Record Numbers at Third Annual ChessMaine.net Championship
07.02.09 Adam Schaff, Roger Morin and Phil Lowell scored 3.5 points to top a field of fifty-four players at the third annual ChessMaine.net Championship played at Colby College on June 27, 2009. We had to go back a few years to find a non-scholastic tournament in Maine that had attracted more players than this one--twelve years in fact. Not since the Downeast Open in 1997 have we seen more than fifty-four players at an open tournament in Maine.
Thanks to Colby College and Jacques Moore, Director of Special Services for hosting this event, to the assistant tournament directors Laddy DeLuca Lowell and Akagi Kayashima and to all the players, parents and supporters who attended the tournament. This event was organized and directed by Dan DeLuca.
The Class A prize was combined with the championship prize and divided amongst the top three players: Adam Schaff, Roger Morin and Phil Lowell. However, Schaff, who received free entry fee based on his 2000+ USCF rating, graciously donated his winnings back to the prize fund.
Sharing the Class B prize with 3.0 points were: Tom Sandford, Nathaniel Bryans, Kevin Townsend and Jon Buxton.
The Class C prize was won by Matthew Fishbein with 2.5 points.
Class D honors (and cash) went to * whose USCF 1241 rating looked out of place amongst the Expert, Class A and Class B ratings in his scoring bracket.
Brett Parker took the Class E prize with 2.5 points and the Under 1000 prize was won by Daniel Honeycutt with 1.5 points.
In addition to great chess in an outstanding venue, players were treated to a free continental breakfast, Papa John's Pizza for lunch (as well as access to Colby's Dana Hall Dining Room), a book giveaway and a collection of Chess Life magazines dating back to 1958. We look forward to hosting more events at Colby in the future.
ChessMaine.net Championship Tournament Crosstable
Read Colin Hickey's story on the ChessMaine.net Championship that appeared in the Morning Sentinel newspaper here.
Adam Schaff, playing in his first tournament in over seven months, tied for first with former Maine State Champion...
Roger Morin and...
Maine Chess Association President Phil Lowell.
The tense, last round games on boards 1 and 2 featured Phil Lowell (foreground left), Adam Schaff (forground right), Roger Morin (background left) and Ruben Babayan (away from the board).
Ruben Babayan, here on the move vs Roger Morin in the last round, lost this game to drop into a ten-way tie for 4th place in the overall standings with 3.0 points.
Swarthmore sophomore Fritz Eyerer was in contention for 1st place until the last move of his final game in which Cape Elizabeth upstart Ethan DiNinno held him to a draw.
The last round match-up between Fritz Eyerer (left) and *
Richard Judy was one of 10 players finishing with 3.0 points. He also won the book giveaway prize by correctly identifying the image on the official ChessMaine.net Championship game board numbers as one from Through the Looking Glass, the famous children's book by Lewis Carroll. The list of players scoring 3.0 points included:
Tom Sandford (tied for Class B prize)
Kevin Townsend of Purdue University (tied for Class B prize)
Lucas McCain
Nathaniel Bryans (tied for Class B prize)
Todd Snyder
Ruben Babayan
* (Class D prize winner) and...
Jon Buxton (tied for Class B prize)
John Bapst High School student Aaron Spencer topped the tie break list of 2.5 point getters followed by...
Brett Parker (class E prize winner)
Glen Snyder
Kurt Eyerer
John Gaspar
Class C prize winner Matthew Fishbein
and John Brady.
Curt Brock
Keji Xu
In Maine for the summer from Mississippi: Riley Bartlett
Chuck Cannone
William Burtt
UMaine Farmington Junior Murray Bridges
Maine tournament veteran John Engle
All the way from New Zealand: Ralph Townsend
Portland Chess Club member Georghe Teodorescu
Palermo, Maine's own Ed Hatch
Maine Chess Association Secretary Lee Doucette
The 2009 ChessMaine.net Championship was Hardik Goradia's first USCF rated tournament.
Current Maine K-6 State Champion Matthew Reale-Hatem
Jaiwei Zou
Kris Fecteau
Under 1000 prizewinner Daniel Honeycutt
Anthony Freccero
Max Berube
John Bapst High School Chess Coach Yuri Riabkov
Steve Kaluzynski
Former K-3 Maine State Champion Wesley Parker
Fred Irons
Waterville Chess Club member Mark McPheters doing some open air analyzing.
Jim Dubois
Brynna Bartlett
From France via New York City and now a Mainer: Charles Rotmil
David Rice
Brian Roderick
From Scarborough, Maine: John Xiang
Anne York
Rob Shore
Nimrod Drizlikh
The tournament was played in Colby's beautiful Diamond Building.
Courtesy of Ralph Townsend and Dan DeLuca a collection of Chess Life magazines dating back to 1958 were on display.
Despite (or because of) a week of rain the Day Lillies in front of Dana Hall were in full bloom.
We hope to see you all agin next year!
Comments
Dan and all the chess players of the great state of Maine... thanks for a great tournament! The hospitality and friendly atmosphere was a joy! Anyone travelling down to the Memphis, TN// Olive Branch, MS area... look us up! Class act all way! Looking forward to returning next summer to play once again. My children, Riley and Brynna, were amazed at the quality of chess and the sportsmanship which we seldom see elsewhere. Best of luck to all... see you next summer.
Maine born and bred,
Aaron Bartlett
Posted by: Aaron Bartlett | July 3, 2009 8:38 PM
Absolutely the very best tournament. Timely rounds, quiet, very well organised, I will try to make it a yearly must play tournament.Thank you so much, Dan and all those who helped. Roger
Posted by: roger morin | July 3, 2009 7:45 AM
Dan...a standing ovation for the tourney. Everything about it was class with a capital "C". Despite my dismal play, I enjoyed myself. You have truly mastered the fine art of the feed and caring of that strange beast--the tourney chess player..Looking forward to next year..My thanks to you and all those whose hard work made it a good day...
Posted by: David H Rice | July 3, 2009 5:29 AM