CCA Chess Tournaments

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

r1bq1rk1/2ppbppp/p1n2n2/1p2p3/4P3/1BP2N2/PP1PQPPP/RNB2RK1 b – – 0 8
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

r2qr1k1/1b2bppp/8/pppnQ3/3P4/N1P5/PPB2PPP/R1B2RK1 b – – 0 15
Position after 15.Na3

15…Bf6 Black’s position is already advantageous 16.Qg3 cxd4 17.Nxb5 dxc3 18.Nxc3 Nxc3 19.bxc3

r2qr1k1/1b3ppp/5b2/p7/8/2P3Q1/P1B2PPP/R1B2RK1 b – – 0 19
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.

r3k2r/p1q2ppp/1pn1bn2/2P1p3/4P3/1NP1B1P1/P3Q1BP/R4RK1 w kq – 0 17
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.

2kr4/pq3p2/1p2b1r1/2P1N1P1/4P3/2P1Q2p/P4R1P/5B1K b – – 0 29
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.

With five rounds gone at the 2008 North American Open, GM Georgi Kacheishvili still leads the way by himself with 4½/5.  A very quick 16 move, 5th round draw with his fellow countryman, GM Zviad Izoria, ensured that they both had an early night while the rest of the field battled it out to put themselves into a position to fight for the top spot on the final day.

Just a half-point behind Kacheishvili is a group of 10 players ranging from GM Yury Shulman down to Dominican Luis Belliard.  Belliard upset the odds in the last round beating out IM Robert Hess who had a miserable Sunday after losing to IM Sam Shankland earlier in the day.  As for Shankland, he wrapped up a draw against GM Jaan Ehlvest to ensure they both remain in the group of ten.

Out of the ten players on 4/5 are seven GMs and also young Michael Lee.  Lee notched his first ever win against a GM earlier in the day when he beat GM Julio Becerra and in round 5 he scored himself another half-point, also against GM opposition in GM Melikset Khachiyan.  One hopes the young Seattle Slugger will be able to keep up the great work although my guess is that he is in for another tough days work!

GM Varuzhan Akobian has managed to fight his way from his two draw start as he has won his last three games in a row and GM Slavko Cicak is also back in the hunt after beating FM Eric Hansen.  Rounding out the list is GMs Rogelio Antonio Jr and Zviad Izoria.

Shulman’s win over strong IM Enrico Sevillano was exciting.  In the following position Shulman finds the only saving grace.

r1bqk2r/p3b1pp/5n2/1pP1p3/5B2/1BP1P2R/P1QN1P2/R3K3 w Qkq – 0 17
Position after 16…e5

17.Rxh7!! (17…Nxh7? 18.Qg6+ Kd7 19.Be6+ Kc6 20.Qe4+ Kxc5 21.Qxe5+) Rxh7 18.Qg6+ Kd7 19.0-0-0 exf4 20.Ne4+ Kc7 21.Rxd8 Bxd8

r1bb4/p1k3pr/5nQ1/1pP5/4Np2/1BP1P3/P4P2/2K5 w – – 0 22
Position after 21…Bxd8

22.Nxf6 (22.Bd5! Rb8 ( 22…Nxd5? 23.Qd6+ Kb7 24.c6+) 23.Nxf6 Bxf6 24.Qxh7) Rh1+ 23.Kb2 Bxf6 24.Qe4 Rh5 25.Qxa8 Rxc5 26.Qxa7+ Kc6 27.e4 Bxc3+ 28.Kb1 Bd4 29.Bd5+ Kd6 30.Qf7 b4 31.Qxf4+ Ke7 32.Qf7+ Kd8

2bk4/5Qp1/8/2rB4/1p1bP3/8/P4P2/1K6 w – – 0 33
Positon after 32…Kd8

33.e5! 1-0

One entertaining game I forgot to mention in my round 4 report was the entertaining battle between FM Eugene Yanayt and Christopher Heung.  In the following position it is black to move.  White had just got his second queen but black however managed to save the game – how?

1QQ2bk1/8/3pq3/4p2p/4n3/3N1p1P/6r1/2R1B2K b – – 0 38
Position after 38.c8Q

Black played 38…Rg1+! and initially it looked like white cannot capture the rook due to mate although this is an illusion because white can interpose one of his queens, e.g. 39.Kxg1 Qg6+ 40.Qg4 and there are a lot of complications!  White decided to go for 39.Kh2 which just leads to a repetition after 39…Rg2+.

