Three of a Kind – Continental Chess Events from Coast to Coast

George Li photo removed by request.

On the weekend of July 20-22, Continental Chess Association held three separate events that collectively drew 712 players and awarded $62,500 in prizes! In all, there were seven GMs, seven IMs, ten FMs and a lot of fighting chess.

Chicago Class

The largest of the three tournaments was the Chicago Class. It comprised roughly half of the total with a guaranteed prize fund of $30,000 and 355 players. The anomaly with the Chicago Class was the two day schedule. There were seven players in the two day schedule, but six were GMs. After the bye, that meant three GMs got paired up in round one. All three GM vs. GM games were decisive as GM Alex Shimanov defeated GM Ashwin Jayaraman, GM Priyadarshan Kannappan defeated GM Nikola Mitkov and GM Vladimir Georgiev defeated GM Fidel Corrales Jiminez. Meanwhile in the three day schedule, the three day top seed IM Zhaozhi (George) Li played one of his best games as he defeated one of his long time rivals NM Matthew Stevens.

[pgn][Event "11th Annual Chicago Class"] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.07.20"] [Round "1"] [White "Li, Zhaozhi"] [Black "Stevens, Matthew"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A14"] [WhiteElo "2480"] [BlackElo "2261"] [Annotator "Li,George"] [PlyCount "81"] [EventDate "2018.??.??"]1. g3 {Stevens and I have played 18 US Chess-rated games against each other, along with several hundred online games and even more OTB friendlies. With the exception of the a- and h-pawns, I've tried every other sensible option, and it's not easy (or interesting) to play the same position repeatedly. After essentially using a random generator, today's choice was g3} Nf6 2. Bg2 d5 3. Nf3 e6 4. O-O Be7 5. b3 O-O 6. Bb2 c5 7. c4 Nc6 8. cxd5 {A topical line in top-level games. White doesn't seem to have much, but his position is a bit easier to play} Nxd5 9. d4 cxd4 10. Nxd4 Nxd4 11. Qxd4 Bf6 12. Qd2 Bd7 (12... Nf4 13. gxf4 Qxd2 14. Nxd2 Bxb2 15. Rab1 Bf6 16. Rbc1 Rd8 17. Ne4 Be7 18. Rc7 Kf8 19. Rfc1 {Kramnik - Mamedyarov, GCT Rapid Paris 2018 was a recent game in the main line with ...Nf4}) 13. Bxd5 exd5 14. Rd1 Rc8 15. Bd4 {A slight inaccuracy. Black can now defend his isolani and induce some developmental difficulties for White} Bxd4 16. Qxd4 Qc7 (16... Qa5 $1) 17. Nd2 Rfe8 18. e3 Qc2 19. Kg2 (19. Rdc1 Qxc1+ 20. Rxc1 Rxc1+ 21. Kg2 Rd1 {is the caveat for playing Kg2 first}) 19... a6 (19... Qf5 20. Rac1 b6 {is equal, but White is pressing}) 20. Rdc1 Qxc1 21. Rxc1 Rxc1 22. Nf3 Bf5 23. Qa4 {The crux. White would instead have an onerous conversion without this intermediary} Rec8 24. Nd4 Be4+ 25. f3 Bg6 26. Qd7 R1c7 27. Qxd5 h6 28. g4 Re7 29. Kf2 Rce8 30. e4 b5 31. h4 h5 32. gxh5 Re5 33. Qc6 Bxh5 34. Qxa6 b4 35. Qa4 R5e7 36. Qxb4 Bg6 37. a4 Rd7 38. a5 Bxe4 39. fxe4 Rxe4 40. Qb8+ Kh7 41. Nf3 1-0[/pgn]

The second round was not much better for the GMs as there were still all GM pairings and in the one non-GM pairing, the GM lost! NM Vincent Do defeated third seeded GM Priyadarshan Kannappan. GMs Alex Shimanov and Vladimir Georgiev drew with each other, so the only player to emerge from the two day schedule with a perfect score was the lowest seeded player and the only non-GM: NM Vincent Do. In round two, GM Mitkov got the bye as the lowest rated player in the 0-1 scoregroup! One shocking score was second seeded GM Fidel Corrales Jiminez – he was 0-2 after losing to GMs Georgiev and Jayaraman.

