Shabalov and Sadorra Win King’s Island Open

The King’s Island Open was held from November 11-13 in Blue Ash, Ohio a suburb of Cincinnati.  The $30,000 projected prize fund drew 305 players in seven sections including 8 GMs in the 59 player open section.  When the event ended GMs Alexander Shabalov and Julio Sadorra each had 4 ½ out of 5.  Both GMs had performance ratings over 2800. Each of the GMs had to play three other GMs, which is somewhat unusual in a 5 round event! After two rounds, there were nine perfect scores and seven were GMs so GMs would be facing each other on Saturday night!  The top four boards were all decisive.  GM Alexandr Shimanov defeated GM Alexander Fishbein.  GM Julio Sadorra defeated GM Nikola Mitkov.  GM Alexander Shabalov defeated GM Bryan Smith and GM Priyadharshan Kannappan defeated FM Ben Li. That meant there were four perfect scores on Sunday morning.  Round four was the critical round of the tournament.  Both GM pairings on Sunday morning were decisive and black won in both cases.  GM Shabalov defeated GM Shimanov on board one while GM Sadorra defeated GM Kannappan on board two.

[pgn] [Event "King's Island Open"] [Site "?"] [Date "2016.11.13"] [Round "4.1"] [White "Shimanov, Alexandr"] [Black "Shabalov, Alexander"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D10"] [WhiteElo "2646"] [BlackElo "2705"] [PlyCount "80"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 cxd5 5. Bf4 Nc6 6. e3 a6 7. Rc1 Bg4 8. f3 Bc8 9. Bd3 e6 10. g4 g6 11. Bg5 h6 12. Bh4 g5 13. Bf2 h5 14. gxh5 e5 15. Nge2 exd4 16. Nxd4 Nxd4 17. exd4 Bd6 18. Kd2 Bf4+ 19. Be3 Bxe3+ 20. Kxe3 Nxh5 21. Kd2 Nf4 22. Qa4+ Kf8 23. Rce1 Be6 24. Qb4+ Qe7 25. Qb6 Rc8 26. Re5 Rc6 27. Qb3 Rh3 28. Re3 b5 29. Ne2 Qf6 30. Qb4+ Kg7 31. Ng3 g4 32. Bf1 a5 33. Qb3 Qxd4+ 34. Bd3 a4 35. Qa3 b4 36. Qxa4 Qxb2+ 37. Bc2 Qd4+ 38. Rd3 Nxd3 39. Ne2 Qc5 40. Bxd3 Rxf3 0-1[/pgn]

[pgn] [Event "King's Island Open"] [Site "?"] [Date "2016.11.13"] [Round "4.2"] [White "Kannappan, Priyadharshan"] [Black "Sadorra, Julio"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C08"] [WhiteElo "2619"] [BlackElo "2693"] [PlyCount "60"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. exd5 exd5 5. Ngf3 Nc6 6. dxc5 Bxc5 7. Nb3 Bb6 8. Be2 Nf6 9. O-O O-O 10. Nbd4 Re8 11. c3 Nxd4 12. Nxd4 Bxd4 13. cxd4 Qb6 14. a4 Bf5 15. a5 Qb4 16. Ra4 Qd6 17. Bd3 Ng4 18. g3 Qg6 19. Bxf5 Qxf5 20. h3 Nf6 21. Kg2 Rac8 22. Rb4 Rc2 23. Qf3 Qc8 24. Be3 Ne4 25. h4 Re6 26. Bf4 Rf6 27. Qd1 g6 28. Kg1 h6 29. Rxb7 Rxf4 30. gxf4 Rd2 0-1[/pgn]

Round five was not as exciting as the two leaders played a quick draw to assure themselves a tie for first.  Shabalov had the better tiebreaks and won the bonus and pocketed $1930.  Sadorra won $1848, but also tied for third mixed doubles. The two leaders could have been caught.  FM Todd Andrews was the only player to enter the last round with 3 ½.  He could have tied for first be defeating GM Shimanov, but that proved to be too tall of an order. Shimanov and Fishbein finished at 4-1 and won $493 for tying for third. Twelve players tied for 5^th at 3 ½.  The players under 2300 took the class prize and won $492.75.  The others won $30.75. In the class sections the most impressive story was in the lowest two sections.  Brothers Malachi Fowler in the Under 1250 section and Matthew Fowler in the Under 1000 section each scored 5-0 and finished a point ahead of the field. The mixed double prize had an extremely high score as Marrissa Li & Agarkhorol Gangaa scored a combined 8 ½ - 1 ½ to share the first place $821 mixed double prize. The section winners were: Under 2100 Jonathan Clinton, Abhinav Ramaswamy & Marrissa Li, 4  ½ - ½ $958.34 Under 1900 Adith George, 5-0, $1643 Under 1700 Matthew Campbell, 5-0, $1479 Under 1500 Rohan Padhe & Steven Fu, 4 ½ - ½, $944.50 Under 1250 Malachi Fowler, 5-0, $986 Under 1000 Matthew Fowler, 5-0, $657 Mixed Doubles Marissa Li & Agarkhorol Gangaa, 8 ½ - 1 ½ , $821 each Blitz Tournament Walker Griggs 7 ½ - ½ $165 NTD Steve Immitt directed for CCA assisted by David Hater, Myron Thomas, and Harold Scott. Full tournament details can be found at www.kingsislandopen.com. Previous Continental Chess tournaments can be found at the Continental Chess website at  http://www.chesstour.com/cross.html.