Arlington Chess Club WBCA Tournament of Champions |
Photos from the past..... | Games & Such... | ||
The Arlington Chess Club WBCA Tournament of Champions is an annual series of monthly WBCA qualifying events which seed one player each month into a Championship round-robin event on the second Friday in December. It is a closed, invitational event with no EF and prizes of $100-$50 and bragging rights for a year as ACC Club Blitz Champ. 1995 SM Alex Reprintsev entered the tournament as the clear favorite. Rated 2521, he had won or tied every tournament he had played in and was rated in the top 40 WBCA players in the world. He was scheduled to start at the bottom of the crosstable and work his way up to the four toughest pairings: NM's Macon Shibut, Fred Garcia, Matt Morgan and David Sherman. Alex entered round 11 with a perfect 10-0 score and was playing the #2 man Dave Sherman, who could catch and pass him with a win, having garnered an impressive 9.5 -.5 score himself. A crowd gathered around and watched the match for the club title. Reprintsev, as white, played 1.e4 and Dave responded with 1....e5.. What followed was one of the more exciting finishes to both a game and a tournament that this writer has ever seen. In the positionto the right, with each player down to about 2 minutes, Sherman uncorked a classic shot that was difficult to handle in a blitz game. Dave went on to win the game and the title and saw his blitz rating jump from 2327 to 2416. Be sure to check out coverage of this event in the June, 1996 issue of BLITZ CHESS magazine!see the position and game on the right...Congratulations to Dave Sherman! 1996 There wasn't much drama in the 1996 championship. When SM Reprintsev moved back to The Ukraine, IM Larry Kaufman took full advantage and went 14-1 in a field that had an average rating of 2127 and included the 1995 champ David Sherman. Steve Greanias was the only player to find a chink in Larry's armor 1997 The 1997 Arlington Chess Club WBCA Tournament of Champions is now history. Twelve grueling months of competition which produced 14 qualifiers, along with the 1996 champion. NM Fred Garcia dethroned last years TOC winner IM Larry Kaufman by scoring a very impressive 10 ½ - ½ and defeating him in their individual matchup. For the first time in the three year series of the event, we had two no-shows, Frank Gomez and Luigi Vacco (Shame on you!!), which dropped the field down to 12 players. Fred Garcia almost did not make this years event. He had been scheduled to do a software demo in L.A. on this date, but managed to switch the date to 12-11 and flew back from California just in time to play. He said before the event began that he would either do really well or really badly, and that he was running on caffeine as the photo to the left suggests.... This result should put him squarely back into the 2300's where he belongs. Avg rating - 2117 1998 saw two clear favorites as the action began, IMs Eugene Meyer and Larry Kaufman. Sometimes, being experienced international players just isn't enough in the fast paced world of WBCA blitz. Sometimes just being fast and accurate and tactical is enough. Sometimes, needing the money more is enough to make a player more aggressive and decisive. Tom Murphy, recently arrived to DC from the Philadelphia area is a player like that. With an OTB rating around 2080 and a WBCA rating of 2240, he wasn't favored but was a favorite of Alex Passov who stated before the event that Murphy was the strongest blitz player in the tournament and would win. Remind me not to bet against Alex! Especially since Murphy had won or tied for each blitz event he played at ACC this year. He also did very well in the World Open WBCA event, getting a plus score in a tough field and splitting his games with GM Pavel Blatny. Murphy was 2 points ahead of the field with 2 rounds to go and only a complete choke would prevent him from locking up the title. Both IMs were playing in the next to last round so there had to be a decisive game here to force Murphy to score anything. The Kaufmans teamed up in the 10th round, Ray handed Murphy his only defeat while Larry was beating Meyer, setting up Murphy to have to score in the last round to ensure the title. He quickly drew with Marcelino, leaving the top three at Murphy-9, L. Kaufman-8 and E-Meyer-7.5 Murphy becomes the first qualifier for the 1999 Championship. avg rating 2182 IM Larry Kaufman scored 9.5/12 to edge out IM Oladapo Adu and Greg