Recap: Denver Open 2015
12:59am Thursday, June 18th, 2015
Was this this the best Denver Open ever, or what?
Without past attendance records it is hard to know if our 132 player turnout was a record attendance, but it is certainly the best that I can remember. I know for an absolute fact that this year's Open section had the highest average rating ever.
The big news is GM Gata Kamsky, rated 2755 and currently #70 on the FIDE world rating list, played in this tournament. Without a doubt the highest rated player to ever play in a Denver Open. GM Kamsky's participation prompted IM Justin Sarker, rated 2510, to fly in from New York at the last minute just to have the opportunity to play GM Kamsky. IM Sarkar has 3 GM norms but he has yet to reach a FIDE rating of 2500.
In addition to these two world class players, the Open section was chock-full of USCF National Masters. Our own NM Brian Wall, was the main force behind GM Kamsky's participation in this event. Actually, Gata called Brian out of the blue and asked if he could play in the Denver Open. From that moment on Brian did everything possible to make it happen, and happen it did. Brian has been like a little kid in a candy store for the last month :-) To top it off for Brian, and despite the fact that he was not the highest rated of the National Masters, he tied for second with IM Sarkar. Congratulations Mr. Wall, and thanks for your efforts to make this Denver Open the best ever.
Of course GM Kamsky took first place, but not with a perfect score. IM Justin Sarker got his wish and was paired with the GM in the 4th round. I did not see the game, but from what I understand, Justin offered a draw from a position of strength.
IM Justin Sarkar (2465) - Super GM Gata Kamsky (2753)
Round 4 of Denver Open 2015
2015.06.14
In the last round IM Sarkar was held to a draw by Philipp Ponomarov. We all know Philipp from back in the day and it's good to see him back at the chessboard. I would also like to say there is a night and day difference between the hot headed teenager we knew then, and the mature young man we see today.
Philipp, rated 2340, and Petros were joined at 3.5 points by the newly minted Master, Gunnar Andersen, from Colorado Springs. Also with the same score was an Expert from California, Simon Rubinstein-Salzer, and our own DCC life member, Kevin Seidler. All were left out of the prize money. The lotto of the Swiss System resulted in Petros and Kevin being paired with GM Kamsky in rounds 3 and 5 respectively. This reduced their chances of winning money, but surely they enjoyed the opportunity to play the internationally known, GM Gata Kamsky, head to head across the board and, I'm sure, thought it was well worth the entry fee. Daoud Zupa and Earl Wikle also had the pleasure of facing the Grandmaster. I am pretty sure Brian would have gladly given up his prize money for a shot at taking down either of the titled players. I am surprised he didn't try to bribe the TD :-)
The U2000 prize money was shared by William Murray from Minnesota, Doug Stenclick from Oregon, and Joshua Jex, from Denver. Was good to see Mr. Jex again and we are looking for him to on Tuesday nights :-) The sole winner of the U1900 prize winner was Kiryl Sluchuk, who is from Belarus in eastern Europe. And ain't that something. Not only did we draw players from all over the USA, here is a player from the other side of the world at the Denver Open.
And we had a player from Mexico, Mauro Sarmiento, in the U1800 section. Mauro played well to equal Joe Hubler's score of 4.5 points and share the 1st place prize money. Joe looked busted in his last round game with Atharva Vispute, but somehow managed to hold the draw. Had Atharva won the game his and Joe's score would have been reversed. As it was, Atharva shared the remaining U1800 prize money with Deanna Alter, Jeff Baffo, and Felix Yu. Atharva, Deanna and Felix are all young, strong, upcoming players. Jeff is a wily old veteran of Colorado chess.
