November Gambito Opens #492-495

Gambito #495  11/27/10 

4 rounds of G/40 with 5 second delay. Entry Fee: $20. Must be USCF member ($42), but we can sign you up up on the spot (cash preferred but checks accepted, sorry no credit cards). No other memberships required (although eventually we will get you to join our club!) Almost all entry fees are paid back out in prizes, minus the rating fee. Usually we have 20 or more players so the prize fund ranges from $400 to $800, depending on the number of players. The more players, the bigger the prize fund! 

Prizes are awarded for 1st, 2nd, BU2400, BU2200, BU2000, BU1800, BU1600 and sometimes even BU1400 if we have enough Class D players  participating. Players range in rating from 2550 to 1000 or less, so don't be afraid to try it; we try to pair players of similar strengths so everyone has fun. It's a great way to learn and improve your chess by rubbing shoulders with the likes of IM Cyrus Lakdawala and NM Bruce Baker, both of whom share their vast knowledge of the game freely in friendly post-mortems after they crush the Class A players like me. There are also many young kids who play, some of them are only around 1000 rating, but others have worked their way higher by playing in this event, for instance 16 year old Kyron Griffith even became a Master after lots of hard work. So give it try!

Registration is from 10 AM to 10:25, the rounds are at 10:30, 12:15, 2:45 and 4:30. You can take a bye (a free 1/2 point) if you don't want to play the first round, just show up around noon to register or call the club at 619-239-7166 and tell us you are on the way. Any questions? email Chuck Ensey at chucnglo@aol.com               

Gambito #494  11/20/10

30 players today, a really great turnout. Sometimes the rain brings out players who might otherwise being doing something else. I don't know, maybe that had nothing to do with it, it is hard to tell what motivates people. At any rate I was just thrilled to see so many great friends. We were able to use a full McMahon with M/E=4, A=3, B=2, C=1, D=0. If we had had a few more masters we could have a 5 point McMahon, but we only had 2. Bruce took the day off... Hin Tsang and Chris Wonnell came by just to watch today and did not play... 

Here were the players, in rating order:

Masters (2): Lakdawala and Griffith

Experts (7): V. Krishnan, Arutyunov, Milton, Agron, Sussman, Damasco, Wooten

Class A (6): Vinoya, Pryor, Wijaya, Morris, Quiba, Ensey

Class B (4): Arbeiter, Blank, Kuhn, Harbone        

Class C (4): Choi, Siddiqi, Whitten, Cleveland

Class D (7): A. Negus, Edwards, C. Negus, A. Krishnan, Press, Stanard, Rich

Irina Nizmutdinova and Mark Negus also filled in for 2 house games each. There were quite a few notable upsets today: Glenn Rich over Ajay Krishnan (491 point differential), Claire Negus over Anthony Harbone (335 points), Ron Stanard over Pat Edwards (329 points), Tom Kuhn over William Wijaya (272 points), Aaron Wooten over Kyron Griffith (246 points), Dan Press over Andrew Negus (241 points) and Haziq Siddiqi over Alexander Blank (236 points). Other minor upsets were Quiba over Vinoya, Pryor over Agron and Ensey over Morris.

Usually we only have 2nd place prizes at a Super Gambito, not at regular Gambito Opens, but we threw them today in because there were so many players - I wanted to reward them with lots of prizes for coming out...    

Here is an interesting game, sort of a "bad beat", as in a surprising river card winner in poker. You can never relax in chess and I made that mistake against the resourceful Joel Quiba 

Joselito Quiba (1861) - Chuck Ensey (1842) Gambito #494, Round 3 

1.e4 Nf6 2.f3 e5 3.c3 Nxe4!? 4.fxe4 Qh4+ 5.Ke2 Qxe4+ 6.Kf2 Bc5+ 7.d4 exd4 8.Bb5? (much better was 8.Bd3 dxc3+ 9.Kf1 cxb2 10.Bxb2) dxc3+ 9.Kf1 Bxg1? (a cheapo that works, but much better was 9...c2!) 10.Rxg1? (10.Nc3 Qe5 11.Kxg1) Qf5+ 11.Ke1 Qxb5 (regaining the piece and 3 pawns to the good) 12.Nxc3 Qe5+ 13.Kf2 0-0 14.Nd5?! Qf5+? (c6! if 15.Bf4 Qxd5) 15.Qf3 Qxf3+?? ("an unfortunate move that relinquishes the win" says Fritz. I foolishly thought, hey, I am up 3 pawns, why not trade queens, Better was 15...Qc2+ 16.Kg3 Nc6) 16.gxf3 (that's why not, now White has a strong attack on Black's King, plus the threat of Nxc7) Na6? (this is not the answer, but I am going to lose anyway) 17.Bh6 Re8? (or g6 18.Nf6+ Kh8 19.Bxf8) 18.Rxg7+ Kh8 19.Nf6 Re6 20.Rxh7# 1-0 A mistake filled game, but at least it was entertaining. How NOT to play chess perhaps!              

