SuperNationals Day 2
04.04.09 It's Day 2 at the SuperNationals and Maine players are holding their own against the nation's top scholastic competition. Here are perspectives, results and insights from two on-site parents of Maine chess kids.
SuperNationals Pairings and Results
From Dan Fishbein:
Nashville, Saturday, April 4: As I write this, Matthew Fishbein is playing Benjamin Moon on Board 3 of the K-5 Championship in Round 4. Benjamin is a two time K-3 National Champion, and has a USCF rating of 1831. Matthew is sitting next to Tom Polgar-Shutzman, Susan Polgar's son. How did this happen? Remarkably only 17 of 319 players in this section won their first 3 games, including Matthew. He finished the 3rd round in 9th place, and the price of that success is his current pairing. He is very excited to be playing in that atmosphere...too bad his parents have to sit what seems like a mile away, having no idea what is going on.
The quality of play and players here in Nashville is hard to believe. The K-5 section, for example, has more 1800+ players than most adult tournaments in Maine. There are 54 players in that section alone rated over 1500. Kind of puts a new spin on the question "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?!" Even the list of adults in Maine who would be competitive in the K-3 section is not that long. There are 5,280 kids playing in total. Four years ago the SuperNationals, in much better economic times, drew 5,320 participants. That tournament was the largest chess tournament in the history of the world. That means this is the second largest chess tournament in world history, missing the record by a mere 40 people. Had the weather for travel not been so bad on Thursday, the record might have belonged to this event. All 29 Mainers made it here despite the weather.
Yesterday started with the "Opening Ceremonies," held at the adjacent Grand Ole Opry, which is the most famous venue in country music. 3,000 people saw speeches by astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who just returned from 6 months on the International Space Station, during which he played the first ever earth vs space chess match, and by Gary Kasparov, who was World Champion for 20 years, and has become known more recently for his leadership of the political opposition in Russia.
The tournament began at 1:00 PM with Round 1. Matthew Fishbein is playing in a room with 2,800 kids--in one room! After an early dinner and some rest, Round 2 began at 7 PM. Some amazing rounds were played by Maine players, including Brett Parker's Round 2 match that lasted 3 1/2 hours and ended at 10:57 PM when Brett checkmated his opponent from Michigan. Anna Bryan played not one but two remarkably long rounds yesterday. After the third round this morning, Cape Elizabeth's Wesley Parker and Matthew Fishbein and John Bapst's Dan Honeycutt and Omar Khan each had 3.0 points. Details on all of Maine's 29 players through Round 3 are below.
A remarkable statistic is that in the first 3 rounds Maine kids have faced opponents from 25 states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington. Just before the start of Round 4, all 29 Mainers from 5 schools gathered together for what may have been the only "all-state" photo at the tournament. Once again, Maine leads!
