Gambito #617 - July Super Gambito Open

July Super Gambito Open (#617)  on 7/06/13

3 Sections, 34 total players. A competing tournament in Los Angeles siphoned off some of our regular players (Griffith, Krishnan?). Here are our players in pre-event rating order:

Open Section (10 players)
4 Masters: Cyrus Lakdawala, Bruce Baker, Peter Graves and Paul Agron
6 Experts: Nikolay Arutyunov, Ben Barquin, Leonard Sussman, Elkaei Rivera, Jeff Turner and Jason Ma

Premier Section (14 players)
6 Class A: Alex Costello, Joel Batchelor, Chuck Ensey, Jay Choi, Gurveer Singh and Ramil Macaspac, plus John Donahoo played two house games
8 Class B: Datris Robinson, Jason Arbeiter, Albert Dumaran, Rolando Ignacio, Marco Gonzalez, Luiz Uribe, Eliza Eggert and Anthony Harbone

Reserve Section (10 players)
6 Class C: Justin Kang, David Narevsky, Jesse Wang, Tygan Zeng, Fred Cleveland, Mathew Wang and David Palmer
3 Class D: Mark Negus, Alec Chen and David Terr

Here are the Prize winners:
Open Section:
First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (4), $125
Second Place: Peter Graves (3), $80
BU2400: Elkaei Rivera (2 1/2), $75
2nd U2400: Paul Agron (2), $42, tied with two players below
BU2200/2nd U2200: Jason Ma (2) and Leonard Sussman (2), $42 each

Jason Ma beat Barquin and Baker, but lost to Cyrus and Peter, still, a good day for him, as he gained another 30 points (estimated), bolstering his newly won Expert rating up to ~2047. Cyrus beat Elkaei, Peter, Jason and Nikolay in that order. Peter beat Jeff, Paul and Jason.   
Best Game Open Section: Paul Agron, $10, for win over Nikolay Arutyunov

Premier Section (U2000):
BU2000: Luiz Uribe (4), $80
2nd U2000: Jay Choi (3), $30
BU1800: Rolando Ignacio (3), $80
2nd U1800: Anthony Harbone (2 1/2) and Jason Arbeiter (2 1/2), $15 each
Luiz wins 4 in row for the second week in a row!! That takes his rating up to 1810 (est). Other big gainers were Anthony Harbone (up an estimated 84 points) and Rolando Ignacio (up 73). Against me (Chuck Ensey) Anthony dropped a Knight with no comp, but then when I relaxed, he trapped my Queen... ouch, never get complacent!! Instead of withdrawing the Queen I made a stupid Rook move, failing to see he could attack with a Bishop instead of the expected rook move. Duh!
Rolando Ignacio lost only to #1 seeded Alex Costello, who won his first two, but then lost to Luiz and Jay. I thought today would be the day when Alex earned his Expert rating, but it wasn't to be, so the inevitable is delayed for a while...
Best Game Premier Section: TBA

Reserve Section (U1600):
BU1600: Justin Kang (3 1/2), $80
2nd U1600: David Palmer (3), $25
BU1400: Mark Negus (2), $20

Justin has just moved to San Diego from Irvine and has been adapting well here. He gained an estimated 44 point to put him up to ~1643. David Palmer gained ~95 points.

Best Game Reserve Section: Jesse Wang, $10, for win over Alec Chen
Total Prizes: $780