Standings
Prizes
1st - 4th - 4.5
GM Novikov,
GM Wojtkiewicz,
IM Meyer
FM Rubenchik
Experts 4-1
Alex Passov +
Paul Yavari
Class A 3.5
David Slack
Mark Young|
Andrew Samuelson
Class B 3.5
Kebadu Belachew
Class C 2 -
Wil Acevedo
Chris Johnson
Ken Samuel
Daniel Aisen
Lindy Ergino
Luois Helly and
Chris Snell
Class D 2
Malcolm Scott
Tyler Cook
John Brockhouse
Jordan Levine
Jordan Flemer
Under 1200 2
Paul Coffey
Unrated 2.5
Allan Salgado
Upset
Marika Litras
Past Classic's
1998 | Games
1999 | Games
2000 | Games
2001 | Games
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Advance Entries
The Hyatt Hotel at Dulles Airport is a grand new playing site for local chess. This writer has played and directed at dozens of different hotel playing sites on the east coast. The Hyatt compares favorably with the best of them and I'd have to say it is among the top 3-4 sites, ranking with Foxwoods and The Washington Wyndham as4-star chess arenas. You can always tell class by the bathrooms and the bathroom closest to the playing hall was no exception. The stalls had solid walls, wooden doors with slats and curtains. The fixtures were trimmed (probably paint I hope) in gold. The hotel guest rooms are also superb, and at $79 a night a value that is hard to beat. One side of the hotel offers panoramic views of the Airport and with the best of modern contruction materials everything is soundproof with no jet noise at all.
With each local tournament I keep finding myself saying how strong the field is and how it cant get much stronger and each tournament gets a little stronger. Out of the 89 players who played this weekend, 22 were over 2000, 14 were over 2200, 8 were over 2300 and 5 were over 2400. The number five player, IM Larry Kaufman, is usually #1 in the local tournaments but in a field with 2 Grandmasters it is getting harder to stay #1. The #1's this time were GMs Igor Novikov and Alex Wojtkiewicz, both regulars on the chess circuit. As the rating system would predict, both finished at 4.5/5 in a 4-way tie for 1st with IM Eugene Meyer and FM Rodion Rubenchik from Pennsylvania.
The first round was marked by several upsets, NM Phil Collier swiss gambit began with a loss to Rene Stolbach and then Phil reeled off 4 wins, the classical Swiss Gambit. Had there not been a 4-way tie for the 4 money spots, the gambit would have worked. David Slack gave up a point to rapidly improving Marika Litras and this game turned out to be the upset prize with a 609 point rating difference. The first round also saw competition from the conference across the hall, when their coffee break began just as our first round began. I don't know what was worse, the loudness of their talking or what they (extreme reactionary politics which were both racist and anti-semitic) were talking about. Made for an interesting weekend :)
By the 4th round, the leader board had shaped up with Novikov, Wojtkiewicz, Meyer, Kaufman, Rubenchik, Gershov and Privman with 3-0. In round 4, Novikov defeated Kaufman while Meyer was defeating Gershov to set up the final round match of the only two perfect scores. While these two decisive results were ending, Privman lost to Tegshsuren and Wojtkiewicz drew with Rubenchik. The final 4 were created when Meyer and Novikov played a tough draw, Rubenchik defeated Tesghsuren and Wojtkiewicz defeated Wang Lee to all finish at 4.5/5.
Jordan Flemer had the best rating gain in the tournament, picking up over 90 points. Congrats!
Thanks to all who played in the tournament and helping the VCF get of to a great start at a classy new locations and kudos to Catherine Clark for finding the site!!
Hyatt Dulles
This is a new location for
VCF chess events. Like all tournaments associated with a hotel, it is good
for the tournament for players to stay in the hotel and provide the hotel
with business. It decreases the organizer's costs and increases the
chances of more tournaments. You might find a slightly cheaper place
to play, but if nice sites are lost from lack of support for the hotels,
isn't losing a tournament worse than a couple extra bucks for a hotel
room?
<end of sermon> :-)