CHESS
HORIZONS
19th Eastern Class Championship
by Bob Messenger
The largest multi-day tournament
in Massachusetts, the Eastern Class
Championship, was held in Sturbridge
March 5th-7th. 198 players competed in eight sections. Because this
was a class championship players
were only allowed to play up one
section, ensuring stiff competition.
The 30-player Master section
ended in a three-way tie between
grandmasters Joel Benjamin of New
York and Alexander Ivanov of
Newton, Massachusetts and international master Robert Hungaski of
Connecticut with 4-1 scores. Benjamin
was awarded an additional prize for
finishing first on tiebreak. In the last
round he beat California grandmaster Josh Friedel, formerly of New
Hampshire, to catch up with Ivanov
and Hungaski, who drew their game.
Alex Fikiet, a promising young
player from Connecticut, won the
27-player Expert section with a score
of 4 1/2-1/2, giving him a post-t o u rnament rating of just under 2200.
He drew in the last round with Ian
Harris, who tied for second with
James Nitz and Mikhail Sher.
Yuval Shemesh of North Carolina
won his first four games and then
drew in the last round against Victor
Archavski to win the 49-player
Class A section.
Augusto Gutierrez of New Jersey
won the 32-player Class B section
with a last round win against James
Asaro of Vermont. Asaro had won
his first four games while Gutierrez
had been held to draw against
Robert Kwong of New York.
Max Krall of Connecticut, winner
of the 28-player Class C section,
was the only player in the tournament
GM Joel Benjamin, winner on tiebreak in the Master section, is facing the camera, playing
against Massachusetts master Avraam Pismennyy. Photo by Aime LaBonte.
with a perfect score, but he o n l y
won four games over the board, getting a full point bye in the first
round. As a result of this tournament his rating jumped 180 points,
from 1406 to 1586.
Timothy Lavoie of Natick, MA
and Ian Lomeli of Connecticut tied
for first in the 25-player Class D
section. They were paired in the
last round, each having won his
first four games, and they drew.
Brian Eibert of New Hampshire
had a slow start in the 11-player
Class E section, drawing his first
two games, but won the last three to
finish first.
First-time player Seetharam
Ganesan lost in the first round to
Haocheng Huang, but he came back
and won the remaining five games
in the six-player Under 900 section,
including a last round win against
Huang. (With six players and six
rounds, each player had to play one
opponent twice.) Since Ganesan
was unrated, Huang was awarded
the first place prize money.
Bill Goichberg directed this
Continental Chess event, assisted
by his wife Brenda and by Bob
Messenger.
White: Joshua Friedel
Black: Joel Benjamin
19th Eastern Class Championships,
Round 5, March 19, 2009
[B04] Alekhine's Defense
1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. Nf3
dxe5 5. Nxe5 c6 6. Be2 Nd7 7. Nf3
g6 8. c4 Nc7 9. Nc3 Bg7 10. O-O
O-O 11. Re1 b6 12. Bf4 Ne6 13.
Bg3 Bb7 14. d5 Nc7 15.dxc6 Bxc6
16. Nd4 Bb7 17. Bf3 Bxf3 18.
Nxf3 Ne6 19. Qe2 Bxc3 20. bxc3
Ndc5 21. Rad1 Qe8 22. Qe3 Qa4
23. Qh6 Rae8 24. Rd4 f6 25. Rg4
Rf7 26. h4 Rd8 27. Nd4 Ng7 28.
h5 g5 29. f4 Qd7 30. fxg5 Qxg4
31. g6 Qxh5 32. gxf7+ Qxf7 and
Black won. 0-1
APRIL-JUNE 2010
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