Boylston Chess Club Weblog: BU Open 2010

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

BU Open 2010

The 16^th annual BU Open 2010 was held on Saturday, Nov 6. It was an overcast New England autumn day, but the glass windows of the BU student union backcourt venue allowed allow some natural light through. The playing area had just been renovated this past summer - along with the food court, and so provided a pleasant environment for the tournament.

107 players participated –a record turnout for a BU Open (Open = 36, U1900 =35, and U1600 =36.) The Open section was strong with 9 masters, 5 FMs, an IM (Hungaski) and a GM (Christiansen).
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One of the most enjoyable features of the tournament is the number of chess friends who return year after year. Alex Kurjatko (a former BUCC president) took a break from his 4^th year medical school internship in NJ to come up and play. And Barry Lai (a former BUCC president) emailed me at 3:40 in the morning saying he needed a 1st round bye to get some sleep, but still made it.

Frank Frazier broke with his Monday Night BCC mostly tradition to play. Tony Cortizas put down his camera and picked up the pieces in his first time playing in the BU Open. Mike Griffin continues to come to our event after he broke a 19 hiatus from playing chess (while raising his family) to resume playing chess at the BU Open years ago. Harold Dondis supports us year after year - his step is lighter, his hearing softer, but his game is sharp sharp sharp.

Tony DiNosse took a break from caring for his hospitalized father to play.

Prof Timothy Sage from Northeastern (the champion of the 1^st BU Open in 1995) was persuaded to play again by the 8 man group from the NE chess club.

Bill Kelleher returned again this year and won his fifth title.

I could go on, but you get the idea. … And of course, there were new faces – ten people played in their first rated tournament. Contingents came up from Connecticut and down from Maine (or is it up from down Maine). This is one of those gatherings of the chess community that many of us look forward to and enjoy.

Bernardo Iglesias, one of the premier TDs in New England, did an admirable job again this year and continues to be a major reason for the smooth flow of the event.

The executive board of the BU Chess club, led by President Austin Collins, Edwin Jung, Matt Messer, and Ben Burkholder spent hours before and after the games setting up the room and then cleaning up and restoring it to its pristine condition (following a schematic Austin – an engineering student – had drawn.)

We paid out over a thousand dollars in prizes and still raised some money for entry fees for BU teams in the Amateur Team East – thank you all for that support. Note Bene: The BCF helped make the event possible by sponsoring it under its affiliation with the USCF. The BU chess club is grateful to the BCC for all its support to BU and to the greater Boston Chess community.

For 2010, there were four winners;

IM Robert Hungaski (a star on the USCL Noreasters)

FM William Kelleher (a BU alum and now 5 time winner)

NM Alex Fikiet (who the previous week won the Greater Boston Open)

NM Andrew Wang (a BU student – at the BU Academy)

Congratulations to all!

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Results are summarized below, and you can visit USCF for the complete crosstable.

Open

1st/2nd $525/3 IM Robert Hungaski (3.5), FM William Kelleher (3.5), NM Alex Fikiet (3.5)

Top U2200 $135 Andrew Wang (3.5) *

U1900

1st $100 Thomas Hartmayer (4)

2nd $50/7 Michael Raphael (3), Matthew Morra (3), Wesley Parker (3), Seth Lieberman (3), Mark Kaprielian (3), Charlie Fauman (3) , Nicholas Plotkin (3)

U1600

1st $100 Eduardo Valadares (4)