High School Championship
Zachary Smith (John Bapst, 1322): Rd 1 0.0 vs James Bowen (1617) of WI: Rd 2 1.0 vs Stephen Wang (1655) of NC; Rd 3 2.0 vs Riley Bartlett (1723) of MS
Aaron Spencer (John Bapst, 1624): Rd 1 1.0 vs Michael Lau (1340) of CA; Rd 2 1.0 vs Dan Pham (1923) of FL; Rd 3 1.0 vs Hongkai Pan (1996) of WI
Gabe Borland (Orono HS, 1484): Rd 1 1.0 vs Star Emry (296) of KY; Rd 2 1.0 vs Loren Weiss (1836) of NY; Rd 3 1.0 vs Brian Wai (1849) of CA
Margaret Bryan (John Bapst, 1376): Rd 1 0.0 vs Ryan Winstead (1645) of KY; Rd 2 1.0 vs Apsara Mitra (862) of TX: Rd 3 1.0 vs Rade Musulin (1713) of SC
Ryan Vienneau (Orono HS, 1242): Rd 1 0.5 vs David Fried (1597) of FL; Rd 2 0.5 vs Fedor Titov (1601) of IL; Rd 3, 0.5 vs Jonathan Mollineda (1651) of FL
Sorel Edes (Orono HS, 1180): Rd 1 0.0 vs Nicolaus Nogulich (1578) of IL; Rd 2 0.0 vs Arjun Grover (1451) of SC; Rd 3 0.0 vs Justin Feng (1742) IL
K-5 Championship
Matthew Fishbein (Cape Elizabeth, 1537): Rd 1 1.0 vs Justin Stevens (1293) of KY: Rd 2 2.0 vs Joey Bikus (1321) of IL; Rd 3 3.0 vs Alexander Quach (1085) of TX
K-12 U1600
Kurt Eyerer (John Bapst, 1297): Rd 1 1.0 vs Avinash Kumar (1531) of CA; Rd 2 1.0 vs Taylor Tyre (1487) of MO; Rd 3 1.0 vs Michael Vasquez (1472) of FL
K-12 U800
Daniel Honeycutt (John Bapst, 728): Rd 1 1.0 vs Connor Schmid (409) of TX; Rd 2 2.0 vs Ahsan Qureshi (449) of NY; Rd 3 3.0 vs Jay Milnes (517) of NJ
Omar Khan (John Bapst, 616): Rd 1 1.0 vs George Gunn (217) of AL; Rd 2 2.0 vs Caleb Shapiro (786) of CT; Rd 3 3.0 vs Rafid Hossain (760) of NY
K-12 Unrated
Deanna Power (John Bapst, Unr): Rd 1 0.0 vs Wesley Zhao (Unr) of VA; Rd 2 vs Kristopher Armbrister (Unr) of MI; Rd 3 1.0 vs Deandre Jenkins (Unr) of MD
K-9 U1250
Wesley Parker (Cape Elizabeth, 1187): Rd 1 1.0 vs Benjamin Gross (1022) of NY; Rd 2 2.0 vs Rhoda Lynch (1061) of NY; Rd 3 3.0 vs Alexander England (1038) of PA
Brett Parker (Cape Elizabeth, 975): Rd 1 1.0 vs Garrett Shaft (465) of MN; Rd 2 2.0 vs Chandler Creech (1201) of MI: Rd 3 2.0 vs Brian Wong (1197) of NY
Anthony Freccero (Cape Elizabeth, 1184): Rd 1 0.5 vs Ericberne Martinez (1021) of NY; Rd 2 0.5 vs Orestes Ordonez (1015) of FL; Rd 3 1.5 vs Aidan O'Brien (870) of NY
Matthew Reale-Hatem (Cape Elizabeth, 933): Rd 1 1.0 vs Braya Hicks (1132) of MI: Rd 2 1.5 vs Benjamin Ubinas ( 1121) of NY; Rd 3 1.5 vs Aidan Burdick (1107) of NC
Sam Grindle (Deer Isle, 1068): Rd 1 0.0 vs Xuedong Yu (1242) of NY; Rd 2 1.0 vs Trevor Altenbernd (829) of CO; Rd 3 1.0 vs Gavorg Papoyan (1242) of CA
K-8 U1000
Andrew Turner (Deer Isle, 927): Rd 1 0.0 vs Markel Doe (772) of PA; Rd 2 1.0 vs Corey Naissance (755) of FL; Rd 3 2.0 vs Robert Borchardt (837) of KY
Hayden Ciomei (Deer Isle, 876): Rd 1 1.0 vs Kyler Laycock (522) of KY; Rd 2 2.0 vs Joel DeLaCruz (968) of NY; Rd 3 2.0 vs Arnold Thomas (949) of MI