[pgn][Event "Chicago Class"] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.07.21"] [Round "2"] [White "Do, Vincent"] [Black "Kannappan, Priyadharshan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C65"] [WhiteElo "2220"] [BlackElo "2622"] [PlyCount "101"] [EventDate "2018.??.??"]1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 d6 5. O-O Bd7 6. c3 g6 7. Re1 Bg7 8. h3 O-O 9. Be3 h6 10. Nbd2 Qe8 11. d4 Nxd4 12. cxd4 Bxb5 13. dxe5 Nd7 14. exd6 cxd6 15. a4 Ba6 16. Bd4 Bxd4 17. Nxd4 Ne5 18. Re3 Rc8 19. b4 b6 20. f4 Nc4 21. Nxc4 Rxc4 22. b5 Bb7 23. Qd3 Rc7 24. Nf3 Re7 25. Rae1 Qd7 26. f5 Kh7 27. Nh4 Rg8 28. Rg3 Re5 29. Nf3 Ree8 30. fxg6+ fxg6 31. e5 Re6 32. Rd1 d5 33. h4 Qe8 34. h5 Kh8 35. Nd4 Rxe5 36. hxg6 Re4 37. Qf3 Bc8 38. Qh5 Rg7 39. Qxh6+ Kg8 40. Qg5 Re5 41. Qf6 Bd7 42. Rf1 Re1 43. Rxe1 Qxe1+ 44. Kh2 Qe4 45. Qd8+ Qe8 46. Qg5 Qe4 47. Nf3 Qb4 48. Ne5 Be8 49. Qd8 Qe7 50. Qxd5+ Kf8 51. Rf3+ 1-0[/pgn]

In the three day schedule, IM Li got a very fortunate break. He was down an exchange versus FM Vincent Tsay and was bordering on losing when Tsay flagged on move 37 of the first time control. Tsay has neglected to set the 10 second delay on his clock and didn’t realize it until after his time expired! When the merge occurred, there were five perfect scores: IM George Li, FM Ben Li, FM Tansel Turgut and NMs Spencer Lehmann and Vincent Do. IM Li defeated FM Turgut and FM Li drew with NM Lehman, so IM Li was the only perfect score. NM Do was paired “down” to top seeded Alex Shimanov and drew. After three rounds, IM Li had 3-0, while FM Li and NMs Do and Lehmann had 2 ½, and all of the GMs were at 2-1 or less. In round 4, George Li defeated Ben Li to emerge at 4-0. Do lost to Spencer Lehman, so there was only one 3 ½: NM Spencer Lehmann. Four players stood at 3-1 as GMs Shimanov, Kannappan, Georgiev and Jayaramin were chasing second place. IM Li drew rather quickly with NM Lehman to ensure clear first with 4 ½ out of 5 and win $3100. IM Li was the 7^th seed behind six GMs, but he did not have to play a single GM! Spencer would tie for second and could be joined by two GMs if boards 2 and 3 were decisive. Kannappan defeated Shimanov on board two to join the tie. Kannappan had a nice finish. Can you spot how he concluded the game?

Shimanov vs. Kannappan

Black to move and win.

