Three-way Tie at the Western Class Championship

The Western Class Championship was held in the Los Angeles suburb of Van Nuys and featured a very strong Masters section with two GMs, six IMs, one WGM, one WIM and two FMs.  Overall, 26 of the 30 players were above 2200.   The restriction on only being able to play up one class led to more of a class section.  There were seven sections and the tournament was very well attended with 259 players in attendance. In the first round of the Master section, there were no upsets as the higher rated player “held serve” in every game.  There were two pairings in the two day schedule involving titled players:  WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan defeated IM Anthony Saidy while IM Andranik Matikozyan defeated WIM Annie Wang. In round two, the top seeds started playing each other, which produced excellent chess and fighting chess on all the top boards of each schedule.  The game of the round was board one of the three day schedule.  IM Keaton Kiewra defeated GM Ruifeng Li in one of the most exciting games of the tournament.  We had to devote a TD to crowd control just to give the players some space as everybody was interested in the game!

[pgn][Event "Western Class"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.02.03"]
[Round "2.1"]
[White "GM Li, Ruifeng"]
[Black "IM Kiewra, Keaton"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B72"]
[WhiteElo "2663"]
[BlackElo "2484"]
[PlyCount "120"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. e4 c5 2. Ne2 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. Be2 Nc6 8.
Qd2 O-O 9. O-O-O Nxd4 10. Bxd4 Be6 11. h4 Qa5 12. Qg5 b5 13. h5 Rab8 14. hxg6
hxg6 15. Rh6 Bxa2 16. Rdh1 e5 17. Be3 b4 18. Qh4 Nh5 19. Nxa2 b3 20. Rxg6 fxg6
21. Bc4+ d5 22. Bxd5+ Rf7 23. cxb3 Qxa2 24. Qe7 Rc8+ 25. Bc5 Qa1+ 26. Kc2 Qxh1
27. Qxf7+ Kh7 28. b4 Qxg2 29. Bb7 Rd8 30. Qe7 Rf8 31. Bxa7 Rf3 32. Ba6 Qh1 33.
Bc4 Qe1 34. Be3 Rxe3 35. fxe3 Qxe3 36. Bd5 g5 37. b5 Nf4 38. Bc4 Qxe4+ 39. Kb3
Qe3+ 40. Ka4 Ng6 41. Qc7 g4 42. b6 g3 43. b7 Qa7+ 44. Kb5 g2 45. b8=Q Qxb8+ 46.
Qxb8 g1=Q 47. Qb7 Qd4 48. Qh1+ Nh4 49. b4 Bf6 50. Bd5 Kg6 51. Qb1+ Kg5 52. Qc1+
Kg4 53. Be6+ Kg3 54. Qe1+ Kf4 55. Kc6 e4 56. b5 Nf3 57. Qc1+ e3 58. b6 Qd2 59.
Qc4+ Nd4+ 60. Kd5 Qa5+ 0-1[/pgn]

Other notable pairings were IM John Bryant defeated WGM Pourkashiyan on board one of the two day schedule while IM Matikozyan defeated IM Joshua Sheng on board two.  Going into round three, five of the top six seeds were still 2-0, the lone exception being the tournament’s top seed: GM Li.  The five top seeded players were joined by ninth seeded Senior Master Lokesh Palani, who was also in the perfect score group. Round three was not nearly as exciting.  The top three boards were all draws.  The players all played for advantages, but they were also being careful.  GM Melikset Khachiyan drew Palani on board one, IM Matikozyan drew IM Andrey Gorovets on board two, and IM Kiewra drew IM Bryant on board three.   There were two players following the leaders at 1 ½ points and on board four Daniel Mousseri defeated FM Mark Duckworth to join the leaders. With seven players at 2 ½ points and four players at 2-1 (including Li), round four figured to be an interesting round.  Among the leaders, there was only one decisive game:  IM Gorovets defeated IM Kiewra to become the sole leader going into the last round.

[pgn][Event "Western Class"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.03.05"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "IM Gorovets, Andrey"]
[Black "IM Kiewra, Keaton"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E60"]
[WhiteElo "2603"]
[BlackElo "2484"]
[PlyCount "79"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Bg5 Ne4 4. Bf4 c5 5. f3 Qa5+ 6. Nd2 Nf6 7. dxc5 Qxc5 8.
Nb3 Qb6 9. c5 Qd8 10. e4 Bg7 11. Qd2 Nc6 12. Bb5 O-O 13. Rd1 a6 14. Bxc6 bxc6
15. Na5 Qe8 16. Ne2 Nh5 17. Bh6 f5 18. Bxg7 Nxg7 19. e5 Rb8 20. O-O f4 21. Nxf4
Qf7 22. Nd3 Qxa2 23. Qc3 Qa4 24. b4 Ne6 25. Ra1 Qb5 26. f4 Nc7 27. Qd4 Nd5 28.
Nc4 Qb7 29. f5 Rxf5 30. Rxf5 gxf5 31. Rf1 d6 32. exd6 exd6 33. Rf3 h6 34. Rg3+
Kh7 35. cxd6 Qf7 36. Nce5 Qf6 37. Rg6 Qf8 38. d7 Bb7 39. Nc5 Qe7 40. Ne6 1-0[/pgn]

