Monday, August 24, 2009

Ravichandran Undefeated

Sidd Ravichandran scored a perfect 4 out of 4 to win first prize in the Saturday G/60. Jay Bonin placed second, while Renato Naranja, Sam Barsky, Evan Rabin and Richard Tuhrim split third.

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Treger takes the lead

Yefim Treger defeated Brian Hulse to take the lead in the Thursday Member's tournament with 2.5 out of 3. Six players are in the chase group with 2 points. Will someone catch Treger? Stay tuned.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Wednesday Under 2000 results - Round 3

There are only two undefeated players left after three rounds of play. David Kantey and unrated Yaron Gvili lead the field with a perfect 3.0 score.

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Monday Under 1600 Underway...

...with nine decisive games in the first round. It's not too late to take part in this tournament. If you enter next Monday, August 24th, you'll receive a half-point bye for the first round.

REMINDER TO ALL U1600 PARTICIPANTS: The club is closed on Labor Day, Monday, September 7th. Round 4 will take place on Monday, September 14th.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

St. John's Masters - Six way split for 1st place

IM Ray Kaufman joined the tournament's five top-rated players, IM Oliver Barbosa, GM Leonid Yudasin, GM Michael Rohde, Mackenzie Molner and IM Justin Sarkar, in a big, six-way logjam at 3 points, for the top four prizes, collecting $127 each in the August 18th "St. John's Masters at the Marshall Chess Club. The little 5-way logjam for the Under 2300 prize at 2 points was good enough for $10 for FM Asa Hoffmann, Ramon A Manon-Og of the Philippines, Nitai Leve, Evan Rabin and Miguel Garcia. At 1713, Garcia, who qualified to participate in the tournament by scoring 2½ points in the previous week's "4 Rated Games Tonight!" Thursday Night Action tournament, was the tournament's lowest-rated competitor. His rating had no where to go but up, which is exactly what happened in Round 1 when he defeated 11th-seeded Ramon Manon-Og (rated over 500 points north), to clinch the $50 Upset Prize!

A total of 22 players entered the tournament, including 2 GMs and 4 IMs.

Each round, Glen Statile faithfully transcribed the games on Board 1 to assist with the ICC games relay.

The St. John's Masters tournaments are held at the Marshall Chess Club on the third Tuesday of each month. The next edition will be on the third Tuesday of September: September 15th at 7:00 pm. Participation is open to players rated over 2100. Players rated under 2100 may also qualify to participate by scoring 2½ or more points in any one of the four "4 Rated Games Tonight!" Thursday Night Action tournaments at the Marshall since the previous month's St. John's Masters. If you can't make it to the Marshall, you can always follow the top games on the ICC each round as well.

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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Thursday Members Only - Hulse atop the field

Brian Hulse leads the pack in the Members only tournament with the only perfect score. Dolly Teasley came close to pulling out an upset by fighting off a tremendous attack by Yefim Treger. It appeared as if Ms. Teasley would slowly steamroll her opponent off the board. But Mr. Treger found excellent counterplay, and the game ended in a hard fought draw.

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Wednesday U2000, 2nd Round Results

Four players are still undefeated in the Wednesday U2000: David Kantey, Nicholas Cravotta, Jonathan Hidalgo, and Yaron Gvili.

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Thursday, August 13, 2009

Monday U1600 - Papadopoulos takes all

In a showdown on board 1, Jim Papadopoulos took first place, stopping Guy Rawlins' four game winning streak. Results below:

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Jay Bonin didn't win the U.S. Open...

...but he did win the Marshall's "Not the U.S. Open", played over the weekend of August 8th and 9th, with 3.5 out of 4! Michael Thaler had a chance to catch Jay, as the two met head to head in the last round, but "The Bone" held Michael to a draw. Yefim Treger, Yevgeni Margulis, & Eigen Wang split 2nd and 3rd places with Michael Thaler. Current Marshall treasurer Jason Margiotta & Miles Hinson split the U2000 prize, with Bingjie Liu and the dark horse Henry Mori (rated 1191!) splitting the U1700 prize.

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Friday, August 7, 2009

Thursday Members Only Tournament

No surprises in Round 1 of the latest Members Only Tournament, as all the favourites won.

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The Wednesday U2000 Begins

Round 1 results of our weekly U2000 tournament, which began Wednesday, 5 August.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

St. John's Masters Update - 21 July 09

Our very own Steve Immit writes:

"There were 26 players in this past Tuesday's July St. John's Masters tournament, including three GMs and two IMs. But at the end, there was only one Jay Bonin, who won the tournament, along with the $360 first prize, with a perfect 4-0 score. GM Jaan Ehlvest finished in clear second and $240 with 3½ points. Three players finished with 3 points: GM Mike Rohde, Ildar Salakhutdinov and 15-year-old Parker Zhao, taking home $95 a piece. Parker has been on a phenomenal white-hot streak lately, winning the last two Thursday Night "4 Rated Games Tonight!" tournaments with perfect scores, and ceding a lone draw to top-seed GM Leonid Yudasin, to win this past Sunday's Grandmaster Challenge. In his last four tournaments, Parker has scored a walloping 16½ out of a possible 18 points!!

FM Teddy Coleman locked up the $55 Biggest Upset prize for his second-round pasting of GM-elect Alex Lenderman.

The games on Board One in all four rounds, plus the last-round Board 2 game which gave second prize to GM Ehlvest, are attached.

The St. John's Masters tournaments are held on the third Tuesday of each month. The next edition will be at 7 pm on Tuesday August 18th. They are open to all players rated over 2100. Players rated under 2100 may also qualify to participate by scoring at least 2½ points in one of the four preceding "4 Rated Games Tonight!" Thursday Night Action tournaments since last month's St. John's Masters.

Thanks again to our sponsor, St. John's University, for making these monthly master tournaments possible!"

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Four Rated Games - Pressman Triumphs!

Leif Pressman achieved a perfect score in last Thursday's Four Rated Games, upsetting GM Rohde in round 2.

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Monday, August 3, 2009

4-way tie for first!

This Sunday's tournament saw a four-split for first place between GM Michael Rohde, IM Yury Lapshun, Sam Barsky, and Yevgeni Margulis, who upset IM Jay Bonin in the last round. A minor upset also occurred in round 3, where Parker Zhao held GM Rohde to a draw.

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Saturday, August 1, 2009

Barbosa Perfect!

Oliver Barbosa scored a perfect 4 out of 4 in this Saturday's tournament, winning $136. Second was David Adelberg, with 3.5, taking home $80, and third was Erez Klein, winning $57. But the surprise of the tournament was Benito Kestelman, rated only 1083, who won the U1700 prize of $68 with a 2.0 score.

Congratulations to everyone for an exciting tournament!

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