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.

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Recap

It was an intense two weeks at PCC. The club broke out the notation sheets and set the tables for some long games of chess for the first time since fall 2024. We’ve been spoiled here playing blitz and rapid events but the players didn’t disappoint.

We had 18 registered players which allowed 4 prizes: 1st place, Best U1200, 1st U900, and best U600. Congrats to Josh, Elijah (tie), Andrew, Joe (tie), Kareem, and Nick!

The battle for first place was quite dramatic. Josh won his game with an upset against Artem in the 3rd round catapulting him to the top. The other top 2, Elijah and Allan drew their game. Josh was now half a point ahead, giving him very good chances to win outright or tie for first.

He had his work cut out for him as he was paired with Allan, the highest rated player. Despite the mismatch, he did in fact manage a draw. Elijah won his respective game, and so they tied for 1st place with 3.5 pts each!

For the U1200 class prize, Andrew and Joe tied with 2pts each.

In the U900 section, Kareem edged out Anna in round 3 to secure first place, and Nick took home the U600 with a solid 2.5 pts.

Honorable Mentions: Anna had a great tournament with an outstanding performance coming in second with 3 pts in the U900 section.

Thanks to everyone for coming out!

Standings

Here are the finals standings for the OPEN section:

Here are the final standings for the U900 section:

Select Games

Here are some games transcribed from the score sheets that were complete and legible!

Margaux vs Billy

Nick vs Tom F.

Billy vs Andrew

Anna vs Kareem

Joe vs Elijah

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We held our first of many USCF rated blitz tournaments this past week.

Congrats to Danilo who came in first place, Billy who won best U1200, and Markus who won best U800! (Ratings are provisional for many players since many havn’t played rated blitz before so we went with that USCF gave us)

Here are the final standings and pics from the event. Thanks Anna for the pics!

Thanks to everyone who came out! See you next time!

Recap

The 1st annual Piermont Chess Blitz Championship was, by all accounts, a massive success! This was the first big event of the year on the very first Saturday of 2025, and it was unprecedented!

31 registered players, ages 7-73, including FIDE and National Masters. It smashed the previous record of 21 set in November. We needed more tables!

This was our first elimination tournament ever. And it was a big hit. We gave out the very first Piermont Cup trophy, and the biggest cash prizes to date!

We’re ecstatic that the club is growing so quickly. Our goal has always been to be one of the best clubs in the area for casual and tournament chess. We love chess and the joy it brings to the community and you can only expect more to come!

Congratulations to the Winners!

First place, Piermont Cup and $200: Ian Dudley!

Second place, $150: Sunil Weeramantry!

Third place, $100: Ari Drucker!

Special Thanks

Stephane Derveaux for all his help at the club from setting everything up for the event & bringing extra tables, to loaning us and operating his DGT board so we could capture games digitally, & assisting with tournament director duties among so many other things. He’s one of the original PCC members/founders and we couldn’t do it without him!

Seth Courtwright for recently donating a laptop to be our designated club computer. This has allowed us to use the television in the room to great effect. It’s a game changer in the organization and presentation of the tournaments, and helps immensely with advertising and announcements.

FM Sunil Weeramantry for gracing us with his presence and offering his advice in some interesting administrative moments.

NM Ian Dudley for also contributing to the prestige of the event. We don’t often host players of the master level and hope this is the start of a growing trend!

Stage 1: Qualifier

The day started a little late, as we soon became overwhelmed by the crowd in our little blue classroom at Piermont Community Center. We had to make quick adjustments for the pleasant surprise, but everyone was excited and very cooperative. Things kicked off at 10:30am after some parking lot, and misplaced prize fund debacles….

The first stage was a 5 round G/5+3 Swiss qualifier. Things moved smoothly from round to round with only a few incidents of faulty clocks, and illegal positions requiring TD intervention.

It was a fun 2 hours of chess with a sold out room. In the end, the top 16 would move on to the double elimination tournament bracket.

Alex Freuman in 7th place had to withdraw at this point, allowing Jacob Kim to qualify for the championship bracket.

Here were the final standings:

Stage 2: Double Elimination

With almost half the competition eliminated after the qualifier event, we took a short break to set up the brackets for the championship and promptly began the first round. Little did we know this event would go an hour over time due to draws!

In this stage players had to lose twice to be eliminated.

The top players after the quarterfinals were Ian Dudley, Sunil Weeramantry, Danilo Cuellar, & Takki Tanaka, with no losses yet, & Josh Pinchuk, Bobby Burstein, Garry Mardahayev, & Ari Drucker each with one L but managing just fine.

Going into the Quarter-Finals, Bobby Burstein, Danilo Cuellar and Garry Mardahayev were all on fire. But Garry pulled ahead, eliminating Seth Courtwright, his brother Izgil, and Bobby all in a row to make it to the semi-finals.

We also saw the rise of Ari Drucker and Takki Tanaka. Two of the youngest players gave a very strong showing. Ari alone eliminated Artem Aleksenko, Josh Pinchuk, and Danilo Cuellar. And Takki put an end to Garry’s brilliant run.

