Gambito #633

Gambito Open #633  10/16/13

36 players, wonderful turnout. Here they are in pre-event rating order:

4 Masters: Cyrus Lakdawala, Kevin Trujillo, Bruce Baker and Nikolay Arutyunov

6 Experts: Braulio Cuarta, Venkat Iyer, Ron Gutman, Elkaei Rivera, Gurveer Singh and Leonard Sussman

11 Class A: Aaron Householder, Thomas Diem, Buddy Morris, Jay Choi, Jason Arbeiter, Chuck Ensey, Jerry Qu, Jack Manata, Datris Robinson, Pejman Sagart and Ben Keltner

5 Class B: Ben Duong, Keric Rivas, Renato Conducto, Sabrina Duong and Anthony Harbone

4 Class C: Chris Mitchell, Ken Green, Torrey Duan and Diego Draguicevich

6 Class D and below: Anthony Liu, Jason Duan, Dwayne Matheny, Patrick Edwards, David Terr and Andruw Householder

We also had 6 house players: John Donahoo (2 games, he is our "go to" house player in the first 3 rounds), David Palmer (1 game), both Class B; plus Karl Lindberg (1 game, trying to get back into chess), Sue Duong (1 game) and Henry Duong (2 games) and Jim Harrell (1 game, he is often available in the last round which is nice for us). I am trying to get the Duong parents to gain more experience and they seem more than willing to learn. Sue almost drew with Dwayne Matheny.

We used the usual 3 point McMahon pairing system: (M/Ex=3, A=2, B=1, C/D=0)

Several new players added to the mix: Cyrus drew in the last round with 2310 rated Kevin Trujillo (and that is his FIDE rating!), who lost the first round to Ron Gutman, provisionally rated 2107 based on only 4 games in Gambito #631. Gutman also beat Bruce Baker in round 2 but then lost to Cyrus and drew with Venkat Iyer. Braulio Cuarta (2168, also provisional) lost to Cyrus and Nikolay, but beat myself and Jason Arbeiter and I get the feeling he will be a master soon. Buddy Morris beat me (Chuck Ensey) in the last round to win U2000, Bud didn't miss the mate in 1 that I didn't see on move 34. I also missed a winning move for me versus Bud on move 26 - such is life at the Gambito Open where you have to be not only good but fast! Ben Duong lost to Ben Keltner in round 1, but then won 3 in row to win BU1800. Fairly new player Diego Draguicevich won BU1600 with 3 wins and a loss to Ben Duong, but he was tied with 2 U1400 players, Dwayne Matheny (3 wins) and Anthony Liu (2 wins, 2 draws). Jack Manata and Chris Mitchell were also new players from North County, great to see new "blood"! 42 players in all including the house players makes for a full playing hall and lots of excitement. It was also Anthony Liu's first Gambito Open and he won $50! Come join us and make some new friends!! We play every Saturday with registration from 10 AM to 10:25, please call if you are running late so we can get started on time...  The club number is 619-239-7166. You can also take a bye in round 1 and play only 3 games, the second round starts at 12:15, but please show up a little before that to make sure you get in the pairings. Thanks everyone from your friendly TD, Chuck Ensey. The 2 Bruce's (Baker and Charnov) also direct at times, and Jeff Turner is available on occasion, along with Eliza Eggert and Bud Stamper.     

Here are the prize winners:

First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (6 1/2), $100  Second Place: Nikolay Arutyunov (6), $75

BU2400: Kevin Trujillo (5 1/2): $50

BU2200: Ron Gutman (5 1/2) and Leonard Sussman (5 1/2), $50 each

BU2000: Buddy Morris (5), $75

2nd U2000: Jason Arbeiter (4 1/2) and Aaron Householder (4 1/2), $12 each

BU1800: Ben Duong (4), $75

BU1600: Diego Draguicevich (3), $50

BU1400: Anthony Liu (3) and Dwayne Matheny (3), $50 each

Total Prizes: $650