It had been one year. The date was set. The registrations began trickling in. Would this be as good as last year? Only time would tell if the most successful event in Piermont Chess history could be repeated.
The new black metal trophy arrived. The entry list kept growing steadily. 8. 10. 16. 18. 20 were signed up! Not near the 31 of the previous year, but that would be acceptable. What!? 22! 25! 28! Uh oh. We were going to need more tables. … 29… 31… Yep, need 1 more. Wait…were there enough chairs?!
When registration closed at midnight on January 17th, we had surpassed the 1st annual championship by 1 player! In fact, next morning players were sill trying to squeeze in. If we had the space we may have crushed the record with 40 or more. Keep that in mind for next year!
Though still small by chess tournament standards, it was another milestone for Piermont. 32 players from all over the tri-state area signed up. Many new faces, and many familiar, including the 2025 Blitz Champ NM Ian Dudley, and 3rd place winner Ari Drucker. A fantastic and diverse range of players gathered to play chess on a quiet, snowy day.
More milestones included our largest prize fund of $1600 in cash and gift certificates thanks to our three sponsors: Coffee Ride Cafe, Chess Place, and Kupchik Dental.
The morning started quietly. Just before 11, the snow was starting to stick and travel was getting dicey. The late comers were calling in. The banners were up, the tables were set, and the refreshments and spectator seats were waiting patiently. Just after 11am, roll was called. There was full attendance, and the first pairings were announced.
The Qualifier stage began around 11:30am. 5 rounds of G/3+2 blitz chess, (instead of 5+3) which made for a more predictable run time of ~4 hrs.
The top 16 would go on to compete in a double elimination Championship bracket, and the bottom 16 would compete in a Challengers bracket. This way everyone had a chance at a prize and everyone would get at least two hours and 7 games of chess. A nice change from the previous year.
The third change this year was that all the games would be USCF rated!
The 5 rounds went quickly and around 1pm we had the final standings for the bracket seeding.
The players took a break while the director prepared the brackets. At 1:30pm the second stage of the tournament began.
In double elimination a player must lose two games to be eliminated. After the first round 8 players in each bracket were at risk. 4 would survive, and make it to round 3. As time went by the players slowly dropped off.
The final four in the Challengers bracket were: Oliver Blatt (1156), Michael Maratea (1200 P), Linus Chang (1536), and Severin Demonterey (1222).
In the Championship bracket there was: Ari Drucker (1823), FM Ron Young (2260), Danilo Cuellar (2100), and Ali Alizada (1888).
But before we start the grand finals, let’s see how we got there and mention some other significant players!
The Challengers Bracket was dominated by Linus Chang, who swept the event undefeated until the grand finals, where Michael Maratea stunned with a dramatic sacrifice to win the first game.
Oliver Blatt was also on a roll and made it all the way to the finals before suffering his first lost to Linus after beating Max Freuman, Austin Wong, and Severin Demonterey.
Linus would get to wait 3 rounds while the other 5, Austin Wong, Peter Graham, Michael, Severin, and Oliver had to fight it out. Whoever came out on top would need to beat Linus twice.
Severin beat Peter, and Michael beat Austin. Michael then eliminated Severin, and faced Oliver. Oliver fell to Michael but not without a fight and raising Michael’s heart rate to 167bmp according to his watch!
Linus was the final boss. Michael won the first game. In the second both players struggled with blunders, and the exhaustion from over 10 rounds of chess was clearly having an effect. Linus lost a rook to a fork, but he got it back when Michael hung his own rook in the endgame. Linus had a better position in the end where Michael’s other rook was trapped by its own pawns and so Michael resigned, settling for second place…in his first tournament ever!
The Championship Bracket:
FM Ayotomiwa Osunfuyi (2131), Ayo, finished the qualifier with a perfect 5/5 starting the Championship bracket with the top seed. He only suffered his first loss in the quarter finals to Ari Drucker (1823). With one loss and no more to spare, he wreaked havoc knocking out Josh Pinchuk and Ian Dudley, the reigning champ who was put at risk by Rockland County Chess Club founder Alex Freuman (1752). Ayo pressed on to the semi-finals where he met yet another powerhouse with one unexpected loss, Danilo Cuellar (2100), but this was as far as he would go. Same for Alex Freuman who failed to beat Ali Alizada.
In the elimination stage FM Ron Young, like Linus, was the player to beat, responsible for sending Ari, and Danilo to the realm of “Must Win.”
Ari was the last player sent to the losers brackets by Ron, but he would have a chance to get back up. But it would not be easy. He would have to play Danilo or Ali, both great blitz players, and who ever won that game would then have to beat Ron, a FIDE master, twice.
Danilo was able to triumph over Ali, but Ari was determined. He beat Danilo and made his way back into the Grand Finals.
Ron and Ari had met twice at this event already. Both times favored Ron. Ultimately they would face each other 3 more for a total of 5 games in this tournament.
The first game of the grand finals ended in a draw! Ari was still alive, but still needed 2 games. They switches colors and played again but this time Ari won! The winner of the next game would be the 2nd Piermont Blitz Champion.
With the remaining players crowding around, Ron and Ari calmly played their 12th and 13th games of the day, respectively. In the end it was Ron who offered his hand in resignation and Ari Drucker was the 2nd undisputed Piermont Chess Blitz Champion!
Here are the Final Results & Prize Winners
Challengers Bracket:
1st place: Linus Chang
2nd place: Michael Maratea
3rd place: Oliver Blatt
4th place: Severin Demonterey
Championship Bracket:
1st place: Ari Drucker
2nd place: Ron Young
3rd place: Danilo Cuellar
4th place: Ali Alizada
Here are the Final Brackets
Thank you to our sponsors, Kupchik Dental, Chess Place, and Coffee Ride Cafe.
Thank you to all the players, parents, volunteers, helpers, and spectators.
And thank you to the Piermont Community Center and the village of Piermont, NY.
We’ll see you next year!
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