Saint Louis District Championship Recap

By on September 10, 2012 in

By Mike Kummer

New faces filled out the 64-player field at the Saint Louis District Championship over a wet Labor Day Weekend. With the addition of two new collegiate chess programs in the Saint Louis area, 12 local college students showed up looking to earn a paycheck. In all, there were 30 players of Class A strength or higher including IMs Priyadharshan Kannappan and Levan Bregadze of Lindenwood, and Cuban GM Fidel Corrales Jimenez of Webster University.

Corrales Jimenez held off the tag team efforts of Lindenwood University's top two boards to claim the district title on tiebreaks. The Cuban grandmaster got the better of Bregadze in the final round. But Bregadze didn't leave without some cash as his four points were good enough for a share of third place. Bregadze's teammate, Kannappan, fared better in his round-four encounter with Corrales Jimenez. Despite being a down a pawn in a knight-and-bishop endgame, Kannappan used good technique to neutralize his material deficit and force a draw. The IM then defeated expert annihilator Al Howlett in the final round. IM Kannappan finished with 4.5/5 to crack in on the grand prize and, along with Corrales Jimenez, received automatic qualification for the 2013 CCSCSL Club Championship. They were followed closely by Bregadze with 4 out of 5, who tied for 3rd place overall with Calvin Parnon and Zach Stuart (both also of Lindenwood) and several others including Saint Louisans FM Doug Eckert and NM Jialin Ding.

Parnon and Stuart were forced to play each other with the Championship on the line, but Parnon clogged the position and a draw was agreed upon. They shared the top U2000 prize. Parnon had a spectacular first three rounds, scoring victories over NM Jialin Ding and NM Spencer Finegold before settling for a draw against NM Bob Holliman in round four. In the end, he gained 70-plus rating points and nearly leapt to expert.

CCSCSL Scholastic coordinator Alex Vergilesov played a wild game against Holliman in round 2.

Matt Larson provided perhaps the most exciting near-upset of the tournament with his strong performance against Corrales Jimenez who finally managed to outmaneouver his underrated opponent and escape with the full point.

The story of the tournament was youngster Amit Kadan, who played in his first-ever tournament. During registration his dad was quite skeptical of Amit entering such a strong field with a long format. But Amit persisted, his dad relented, and finally he got to play. Amit's first-round match didn't last long, and in round two, Amit's game was the first to finish again. This was bad news ... for his opponent! Amit scored a shocking upset victory that quickly sent his opponent not just out of the building, but out of the state. Amit didn't stop there. He proved that Ken West's "Grandmaster" moniker, is just that and nothing more by scoring another upset in round four. Amit's two points earned him some Froyo money and an over-the-top USCF provisional rating. Loren Lenzen (1197) also started out with a bang, scoring the upset of the tournament over 1928-rated Jeffrey Kovalic. He followed up with a win over a 1600 later. Clearly Loren is improving his game. He shared U1200 money with Amit and Robert Lucky.

Alex Stiger's 2.5 points were enough to win the $225 U1600 prize outright. Nathan Phan had a difficult first three rounds, facing three 1900-plus players and failing to score a point. He finished very strong though, winning his final two games, which left him tied with several others for 2nd and 3rd place in the U1600 section including Richard Pointer, Ken West, Christopher Dobbs, Brett Exkert, Owen Bitting and Dan Tuttle

The tournament was one of the bigger and stronger tournaments the club has hosted in quite a while. A total of 29 players had a USCF rating of 1900+. In addition to Lindenwood and Webster being represented, Washington University and Saint Louis University also had students compete. A total of 23 players got a piece of the $2,500 prize fund.

The Saint Louis District Championship served as a very exciting, hard-fought first event of the fall. It looks as though the arrival of so many strong players to the Saint Louis area in recent months will translate to greater competition and entertainment at CCSCSL tournaments this year. We very much look forward to the 2-on-2 Team Championship on Oct. 6, which should once again feature numerous titled players and lots of scintillating chess!

CCSCSL Scholastic Coordinator Matt Barrett contributed to this report.