Show Solution

[pgn][Event "Chicago Class"] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.07.22"] [Round "5.2"] [White "Shimanov, Alex"] [Black "Kannappan, Priyadarshan"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A13"] [WhiteElo "2710"] [BlackElo "2622"] [Annotator "Hater,David"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/r4kp1/2P1pp2/1Q6/1P1q4/1KN4p/P2r1P2/1R6 b - - 0 37"] [PlyCount "9"] [EventDate "2018.??.??"]37... Ra3+ $1 {and White resigned. If} 38. Kxa3 Qxc3+ 39. Rb3 (39. Ka4 Rxa2#) 39... Qc1+ 40. Ka4 (40. Rb2 Qxb2+ 41. Ka4 Qxa2#) 40... Rxa2+ 41. Ra3 Rxa3# 0-1[/pgn]

Lehman and Kannappan each won $1350. Jayaraman and Georgiev drew a long game and could not get to 4 points. They still were the only 3 ½ pointers and won $650 each. The section winners were:

Expert

Maximilian Zinski, 5-0, $2000

Class A

Benjamin Liu, 4 ½ - ½, $2000

Class B

Ezekiel Houghton, Benjamin Spinello, and Max Matura, 4 ½ - ½, $1200

Class C

Michael Slosson, 5-0, $1800

Class D

Daniel Phipps $1500 and Harmon Bhasin, $200*, 4 ½ - ½,

Limited to $200 due to being unrated

Class E

Joshua Madsen and Jonathan Endres, 5-0, $600

Mixed Doubles

Shreya Mangalam and Nicholas Bartochowski, 7 ½ - 2 ½,, $500 each

Blitz Tournament

Gauri Shankar, 7 ½ - ½, $150

NTD David Hater directed for Continental Chess Association assisted by Brian Yang, Jeff Wiewel, Jeff Smith, Bill Buklis, and Steve Plotnick. Full tournament details can be found at www.chicagoclass.net.

Pacific Coast Open

The second largest of the three tournaments was the Pacific Coast Open. It drew 257 players competing for the $25,000 guaranteed prize fund. There was only one GM and GM Timur Gareyev went through the field to finish 5 ½ - ½ a full point ahead of his rivals and win the $3100. The Pacific Coast Open had only 5 sections as opposed to seven in a true class tournament, so the sections were a bit larger. The 37 player major section had six IMs and four FMs among the other players who would be in Gareyev’s way. Round one was fairly normal. There was only one upset and the titled players mostly escaped unscathed. However, 3rd overall seed IM Joshua Sheng surrendered a draw to NM Vijay Krishnamoorthy while FM Alexandre Kretchetov drew with Ming Lu. By round two the titled players were starting to meet in the more top heavy two day schedule. Gareyev had black versus IM Berik Akkozov and maintained his perfect score at 2-0 while IM Cameron Wheeler defeated IM Micharl Kleinman to also emerge as the only other perfect 2-0. Gareyev had white against Wheeler in the last game prior to the merge and won to emerge as the only 3-0 score in the 2 day schedule. In the slower three day schedule, there was also also only one 3-0. FM Kazim Gulamali defeated overall second seed John Bryant in round three to reach 3-0. This set up the only perfect score matchup in the first game after the merge: Gulamali had white against Gareyev, but the GM won in what he considers one of the critical games of the tournament. Gareyev provides some comments to that game:

[pgn][Event "Pacific Coast Open 2018"] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.07.21"] [Round "4.1"] [White "Gulamali, Kazim"] [Black "Gareyev, Timur"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A40"] [WhiteElo "2399"] [BlackElo "2672"] [Annotator "Vetranio"] [PlyCount "80"] [EventDate "2018.??.??"]1. Nf3 b5 2. d4 Bb7 3. Qd3 a6 4. e4 e6 5. Nbd2 c5 6. c3 cxd4 7. cxd4 Nf6 8. Be2 Be7 9. O-O O-O 10. Qb1 Nc6 11. a3 (11. b3 Rc8 12. Bb2 Nb4 13. a3 Nc2 14. Ra2 b4 ) 11... Qb6 12. Nb3 a5 (12... Na5 13. Nc5 Bxc5 14. dxc5 Qc7 15. e5 Ne4 16. b4 Nc3 17. Qb2 Nxe2+ 18. Qxe2) 13. Be3 Ng4 14. Bf4 f5 (14... a4 15. Nbd2 f5 16. exf5 Nxd4 17. Nxd4 Qxd4 18. Bxg4 Qxf4 19. Qd1 Bc6 (19... Bxg2 20. Kxg2 Bd6 21. Rh1) 20. fxe6 Bxg2 21. Kxg2 Bd6) 15. exf5 a4 16. d5 axb3 17. dxc6 Bxc6 18. Bd3 Qb7 19. Bg3 (19. Qd1) 19... e5 20. Re1 d6 21. Qd1 Bd5 22. Nd2 Ra4 23. Qe2 Nh6 24. Bxb5 Rd4 25. Nf3 Nxf5 26. Rad1 (26. Ba6 Qa8) 26... Bxf3 27. gxf3 Rxd1 ( 27... h5 28. Bc4+ Kh8 29. f4 g6) 28. Rxd1 Nd4 29. Rxd4 exd4 30. Bc4+ Kh8 31. Qe6 Qc7 (31... Bf6) 32. Kg2 Rd8 33. Bxb3 Bf6 34. Qe4 Qe7 35. Qd3 d5 36. Bc2 g6 37. f4 Qe4+ 38. Qxe4 dxe4 39. Bxe4 d3 40. Bf3 d2 0-1[/pgn]