Here were the prize winners:

First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (8), $100

U2400: Aaron Wooten (6 1/2)  U2200: Varun Krishnan (6 1/2)  2nd Place: Nikolay Arutyunov (6 1/2), $43 each

2nd U2400: Kyron Griffith (6), $25  2nd U2200: Paul Agron (6), $25

U2000: Jamieson Pryor (6), $100

2nd U2000: Chuck Ensey (5), Joselito Quiba (5) and Mario Vinoya (5), $8 each

U1800: Tom Kuhn (5), $50  2nd U1800: Jason Arbeiter (4 1/2), $25

U1600/2nd U1600: David Whitten (3 1/2) and Haziq Siddiqi (3 1/2), $37 each

U1400: Claire Negus (3 1/2), $50

2nd U1400: Dan Press (2), Andrew Negus (2) and Ronald Stanard (2), $8 each

Total Prizes: $580      

Gambito #493  11/13/10

21 players today, including a few new ones. We used a McMahon pairing system with M=2, Expert/A=1 and B/C=0. We had 4 masters today: Cyrus Lakdawala, Ken Arnold, Jeff Arnold and Bruce Baker; 4 Experts: Arutyunov, Wooten, Sussman and Agron -all but Nikolay took a first round bye; 7 Class A: Pryor, Migoni, Wonnell, Reyes Lopez, Quiba, Ensey and Bill Arnold; 3 Class B: Ken Borghese- visiting from Washington DC, Kuhn and Harbone; 3 Class C: Choi, Eggert and Cleveland. Whitten and Nizmutdinova filled in as house players.   

Here are the prize winners:

First Place: Jeff Arnold (6), $100   Second Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (5), $30

BU2400: Bruce Baker (4) and Ken Arnold (4), $25 each

BU2200: Nikolay Arutyunov (4), $50

BU2000: Bill Arnold (3), Chris Wonnell (3) and Chuck Ensey (3), $17

BU1800: Jay Choi (3), $50

BU1600: Fred Cleveland (2) and Eliza Eggert (2), $20 each 

10th Annual Super Double Gambito Open    November 6th - 7th, 2010

8 rounds of G/40 with 5 second delay over two days, Saturday and Sunday. Rds 10:30 AM, 12:15, 2:45 and 4:30 PM each day. Lunch Break 1:45 to 2:45 PM. 2 byes available in first 6 rounds only, no byes in the last two rounds.     

$2,000 in guaranteed prizes     

Entry Fee: $60 on site, or save $10 by registering early (email chucnglo@aol.com). Unrated players eligible for book prize only. Most up to date unofficial USCF website ratings will be used. $5 fine for cell phone violations and/or whining about pairings.

 

SCCF membership required for all players ($18 adult, $10 junior)  We can sign you up on site for USCF ($42) or SCCF if you are expired or brand new. San Diego Club membership is NOT required.     

Previous Champions:

2001: Cyrus Lakdawala    2002: Bruce Baker    

2003: Cyrus Lakdawala    2004: Dimitry Kishinevsky

2005: Joel Banawa           2006: Enrico Sevillano

2007: Enrico Sevillano      2008: Ron Bruno & Show Kitagami

2009: Raoul Crisologo      2010: Hermene Duhaylungsod

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28 Players: we were hoping for 40 players 

Open Section (16 players):

2 Masters: Bruce Baker and Giovanni Carreto

7 Experts: Varun Krishnan, Hin Tsang, Nikolay Arutyunov, Alan Tsoi, Paul Agron, Gil Damasco and Hermene Duhaylungsod

7 Class A: Jamieson Pryor, Madhavan Vajapeyam, Chris Wonnell, Felipe Perez Blanco, Matt Souza, Aaron Householder and Chuck Ensey   

Reserve Section (12 players):

5 Class B: Edgar Lopez, Scott Householder, Ronaldo Salenga, Jerry Qu and Anthony Harbone

3 Class C: Arsenio Caccam, Alexander Blank and Alonzo Sanchez 

4 Class D: Fred Cleveland, Patrick Edwards, Ajay Krishnan and Marcos Reyna (unrated)    

Joselito Quiba, Donald Klaas and Irina Nizmutdinova filled in as house players when needed.  

Prizes:

Open Section

First Place: Hermene Duhaylungsod (6 1/2), $300

Second Place: Giovanni Carreto (5 1/2), $200

U2200: Hin Tsang (5 1/2), $200

Third Place: Bruce Baker (5), $100  2nd U2200: Alan Tsoi (5), $100 

U2000: Madhavan Vajapeyam (4 1/2), $200

2nd U2000: Chuck Ensey (4), $100

3rd U2000: Matt Souza (3 1/2), $50

3rd U2200: Nikolay Arutyunov (3 1/2), Varun Krishnan (3 1/2) and Gil Damasco (3 1/2), $17 each

Reserve Section:  

Best Unrated: Marcos Reyna (7), book prize

First Place: Edgar Lopez (5 1/2), $200

Second Place: Scott Householder (5), $100  Third Place: Jerry Qu (4 1/2), $50

BU1600: Arsenio Caccam (5), $150 

2nd U1600: Alonzo Sanchez (3 1/2), $62  BU1400/2nd U1600: Patrick Edwards (3 1/2), $62

3rd U1600: Ajay Krishnan (2), $25

2nd U1400: Fred Cleveland (1), $20

Best Game Prize: Alonzo Sanchez, $15