August Gambito Opens: #434, #433, #432, #431

Gambito #434  8/22/09

Registration: 10 AM to 10:25, Entry Fee; $20, 4 rounds at 10:30 AM, 12:15, 2:45 and 4:30 and then we are done by 6 PM.  G/40 with 5 second delay.  

Only 17 players today. Two obvious reason were 1) The uncomfortable HEAT WAVE we have been experiencing in San Diego and most of the West 2) Players may have been resting up for the big 3 day event next weekend.

We played in two sections today for a change...Prize winners today were:

First/Second Place: Dionisio Aldama (3 1/2) and Cyrus Lakdawala (3 1/2), $50 each

U2400: Hin Tsang (2 1/2), $45  U2200: Roberto Aiello (2 1/2), $45

U2000: Chris Wonnell (1 1/2) and Chuck Ensey (1 1/2), $20 each

In the Reserves: Charlie Berkman (4), $40; BU1600: Kenneth Xu (2 1/2), $30    

Estimated biggest rating point gainers in Open Section:

Roberto Aiello +18 to 1937 and Hin Tsang +18 to 2043

Reserve Section estimates:

Kenneth Xu +106 to 1446, Fred Cleveland +22 to 1414, Charlie Berkman +21 to 1805

Cyrus and Dionisio drew in Round 3. Hin Tsang won U2400 despite not playing the last round. He upset Romeo Ignacio in Rd 3. It looked like a draw as both players banged out moves with only the 5 second delay left on their clocks, but Ignacio finally lost by hanging his Queen, which Hin had done earlier, but Romeo didn't see it in the rush to keep checking the King (it look like perpetual check for a long time).  In the Reserves, Charlie Berkman swept through the small field (only 6 players) without much resistance. Good news for Reserve players, he is now over 1800! Kenneth Xu continues to soar in rating (it was on old scholastic rating he is now bringing up to date), but he is still likely way underrated.   

Last Gambito Open before the Southern California Open on 9/05, 9/06, 9/07. Don't forget to sign up ASAP. Entry fee is still only $120 (low rate has been extended until 8/31). Two byes available, 5 Sections, $20,000 in prizes. 

Gambito #433  8/22/09

Only 20 players today, a bit of a light turnout. Dionisio Aldama was rumored to be playing, but in fact did not show up. Bruce Baker also took the day off. We used a modified McMahon with Masters and Experts starting with 2 points, Class A players with 1 and B/C's with 0. 

2 Masters Cyrus Lakdawala (2505) and Roemo Ignacio (2203)

4 Experts: Leonard Sussman (2113), Varun Krishnan (2101), Carey Milton (2027) and Hin Tsang (2017)

5 Class A: Roberto Aiello (1903), Chris Wonnell (1901), Jacoby Johnson (1872), Madhavan Vajapeyam (1835) and Chuck Ensey (1819)

7 Class B: Jason Ma (1777), Mike Friedel (1743), William Delaney (1732), Jason Arbeiter (1729), Aaron Householder (1726), Scott Householder (1629) and Anthony Harbone (1600) 

2 Class C: Tom Kuhn (1584) and Fred Cleveland (1363) 

Biggest rating point gainers today: Jacoby Johnson +55 to 1927, Tom Kuhn +31 to 1615, Fred Cleveland +29 to 1392 and William Delaney +24 to 1756

Here were the prize winners:

First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (6), $100

Second Place: Romeo Ignacio (4 1/2), $50

BU2400: Leonard Sussman (4), $50 

BU2200: Hin Tsang (4), $50    BU2000: Jacoby Johnson (4), $50

BU1800: Jason Arbeiter (3) and William Delaney (3), $25 each

BU1600: Tom Kuhn (2), $40

Total Prizes $390  

Gambito #432   8/15/09 

26 players, good turnout. McMahon pairings were used with Masters=4, Experts=3, Class A=2, Class B=1 and Class C=0.   

Here are the prize winners:

First Place: Dionisio Aldama (7 1/2), $100

Second Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (7), $60

U2400: Jeff Arnold (6), $60

U2200: Leonard Sussman (5 1/2), Dimitry Kishinevsky (5 1/2) and Kyron Griffith (5 1/2), $20 each

U2000: Richard Wong (5), $60

U1800: Aaron Householder (3), Scott Householder (3), Mike Friedel (3) and Eusy Ancheta (3), $15 each

U1600: Kenneth Xu (3), $60     

Total Prizes = $460

Gambito #431   8/01/09     August Super Gambito

$830 in Prizes. 36 Players, great turnout, here are the players in rating order:

Open (17 players):

4 Masters: Cyrus Lakdawala, Dionisio Aldama, Bruce Baker, Romeo Ignacio

6 Experts: Jorge Balares, Rick Aeria, Leonard Sussman, Raoul Crisologo, Aaron Wooten, Paul Agron

7 Class A: Jesse Orlowski, Fidel Gonzalez, Jason Qu, Chris Wonnell, Esteban Escobedo, Chuck Ensey, Madhavan Vajapeyam  

Reserve (19 players):

13 Class B: Charles Berkman, Ron Rezendes, Nestor Dagamat, Jason Arbeiter, William Delaney, Aaron Householder, Mike Friedel, Winston Zeng, Scott Householder, Matt Souza, Jason Ma, Anthony Harbone, Eusy Ancheta

6 Class C: Tom Kuhn, Gene Arnaiz, Michael Chen, Harold X Gonzalez, Fred Cleveland, Patrick Edwards

Jason Jacoby filled in as a house player in the Open Section for 2 games. In the Reserve section, Helmut Keil filled in for 1 game and Karl Lindberg for 2 games. Thanks guys, we had an odd number in each section today.

Prize Winners:

Open Section: 

First Place/Second Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (3 1/2) and Dionisio Aldama (3 1/2), $115 each

BU2400/2200/2nd U2400/U2200: Romeo Ignacio (2 1/2), Jorge Balares (2 1/2), Raoul Crisologo (2 1/2) and Aaron Wooten (2 1/2), $55 each

BU2000/2nd U2000: Jesse Orlowski (2), Jason Qu (2), Chris Wonnell (2), $38 each

$15 Best Game goes to Cyrus Lakdawala for win over Jorge Balares  

Reserve Section:     

First Place: Jason Ma (4), $90

Second Place: Nestor Dagamat (3) and Mike Friedel (3), $17 each

BU1600: Tom Kuhn (2 1/2), $80

Second U1600: Gene Arnaiz (1 1/2), Michael Chen (1 1/2) and Patrick Edwards (1 1/2), $10 each

$15 Best Game goes to Jason Arbeiter for win over Gene Arnaiz

Biggest rating point gainers Open - Chris Wonnell +38 to 1930, Raoul Crisologo +21 to 2058  Reserve - Jason Ma +132 to 1777, Tom Kuhn +34 to 1624  

Two big suprises today were:

 1) The appearance of Dionisio Aldama of Phoenix (and formerly of Cuba), a strong player at Cyrus Lakdawala's rating level. He drew his game with Cyrus, beat Bruce, Rick Aeria and Paul Agron. Bruce gave him a tough game, but faltered when he got very low on time.  Rick said Dion is a tactical genius and he seemed to effortlessly find great moves against him.

2) The performance of Jason Ma, who seems to be gaining strength weekly. He had the only perfect score in the event with 4 wins and won the Reserve Section even though he was only the 11th strongest player by rating. His rating will soar after this event. He beat the #2, #4, #3 and #7 rated in that order, all players over 1700. Jason is only 12 years old and currently rated 1645, but I suspect he will 1800 shortly.