By Jonathan Schrantz
On Thanksgiving weekend, a total 114 players (including seven Grandmasters) came to the Saint Louis Chess Club to compete for their share of $10,000. There were a lot of new faces in the Chess Club and lot of excitement in both sections (Open and U2000).
There was a tie for first in the Open Section between GM Alex Shimanov and FM Zhaozhi Li who each finished with 5 points after 6 rounds. The biggest surprise of the tournament was FM Zhaozhi Li’s (2471) fourth round upset against the highest rated player in the field, Vasif Durarbayli (2711). It was a beautiful game in which White sacrificed an exchange in the opening to obtain a very pleasant position.
The winner of the U2000 Section was Merrick Zheng (1718), who picked up nearly 100 rating points after finishing with 5.5 out of 6 points. Michael Takahashi (1943) and Eddison Chen (1842) tied for second place with 5 out of 6 points.
The biggest upset of the tournament came in round one when Nicholas Risko (568) defeated CJ Armenta (1518) in a 21 move miniature. Nicholas found a nice combination after Black blundered with 18. … d5?
When asked about his performance against a much higher-rated opponent Nicholas replied, “I always say ‘Rating is just a number’. It feels good to show you’re better than the number.”
