By Jason Woolem, Chess Instructor
The Sunday Spectacular brought out a lot of players, including many younger players in the Saint Louis Chess community. We had 63 players take to the boards and play in this 5 round, dual rated tournament.
First Place in the tournament earned a crisp $100, which went to GM Francesco Rambaldi with a perfect 5.0/5.0 score. Second Place earned $80 and went to Rakshana Sundara with a score of 4.5/5.0. Third Place earned $60 and was split 6 ways between Tianlu Peng, Kaleb Gosdin, Ako Heidari, Isaiah Gadson, NM Julian Proleiko, and Drew Hollinberger, who each earned $10 with a score of 4.0/5.0.
There were also prizes for players that were the top of each particular section. The Top U1800 earned $50 and was split between Aaron Lin and Mustafa Abusharkh, who each had a 4.0/5.0 score. The Top U1600 earned $40 and went to Aahan Sharma with a 4.0/5.0 score. The The Top U1400 and Top U1200 prize was combined because both Nathan Johnson and Suresh Chiluveru had a 3.5/5.0 score, and they each earned $27.50. Finally, the Top U1000 earned $15 and went to Damien Canaday, who had a 3.0/5.0 score.
Lastly, the biggest upset was awarded to Damien Canaday. To earn this special prize, Damien, rated 185, beat Dhanush Kandukuri, rated 1173. Even more, he beat Iovane Sakhelashvili, rated 961, and Sam Anderson, rated 1132. For his effort, Damien was awarded $40.
The summer of chess tournaments now takes over the Saint Louis Chess Club with the United States’s best juniors playing in the U.S. Junior and U.S. Girls’ Junior Championships. Information on that tournament can be found online. The world’s best players then come to the Saint Louis Chess Club for the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz and Sinquefield Cup. More information for those tournaments can be found on Grand Chess Tour. The next open tournament for the Chess Club will be the 2-on-2 Team Championship on September 29.