Chelsea Brown (Deer Isle, 703): Rd 1 0.0 vs Victor Wong (902) of NY; Rd 2 1.0 vs Andrew Stringfellow (871) of MD; Rd 3 1.0 vs Christian Marte (897) of NY
Connor Morey (Deer Isle, 841): Rd 1 0.5 vs William Feng (987) of IN; Rd 2 0.5 vs Lorenzo Grego (958) of IL; Rd 3 0.5 vs Kaitlyn Davidson (534) of OR
K-8 U750
Nick Eaton (Deer Isle, 630): Rd 1 1.0 vs Anders Lowry (323) of MN; Rd 2 1.0 vs Austin Kasabri (748) of NJ; Rd 3 2.0 vs Manisha Vootkur (436) of WI
Bethany Humphrey (Deer Isle, 624): Rd 1 1.0 vs Demetrius Reynolds (304) of OH: Rd 2 2.0 vs Jonathan Gonzalez (740) of TX; Rd 3 2.0 vs Andrew Qazi (708) of NY
Nathan Davis (Deer Isle, 622): Rd 1 1.0 vs Caitlin Casal (297) of FL; Rd 2 1.0 vs Awan Aleem (740) of NY; Rd 3 2.0 vs Justin Chase (399) of PA
Ivan Zembrusky (Deer Isle, 533): Rd 1 0.0 vs Michael Brown (732) of MI; Rd 1.0 vs Fred Doerner (276) of MS; Rd 3 1.0 vs Zachary Lewis (701) of MI
Tyler Bartlett (Deer Isle, 440): Rd 1 0.0 vs Rodeo Slack (698) of MI; Rd 1.0 vs Morgan Hosbrough (100) of OH; Rd 3 1.0 vs Kevin Boyce (637) of MI
Alec Eaton (Deer Isle, 204): Rd 1 1.0 vs Hector Martinez (584) of NY; Rd 2 1.0 vs Albert Chen (644) of NY; Rd 3 1.0 vs Nate Simon (571) of MD
Whitney Brown (Deer Isle, 100): Rd 1 0.0 vs Carla Gibson (558) of MI; Rd 2 0.0 vs Lenin Lopez (433) of NY; Rd 3 1.0 vs Antonio Comfort (341) of VA
Sasha Zembrusky (Deer Isle, 127): Rd 1 0.0 vs Richard Martin (573) of PA; Rd 0.0 vs Jack Roberts (494) of WI: Rd 3 0.0 vs Rashid Webber (294) of NY
K-6 U 1000 Anna Bryan (Airline School, 801): Rd 1 0.5 vs Harrison Ooi (985) of TN; Rd 2 0.5 vs Eric Chen (963) of WA; Rd 3 1.5 vs Namrata Srikanth (601) of VA
From Andy Bryan:
Just finished losing a game to the venerable Dick Powell of Deer Isle-Stonington and visiting with Isaac Marnik who's lending a hand to analyzing games for the DI-S players. You can just tell this group is used to Nationals.
The Bapst group continues to hold their own with only one or two disappointing defeats and nice games from all. Anna Bryan was rewarded for her hard work yesterday by gaining a quick win in the third round. And Matthew Fishbein (Cape E.) continues to move up the ladder in the K5 Championship section. Wes Parker, also from Cape, remains undefeated in his section as do Omar Kahn and Daniel Honeycutt in theirs.
Results through Rd. 3
Deer Isle-Stonington
Sam Grindle 1.0
Andy Turner 2.0
Hayden Ciomei 2.0
Conner Morey 0.5
Chelsea Brown 1.0
Nathan Davis 2.0
Bethanny Humphrey 2.0
Ivan Zembrusky 1.0
Alec Eaton 1.0
Tyler Bartlett 1.0
Sasha Zembrusky 0.0
Whitney Brown 1.0
Nick Eaton 2.0
Airline:
Anna Bryan 1.5
Cape Elizabeth:
Fishbein 3.0
Wes Parker 3.0
Brett Parker 2.0
Reale-Hatem 1.5
Freccaro 1.5
Bapst:
Spencer 1.0
Bryan 1.0
Smith 2.0
Kahn 3.0
Honeycutt 3.0
Eyerer 1.0
Power 1.0
Orono:
Borland 1.0
Vienneau 0.5
Edes 0.0
