Happy Holidays

The Westfield Chess Club wishes its members and patrons the happiest of holidays.

We will be closed on December 29th. Our next event will be the January 5th Quads.

Zilbermintz Wins Holiday Blitz

Lev Zilbermintz won the Westfield Holiday Blitz, held on Sunday, December 22.

NM Mauricio Camejo and Alex Schwartzberg tied for 2nd.

Leonid Fleysher (1913), Thomas Arvin (1675), Brandon Ng (1532) and Ramneek Singh (1466) were tops among U2000s.

Eric Song (1181), Jessica Lee (939) and Mark Schwartzberg (872) split the U1200 prize.

Here are the complete standings:

1. Zilbermintz 6.0/7
= 2-3. Camejo, A. Schwartzberg 5.5
= 4-9. Errol Singh, Fleysher, Arvin, Ng, R. Singh 4.0
10. Justin Lee 3.5
= 11-15. Samuil Chatsky, John Cartier, Jun Tang, Song, Jes. Lee, M. Schwartzberg 3.0
16. Albert Tang 2.0
17. Anthony Tang 1.5
18. Sujeeth Shanmugam 1.0

Note: Regular December ratings were used to determine pairings and prize-groups.

Lunna Wins Westfield Championship

LM Todd Lunna won the Westfield Championship yesterday, by going 2-0 in rounds 3 and 4 while the week one leaders could do no better than 1-1. It is 13th time Todd has taken the title.

Jonathan Cohen, Aaron Jacobson, Michael Yen and Sam Chatsky tied for 2nd.

Brandon Ng earned the U1650 prize and Darshan Patel led the U1400s.

For a complete list of participants, results, photos, videos and final standings, click here.

Photo credit: Mike Wojcio

Updated at 10/28/2013 at 11:45 p.m.

Westfield Championship - 3rd Round Pairings

Here are the projected board by board pairings for the 3rd round of the Westfield CC Championship, at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 27.

1. Shumowitz - A. Jacobson
2. Chatsky - Lunna
3. Cohen - Fleysher
4. Huang - M. Yen
5. I. Zhurbinsky - Feng
6. Liu - B. Jacobson
7. Lu - D. Zhurbinsky
8. Zhang - Moldovan
9. Da. Patel - S. Yen
10. Ng - Dh. Patel
11. Mazzillo - Cartier
12. N. Yen - Ding

The bye-window has passed. Byes will not be allowed in rounds 3 or 4.

Note - The pairings are subject to change if there are any withdrawals.

A. Jacobson, Shumowitz & Chatsky Lead Westfield Championship

Aaron Jacobson, Marvin Shumowitz and Sam Chatsky lead the 2013 Westfield Championship at its midway point.

LM Todd Lunna, Jonathan Cohen, Michael Yen, Leonid Fleysher, Kevin Huang and Ryan Feng are a half-point back.

The event concludes on October 27th.

For a complete list of participants, results and standings, click here.

Open Section Winners

Trophy winners from the Open Section of today's Westfield Fall Scholastic:

From L-R: Jayadeep Boya (2nd place), Brandon Ng (3rd), David Liu (4th), Christopher Giordano (1st), Ramneek Singh (5th).

Congratulations to the 15 trophy winners and thanks to all 54 who participated.

Our next Scholastic Event will be on January 19th, 2014

U1250 Section Winners

Trophy winners from the U1250 Section of today's Westfield Fall Scholastic:

From L-R: Juan Jimenez (5th place), Max Brustein (2nd), Evan Xie (3rd) and Roman Brustein (1st).

Not pictured: Michael Golikov (4th).

U750 Section Winners

Trophy winners from the U750 Section of today's Westfield Fall Scholastic:

From L-R: Max Waitz (1st place), Jack Waitz (2nd), Eliana Zebro (4th) and Nicholas Feigelson (5th).

Not pictured: Alexander Fox (3rd).

Fall Scholastic Winners

Christopher Giordano (1460), Roman Brustein (1214) and Max Waitz (490) were section winners in today's Westfield Fall Scholastic, which featured a record 54 participants.

The full list of trophy recipients and some additional photos will follow.

Westfield Club Championship 10/20 & 10/27

This year's Westfield Chess Club Championship will take place on October 20 & 27.
 

