Special 5 Round Super Gambito on 2/06/10
$2,000 in Guaranteed Prizes! 2 Sections, G/40 with 5 second delay
Rounds were at 10:00 AM, 11:45, 2:15, 4:00 and 5:30. (Lunch break 1:15 to 2:15). $50 entry fee, except for players rated U1400, only $25 for them.
Great turnout of 44 players, including 26 in the Open Section and 18 in the Reserve. This was the strongest Gambito Open ever with 2 IMs, 7 National Masters and 7 Experts and 10 Class A. There were 22 players rated over 1950! Wow, that was impressive and very gratifying for the organizers Bruce Baker and Chuck Ensey.
If 6 more of our regular frequent players had played, we would have broken the all time record of 49 players in a Gambito Open. There is always some reason or conflict why certain players can't make it. Basketball is keeping some of the younger ones away right now. The rain might have actually helped today as it kept any outdoor activities such as golf or tennis to a minimum.
Missing today were frequent Super Gambito players Kyron Griffith, Aaron and Scott Householder, Jim Krooskos, Jason Ma, Jamieson Pryor, Matt Souza and Chris Wonnell. Thankfully, there were still just enough people playing to cover the guaranteed prize fund of $2,000, even with 7 players getting the reduced rate of $25.
Here are the 26 Open Section players in rating order: Enrico Sevillano (2552), Cyrus Lakdawala (2544), Jeff Arnold (2326), Ronald Bruno (2300), Bruce Baker (2298), Ken Arnold (2265), Peter Graves (2217), Avram Zaydenberg (2202), Romeo Ignacio (2200), Leonard Sussman (2128), Raoul Crisologo (2116), Alan Tsoi (2105), Varun Krishnan (2078), Ignacio Sainz (2062), Nikolay Arutyunov (2042), Carey Milton (2005), Paul Agron (1998), Eric Smith (1993), Jesse Orlowski (1992), Ben Barquin (1979), Esteban Escobedo (1962), Madhavan Vajapeyam (1953), Roberto Aiello (1912), Jacoby Johnson (1903), Charlie Berkman (1819) and Chuck Ensey (1768) [not including house player Mark Cass (1856), one game]
18 Reserve Section players: Reyes Lopez (1797), Jason Arbeiter (1743), Sean McNeely (1716), Eduardo Vasquez (1700), Anthony Harbone (1677), Uri Sefchovich (1676), James Mitchell (1662), Tom Kuhn (1585), Michael Ferguson (1578), Gene Fernando (1453), Armando Garcia (1359), Edgar Lopez (1338), Darryl Woodson (1323), Morgan Fox (1311), Claire Negus (1314), Fred Cleveland (1255), Patrick Edwards (1251) and Raad Hamad (unr) [plus house player Mark Negus (661), two games]
Cyrus earned a tough win over Enrico in Rd 4 in the battle of the IMs and then drew with Ken Arnold in the last round. Cyrus claims it was not a "GM draw", although the game was shorter than I would have liked to have seen. Ken also drew with Ron Bruno in round 4.
In the Reserve section new player Raad Hamad should have been in the Open Section (post tournament provisional rating of 2224 base on these 5 games!) and didn't seem to understand that he couldn't win money as an unrated player. Since we didn't clearly explain this to him when entering, we gave him back his entry fee and a book prize to make up for it. Reyes Lopez took the first place cash, he lost only to Raad, as did Jason Arbeiter, who also took a bye in round 2. Sean McNeely, Anthony Harbone and Tom Kuhn all lost only to Reyes and Raad.
Open Section:
First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (4 1/2), $350
Second Place: Enrico Sevillano (4), $175 BU2400/Second Place: Ken Arnold (4), $175
2nd U2400: Ronald Bruno (3 1/2), Jeff Arnold (3 12), Bruce Baker (3 1/2) and Peter Graves (3 1/2), $19 each
BU2200: Varun Krishnan (3), Raoul Crisologo (3), Alan Tsoi (3) and Ignacio Sainz (3), $56 each
U2000: Jacoby Johnson(2 1/2) and Jesse Orlowski (2 1/2), $112 each
Biggest Upset Prize: Jacoby Johnson, $15 for win over Ignacio Sainz (171 points) Other notable upsets were Varun Krishnan over NM Romeo Ignacio and a draw by Ken Arnold with IM Cyrus Lakdawala and a draw by Jesse Orlowski with NM Peter Graves.
