IM Jay Bonin and SM Yaakov Norowitz victorious at last St. John's Masters!

Perennial Speed Powerhouse Yaacov Norowitz scored 3½ points in the December 15th St. John's Masters at the Marshall Chess Club. Yaacov's opponents tried to confuse things with some unusual openings, but when the smoke cleared, the Senior Master emerged unfazed by the complications. Leif Pressman trotted out the Budapest Gambit in Round 2, but Yaacov simplified his positional advantage into a won endgame. Round 3 saw FM Asa Hoffmann testing out an unorthodox Queen's Pawn opening (with 2... Bg4 and 3...Bxf3), but again Norowitz nursed a pawn advantage into a won game. Finally in the last round, Yaacov took no chances, grabbing a fast draw with IM Jay Bonin, who also had won his first three games.

Bonin and Norowitz shared first and second prize, taking home $250 each. Hoffmann, who rebounded with a last-round victory over NM Oliver Chernin, scored 3-1, along with IM Justin Sarkar, who bowed out of the festivities with a pre-declared last-round bye. They each won $70. Michael Layevskiy, the second-lowest-rated player at the start, showed that it's not so bad on the bottom, when he defeated NM Leiff Pressman in Round 3-- a 320 point upset which easily clinched the $30 Upset Prize. Michael also won the $30 Under 2300 prize to boot!

The St. John's Masters tournaments had been held on the third Tuesday of the month. This was the last such event, however. Starting in 2010, the monthly tournaments will be sponsored by the Marshall Chess Club, along with interested patrons.

The first "Marshall Masters" tournament will be at 7 pm on the third Tuesday of the month of January: January 19th.

These events are open to players rated over 2100. Players under 2100 may also qualify to register by scoring at least 2½ points in one of the "4 Rated Games Tonight!" action tournaments held every Thursday night at 7 pm since the last Tuesday Masters tournament.. You can also follow the action each round on Board 1 on ICC, if you can't make it out to the Marshall.

Steve Immitt

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.

Click to show the crosstable

#	Name	USCF ID	Rating	New Rating	State	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Total	Prize
1	IM Oliver A Barbosa	12774447	2606	2605	NY	W18	D4	W7	D3	3	$127
2	GN Leonid G Yudasin	12542077	2599	2592	NY	W15	D8	W17	D4	3	$127
3	GM Michael A Rohde	10047871	2530	2536	NY	W16	W10	D5	D1	3	$127
4	Mackenzie Molner	12662506	2446	2469	NJ	W19	D1	W8	D2	3	$127
5	IM Justin Sarkar	12561884	2414	2427	NY	W12	W6	D3	H---	3	$127
6	IM Raymond Kaufman	20058328	2297	2306	MD	W20	L5	W13	W10	3	$127
7	IM Jay Bonin	10098327	2358	2356	NY	D17	W14	L1	W11	2½
8	Yaacov Norowitz	12566496	2354	2360	NJ	W22	D2	L4	W17	2½
9	Ildar Salakhutdinov	12985971	2343	2334	MI	D13	L17	W22	W15	2½
10	FM Asa Hoffmann	10076994	2295	2290	NY	W23	L3	W19	L6	2	$10
11	Ramon A Manon-Og Jr	14235205	2234	2228	PHI	L14	W12	W16	L7	2	$10
12	Nitai D Leve	12796261	2156	2158	NY	L5	L11	W23	W18	2	$10
13	Evan Z Rabin	12720571	2119	2130	MA	D9	W18	L6	D16	2	$10
14	Miguel Garcia	12919213	1713	1793	NY	W11	L7	L15	W19	2	$10 + $50 Upset Prize: Round 1
15	Raven M Sturt	12836880	2201	2194	NY	L2	D22	W14	L9	1½
16	Roy Greenberg	10054737	2200	2192	NJ	L3	W23	L11	D13	1½
17	Aaron Landesman	12913985	2130	2142	NY	D7	W9	L2	L8	1½
18	Oliver Chernin	10502772	2208	2192	CT	L1	L13	W20	L12	1
19	Sam Barsky	12550168	2160	2143	NY	L4	W20	L10	L14	1
20	Michael Layevskiy	12675402	1945	1948	NY	L6	L19	L18	W22	1
21	Lawrence Tamarkin	10116716	2000	2006	NY	U---	U---	U---	W23	1
22	Gregory J Kimmel	12709076	2123	2107	FL	L8	D15	L9	L20	½
23	WIM Shernaz Kennedy	11322000	1900	1884	NY	L10	L16	L12	L21	0

 

Tied Players Are Listed Above In Order Of Their Pre-Tournament Ratings