2013 Westfield Chess Club Championship

 October 20 & 27

 

4-SS. G/85;d5. Westfield Y, 220 Clark St., Westfield, NJ 07090. Prize Fund: $400
guaranteed. Prizes: 1st place $125, 2nd place $80, U2150 $50, U1900 $50, U1650
$50, U1400 $50. EF: $20. Westfield CC members only. Register: 1:30-2:00 p.m. on
10/20 or before. Late-joins accepted until round 2 is paired. Rounds: 2:15 & 5:45 p.m.
on 10/20, 2:00 & 5:30 p.m. on 10/27. Byes: 1 available, rounds 1-3 only. Must declare
before the end of round 2. Info: John Moldovan: westfieldchessclub@gmail.com,
Bill Cohen: 732-548-8432 or 848-219-1358, westfieldchessclub.blogspot.com and
www.westfieldchessclub.com. Please present identification on entering the building. 

 

Note: This event will not be advertised in Chess Life.

Octos Prize-Winners

Today's Westfield Octos attracted 54 players, 25 of whom earned prizes:

Here is the complete, section by section list of winners, their ratings & a few notes on the event:

Section 1
= 1-2. Lev Zilbermintz (2162) & Brandon Nydick (2141)
U2141... Vladimir Polyakin (2102)

Section 2
= 1-2. Marvin Shumowitz (2003) & Ishan Muzumdar (1735)
U1958... Jay Yalamanchili (1897)

Section 3
1. Ed Selling (1691)
= 2. Sam Chatsky (1702) & Daniel Chai (1698)
U1698... Henry Kingsmore (1682) & Patrick Melosh (1623)

Section 4
= 1-2. David Liu (1544), Brandon Ng (1493), Colin Kneucker (1466) & Stephen Cheng (1463)

Section 5
1. Justin Lee (1239)
2. Gregory Pylypovich (1216)
U1279... Henry Siegel (1193)

Section 6
1. Nikhil Arayath (1144)
= 2. Eric Song (1125), Adam D'Souza (992), Kaavya Balamurugan (965)

Section 7
1. Jessica Lee (658)
= 2. David Fraile (876) & Stanley Liu (854)

Notes
- Rating-wise, Section 3 was the closest-matched, with only 90 points separating the players. The biggest gap was 486, in Section #7.
- Black scored 18 wins, 4 losses & 5 draws (a .759 winning percentage) in the first round and +39-26=13 overall.
- Just 9 players turned-in plus scores. Selling, N. Arayath & the Lee siblings went 3-0. 5 players had 2.5.
- Jessica Lee raised her rating 223 points!!, from 770 to 993. 3 others (Mazumdar, Pylypovich & N. Arayath) gained more than 100.
- No one in the top half of section 5 earned a prize.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to every participant for making our 2nd-ever Octos a big success.

B. Jacobson Wins Quick Swiss

Brandon Jacobson won yesterday's Quick Swiss, a half-point ahead of LM Todd Lunna.

Sam Chatsky (1603) and John Cartier (1282) were the U2150 winners. Sriram Kumar (1450) earned the U1500 award and the U1300 honors went to Bhupinder Sohal (957).

Interestingly, all the prize-winners were juniors (<15 y.o.) or seniors (>60).

Quick ratings from the August Golden Database were used to determine pairings and prizes.

Open Section Winners

Trophy winners from the Open Section of today's Westfield Summer Scholastic:

From L-R: Keshav Rao (1st place), Michael Berrios (2nd), Stephen Cheng (3rd), Piush Sarkar (4th), Suvel Karmarkar (5th).

Keshav is also holding his 5th place trophy from the Spring Scholastic.

Our next scholastic event will take place on October 13th.

U1250 Section Winners

Trophy winners from the U1250 Section of today's Westfield Summer Scholastic:

From L-R: Roman Brustein (2nd place), Ronak Bhatia (3rd), Swagnik Roychoudhury (4th), Jayadeep Boya (1st).

Not pictured: Michael Golikov (5th).

U750 Section Winners

Trophy winners from the U750 Section of today's Westfield Summer Scholastic:

From left to right: Jessica Lee (5th place), Isha Slavin (3rd), Gregory Burton (2nd) and Sujeeth Shanmugam (1st).

Not pictured: Aziz Kodirov (4th)

All tied for 1st place with 3.0/4.

