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!

Check out the first Piermont Chess videos from Saturday July 6th 2024

IT’S OVER! We have the results from the Big Spring Classic event!

First Place U2400 : Danilo Cuellar! 

Congrats to Danilo, a real chess powerhouse!  Finishing with a perfect score and winning the cash prize! His first win at Piermont Chess in a standard format.

First Place U1200 : Stephane Derveaux and Jacob Kim! (tied) 

This section was remarkably evenly matched.  They were in a dead heat with 4 players entering the last game with 2 pts each. It was anyone’s game with multiple possible outcomes. Congrats to Stephane, who is the latest to have crossed the 1000 ELO threshold in regular time control!  He turned his tournament around after an early loss to Joseph and worked carefully to upset Peter, who was on a similar streak and in the lead for most of the tournament.  And congrats to Jacob, who also started with a loss to Damian only to even the score in the last round.  He entered as the youngest and lowest rated player of this section, but is leaving with a significant jump in ELO, and we’re sure to only see this trend continue!

First Place U800 : Serena Cuellar! 

Running away with her first tournament at Piermont Chess, Serena (like her Dad!) achieved a perfect 4 pts!  And we must mention David Ganassi who performed very well, coming in second with 3pts! This section was also quite evenly matched, and we can’t wait to see the results of future events!

Games from Round 4

Peter Graham vs. Stephane Derveaux

One of the title matches for the U1200 section, Black found their chance and turned things around in the endgame. White lost a tempo with 41. Nxb5?? which gave Black time to swing the rook around to h1 to trade rooks, win a knight, while also positioning a passed pawn to promote. All this and white’s king was essentially trapped in the corner. With little counterplay for white, Black swiftly won the game and the tournament with a well earned checkmate.

Seth Courtwright vs. Artem Aleksenko

Easily one of the highest rated performances ever by two of the highest rated players at Piermont Chess club. It was a real treat to see these two go at each other in a serious classical game when they are usually found blitzing casually. See for yourself as you scroll through the game!

Michael Dugan vs. Danilo Cuellar

Fantastic final game for both Danilo and Michael who performed well above rating against the section leader. Very strong play by both until the usually powerful mate threat 14. Bh6?? this time allowed 14…Bxe5! taking a pawn, winning a tempo on the a1 rook, defending the g7 square, taking control of the center and ultimately winning material after pushing the White queen off the g-file and taking the bishop on h6 with 15…f5 16.Qh3 gxh3!

Anna Kupchik vs. Serena Cuellar

A demonstration of the dominating tactical power of the Cuellars! Things were very even until move 14. A common position but Black found a tactic that white failed to equalize on. 14. Bg5? permitted 14…Nxd5!. Here white took back with the e pawn, though the engine preferred the c pawn. But more importantly prioritized the wrong bishop after 15…Nd4. Here white could have kept the trading equal with Bxe7 forcing the queen to take back buying time to defend the f3 bishop. But White chose to protect with the queen and left the g5 bishop hanging. The was enough to bring down the defenses after some sharp knight maneuvers. With that the U800 section had its winner!

Billy Zifchak vs. Joseph Burns

Joe and Billy had a rough run this tournament but neither got shut out in the end. Billy got the white pieces in the final round and used the Scotch to devastating effect to end his slump. The opening was strong for both, but Black pushed the g pawn with 11…g5 to relieve some pressure from the bishop pin, but this weakened the king defenses a bit too much and White capitalized after 15…f6?? which left g6 available for the queen to infiltrate with check. The final tactic that sealed Blacks fate was 19. Be5, a bit of zugzwang for Black, but white actually had a faster way to checkmate with a similar bishop + queen pattern: 19. Rxf8+ Qxf8, THEN 20. Be5+ Qf6 21. Bxf6#

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A small but great selection of games this week! Really strong showings from Jacob Kim, and Serena Cuellar. Both young players are having stellar tournaments. But topping the list this week is Damian with a standout game against Peter. Very high accuracy and performance for both players yet Damian showed mastery of the London system.

Stay tuned for the finale! This Saturday June 15th is round 4, and we’ll finally have our winners!

Games from Round 3

Joseph Burns vs. Jacob Kim

Damian Bias vs. Peter Graham

Serena Cuellar vs. Tom Nassisi