2016 Chicago Open (Wheeling, IL)
Chicago Open officially starts the summer circuit of tournaments on the American chess landscape. Wheeling will host the 25th edition of the tournament and it expects top players to vie for the $100,000 guaranteed prize fund. The field will feature a strong Chinese contingent including Yu Yangyi, Jianchao Zhou and Ju Wenjun.
Last year Jeffery Xiong scored a historic victory and earned his final GM norm in the process. He had a memorable 2015 and started this year with a creditable performance in the U.S. Championship. What will be the story this year? What new star will emerge? There will be a number of young upstarts as well as a number of veterans in the field.
FM Kevin Wang – GM Yu Yangyi
GM Ju Wenjun (China)
Photos by Daaim Shabazz.
Official Site: https://chicagoopen.net/
Tournament Details: https://www.chesstour.com/chio16.htm
Pairings are up, but…
… they had to be redone.
The action begins! Some unlikely results in Round 1 …
GM Illia Nyzhnyk (near left) went down against FM Matthew Larson!
FM Kevin Wang (2322) – GM Yu Yangyi (2737), 0-1
FM Albert Chow
IM Luke Harmon-Vellotti
Joseph Cheung-Yue Wan (2183) vs. IM Justin Sarkar (2430), 1/2
GM Dmitry Gurevich (2469) and NM Jacob Furfine (2208)
FM Josh Colas (2387)
NM Ethan Li (2255)
WIM Iryna Andrenko (2214) vs. IM Justin Tan (2469), 0-1
IM Guillermo Vazquez (2401) vs. NM Okechukwu Iwu (2132), 1/2
ooooh Nice, Daaim Chi-town! yall even got Ron Burnett practicin! LMBAO, its funny cuz for the last couple of months on chess.com as the ULTRAMODERNIST ive been practicin hes 1d6 2 Bg4 trick!!! and been gettin some fine results with his old trick ! UM wonderin if hes tryna learn my FUNNY KNIGHT TRICK at the CHi-OPEN ? hahaaha. UM hearin in Buffalo, N.Y. chess circles that the Gms get stronger with my trick when u give them 8hrs, is that true? CHESS.
(Rounds 2-3 Open Section, Round 1 other sections)
GM Yu Yangyi (2737) vs. FM Michael Brown (2418), 0-1!
IM Keaton Kiewra (2425) vs. GM Jianchao Zhou (2617), 1/2
IM Atulya Shetty (2366)
IM Joshua Ruiz (2399)
Steve Emmitt makes announcements as Bill Goichberg looks on.
IM Farai Mandizha (2368)
NM Marvin Dandridge (2235)
under-1500
Joshua Alexander (2136)
NM Steven Szpisjak (2206)
FM Akshita Gorti (2184)
FM Gauri Shankar (2332)
Fun shirt!
Attack!
Action on top boards…
…and tension on others.
Arthur Guo (2053)
Gene Scott (2010)
WFM Jennifer Yu (2187)
WIM Megan Lee (2202)
James Jeffrey and Ernest Colding blitzing!
GM John Fedorowicz conducts analysis of games.
His sessions have been well-attended and received many plaudits.
chessclub academy we are very pleased to affiliate with chessdrum.
lookin good Chitown!!! lol Ya Know in Buffalo chess circles the brothas askin me now why are the chinese beatin errbodie, and ya know what i tell them? They doin the work and u not so DO SOME DAMN WORK!!! THE ULTRAMODERNIST – oh Frank Johnson of the ATL if u think some buy in russia is Ultramodern instead of me plaz send them to chess.com their traditional gms Know um there, they felt the wrath , they know UM extremely COMPETITVE. IN REAL LIFE.
Hits the nail on the head… work .. applies to all who look up the tournament hall and see who is sitting on the top boards..!!
LOl Yeah Beardown Um not at the top of ur traditional Crosstables Um actually at the Buffalo Public Library rightbut Um till Chitown! haha, Um LEARNIN CHESS ya know? Adia its quiet in Buffalo Chess Circles by the way! I just saw something Ultrafunny on chess.com , this guy from Ukraine made a blog called Ultra M beat me – Chess.com! haha Check it out its funny! Adia Um sittin here wonderin if the gms need 8hrs to play chess what u think? CHESS.
