S. Women's Open title. (Photo courtesy of the organizers)

In the International Youth Championship, California’s Pranav Rajesh won the Under-14 Premier section with a 5½/6 score, and Californians Ryan Guanchen Yu and Neil Zion Joseph tied for first in the Under-9 Premier section. In the Youth Trophy Tournament, Clark Liu (also from California!) won the Premier section with a 4½/5 score.

Yoo also won the Walter Browne Memorial Blitz with a 10/12 score, pocketing the $1,000 top prize.