The chess stars are here. This photo is priceless.
This is the most well-attended event to date this year.
THE $5 OPEN: IN 3 SECTIONS: OPEN / U1950 / U1650
RESULTS: OPEN SECTION
Tian Rossi, black vs NM Andrew Wang, Round 2.
Wang swept the field with a perfect 4.0. Rossi took clear 2nd with 3 points.
A tough pairing: NM Wang v NM Godin: Round 4.
Godin took clear 3rd with 2.5 points.
IM Marc Esserman vs Scott Didham, Round 2.
Didham shared 4-8th place with 2 points.
(background): Arthur Nugent vs Natasha Christiansen;
Nithin Kavi v Bowen Wang, both with 2 points.
Conway Xu vs Joe Kelly. Xu scored 2 points to share 4-8th place.
Veteran chess player, expert Arthur Nugent plays
Natasha Christiansen in Round 2.
Conway Xu v Joe Kelly in the back.
The Open Section had 14 players.
U1950 SECTION:
Loring Loretti faces off with Alvin Tan and his bag of tricks, Round 1.
Loretti, Tan, David Thomas and Rohan Shankar shared 1-4th, with 3 points each.
David Thomas plays James Zhou in Round 3.
Background: Rohan Shankar v Eric Feng;
Maxwell Zhao, black vs James Hankard;
Sandeep Vadlamudi v Harold Dondis.
Loring Loretti, black vs Harold Dondis, Round 1.
A special shout-out "hello" to Harold, who is
the oldest living active amateur chess player on the planet
at 91. (If anyone can refute this statement, please
provide proof and send in a "comment" to this post.)
There were 14 players in the U1950 Section.
U1650 SECTION:
Stephen Savage won clear 1st with 3.5 points.
Here he is playing black vs Evan Maclure who shared 2-3rd
with Sandeep Shankar, each with 3 points.
Postmortem: Lucy Cai, black vs Jeff Weinstein: draw.
Lucy, Jeff and Steve Stepak shared 4-6th place with 2.5 points.
Also in this photo, Sammi Pan (left) and Stella Pan,
Sammi's 6 yr old sister "HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL" girl.
Background: in cap: Evan MacLure's dad.
There were 17 players in the U1650 Section.
Youngest player in the tournament: 6 yr old Derek Jin
who scored 1.5 points, increasing his rating by 160 points.
Bravo Derek!
BCC Skittles Room: 45 participants plus 20 parents, friends
and relatives of the players. "Full House."
GOOD THINGS COME IN 2s
Eddie Wei's younger brother, 4 yr old Evan Wei and dad.
BCC knights of the Round (ok rectangular) Table:
Boshen Li, Jason Tang, Brandon Wu, Eric Han, Nithin Kavi (hand)
and Conway Xu. Future chessmasters of the Club.
BEST PORTRAIT PHOTOS AWARD TO SAMMI PAN:
Brandon Wu Photo: SammiPan
(This is the best photo I have ever seen of Brandon)
I trust it will be published in a chess biography about
Brandon when he has attained the glory
of his chess talent and prowess.
Brandon is self-taught.
So too is SammiPan when it comes
to photography.
Eric Feng Photo: SammiPan
Joe Perl Photo: SammiPan
Internal Momentum: James Hankard
Photo: SammiPan
Three dads Messieurs Zhao, Wu and Wei, wired online,
while their children perform chess brilliancies.
Endgame: TD Bernardo Iglesias watches the
tense moments of 2 endgames, Round 2:
Eric Feng v Alvin Tan; Maxwell Zhao
v Shachindra Chandrashekar.
Bernardo did a superb job directing
the large event and the 18+ kids.
Parting shot:
Photo: Steve Stepak
All young chess prodigies have their chess pets.
Here Winston Zhao thinks while his LionKing observes.
[Remember my photo of GM Nigel Short with his
pet pig, in his match with GM Lev Alburt in Foxboro, 1985:
published in Chess Horizons (?)]