Round five saw a very odd pairing. On board one, Gareyev would face the only player he would play who was rated below 2200. Brandon Burrows started the event seeded in the bottom half at 21^st of the 37 players rated 2176. He took a half point bye in round one so that he could play in the 3 day schedule. In round two, he was paired down and won, but then he pulled back-to-back upsets over NM Gabriel Sam and IM John Bryant to emerge as the only person chasing Gareyev by half a point. Burrows would have white, but it would not be enough as Gareyev won to get to 5-0 and assure himself at least a tie for first with one round to go. Burrows did not play the last round, but still gained 43 rating points to get back over 2200. In round six, Gareyev only need a quick draw to take clear first and that is what happened. Gareyev drew with IM Joshua Sheng to finish at 5 ½ - ½ and take $3100. Sheng and Wheeler tied for second at 4 ½ - 1 ½ and each won $1250. The section winners were:

Under 2100

Reann Ke and Serkan Salik, 5-1, $1500

Under 1900

Christopher Tyau, Prarthan Ghosh, and Fernando Sevilla, 5-1, $1167.67

Under 1700

Suren Mikoyan, Christopher Sheu, and Hiya Ghosh, 5-1, $933.34

Under 1500

Timothy Abadilla, 5 ½ - ½, $1600

Under 1250

Julia Wiley, 5 ½ - ½, $800

Mixed Doubles

Avery Yu & Timur Gareyev and Hiya Ghosh & Priya Ghosh, 10-2, $375 each

Blitz Tournament

Vijay Krishnamoorthy, 7-1, $155

NTD Steve Immitt directed for Continental Chess Association assisted by Randy Hough and Dylan Quercia. Full tournament details can be found at www.pacificcoastopen.net.

Peter Henner Memorial

The last of the three events of the weekend was the Peter Henner Memorial. It was smaller in size and prize fund than the others, but still had strong players and quality chess. The tournament drew 95 players in four sections with a prize fund of $7500. The tournament is in memory of Peter Henner who was an avid player in the Albany area. An attorney by trade, he loved the game of chess and was a solid Class A player. He gave back to the game by organizing some local tournaments as well as writing a chess column in “The Altamont Enterprise”, which won several awards from Chess Journalists of America. Peter passed away in 2016 and will be sorely missed by the entire Central New York Chess Community. The Major section had only 20 players, but there were two Senior Masters and two National Masters in the field. In the end, the top two players finished tied for first with 4-1 scores and each won $750. FM Hans Niemann and Senior Master Arslan Otchiyev both went undefeated and played a quick last round draw to secure first place. Otchiyev started with a first round bye and then won his next three before drawing with Niemann in the last round. Niemann gave up a draw to another very talented junior in round 3. Twelve-year-old Paris Prestia is presently rated 2140 and is the 13^th highest ranked 12 year old in the country. Paris has gained just over 1500 rating points in the four years since he started playing! Though round one was fairly normal, there were two upsets scored by the Prestia family. Frank Prestia defeated Steven Taylor and Sebastian Prestia defeated Mark Schaeffer. With Paris Prestia’s win, it was a 3-0 day. Arlan Otchiyev had taken a half point bye in round one, but due to the multiple schedules and small number of players, he found himself playing a master in round two. He played third overall seed Igor Yeliseyev and brought home the full point.

