Lenderman Perfect at Manhattan Open

GM Alex Lenderman won the Manhattan Open with a perfect 5-0 score.  The Manhattan Open was held August 3-5th, which unfortunately coincided with the second weekend of the US Open.  The Manhattan Open is normally scheduled later in August to avoid the conflict, but this year venue constraints made the conflict unavoidable.  Still, the Manhattan Open did well drawing 479 players and was very strong as it drew 21 titled players, which is nearly as many as the 27 at the US Open.  Even the number of GMs at Manhattan was an impressive seven GMs which was not nearly as many as the 19 at the US Open, but still represents a strong event.  Of course, the US Open draws many GMs seeking the coveted spot to the US Championship for the winner.  Another connection is that at least two of the top players in Manhattan were also in Madison for at least part of the time.  GM Michael Rohde represented New York in the Senior Tournament of Champions, and FM Yoon-young Kim represented Connecticut in the Denker Tournament of Champions. In round one, all the GMs won (except for GM Kudrin who opted for half point byes to start).  By round two however, only two GMs won.  GM Alex Lenderman and GM Gil Popilski both got to 2-0.  GM Rohde opted for a half point bye as did GM Sergey Kudrin.  GM Sergei Azarov forfeited in round two while GM Niclas Huschenbeth lost to Senior Master Robert Perez while GM Irina Krush surrendered a draw to Senior Master Grant Xu. There was a nice combination in round two when NM Steven Barrett defeated Winston Ni.  Can you spot the moves that Barrett used to bring home the full point?

Steven Barrett vs. Winston Ni

White to move.

Show Solution Going into round three there were eleven players at 2-0:  GMs Lenderman and Popilski; IMs Kassa Korley and David Brodsky; FMs Joshua Colas, Hans Niemann and Justin Paul; SMs Robert Perez and Qibao Wang; and NMs Justin Chen and Isaac Chiu. The first surprise of round three was FM Colas forfeiting to GM Lenderman. Colas had left between rounds and found that the New York Subway system was not always on time, and he didn’t make it back in time for round 3!  He did stick around for the blitz and came in clear second, and he had a chance to tie for second in the main event if he could have won his last round game.  GM Popilski defeated Qibao Wang to join Lenderman at 3-0.  IM Korley lost to FM Niemann SM Perez lost to FM Paul while IM Brodsky drew with NM Chen. NM Chiu was paired down to the next score group and lost to GM Krush. This left now four perfect scores going into the final day. In round four, the GMs stayed perfect as Lenderman defeated Niemann, and Popilski defeated Paul.  They would be the only 4-0 scores and be on board one in the last round.  There were only two players trailing by ½ point: IM Djurabek Khamrakulov and NM Justin Chen.  I would have thought that board one would draw quickly and see if one other person joined the tie, but Lenderman had other ideas. Lenderman defeated Popilski to finish at 5-0 and take the $2000 first prize and $100 bonus.  He also won an additional $75 as his team tied for second mixed doubles.

[pgn][Event "Manhattan Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2018.08.05"]
[Round "5.1"]
[White "Lenderman, Aleksandr"]
[Black "Popilski, Gil"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D78"]
[WhiteElo "2711"]
[BlackElo "2557"]
[PlyCount "129"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 c6 4. Bg2 d5 5. Qb3 Bg7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. O-O Qb6 8. Nc3
Rd8 9. Na4 Qxb3 10. axb3 Na6 11. Bd2 Be6 12. Rfc1 Ne4 13. Ba5 Rdc8 14. e3 Kf8
15. Bf1 Nb8 16. Nc3 Nxc3 17. bxc3 h6 18. cxd5 cxd5 19. c4 Nc6 20. Bc3 a5 21.
Nd2 b6 22. cxd5 Bxd5 23. e4 Be6 24. d5 Bxc3 25. Rxc3 Ne5 26. Rxc8+ Bxc8 27. f4
Nd7 28. Bb5 Nc5 29. b4 Na6 30. Bc6 Rb8 31. bxa5 bxa5 32. Rxa5 Rb2 33. Nc4 Rb4
34. Ra4 Rb1+ 35. Kg2 Kg7 36. d6 exd6 37. Nxd6 Rb2+ 38. Kf3 Rb3+ 39. Kf2 Rb6 40.
Nxc8 Rxc6 41. Ne7 Nc5 42. Nxc6 Nxa4 43. Ke3 Nc5 44. e5 h5 45. Na5 Ne6 46. Ke4
Nc5+ 47. Kd4 Ne6+ 48. Kd5 Nc7+ 49. Kc6 Ne6 50. Kd5 Nc7+ 51. Kd6 Nb5+ 52. Ke7
Nd4 53. Nc4 h4 54. Nd6 hxg3 55. hxg3 Ne2 56. Nxf7 Nxg3 57. Ng5 Nh5 58. Nh3 Ng3
59. e6 Nf5+ 60. Kd7 Kf6 61. Ng5 Ng7 62. e7 Kf5 63. Ne6 Nh5 64. Kd8 Nf6 65. Nc5
1-0[/pgn]

Khamrakulov or Chen could have finished in clear second place with a decisive game, but they drew joining Popilski in the tie for second. GM Rohde who defeated FM Paul in the last round, IM Brodsky who defeated FM Wesley Wang in the last round, FM Aravind Kumar who defeated FM Niemann in the last round, and NM Akira Nakada who defeated FM Colas in the last round all also joined the tie for second. All those in the second place tie won $414.29. One of the class players who deserves special recognition is Akash Kumar. Rated 1930, he was eligible to play in the Under 200 section but chose to play in the Under 2200.  He opted for a half point bye in round four and then went 4-0 in his other games to tie for first with 4 ½ points. That was worth $833.34 and 135 rating points! The section winners were:

Under 2200

Vladimir Bugayev, Juan Tica, and Akash Kumar, 4 ½ - ½, $833.34

Under 2000

Dimitry Gorelik and Mikhail Molodyk, 4 ½ - ½, $1050

Under 1800

Christopher Zhou and Michah Saperstein, 4 ½ - ½, $1050

Under 1600

Krish Bandari, 5-0, $1200

Under 1400

Andre Lowden 5-0, $200 (limited to $200 as unrated)

Xuan Zhou and Mahammat Baba 4 ½ - ½, $750

Under 1100

Smittipon Srethapramote, 5-0, $700

Aleksandre Iluridze, 5-0 $100 (limited to $100 as unrated)

Mixed Doubles

Xuan Zhiu and Audrey Zhou, 8 ½ - 1 ½, $300 each

Blitz Tournament

Joseph Zeltsan, 7-1. $105

NTD Harold Stenzel directed for Continental Chess Association assisted by Andy Rea, Jabari McGreen, Ernesto Rivera, Hector Rodriguez, and Harold Scott. Full tournament details can be found at www.manhattanopen.com. Previous Continental Chess tournaments can be found at the Continental Chess website at  http://www.chesstour.com/cross.html.