Felix, I think like 10 years old, had me completely tied in knots with two Rooks against a Queen in round 4, but I managed to draw, to give myself a chance for prize money in my last round game with Norbert Martinez. In that game I'm completely winning till I blunder the Queen, and give any possible prize money chances to Norbert. Up until Norbert is forced to give perpetual check to stop my pawn from reaching the 8th rank. So, with the draw, we eliminated ourselves from a share of the prize money. I'm pretty sure the players in the Open section don't play like this.... :-)
The story of the U1500 section is the big upsets by Graham Himango. This young lad, maybe 6 years old, and rated 410, upset two players, one rated 738 points over, and the other a whopping 842 points above Graham's rating. Nobody else came anywhere close to these rating point differences. Congratulations, kiddo. You now have bragging rights over your older brother Carter :-)
With his 5-0 score, Evan Akhavan will not be playing in the U1500 anymore. In fact I am sure he will soon be playing in the Open section of these tournaments. Only a half point behind to take clear 2nd place was, Sullivan McConnell. Sullivan's older brother Griffin played in the U1800 section, (as did Carter Himango), so here again we have the younger brother with the bragging rights in the family. Clear 3rd with 4 points was Christopher Cannon. I don't know Christopher but I am gonna ask him to loan me some money... Just joking, Christopher. Congratulations on your fine play.
The youth prize was won with 4 points by Dax Epard, from Arizona. Well done Dax, and thanks for coming up to Colorado to play in the Denver Open. Shan Obaidullah also had 4 points, but as an unrated player his prize was restricted to 100 dollars. Todd Burge and Tara Martinez each scored 3.5 points and won equal amounts as the U1400 and U1300 prize winners. Tara is Anthea Carson's daughter, and since Anthea and Isaac did not play, Tara has the bragging rights in her family. Do not give your Mom or your brother any of your prize money Tara :-)
I would be remiss if I did not mention the excellent 22 board simul that GM Kamsky gave the Friday night before the tournament. GM Kamsky's score... 20 wins and 2 draws. Congratulations to Jesse Cohen and Steve Kovach for drawing the Grandmaster. Mr. Kamsky's very generous offer to allow the DCC to keep all proceeds from the simul, along with the excellent turnout for the tournament, meant the DCC actually made a little money from the Denver Open.
I also want to say what an approachable, easy going person GM Kamsky really is. He did not complain or quibble about a single thing. After the conclusion of the tournament the Grandmaster joined Brian, Paul, Randolph, myself and others for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Here, Gata regaled us with stories of his play against other GM's, including Tal, Bronstein, Karpov, Kasparov. Carlsen, Nakamura... GM Kamsky has played or trained with pretty much everyone who is anyone in the chess world. Brian could hardly contain his self :-)
To wrap up, I would like to thank the Chief TD, Bob Crume, who did a bang up job. Bob was disappointed with the late start of the first round. How could it have not been late when players just kept walking up to the registration table? I'm surprised it started when it did. Please see Bob's tournament report on Facebook. The prize amounts were based on 140 players, and while we did not quite reach that goal, the DCC was happy to pay out the full 4800 dollar prize fund.
Also, many thanks to Paul Covington, the CSCA president, and Lawrence Bashear, a tech genius, for providing the audio - visual equipment that was used to display the top 4 boards of the Open section throughout the tournament, at no cost to the DCC. This was a big enhancement and made the tournament much more enjoyable for all players and spectators. Paul, along with Shirley Herman, also served as assistant TD's. I take back anything bad I ever said about Paul or Shirley :-) They really do want to see chess in Colorado grow. As do all of us at the DCC.
I need to express sincere thanks to Randolph Schine for making all the arrangements with the Marriott hotel, along with a long list of everything else he does for the DCC. He puts in lots of hours for us and has been a big part of the DCC for years and years. It is safe to say the DCC would not be in the financial shape we are in without the efforts of Mr. Schine. His contact at the Marriott, Jennifer, went above and beyond providing us with everything we needed. Thank you very much Jennifer, along with the entire Marriott staff. We'll be back :-)
Of course, without the attendance of all the players, the Denver Open would not have been the great success that it was.
Thanks to all, J.C. MacNeil