Gambito Open #503 1/29/11
19 players today, we used a McMahon with M/E=2, A/B=1, C/D=0:
4 Masters: Lakdawala, Morshedi, Baker and Griffith
5 Experts: Clawitter, Sussman, Agron, Pryor and Barquin
5 Class A/B: Wonnell, Morris, Ensey / Kuhn and Harbone
5 Class C/D: Beck, Choi, Cleveland / Talcott and Rivas
Prize Winners:
First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (6), $100
BU2400: Bruce Baker (5), $50 BU2200: Paul Agron, $50
Second Place: Kyron Griffith (4), Craig Clawitter (4) and Ben Barquin (4), $7 each
BU2000: Chris Wonnell (4), $50 BU1800: Tom Kuhn (4), $40
BU1600: Jay Choi (4), $30
Total Prizes: $340
Gambito Open #502 1/22/11
Good day, 23 players. We used a McMahon pairing sytem where M=3, Exp=2, A/B=1, C/D=0. Here are the players:
5 Masters: Lakdawala, Morshedi, Baker, Griffith and Krishnan
6 Experts: Tsang, Aeria, Hodges, Orlowski, Sussman and Pryor
2 Class A: Wonnell and Ensey; 3 Class B: Ren, Kuhn, Harbone
3 Class C: Qu, Sanchez, Cleveland; 4 Class D: J. Wang, Blandin, M. Wang, Fellman
Strong field with 5 Masters and 6 Experts. It was good to see Ali Morshedi back at the club. he was on his way to a 4th round money-winning victory against Rick Aeria when a strange thing happened. I was watching the game and could see that Ali's threat was an open rook file against Rick's King and sure enough Ali made some deflecting threats, but ended up doubling his Rooks on the h-file which clearly lead to mate or at least loss of Queen or more. The only problem was that he had only a few seconds left on the clock and even with time delay this can be tricky. Sure enough, somehow Rick dodged a bullet as Ali seemed to take the wrong piece in the time scramble and actually ended up a Rook down! Neither player seemed exactly sure how it all happened as neither was recording the score, but both players knew that the result was a lucky one for Rick. When you run out all your time you take that risk.
Another interesting game was Cyrus' defeat of Bruce in Round 1. Bruce seemed to be holding his own with a Rook and 2 Knights against a Queen and Knight with lots of pawns on both sides. As Bruce started to run out of time he began to falter a bit, and he had to give up his Rook for a Knight. This left it with a Queen versus 2 Knights and some pawns. Bruce skillfully traded off the last of the pawns and then it was just the lone Queen versus the two lonely Knights. With only seconds left Bruce dropped one of the Knights and it was over. Afterwards, no one seemed to be sure if this was a theoretical win or a draw, but there were lots of opinions. According to my database, it should have been a draw.
Prize Winners:
First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (7), $100
Second Place/U2400 tie: Kyron Griffith (5) and Rick Aeria (5), $55 each
BU2200: Hin Tsang (4 1/2) and Leonard Sussman (4 1/2), $25 each
BU2000: Chuck Ensey (4), $50
BU1800: Tom Kuhn (3), $50
BU1600: Jerry Qu (2 1/2) and Jesse Wang (2 1/2), $25 each
Total Prizes: $410
Gambito Open #501 1/15/11
25 players, very good, especially after the big showing last week of 37 players. McMahon pairings with M/E=2, A=1, B/C=0
2 Masters: Baker and Griffith
8 Experts: Tsang, Arutyunov, Hodges, Aeria, Wong, Sussman, Wooten and Milton.
7 Class A: Wonnell, Pryor, Morris, Berkman, Souza, Charnov and Pisman
5 Class B: Rivera, E. Lopez, Polonsky, Kuhn and Harbone
3 Class C: Sofianos, Cleveland, C. Negus
Prize Winners:
First Place: Hin Tsang (5 1/2), $100 Second Place: Rick Aeria (5), $60
BU2400/2200: Nikolay Arutyunov (4 1/2), Kyron Griffith (4 1/2) and Peter Hodges (4 1/2), $40 each
BU2000: Buddy Morris (4) and Jamieson Pryor (4), $30 each
BU1800: Edgar Lopez (2 1/2) and Elkaei Rivera (2 1/2), $30 each
BU1600: Fred Cleveland (1 1/2) and James Sofianos (1 1/2), $25 each
Total Prizes: $450
Gambito Open #500 1/08/11
This tournament will mark a big milestone for the Gambito Open, which started in late 2000. Ten years later we are still going strong, with some of the same players still competing, plus lots of new ones. Bruce Baker is the founder of the Gambito Open and much of its success can be attributed to his steady hand. The event is named for Ron Gambito, a popular player and a great chess enthusiast back in those times. Ron was a good friend to Bruce and to the club, but passed away way too young, shortly after we named the event for him. His kind and gentle spirit are sorely missed and we like to think that he would be proud of what we have done with his tournament.
