January Gambito Opens #450 - #454

Gambito #454  1/30/10

Excellent turn out of 30 players! 3 Masters (Cyrus, Bruce and Peter) 7 Experts (Griffith, Sussman, Arutyunov, Hodges, Pryor, Barquin, Agron) 4 Class A (Orlowski, Aiello, Souza, Ensey), 6 Class B (Delaney, Reyes Lopez, McNeely, Harbone, Ferguson, Kuhn) 3 Class C (Sofianos, Krooskos, Whitten) 4 Class D (Edgar Lopez, Cleveland, Wilson, Derek Williams) and 3 unrated (Luke Barker, Tal Benarieh, Jerry Beck). Given this wide range of playing skills, we like to use a McMahon pairing system, in this case we had M/E = 3, A = 2, B = 1, C/D = 0 as the starting bye points. Here are the winners:

First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (7), $100

BU2400: Kyron Griffith (6), $75

Second Place: Bruce Baker (5 1/2) and Peter Graves (5 1/2), $35 each

BU2200: Nikolay Arutyunov (5) and Paul Agron (5), $37 each

BU2000: Roberto Aiello (4 1/2) and Jesse Orlowski (4 1/2), $37 each

BU1800: Reyes Lopez (4), $75

BU1600: James Sofianos (3 1/2), $70

Total Prizes: $540         

Gambito #453  1/23/10

26 players, great turnout. McMahon pairings with M = 3, Exp = 2, A = 1, B and below = 0. There were 4 Masters (Lakdawala, Baker, Jeff Arnold and Ken Arnold), 6 Experts (Sussman, Crisologo, Tsoi, Arutyunov, Pryor and Barquin), 6 Class A (Orlowski, Agron, Vajapeyam, Aiello, Wonnell, and Souza), 4 Class B (Reyes Lopez, Ogden, Harbone, Kuhn) and 6 Class C/D (Ferguson, Jerry Qu, Edwards, Mike Smith, Cleveland and Sean McNeely)      

Here are the winners:

First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (6), $100  

Second Place/U2400: Bruce Baker (5 1/2) and Jeff Arnold (5 1/2), $60 each

U2200: Alan Tsoi (4 1/2), $60   U2000: Paul Agron (4 1/2), $60

U1800: Kimberly Ogden (3), $60   U1600: Michael Ferguson (3), $60

Total Prizes: $360 

Gambito #452  1/16/10

23 players today in two sections. Bruce Baker defeated Cyrus Lakdawala in the last round to win this event. Here are the winners:

Open Section

First place: Bruce Baker (3 1/2), $100

Second Place/U2400: Ronald Bruno (3) and Nikolay Arutyunov (3), $60 each 

U2200: Kyron Griffith (2 1/2), Leonard Sussman (2 1/2) and Raoul Crisologo (2 1/2), $17 each

U2000: Chris Wonnell (2) and Chuck Ensey (2), $25 each

Reserve Section

First Place: Jason Arbeiter (3), $50   U1600: Patrick Edwards (1 1/2), $50       

Gambito #451  1/09/10

22 players. McMahon bye points: M/E=3, A=2, B=1, C=0...Winners: First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (7), $100; U2400: Bruce Baker (5 1/2) and Ron Bruno (5 1/2), $45 each; U2200: Carey Milton (5 1/2), $50; U2000: Jamieson Pryor (5), $50; U1800: Anthony Harbone (3 1/2) and Reyes Lopez (3 1/2), $25; U1600: Edgar Lopez (2 1/2), $50

Total Prizes: $390   

 450  - January Super Gambito Open -  1/02/2010

$700 in guaranteed prizes. Entry Fee: $25.

Only 26 players today, less than expected. A holiday weekend lead to hopes of a big turnout, but it did not happen. Even with all Friday to rest up, some people were apparently still not recovered from Thursday night celebrations! Happy New Year!

Once in a blue moon, Cyrus does not win the Gambito Open, and here it happened two days after a real "blue moon" (2nd full moon in a calendar month, this happened Dec 31st). In Gambito #450 the Arnold bothers made a surprise visit and each of them were able to draw with Cyrus. Along with the Ken and Jeff Arnold, plus frequent players Cyrus and Bruce, Ron Bruno also made a somewhat rare appearance and that gave us 5 Masters for a very strong top 5 for the other Open Section players to deal with.        

Open Section:

First Place: Jeff Arnold (3 1/2), $125    Second Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (3), $75

BU2400: Leonard Sussman (3), $75  

2nd U2400: Ronald Bruno (2 1/2), Ken Arnold (2 1/2) and Bruce Baker (2 1/2), $8 each

BU2200: Kyron Griffith (2 1/2), $75

2nd U2200: Ben Barquin (2), Alan Sebeckis (2), Alan Tsoi (2), $8 each

BU2000: Eric Smith (2), $75

2nd U2000: Roberto Aiello (1 1/2) and Chuck Ensey (1 1/2),$13 each

Reserve Section (U1800):

First Place: Reyes Lopez (4), $75 

Second Place: Scott Householder (3), $25    BU1600: Jerry Qu (3), $50 

2nd U1600: Conrado Catellanos (1) and Edgar Lopez (1), $10 each

Plus Best Game Prize in Open Section: Cyrus Lakdawala, $15 for win vs Kyron Griffith

Best Game Prize in the Reserve Section: Jason Arbeiter, $15 for win over Anthony Harbone