Saint Louis District Championship: Final Standings

#	Name	Rtng	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Tot	Prize
1	GM Fidel Corrales Jimenez	2612	W13	W15	W7	D2	W3	4.5	500.00
2	IM Priyadharshan Kannappan	2442	W25	W34	W8	D1	W12	4.5	500.00
3	IM Levan Bregadze	2395	W61	W16	W14	W4	L1	4.0	33.33
4	FM Doug D Eckert	2231	W36	W21	W17	L3	W22	4.0	33.33
5	Jialin Ding	2221	W50	L10	W26	W20	W15	4.0	33.33
6	Bob Holliman	2203	W37	D29	W30	D10	W19	4.0	33.33
7	Graham Horobetz	2139	W51	W23	L1	W17	W24	4.0	33.33
8	Iskandar Aripov	2079	W39	W24	L2	W21	W25	4.0	33.33
9	Zach William Stuart	1980	D32	W41	W31	W11	D10	4.0	250.00
10	Calvin Jay Parnon	1902	W55	W5	W33	D6	D9	4.0	250.00
11	James McLaughlin	2131	W63	D22	W29	L9	W30	3.5
12	Albert Damont Howlett	1854	W58	W49	H---	W28	L2	3.5	50.00
13	Tom A Morrell	1763	L1	W44	W48	H---	W28	3.5	50.00
14	Tom Polgar-shutzman	2039	W64	W46	L3	L22	W31	3.0
15	Matthew W Larson	1965	W42	L1	W37	W23	L5	3.0
16	Thomas Gaul	1942	W44	L3	W40	L25	W37	3.0
17	James D Pollitt	1938	W52	W27	L4	L7	W35	3.0
18	Matt Barrett	1930	W45	H---	W39	D27	U---	3.0
19	Jeffrey J Kovalic	1928	L46	W42	W53	X49	L6	3.0
20	Dwight Beasley	1916	W60	L33	W45	L5	W40	3.0
21	Serdar Aykent	1907	W54	L4	W46	L8	W48	3.0
22	Daniel Franklin Aldrich	1900	W56	D11	H---	W14	L4	3.0
23	Ryan Polsky	1876	W57	L7	W55	L15	W42	3.0
24	James Oslica	1780	W48	L8	W57	W34	L7	3.0
25	Joseph F Wojcik	1733	L2	W43	W58	W16	L8	3.0
26	Dennis E Humphries	1708	L27	W52	L5	W44	W46	3.0
27	Nolan R Hendrickson	2245	W26	L17	W36	D18	U---	2.5
28	Selden Trimble	2029	W53	D31	W38	L12	L13	2.5
29	Alexander Vergilesov	1907	W47	D6	L11	H---	H---	2.5
30	Robert Taras	1830	W59	H---	L6	W32	L11	2.5
31	Micah Losee	1781	W62	D28	L9	W38	L14	2.5
32	Alex J Stiger	1480	D9	L38	W59	L30	W52	2.5	225.00
33	Spencer Finegold	2232	W35	W20	L10	U---	U---	2.0
34	William Nesham	1953	W43	L2	W35	L24	U---	2.0
35	Zachary Landon Schuh	1702	L33	W54	L34	W55	L17	2.0
36	Clark Zhang Berry	1645	L4	W47	L27	L46	W57	2.0
37	Tian Lu Peng	1631	L6	W56	L15	W57	L16	2.0
38	Marek W Ziolkowski	1610	H---	W32	L28	L31	D41	2.0
39	Nathan Tu Phan	1561	L8	L59	L18	W56	W55	2.0	28.57
40	Christopher S Dobbs	1550	L49	W60	L16	W58	L20	2.0	28.57
41	Richard Pointer	1453	H---	L9	W50	U---	D38	2.0	28.57
42	Daniel J Tuttle	1436	L15	L19	W54	W59	L23	2.0	28.57
43	Ken West	1327	L34	L25	W56	L48	W59	2.0	28.57
44	Brett Eckert	1250	L16	L13	W60	L26	W58	2.0	28.57
45	Owen O Bitting	1220	L18	W61	L20	H---	H---	2.0	28.57
46	Loren Lenzen	1197	W19	L14	L21	W36	L26	2.0	100.00
47	Robert A Luckey	1125	L29	L36	H---	W51	D50	2.0	100.00
48	Amit Kadan	unr.	L24	W64	L13	W43	L21	2.0	100.00
49	Alex Marler	2060	W40	L12	H---	F19	U---	1.5
50	Justin Hull	1644	L5	L55	L41	W54	D47	1.5
51	Russell B Hamilton III	1628	L7	L57	H---	L47	W60	1.5
52	Gabriel R Sison	1249	L17	L26	H---	W62	L32	1.5
53	Robert M Hibbs	1515	L28	W62	L19	U---	U---	1.0
54	Akshay Srinivasan	1150	L21	L35	L42	L50	W62	1.0
55	Julian Proleiko	1118	L10	W50	L23	L35	L39	1.0
56	Wendell Betton	1111	L22	L37	L43	L39	B---	1.0
57	Collette Wright	1085	L23	W51	L24	L37	L36	1.0
58	Erik Tkachenko	1079	L12	W63	L25	L40	L44	1.0
59	David Braton	1054	L30	W39	L32	L42	L43	1.0
60	Iris Yi-xian Zhou	1044	L20	L40	L44	B---	L51	1.0
61	Craig L Hines	1719	L3	L45	H---	U---	U---	0.5
62	Greg K VanValkenburg	849	L31	L53	H---	L52	L54	0.5
63	Daymion Q Phillips	1609	L11	L58	U---	U---	U---	0.0
64	William Kerns	1542	L14	L48	U---	U---	U---	0.0