I happened to be walking past at the moment black played his move and caught it on camera for the whole world to see.

After three rounds of the 4-day schedule there are three GMs tied at the top with perfect scores.  Slavko Cicak, Giorgi Kacheishvili and Melikset Khachiyan all won against their lower rated opponents and in quick fashion.

On board 1, Cicak was playing against GM Dashzeveg Sharavdorj.  What started out as a French Defense turned into something unusual after just a few moves, allowing both GMs to play on their own.

On board 2, Kacheishvili worked his way through some complications better than his opponent, IM Michael Mulyar, as the time control approached.

Khachiyan won on board 3 when FM David Lucky threw a pawn at him, probably uneccesarily, and he managed to convert it into a win, something those GMs have a nasty habit of doing!

Here are the games for you to play through.

The leading group are just half-point ahead of 5 players headed by GM Yury Shulman who beat FM Robby Adamson to end his perfect start from the first two rounds.

In the 3-day schedule, GMs Zviad Izoria and Alex Shabalov were the only two players to come through the first two rounds with a perfect score and they will no doubt meet in round 3.  The 3-day schedule is quite top heavy and so those players will be beating each other up in an attempt to reach the round 5 merge with as many points as possible.

After round one of the 2008 North American Open it looks like we’ll have a new winner this year as it appears GM Hikaru Nakamura has decided to skip the event while IM David Pruess lost his first game on a horrendous blunder.

r4rk1/3bb1pp/p3p3/q3PpP1/1p1B3P/1P6/PNP1Q3/R3K2R w KQ – 0 21
Position after 20…fxe6

In the above position against FM Tom Brownscombe, Pruess blundered with 21.Nd3?? which loses at least a piece to 21…Qd5.  Not exactly the best start for the current joint Champion.

There are eight GMs who have decided to play in the 4-day schedule.  GMs Yury Shulman, Varuzhan Akobian, Melikset Khachiyan, Julio Becerra and Anatoly Lein will be the best known players to the majority of American fans although GMs Giorgi Kacheishvili and Dashzeveg Sharavdorj also make several appearances on the US chess scene.  GM Slarko Cicak from Sweden is fairly unknown to most of us here onsite although a couple of the GMs know of him.

A couple of GMs found the going tough against their lower rated opposition as Becerra gave up a half-point to fellow Floridian, Eric Moskow while Akobian was also made to work extremely hard for his half-point against a determined Steven Zierk who kept him here for the majority of the night successfully saving a pawn down position.

Zierk, playing white on board 2 in front of a captive audience, came up with the following combination.

r1bq1rk1/p2n1pb1/2p2npp/1p2p3/5P1B/1NNB4/PPP3PP/R2Q1RK1 w – – 0 13
Position after 12…dxe5

Here Zierk played 13.Bxg6!? and play continued 13…fxg6 14.fxe5 g5 15.exf6 Nxf6 16.Bg3 b4 17.Qxd8 Rxd8 18.Be5 bxc3 19.Bxf6 cxb2 20.Rab1 Ba6 21.Rf2 Bxf6 22.Rxf6

r2r2k1/p7/b1p2R1p/6p1/8/1N6/PpP3PP/1R4K1 b – – 0 22
Position after 22.Rxf6

Here Akobian missed a chance and played 23…Rf8.  However, 23…Be2! leads to a win with the threat of Rd1+, e.g. 24.Rxb2 Rd1+ 25.Kf2 Rf1+ or 24.Rxc6 Rd1+ 25.Rxd1 Bxd1 26.Nd2 Re8 and the rook reaches e2 with devastating effect.

The game continued until the following ending was reached, although Akobian at this stage had about 5 seconds remaining for the rest of the game.

8/8/2b5/2k5/p1p3p1/P3K1P1/4N3/8 b – – 0 62
Position after 62.Ne2

Here Akobian thought he had found the breakthrough by playing 62…c3 which allows the black king access to the white pawn on a3.  However, Zierk found the great plan of getting his king into the a1 corner and then eventually sacrificed his knight for black’s g4 pawn, leaving Akobian with a rook pawn and the wrong bishop needed to promote it.

Tomorrow’s games in the main schedule begin at 10:00 am and 5:00 pm PST, while the 3-day schedule also begins at 5:00 pm.  As a note for those interested in the GM count, I’ve seen GMs Nikola Mitkov, Alex Shabalov and Jaan Ehlvest all walking about the hotel and so hopefully they are here for chess and not the gambling!