Recap
We had a marathon day of Blitz chess today! 9 bonkers rounds of G/5+1, chock full of missed (and found!) tactics, blunders, game ending illegal moves, flagging clocks, tasty triumphs and bitter upsets… oh and 1 draw.
We had 16 players, new and familiar faces, with ELO ratings 500-2200, ages 5 and up, & hailing from New Jersey, Rockland NY, Westchester NY, Brooklyn NY, and special visitors from Colombia!
We started the first round with a lottery for random pairings. This was the first time we tried that and it was much less predictable than the standard Swiss system, and will definitely be common practice in the future.
In the end we awarded three cash prizes totaling $160!
Furqan Tanwir came in first place taking home $60 with a decisive 9 pts and perfect score! He just pulled ahead of the current Piermont Blitz champion Ian Dudley who came in second with 8 pts.
Honorable mentions filling out the top 4 were Ari Drucker in 3rd, and Artem Aleksenko in 4th who played some fantastic chess. See below!
The Best Under 1400 was a 3 way tie between Josh Pinchuk, Billy Zifchak, and Peter Graham, all with 5 pts, who were then forced to fight to the death over their $50 prize.
The Best Under 1000 went to Nick Wassmer with a decisive 5 pts and $50 as well!
Congratulations to all the winners!
Standings
Here are the final standings after 9 rounds:
Select Games
Big thanks to our entry-fee-paying players, and our generous benefactors. Because of you we were able to acquire TWO electronic DGT “Smartboards”! These are the industry standard for recording and broadcasting games digitally and it certainly makes the job of uploading the analyses MUCH easier.
Below are 13 of the 18 games played on Boards 1 and 5 of the tournament. (Due to the nature of Blitz, some games were not recorded because of illegal moves and whatnot that make a PGN game analysis impossible. Also, if anything is incorrect please contact us to correct. Same goes if you would prefer not to have your games published.)
Games from Board 1
Peter vs Furqan
Polish opening. Solid play by the underdog, but an illegal move ended things as the king was in check after 26…Nd2+ (the illegal move was 27. Bxc7). Black adapted well to the off beat opening.
Furqan vs Josh
Kings gambit: Falkbeer, Very impressive play by both sides, including a brilliant move, but ending with a poor endgame position for Black.
Furqan vs Gustavo
King’s gambit domination.
Ari vs Furqan
Incredible levels of play at this speed. An excellent Queen’s gambit declined opening by white, but not enough to take down the leader of the day in the middle game after losing too much material.
Furqan vs Artem
Alekhine’s defense. Time pressure possibly led to Black’s resignation.
Games from Board 5
Billy vs Allan
Pirc defense. A decent showing by the underdog despite a wonky opening losing a pawn, ultimately stymied by time pressure and a major pawn disadvantage.
Oliver vs Artem
White missed a hard to see tactic on move 11 (11.Nxd5) after 10…g6??
Billy vs Oliver
A wild game where black had the advantage after a huge blunder by White. White held on but missed a spectacular tactic that would have ended the game much earlier (20. Qc4+ instead of 20. Nxe4). The game ended with 49…Rh1 which was illegal after 49. Nf1+ & both players had 1 second remaining.
Peter vs Billy
Black was pressing a nice advantage until an unfortunate oversight and couldn’t beat the clock. Even with time, White had too much material for Black to fend off.
Austin vs Oliver
This game ended many moves later with a 0-1 result, but there was an illegal move that wasn’t declared and therefor isn’t shown 45. Kxg5 this puts the king into check. The PGN stops here. Because it was not noticed, blitz rules allow the game to continue and Black pressed an advantage into an inevitable mate.
Billy vs Alina
Coming out of a strong Scotch opening white made a tactical oversight allowing a pin on the Queen giving Black a massive advantage, and with excellent play Black created an interesting mate.
Oliver vs Allan
Excellent performance from the underdog. Even better performance by the master. Great play and accuracy in all phases of the game.
Josh vs Juanita
Game winning tactic by White with 18. Bc4 pinning the Queen.