Acholonu. There were 13 players this year as Lu Zhong Yu did not show up to take his spot. That bye became in important piece of strategy later in the tournament as Kaufman and Adu were for several rounds either tied on paper because of one player having had the bye or one player trailed because he had already had the bye. Going into the final round, Larry had 8.5 and was scheduled to play Stan Fink while Greg and Oladapo had 8 and were playing Alex Passov andDavid Hulvey respectively. Any slipup by Larry meant someone could tie or pass him and take the title. All 3 won their final round games. Adu defeated Acholonu in a playoff and took second place honors while splitting the cash. avg rating - 2207 IM Eugene Meyer took this year's title with a impressive 10-2 score that finished a full point above the 9 points turned in by Greg Acholonu. Larry kaufman, the 2000 club champ led the field through the first half of the tournament, but a loss to his son Ray started a slip toward the middle of the results. 1998 champ Tom Murphy finished 3rd on tiebreak and Oladapo Adu finished 4th on tiebreak. IM Oladapo Adu had an impressive 11.5 out of 13 games, giving up only 3 draws, to finish 1.5 points ahead of the field. The 2001 champ gave up draws to Steve Greanias and Ray Kaufman in the first 2 rounds, and then reeled off 10 wins in a row, with a performance rating of 2464 in a field whose average rating was 2187. IM Adrian Negulescu finished in clear second with 10-3 after a slow start of only a half point in the first three rounds. Ray Kaufman was clear third at 9-4, Alex Barnett and Larry Kaufman tied for 4th with 7.5. This was one of the overall strongest fields in the history of the event. While the average rating was 2187, ratings are getting depressed because of the shrinking size of the pool, had players used their average rating over the past 2 years, the tournament's average would have been around 2230. There is a reason that GMs are GM's and the same for IMs. If you look at tournament crosstables, over 90% of the time ratings hold true and GMs score above IMs who score above Masters who.... GM Alex Sherzer,always a super blitz player, scored 11½/13 allowing only three draws. He finished ½ point ahead of GM Patrick Wolff who finished 1 point ahead of IM Adrian Negulescu who was ½ point ahead of IM Larry Kaufman. Ray Kaufman had an impressive 8-5 score for the top non-titled player result. This year's tournament, with 2 Grandmasters, 4 International Masters and one FM was clearly the strongest Championship we've ever had. The average Blitz rating was 2236 which is probably low due to the depressed ratings in a closed rating pool. The average FIDE rating was higher, at 2273, that being dragged down by several unrated players averaged in at 2000. The final 6 finishers this year were the six players with FIDE titles. They must mean something! The tournament ended in a 3-way tie at 10-3 among IM Adrian Negulescu (winner on tiebreak), IM Oladapo Adu and GM Patrick Wolff. This was a strange tournament as far as GM participation is concerned. GM Wolff was flying in from a business trip and landing at National either at 7:40 or 8:40p. He was supposed to call me to confirm being on the flight and with no calls after leaving 3 messages on his cell phone, I assumed he didn't make it and couldn't play. Alex Passov and Stan Fink were invited to play for the two missing players (Ruixin Yang did not show up). Of course, Patrick walked in as the 4th round started. After some negotiations, he took Stan Fink's place and score (1-2) in the tournament. He then went 9-1 losing to only Ray Kaufman, for the best result but finished in the tie due to the score he replaced. Two of the three players he did not play, Negulescu and Adu finished in a tie with him and did not have to play him so Wolff is probably the Moral champ this year. |
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Reprintsev - Sherman 1. e4 e5 2. f4 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nxe4 4. d3 Nc5 5. fxe5 d5 6. Nc3 Nc6 7. Qe2 Bg4 8. Qf2 Be7 9. Bd2 O-O 10. O-O-O d4 11. Ne2 Qd5 12. Kb1 a5 13. Nf4 Qd7 14. Re1 Nb4 15. a3 Qa4 16. Bc1 Bxf3 17. gxf3 Bh4 18. Qg2 Bxe1 19. Nh5 g6 20. Nf6+ Kh8 21. b3 Nxb3 22. cxb3 Qxb3+ 23. Qb2 Qxb2+ 24. Bxb2 Nc6 and black went on to win... [Event "1995 ACC WBCA TOC"] Above games in pgn file |
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 Tom Murphy 1998 Champ
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