December Super Gambito

Gambito #543  December Super Gambito   12/03/11

$700 Guaranteed Prize Fund, which was increased to $965 due to big turnout. 

$25 Entry Fee, 4 rounds G/40 d/5, Rounds at 10:30 AM, 12:15, 2:45 and 4:30 PM

Great turnout of 42 players, split into 3 sections. 7 Masters and if Kyron Griffith, Varun Krishnan and Ali Morshedi had happened to be here we would have had 10! Frequent Gambito Champion and book author IM Cyrus Lakdawala drew with fellow IM Dionisio Aldama in round two and it was no GM draw, but a hard fought battle. Cyrus had the edge most of the game and was way ahead on time, but the crafty Dionisio found a simple way to draw by steering the game to a Bishops of opposite color endgame. Cyrus then drew the next round with surging NM Jeff Arnold (rated 2451), while Dionisio grabbed wins from Ken Arnold and then Jeff Arnold. Ron Bruno lost to Cy in round 1 but then reeled off 3 wins from Ben Barquin, Leonard Sussman and Craig Clawitter. Paul Agron upset Ken Arnold in the last round to claim BU2200.

In the Reserve Section Elkaei Rivera has been winning lots of U2000 prizes over the last few months, but this time he drew with new Gambito player Bud Stamper in round 1 and lost to William Wijaya in round 2. The "other" Bud (and where was Bud Morris today??) went on to win 3 in a row. Canadian Boris Polonsky, who will be here for a few months (he says he loves our club! "One of the best anywhere") started of with 3 wins to clinch BU1800, losing only in round 4 to Bud Stamper. Stamper The Stomper!! New player Chris Calvin also did well, winning 2nd U2000, he wasn't sure of his playing strength just a few weeks ago, being unrated, but now we can say he is definitely Class A caliber! Rolando Ignacio scored 2 1/2 for 2nd U1800. It was fun to have the A's and B's playing together as usually they don't play in the two section format where the A's are in the Open and the B's in the Reserve.  

In the Booster Section, Aaron Moman scored a perfect 4-0, but he was fortunate in the last round when playing the #1 seed Andrew Negus. They played a pretty equal game for over 40 moves, but then Andrew suddenly surged ahead after a few mistakes by Aaron. They were probably both in time trouble at this point, and then in one of those tricky King and pawn endgames, Andrew made a misstep with a bad King move and allowed Aaron to go from -8 on Fritz to +8 with one mistake. Ouch, I've been there done that, Andrew, just learn from it and move on, but keep it in your memory banks.              

Here are the players in rating order:

7 Masters: Cyrus Lakdawala, Dionisio Aldama, Jeff Arnold, Bruce Baker, Ken Arnold, Ron Bruno, Peter Graves. 

8 Experts: Craig Clawitter, Hin Tsang, Raoul Crisologo, Paul Agron, Aaron Wooten, Leonard Sussman, Ben Barquin and Jamieson Pryor.

6 Class A: Francisco Hirata, Elkaei Rivera, Pejman Sagart, William Wijaya, Chris Calvin, Sheila Rodriguez. 

9 Class B: Boris Polonsky, Rolando Ignacio, Bud Stamper, Jerry Qu, Chuck Ensey, Jay Choi, Zechariah Zhu, Anthony Harbone, Tim Loperfido (unr).

5 Class C: Andrew Negus, Aaron Moman, Daniel Zhu, Octavio Rodriguez, David Narevsky.

7 Class D/E: Claire Negus, Thomas Diem, Fred Cleveland, Mark Negus, Stephen Zhu, Luis Valencia (unr), Caros Guillen (unr)

Here are the Prize winners;

Open Section, 15 players

First Place: Dionisio Aldama (3 1/2), $130

Second Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (3), $80    BU2400: Ron Bruno (3), $80

BU2200: Paul Agron (2 1/2), $80

2nd U2400: Peter Graves (2), $20, tied with the 3 below

2nd U2200: Jamieson Pryor (2), Craig Clawitter (2) and Raoul Crisologo (2), $20 each  

Best Game Open Section, $15, goes to Paul Agron for win over Ken Arnold.

Reserve Section (U2000), 15 players

BU2000: Bud Stamper (3 1/2), $80

2nd U2000: Chris Calvin (3), $40

BU1800: Boris Polonsky (3), $80

2nd U1800: Rolando Ignacio (2 1/2), $40

Best Game Reserve Section goes to Bud Stamper, $15, for win over William Wijaya

Booster Section (U1600), 12 players

BU1600: Aaron Moman (4), $80

2nd U1600: Octavio Rodriguez (3) and David Narevsky (3), $15 each

BU1400: Thomas Diem (2 1/2), $80

2nd U1400: Claire Negus (2) and Mark Negus (2), $15 each 

Best Game Prize Booster Section goes to Andrew Negus, $15, for win over Luis Valencia.

Total Prizes $965