April Gambito Opens (#463-5)

Gambito #465   4/24/10

Only 18 players today, lighter turnout than usual. We used a mini-McMahon pairing system with M/E = 2, A/B = 1, C/D = 0.

Cyrus lost to Bruce in Round 2, but then Bruce fell victim to the "Curse of Cyrus" and lost both of his next games against Kyron Griffith and Jesse Orlowski. We have noticed over the years that if anyone ever beats Cyrus, they tend to not do well over the rest of the event. Not sure why, but that's just the way it is. Tired? Overconfident? We don't know so we just call it the curse.

Carey Milton beat Kyron Griffith in the last round, an impressive feat given Kyron's performances lately. Datris Robinson also had another good day, show that his recent vault into Class A is no fluke. Claire Negus also did great, winning the BU1800 even though she is only 1322.        

Here were the prize winners:

First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (5), $100

Second Place/U2400/U2200/U2000: Carey Milton (4), Kyron Griffith (4), Jesse Orlowski (4), Datris Robinson (4), $37 each

U1800: Claire Negus (3 1/2), $40   U1600: Fred Cleveland (3), $30

Total Prizes: $320      

Gambito #464   4/17/10

22 players, decent turnout. McMahon system with M=2, Exp/A/B= 1, C=0. Bruce Baker directed. Cyrus faced the toughest possible players, #3, #2, #4 and #5 in that order (Graves, Baker, Griffith and Sussman). Cy beat Peter and Lenny, but drew with Bruce and Kyron. Bruce beat Kyron, drew with Cy, lost to Peter and beat Carey Milton. Peter lost to Cy, beat Chris Wonnell, beat Bruce and drew with Kyron. Kyron lost to Bruce, beat Datris Robinson, drew with Cy and Peter. Datris had a great day, he is rated 1702, but he won the U2200! He beat Esteban Escobedo, lost to Kyron, beat Chris Wonnell and Jason Ma. 

Here were the winners:

First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (5), $100

Second Place/U2400: Bruce Baker (4 1/2) and Peter Graves (4 1/2), $45 each

BU2200: Datris Robinson (4), $50   BU2000: Carey Milton (3 1/2), $50

BU1800: Aaron Householder (3), $50   BU1600: Guru Gopalakrishnan (3), $50

Total Prizes $390          

Gambito #463    4/03/10 (April Super Gambito)

Two Sections, Open and Reserve (U1800 rating), 4 rounds of G/45 minutes (or G/40 with 5 second delay, which is the preferred way to play) One bye allowed in rounds 1 - 3, but no last round byes.  

28 players today, just enough to cover the $700 prize fund. 16 players in the Open and 12 in the Reserve. Open Section, in rating order: Lakdawala, Graves, Griffith (3 masters); Kuniholm, Sussman, Tsoi, Lozano (4 Experts); Orlowski, Soto, Hodges, Hirata, Pryor, Aiello, Vajapeyam, Quiba (8 Class A) and Jason Ma (1769, playing up). Reserve Section: Sagart, Arbeiter, Robinson, Ensey, Harbone (5 Class B); Krooskos, Cleveland, Xu, Fernando, Beck, Azimzadeh (6 Class C); C Negus (1316). Several house players filled in: Whitten, Garcia, A. Negus and Gaylord.        

$700 in Guaranteed Prizes

Open Section:

First Place: Peter Graves (3 1/2), $125   Second Place: Kyron Griffith (3), $75

BU2400/2nd U2400/BU2200: Mariano Lozano (2 1/2), Leonard Sussman (2 1/2) and Alan Tsoi (2 1/2), $58 each

BU2000: Madhavan Vajapeyam (2 1/2), $75 

2nd U2200/2ndU2000: Erik Kuniholm (2), Jesse Orlowski (2), Jamieson Pryor (2) and Roberto Aiello (2), $12 each 

Cyrus lost to Kyron in Rd 3 and then drew with Alan Tsoi in Rd 4. A one-two punch from the Amateur Team West Junior Champions (see picture in Photo Section). Peter Graves won 3, but drew with Jesse Orlowski in Rd 2, another member of the "2 1/2 Asians" Amateur Team. (2 1/2 assassins might be more descriptive, or maybe even baby-faced assassins, which is how repeat Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum of the SF Giants is described). Peter beat Eric Kuniholm and Kyron Griffith in Rds 3 & 4. He also tied for First with Cyrus at last weeks' Gambito. "Is there a new King in town?" some people were asking...     

Reserve Section (U1800):

BU1800: Jason Arbeiter (3 1/2) and Chuck Ensey (3 1/2), $50 each

BU1600: Kenneth Xu (3), $50   2nd U1600: Gene Fernando (2), $25 

Jason and Chuck drew in Round 3. Kenneth Xu lost only to Jason in Round 4 and upped his rating over a 100 points to 1558 (estimated and the estimates are usually low for big gains, so it's probably closer to 1600). and Ken is probably still way underrated. He is one of those young players who learns faster than the rating system can track him. Ken beat Datris Robinson (1720) in Rd 1 and Pejman Sagart (1790) in Rd 3, Pejman had a rough day, also losing to Chuck Ensey (me) in Rd 2 and nearly losing to Claire Negus in the last round. Claire was up 3 pawns and a Queen versus Pejman's lone Queen, but got into time trouble and overstepped the 5 second delay, losing a heartbreaker. Hopefully she will learn from the experience and come back stronger. The young are resiliant. And the old aren't too shabby either, Gene Fernando continues to perform well with his 84 years of experience providing him with much wisdom. He was born with a pawn in his hand and I think his first words were "e4!" or maybe "your move!".      

Best Game for Open Section: Roberto Aiello, $15, for win over Peter Hodges. 

Reserve Section to be announced soon

Also welcome to new player Francisco Hirata (1950 rating) and long lost player Kamran Azimzadeh, who has returned to the club after several years absence (just busy with other things, he says).