4 rounds of G/40 with 5 second delay. Entry fee is $25. A McMahon pairing system was used where M=5, E=4, A=3, B=2, C=1, D=0. If you win money we do make you join the SCCF [$18 a year, $10 for juniors (18 years old or less)], and if you win over $100 during the year or previous year, you do need to join the San Diego Chess Club ($60 a year, $30 for juniors, $48 for seniors or active military).
37 players, great turnout, thanks everybody for a great day...playing today, in rating order, were:
4 Masters: Lakdawala, Baker, Griffith and Krishnan
10 Experts: Kishinevsky, Arutyunov, Crisologo, Hodges, Aeria, Sussman, Wooten, Milton, Vajapeyam and Antonio Gonzalez.
4 Class A: Pryor, Escobedo, Ensey and Rivera
9 Class B: Arbeiter, Krooskos, McNeely, Blank, Kuhn, Delaney, Harrison, Villaverde and Harbone
4 Class C: Siddiqi, Beck, Choi and Cleveland
6 Class D and below: Talcott, Blandin, Rivas, Stanard, Liu and Fellman
Prize Winners:
First/Second Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (8) and Varun Krishnan (8), $125 each
BU2400: Bruce Baker (7), $100 2nd U2400: Kyron Griffith (6 1/2), $40
BU2200/2ndU2200: Dimitry Kishinevsky (6 1/2), Rick Aeria (6 1/2), Peter Hodges (6 1/2), Leonard Sussman (6 1/2), $40 each
BU2000: Jamieson Pryor (6), $100 2nd U2000: Jason Arbeiter (5), $50
BU1800: Sean McNeely (5 1/2), $100 2nd U1800: Alexander Blank (5), $50
BU1600: Jay Choi (4), $100 2nd U1600: Jerry Beck (3), $50
BU1400: Cassidy Liu (3), $50 2nd U1400: Stanford Talcott (2 1/2), $20
Best Game U1800 goes to Jay Choi, $15, for win over Haziq Siddiqi
Best Game over 1800 goes to Jamieson Pryor, $15, for win over Antonio Gonzalez
Total Prizes: $1,100
Questions? email Chuck Ensey at chucnglo@aol.com or call Bruce Baker at 619-239-7166
Gambito Open #499 1/01/11
2225 Sixth Avenue (near Ivy St) in beautiful Balboa Park. That's right! A chess tournament on New Year's Day! Will everyone be too tired from the late night festivities to play?? We will have to wait and see...
Well, the turnout was not too shabby with 27 players showing up on 1/1/11... Contestants in pre-tournament rating order:
2 Masters: Cyrus Lakdawala, Bruce Baker
10 Experts: Dimitry Kishinevsky, Raoul Crisologo, Peter Hodges, Alan Tsoi, Barry Lazarus, Leonard Sussman, Jesse Orlowski, Richard Wong, Ben Barquin and Madhavan Vajapeyam.
6 Class A: Venkat Iyer, Jason Ma, Chuck Ensey, Reneray Valdez, Sridar Ramanujam, Kenneth Xu (a 1794 playing up)
3 Class B: Boris Polonsky, Tom Kuhn, Anthony Harbone
4 Class C: Haziq Siddiqi, Gene Fernando, Jay Choi, Fred Cleveland
1 Class D: Keric Rivas, plus 1 unrated: Stephen Harrison. Glenn Rich (1055) filled in for 2 games as a house player.
Prize Winners:
Open Section, 18 players
First/Second Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (3 1/2) and Bruce Baker (3 1/2), $100 each
BU2400/2200: Jesse Orlowski (3) and Richard Wong (3), $75 each
2nd U2400: Madhavan Vajapeyam (2 1/2), $25
BU2000: Jason Ma (2), $75
2nd U2200: Dimitry Kishinevsky (2), Peter Hodges (2), Alan Tsoi (2), Barry Lazarus (2) and Leonard Sussman (2), $5 each
2nd U2000: Chuck Ensey (1 1/2), Venkat Iyer (1 1/2) and Kenneth Xu (1 1/2), $8 each
Best Game Prize, $15, to Venkat Iyer for draw with NM Bruce Baker
Reserve Section (U1800), 9 players
First/Second Place: Boris Polonsky (3) and Tom Kuhn (3), $50
BU1600: Haziq Siddiqi (3), $50
2ND U1600: Fred Cleveland (2), $20
Best Game Prize, $15 to no one, no game submitted that made any sense
$700 in Guaranteed Prizes