Ari and Takki first met in the quarter-finals where Takki sent Ari to the losers bracket, but was then stymied by Sunil and sent down himself. Ari and Takki met once again for the semi-finals in the losers bracket. They drew in the first game, and the second! Ultimately it was Ari who came out on top in the third. He would face Sunil in the Losers Finals, and get a chance at the Grand Finals.

Ian Dudley was going strong off the qualifier with a perfect score, and maintained his dominance throughout the winners bracket until the grand finals where Sunil gave him his first loss. But it wasn’t over yet.

The finale couldn’t have been better. After 12-15+ rounds of chess, there were two players left and both had 1 loss. This was it. With the main board moved to a new table out of the afternoon sun, everyone gathered to watch.

Ten minutes later Ian Dudley was the first ever Piermont Chess Blitz Champion!

Thank you to everyone who made this possible. We hope everyone had as much fun as we did and we can’t wait to bring more chess events to Piermont!

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Games from Board #1

The following are 10 of the 15 games that were played on Board #1. Some games could not be included because of illegal moves that weren’t claimed and the computer couldn’t analyze them! You can cycle through the moves and click any images to enlarge them. We didn’t have time to provide any analysis this time but the report cards speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Omar vs Sunil

Qualifier Round 1

Ian vs Garry

Qualifier Round 5

Ian vs Jacob

Winners Bracket Round 1

Izgil vs Ian

Winners Bracket Quarter-Finals

Ian vs Danilo

Winners Bracket Semi-Finals

Ari vs Takki

Losers Bracket Semi-Finals Game 2

Takki vs Ari

Losers Bracket Semi-Finals Game 3

Ari vs Sunil

Losers Bracket Finals

Ian vs Sunil

Grand Finals Game 1

Sunil vs Ian

Grand Finals Game 2

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Gallery

We had a fantastic tournament last Saturday!  The place was packed! We had 21 registered players! A new PCC record! And casual players took up the remaining seats throughout the day! We’re going to need a bigger room!

We had players from all over New York and New Jersey, including Westchester and Brooklyn, a diverse range of ratings from U-1800, and a few first timers taking the plunge into the world of USCF!

We’d really like to thank everyone for coming out and sharing in the fun. The atmosphere was light and energetic. And the chess was really entertaining.  It means so much that our community is growing and enthusiasm for chess is spreading. 

Speaking of which, special thanks to Alan Kuras and the Westchester Chess Club for sharing our tournament with their members and sending some players our way! 

They are a well established club and host USCF tournaments on Thursdays from 7:30pm -10:30pm. Click the link if you’re interested in playing chess with them too!

Now,

Without further ado,

Here are the Final Results:

1st place GARRY MARDAHAYEV with a perfect score of 4 pts, and toll money to get back to Brooklyn! 

Best Under 1200 PETER GRAHAM matching the powerhouses of Artem and Gennaro with 3pts!

Best Under 800 MARGAUX MALEKIAN winning her class prize in her first tournament!

Thanks again everybody! It was a great time as usual!

See you next Saturday for casual chess from 10-2.

Here are some more pictures from the event.

Margaux and Anna looking for the U800 win in round 4.

The main event: Garry vs Gennaro both undefeated going into round 4. 

Major drama in round 1 between Josh and Seth.

Peter and Ben, (with Jacob and Anna in back) Round 3.

Day two saw an increase in drama going into round 4. There were multiple possible outcomes. Melchol S., Mike D., and Julian W had 2 pts each. Damian B. Mike D., and Artem A. had 2.5 each!

Mike withdrew from round 4 leaving Damian, and Artem at the top with 2.5 pts. If either drew their round 4 match they would tie for first place. If either won, they would win the tournament outright edging out the others with that extra half point.

Melchol, Julian and Joe all need wins for a chance to win or tie for first.

As fate would have it Melchol defeated Artem, and Damian and Julian drew, and Joe won his match. And so there was a 3 way tie!

Here are the final standings:

And Anna and Tom split the Best under 800. Tom played very well, lasting into end games with Billy Z. and Alex L. and drawing with Anna K.! And Anna and Billy also played a very impressive closed Sicilian that neither were very familiar with.

Congrats to all the players and thanks for coming out! It was a blast! Many players reported how much fun they had.

Select Games from The Piermont October Classic 2024

Anna K vs. Billy Z

A complete draw until a critical miscalculation on move 21. where White played 21. c5?? losing a rook and ultimately the game. Despite the out come for White, very high marks for both players.

Joseph B vs. Ben W

This was a wild back and forth while maintaining mostly drawish positions. Both players struggled to find their footings with the Caro-Kann Defense. Black was first to break through and gain some tactical advantages, but a subtle blunder at 31…Qxf3?? almost cost the game. However, White didn’t find a way to capitalize. Even after getting both rooks on the 7th rank the attack wasn’t panning out even after a clever queen sac for a mating position really only led to another even position. Black had one way to save the draw with 39…Qg4+, but neither the rook mate or repeating queen checks seemed to be on the radar.

Day 1 of the two day October Classic USCF tournament is complete!

Here are the standings after round 2!

Melchol and Gennaro had a marathon session last week at Piermont Chess. They stayed way past closing and must have played at least 15 blitz games!