Great picture of Master Dr Oke Iwu and long time training partner ,Master Dane Mattson looking over pairings for round 1. Captures the hopes of participants as a new chess adventure begins.
Overall very fine pics
More coming!
I’ll do a report as well.
(Round 7 – Open Section, Round 5 – other sections)
FM Albert Chow (2142) vs. FM Josh Colas (2387), 1/2
GM Andrey Stukopin (2595) vs. Yu Yangyi (2737), 1/2;
GM Vasif Durarbayli (2596) vs. GM Vladimir Belous (2557), 1/2
Kirk Anderson (right)
Aderemi Adekola watching Stephen Jennings in 7th round action against Divya Pandey.
Sheena Zeng eked out a win over George David on the next board.
NM Dominique Myers
Bughouse Battle!
Catherine Sivo, William Aramil and Sedrick Prude
Catherine & William
NM Marvin Dandridge (2235) faces Galina Novikova’s Najdorf while Vlad Yanovsky and Josh Alexander (2136) face off on the next board.
James Jeffrey
Sedrick Prude
Respectable showing by IM Farai Mandizha, but he won’t be getting GM norms by losing to every GM and beating everybody else. At Millionaire Chess he faced 6 GMs and beat 3 of them (Kayden Troff, Alexander Ivanov and Artur Jakubiek) drew 2 of them and only lost to Evgeny Bereev who is near 2700. Unfortunately he only played 7 of 9 rounds. I’ve been looking forward to his results since then.
Hmmm. We are in need of some closed tournaments.
oh Interesting Patzer, didnt know! i got an Ultramodern question fo ya then, why is he beatin errbodie else and losin to the gms? UM JUST CURIOUS.
(Round 8 – Open Section, Round 6 – other sections)
Orange Long
Harshita Guddanti vs. WFM Jennifer Yu, 0-1
GM Ilia Nyzhnyk vs. Li Ruifeng, 1-0
This is 100% true!
Nice chess set!
Nikolas Theiss vs. Amarjargal Ganbaatar, 1/2;
Sam Ford vs. Jack Hanson, 0-1
Rochelle Ballantyne (2041) on the attack
against Rafael Alberto Lemus (1363)
Bo Githoro
Interesting perspective of the position.
NM Ernest Colding (2209) got 5.5/7 for joint 3rd.
Photos by Daaim Shabazz.
(Round 9 – Open Section, Round 7 – other sections)
Pairings
Tom Murphy chatting with Roger Hickman
George David, Roger Hickman and Daaim Shabazz
China’s Ju Wenjun
GM Alexander Shabalov vs. IM Luke Harmon-Vellotti, 1/2
Last round tension!
Let’s get it on!
Saithanusri Avirneni (1931) waits on her opponent. They never showed up.
Faisal Kaleem (1843)
GM Ashwin Jayaram (2460)
Billy Turner (2088)
Thalia Cervantes (2051) scored a magnificent 7/7!
under-2300 players battling
Galina Novikova (2100)
Touch move controversy
Marvin Dandridge analyzing game against Galina Novikova.
Photos by Daaim Shabazz.
Russia’s Vladimir Belous won the Chicago Open over the Memorial Day weekend posting 7.5/9 ahead of GMs Varuzhan Akobian, Vasif Durarbayli and Ju Wenjun, all ending on 7/9. This was Ju’s debut appearance in the U.S. and she posted an auspicious performance beating GM Yaroslav Zherebukh in the final round. Yu Yangyi came in 5th on 6.5/9 with an unexpected loss to FM Michael Brown.
Chao Zheng scored a winning 6.5/9 in the under-2300 section while Thalia Cervantes waltzed through the under-2100 with a perfect 7/7. Having arrived from Cuba two years ago, she has made quite an impression and seems to be benefiting from her location in St. Louis.
Standings: https://chicagoopen.net/