GM Giorgi Kacheishvili accepted a quick draw in the final round to secure himself the title of 18th North American Open Champion. Kacheishvili had a half-point lead over his opponent, GM Melikset Khachiyan, and fellow countryman GM Zviad Izoria, going into the last set of games. Izoria could only manage a draw against US Champion, GM Yury Shulman, and so Kacheishvili won clear 1st netting himself $8,957.00.
Kacheishvili dominated his opponent’s, winning five games and giving up two “Grandmaster” draws to two of the players who finished joint 2nd, Izoria and Khachiyan. When asked about his best game of the tournament, Kacheishvili immediately pointed to his queen sacrifice game against GM Varuzhan Akobian in round 6 although whenever you score a miniature against another GM, as he did against Slavko Cicak in round 4, it certainly grabs people’s attention too.
Kacheishvili’s win at the North American Open caps off quite a holiday season for the Georgian GM as he also won the Berkeley Masters that finished just just a few days before the start of this one. An impressive run that I’m sure he is hoping he can carry on over into 2009.
There was a 5-way tie for 2nd place with 5½ as GMs Zviad Izoria and Melikset Khachiyan were joined by GMs Julio Becerra, Jaan Ehlvest and Alex Shabalov who all won their round 7 games.
Becerra was the first one to ensure he got into the decent money by beating out IM Andranik Matikoyzan. The game involved a Marshall style gambit against the Worrall (Qe2) Variation of the Ruy Lopez.
Matikozyan,A (2450) – Becerra,J (2657) [C86]
North American Open 2008 Las Vegas United States (7.3), 12.29.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Qe2 b5 6.Bb3 Be7 7.0-0 0-0 8.c3
Position after 8.c3
8…d5!? 9.d3 Bb7 10.exd5 Nxd5 11.Nxe5 Nxe5 12.Qxe5 a5 13.d4 Re8 14.Bc2 c5 15.Na3
Position after 15.Na3
15…Bf6 Black’s position is already advantageous 16.Qg3 cxd4 17.Nxb5 dxc3 18.Nxc3 Nxc3 19.bxc3
Position after 19.bxc3
19…Ba6 20.Qh3 g6 21.Bh6 Bxf1 22.Rxf1 Qc8 23.Qf3 Qxc3 0-1
A swift victory for the popular GM from Florida.
Ehlvest’s path to victory was much more complicated as he won a fascinating game against GM Rogelio Antonio Jr.
Position after 16…Be6
Here Ehlvest decided to mix it up by playing the speculative exchange sacrifice 17.Rxf6. I’m too lazy, no, strike that, not good enough to work out if it was a good sacrifice or not but it definitely made the game interesting! The following position was eventually reached when Antonio Jr. made his own speculative sacrifice.
Position after 29.Qxe3
Here Antonio Jr. played 29…Rxg5 and ended up a piece down after 30.Qxg5 Qxe4 31.Kg1 A calm move, especially as both players were in severe time trouble. Ehlvest’s technique was good enough to work through the complications and wrap up the win in 44 moves.
Shabalov’s win came virtue of a tough fight against Californian John Bryant. The position was very double edged with opposite side castling. However, when the queens came off, Shabalov was left with an outside passed pawn that he converted in true Grandmaster fashion.
Here are a couple of quick statistics in terms of the overall tournament attendance:
- 499 entries fully counted
- 33 seniors (3/4 entries)
- 28 re-entries (1/2 entries)
- 13 Grandmasters (1/2 entries)
- 8 unrated (not counted)
Total entries = 613, all prizes paid at 73.42% of projection ($150,000)
All of the standings are now final, the PGN file is updated and hopefully I will add more photos over the near future. Thank you for tuning in to the action from the 2008 North American Open and we hope to see you in 2009.
Great coverage, Chris!! Thanks for all the hard work. For those of us who couldn’t be there, your postings are a close second.
John.