Gambito #410, 409 & 408

Gambito #410  2/28/09

17 players today, a little light, there were a lot of regular players missing, but then we always seem to get a few we haven't seen for a while that help bring up the numbers at bit. Surprise visitors today were Chris Wonnell and Simone Liao, plus Nikolay Arutyunov, who is now becoming a regular. We used our usual McMahon pairings with M/E=2, A=1, B/C=0. Note that Paul Agron is now an Expert. He beat Varun Krishnan in a very close game where both players had only seconds left when Varun finally lost on time. Bruce once again drew with Cyrus and raised his rating back up to 2343. Nikolay Arutyunov appeared to be lost and living only on his 5 second delay against young star Simone Liao of Los Angeles (Agoura) when suddenly he lined up his Queen and Bishop for an unstoppable mating attack. Simone is the 4th highest rated 9 year old in the USA (now at 1781) and she is also a very active player. This is her 3rd time playing in a Gambito Open. She beat Mike Friedel and Pejman Sagart before the tough loss to Nikolay and in the last round she lost to Madhavan Vajapeyam. Still she gained 4 rating points and is close to regaining her Class A rating (last year she got as high as 1846). Mike Friedel won the U1600 once again, he has won that almost everytime he has played this year and is now #3 on the 2009 top money winners list, right behind Cyrus and Bruce. He is the "new" Tom Kuhn of 2009, Tom always placed high on the money list last year due to his frequently winning the U1600 prize. Mike is trying to get his rating over 1600, but can't seem to break that barrier. It is tough, but I am sure he will get there soon. 

Here are the prize winners:

First Place (tie): Cyrus Lakdawala (5 1/2), $70   U2400/1st Place: Bruce Baker (5 1/2), $70

U2200/2nd Place (tie): Carey Milton (4), Leonard Sussman (4) and Paul Agron (4), $20 each

U2000 (tie): Roberto Aiello (3 1/2) and Chris Wonnell (3 1/2), $20 each

U1800 (tie): Madhavan Vajapeyam (3) and Anthony Harbone (3), $20

U1600: Mike Friedel (1 1/2), $30  

Total Prizes: $310   

 

Gambito #409  2/21/09

21 players today, good turnout. We used our standard Gambito McMahon bye points: M/E=2, A=1, B/C=0. Here are the prizes winners:

First Place/U2400 (tie): Cyrus Lakdawala (5 1/2) and Bruce Baker (5 1/2), $75 each

U2200: Carey Milton (4), $50

U2000/2nd Place: Jamieson Pryor (3 1/2) and Paul Agron (3 1/2), $40 each

U1800: Ken Hopper (3) and Datris Robinson (3), $25 each

U1600: Mike Friedel (2), $40

Biggest rating point gainers: Ken Hopper +32 (1741>1773), Dayne Freitag +31 (1922>1953), Paul Agron +23 (1993>2016)  This event is already rated! Thanks to Bruce Baker for getting this event rated in record speed. And congratulations to Paul Agron for attaining Expert Status!  

Total Prizes: $370 

 

Gambito #408  2/14/09

16 players, light turnout due to Amateur Team West event in LA.

Winners were:

1st Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (4), $80

U2400/U2200/U2000 (tie): Carey Milton (3), Hin Tsang (3) and Roberto Aiello (3), $43 each

U1800: William Delaney (2), $40

U1600: Fred Cleveland (1 1/2), $30

Total Prizes: $280