On board one, IM Bryant drew GM Khachiyan, and, on board three, Palani drew IM Matikozyan.  GM Li defeated Mousseri on board four, and FM Michael Casella defeated Danial Asaria on board 5 to keep pace with the players chasing Gorovets. Round five was also going to be very exciting as 75% of the games in the round had prize implications, and the top seeds were again playing each other.  Gorovets had a half point lead but there five players chasing him at 3-1, any one of which could win the tournament or at least tie for first:  GMs Li and Khachiyan, IMs Bryant and Matikozyan and FM Casella.  There were only two draws among the twelve boards, and all the top boards were decisive. GM Li had white against Gorovets and needed the win in order to tie for 1st.  He brought home the full point.  In the following position, he is winning and uses a nice tactic on the time control move to finish the game.

Ruifeng Li vs. Andrey Gorovets

White to move.

Show Solution

[pgn][Event "Western Class"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.03.05"]
[Round "5.1"]
[White "GM Li, Ruifeng"]
[Black "IM Gorovets, Andrey"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B38"]
[WhiteElo "2663"]
[BlackElo "2603"]
[PlyCount "85"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. c4 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nc3 d6 8. Be2
Bd7 9. O-O O-O 10. Rc1 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 Bc6 12. Qd3 a5 13. f4 Nd7 14. Bxg7 Kxg7
15. Qd4+ Kg8 16. b3 Nc5 17. Kh1 Qb6 18. f5 a4 19. f6 exf6 20. Qxd6 Rad8 21.
Qxf6 Nd7 22. Qh4 axb3 23. axb3 Qe3 24. b4 Rde8 25. Rfe1 g5 26. Qg4 Nf6 27. Qf3
Qd4 28. Bd3 b6 29. h3 Re6 30. Nd5 Nd7 31. Bb1 Qg7 32. Qg3 Kh8 33. Rf1 Qe5 34.
Qf3 Kg7 35. Qd1 f6 36. Qg4 Rfe8 37. Qh5 Nf8 38. Rf5 Qb2 39. Rcf1 Nd7 40. Rxg5+
Kh8 41. e5 Qxb1 42. Rxb1 fxg5 43. Nc7 1-0[/pgn]

On board two, GM Khachiyan defeated IM Matikozyan and, on board three, IM Bryant defeated SM Palani to join Li in 1st place.  On board four, IM Kiewra defeated FM Casella to deny Casella a piece of the championship and to tie for 4^th place.  Board five saw Mousseri defeat Pourkashiyan to also tie for 4^th.  The next few boards were all playing for the Under 2300 class prize.  On board seven, Alexander Costello needed to defeat Danial Asaria to win the class prize but could not do so.  On board eight, either WIM Wang or NM Bicak could have taken the class prize with a win, but they played a nearly 60 move draw that unfortunately left them both out of the money.  On boards eight and nine, the winner would share Under 2300 money. Jack Easton defeated FM Duckworth on 8 and Yi Hu defeated Christopher Yoo on 9 to each win $450. In a shameless plug to my editor, I will point out that US Chess News Digital Assistant Vanessa West upset NM Kevin Davidson on board 11.  Vanessa was seeded 27^th, but tied for 13^th with an even score.  She was playing up and still finished only ½ point out of the Under 2300 money! Khachiyan had the best tiebreaks and got $1166.67 plus the $100 bonus for best tiebreaks.  Li and Bryant each got $1166.67.   Li’s check calculation was more like a math problem.  When Li entered, he was an IM, so he paid the advance entry fee.  He became a GM prior to the tournament, so I had to refund the entry fee and then take back the GM entry fee and then pay him his prize plus the mixed double prize.  We also owed him 1st prize from the Southwest Class, and I had to recalculate the entry fee refund based on his GM title and then pay him that prize! The section winners were:

Expert

Robert Shlyakhtenko, Derek Zhang, Gabriel Eidelman, Anaiy Somalwar, & Kyle Webster, 4-1, $480

Class A

Cindy Zhang, Tremil Anderson, Gisak Dimaksyan, Sriram Krishnakumarm & Kevin Golchin, 4-1, $480

Class B

Nareg Kedjejian, 5-0, $1200

Class C

Gokhan Akat & Eric Pangilinan, 4 ½ - ½, $850

Class D

Suren Mikoyan, 4 ½ - ½, $900

Class E

Erick Akopian, Ivan Lin, & Kaushik Ghosh, 4 ½ -  ½, $300

Mixed Doubles

Avery Yu & Ruifeng Li, 8-2, $300 each

Blitz Tournament

Ilia Serpik, 7 ½ - ½ $110

NTD David Hater directed for CCA assisted by Randy Hough and Dylan Quercia. For more information, visit:

• Western Class Championship Website
• CCA Crosstables