Best Game Open Section, $15 to Ron Bruno for win over Avram Zaydenberg
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Nc6 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 cxd4 9.cxd4 Nc6 10.Be3 0-0 11.0-0 Na5 this is a well known main line 12.Bd5 e6 13.Bb3 Nxb3 14.Qxb3 b6 15.Qa3 Bb7 16.f3 Qd7 17.Rfd1 Rfc8 18.Rac1 Qb5 19.Nc3 Qa6 20.Qe7 Bf8 21.Qh4 Qa3 22.Bd2 Rc4 23.Qf2 Rac8 24.Qe3 (24.Ne2 Rc2 still leaves Black with an advantage) Rxd4! 25.Nb5 (of course if 25.Qxd4 Bc5) Qxe3+ 26.Bxe3 Rxd1+ 27.Rxd1 Bc5 28.Bxc5 Rxc5 29.Nxa7 Ra5 30.Rd8+? Kg7 31.Nc8 Ra8! 0-1 (30.Nc8! saves the Knight Bxc8 31.Rd8+ Kg7 32.Rxc8 Rxa2 33.Rb8 Rb2, White is still down a pawn here but I think he can draw)
Reserve Section (U1800):
First Place: Raad Hamad (5), unrated, book prize
First Place: Reyes Lopez (4), $250
Second Place: Jason Arbeiter (3 1/2), $100
Third Place: Sean MeNeely (3) and Anthony Harbone (3), $25 each
BU1600: Tom Kuhn (3) and Edgar Lopez (3), $100 each
BU1400: Patrick Edwards (2 1/2), $75
3rd U1600: Michael Ferugson (2), $10 2nd U1400/3rd U1600: Claire Negus (2), Fred Cleveland (2) and Morgan Fox (2), $10 each
Biggest Upset Prize: Patrick Edwards, $15 for win over Uri Sefchovich (425 points) Another big upset was Mark Negus (661) over Gene Fernando (1453), the game was also notable because Mark is 5 years old and Gene is 84, That's got to be one of the biggest age differences ever at our club, or probably many other clubs. It looked like it might be a draw even though Gene was down a Rook, but he was checking relentlessly with his Queen and Mark had to walk his King all over the board, but eventually Gene took a pawn with check (the only check left to him) and Mark interposed his Queen with check, taking it down to a simple endgame of King, Rook and pawn versus King and pawn. But would Mark run out of time? (Mark was carefully writing down each move) or would he stalemate Gene? None of my fears were realized, Mark handled it like a champ and forced a checkmate, much to the delight of the large crowd watching. Not that we were rooting against Gene, we just didn't want to see the youngster stumble at the finsh line. Mark was a house player and so he wasn't eligible for the biggest upset prize, but that was a doozy.
Claire Negus and Edgar Lopez also scored 200+ point upsets.
Best Game Reserve Section: $15 to Morgan Fox for win over Gene Fernando.
Morgan Fox (1305) - Gene Fernando (1455) Gambito #455, Round 5, 2/06/10
1.e4 d5 2.e5 Nc6 3. d4 Bf5 4.Bb5 a6 5.Ba4 b5 6.Bb3 Na5 7.c3 Nxb3 8.Qxb3 f6 9.Nf3 g5 10.h3 Nh6 11.a4 bxa4 12.Qxa4+ Bd7 13.Qd1 Qc8 14.exf6 exf6 15.Qe2+ Kf7 16.0-0 Bb5 17.Qe1 Bxf1 18.Kxf1 Bd6 19.Nbd2 Re8 20.Qd1 g4 21.hxg4 Nxg4 22.Nh4? Qe6 (better was 22...Nh2+ 23.Kg1 Qg4!! if 24.Qxg4 Re8#) 23.Ndf3 Re7 24.Qd3?? Nh2+ 25.Nxh2 Qe1# 0-1 (or 25.Kg1 Qe1+! 26.Nxe1 Rxe1+ 27.Qf1 Rxf1#)
The undeveloped Bishop on c1 really hurt White, while Black's Bishop on d6 was powerful.
Note: This event is now rated, see USCF website for updated ratings