[pgn][Event "Peter Henner Memorial"] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.07.21"] [Round "2.4"] [White "Yeliseyev, Igor"] [Black "Otchiyev, Arslan"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E83"] [WhiteElo "2222"] [BlackElo "2406"] [PlyCount "80"] [EventDate "2018.??.??"]1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. d4 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 Nc6 7. Nge2 a6 8. Nc1 e5 9. Nb3 exd4 10. Nxd4 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 c5 12. Be3 Ne8 13. Qd2 Nc7 14. Be2 Ne6 15. O-O Nd4 16. Bh6 Be6 17. Bxg7 Kxg7 18. Rfd1 f5 19. exf5 Rxf5 20. Rac1 Qh4 21. Qe1 Qh6 22. Qd2 Qh4 23. Qe1 Qf6 24. Kh1 Rf8 25. Qf2 g5 26. Ne4 Qe5 27. Ng3 R5f7 28. Qe1 g4 29. Ne4 gxf3 30. gxf3 Nxf3 31. Bxf3 Rxf3 32. Nxd6 Rf1+ 33. Qxf1 Rxf1+ 34. Rxf1 Qxd6 35. Rc3 Bxc4 36. Rf2 Qd1+ 37. Kg2 Bd5+ 38. Kh3 Qh5+ 39. Kg3 Qg5+ 40. Kh3 Be6+ 0-1[/pgn]

Niemann had been cruising along with two wins and then drew with Paris Prestia in round 3. Sunday morning, he won again against Jason Lu.

[pgn][Event "Peter Henner Memorial"] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.07.22"] [Round "4.1"] [White "Niemann, Hans"] [Black "Lu, Jason"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E94"] [WhiteElo "2428"] [BlackElo "2119"] [PlyCount "87"] [EventDate "2018.??.??"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Na6 8. Be3 Ng4 9. Bg5 Qe8 10. h3 f6 11. Bd2 Nh6 12. Re1 c6 13. b4 f5 14. c5 Nf7 15. Bxa6 bxa6 16. cxd6 exd4 17. exf5 Qd8 18. fxg6 hxg6 19. Ne4 Nxd6 20. Bg5 Qc7 21. Nxd6 Qxd6 22. Be7 Qd5 23. Bxf8 Kxf8 24. Rc1 Bd7 25. Rc5 Qd6 26. Ne5 Rd8 27. Qf3+ Qf6 28. Nxg6+ Kg8 29. Ne7+ Kf8 30. Qxf6+ Bxf6 31. Nxc6 Bxc6 32. Rxc6 Bg7 33. Rxa6 d3 34. Rd1 d2 35. Ra3 Bh6 36. Kf1 a6 37. Rxa6 Bg7 38. Ra3 Bh6 39. g3 Rd7 40. f4 Bg7 41. Ke2 Bb2 42. Rd3 Rxd3 43. Kxd3 Bc1 44. Rxd2 1-0[/pgn]

The section winners were:

Under 2010

Leonard Chipkin, Dennis Li, Henry Pu, and Ruizhong Wang, 4-1, $400

Under 1610

Joshua Taht, 4 ½ - ½, $700

Under 1210

Edward Xu, 5-0, $400

Mixed Doubles

Erin Strauts and Joshua That, 7 ½ - 2 ½, $100 each

Blitz Tournament

Ruizhong Wang, 7-1, $80

NTD Bob Messenger directed for Continental Chess Association assisted by Karl Heck. Full tournament details can be found at www.albanychess.com. Previous Continental Chess tournaments can be found at the Continental Chess website at http://www.chesstour.com/cross.html.