Summer Scholastic Winners

Keshav Rao (1684), Jayadeep Boya (1224 on the July rating list) and Sujeeth Shanmugam (487) were section winners in today's Westfield Summer Scholastic, which featured 44 participants.

There was a five-way tie for 1st in the U750 section. Open the screenshot in a new tab and enlarge it to view the standings in tie-break order.

The full list of trophy recipients and some additional photos will follow.

Spring Scholastic: Open Section Winners

Trophy Winners from the Open section of today's Westfield Spring Scholastic:

From L-R: Sriram Kumar (1st place), Albert Tang (3rd), Nicholas Cardenas (4th).

Not pictured: Michael Morin (2nd), Keshav Rao (5th)

U1250 Spring Scholastic Winners

Trophy winners from the U1250 section of today's Westfield Spring Scholastic:

From L-R: Edward Hu (1st place), Tony Zhang (2nd), Ronak Bhatia (3rd),

Avi Patel (4th), Peter Fotis (5th)

U750 Spring Scholastic Winners

Trophy winners from the U750 section of today's Westfield Spring Scholastic:

From L-R: Nicholas Wang (1st), Pranav Thota (2nd), Ian Sava (4th)

Not pictured: Aziz Kodirov (3rd), Michael Sun-Huang (5th)

Spring Scholastic Results

Sriram Kumar (1576), Edward Hu (1077) and Nicholas Wang (639) were section winners in today's Westfield Spring Scholastic.

The full list of trophy recipients and some photos will follow.

Please Arrive Early For The Sunday Quads

In view of the very large attendance we've been having recently (67 players on March 17 and a record-breaking 70 on March 24th), we kindly ask that you:

1. Make sure your USCF membership is current.
2. Bring your USCF ID card, if you have never played at the Westfield Chess Club or played your first USCF tournament less than 1 month ago.
3. Bring a chess clock if you own one. If you are worried about losing it, you can leave the clock in your car and retrieve it only if we run short.
4. Arrive early, preferably before 1:45 p.m. This is especially important if you want to join our club or use your current rating.
5. Form an orderly, single-file line if there are people ahead of you.
6. Pay your entry fee to our treasurer, Patrick Mazzillo, then move away from directors' table and desk. If you crowd us, the likelihood of mistakes and a delayed start is increased.
7. Once registered (by Pat) you should

• proceed to room 109 if your rating is over 1600.
• move to the far end of rooms 107-108 if your rating is 1200-1600.
• go to the middle of rooms 107-108 if your rating is under 1200 or if you are unrated.

If these guidelines are followed, our efficiency should improve and your experience should be more pleasant.

Policy On Late Arrivals

4 players arrived late for today's 2:15 p.m. Quads. If the first pair had stayed-around, all would have been incorporated into two existing sections.

To repeat, our policy, which has been in effect for some 9 or 10 months, is if you are not registered by 2:08 p.m., you risk missing out.

New Look For Our Website

John Moldovan has re-built our web site. Although there is still some work to be done (like putting-up a larger, clearer map on the Directions page), we believe it is a big improvement upon the original design and hope you like it, as well.

Take a look here.

Winter Scholastic: Open Section Winners

The top 5 finishers in the Westfield Winter Scholastic's open section were:

1. Ryan Feng
2. Nikhil Vaddepally
3. Albert Tang
4. Sikata Sengupta
5. Merric Hu

We don't have a photo of the winners. They didn't hang around for one.

U1250 Winter Scholastic Winners

Trophy Winners from the U1250 section of the recent Westfield Winter Scholastic

From L-R: Adam D'Souza (1st place), Edward Wang (2nd), Sanjana Vittal (3rd), Piush Sarkar (4th), Ronak Bhatia (5th)

In a snafu, the U750 trophies were mixed with the U1250s and some recipients received wrongly-labeled hardware. If you'd like us to replace the plate, we will do that for you.

U750 Winter Scholastic Winners

Trophy winners from the U750 section of the recent Westfield Winter Scholastic

From L-R: Marco Rodriguez (2nd place), Philip Ding (3rd), Boti Kovacs (tie 5th), Nicholas Wang (4th), Eric Song (1st place).

Not shown: Aziz Kodirov (tie 5th) 

Winter Scholastic Results

Ryan Feng (1480), Adam D'Souza (840) and Eric Song (631p) were section-winners in Sunday's Westfield Winter Scholastic.

The full list of trophy recipients and some photos will follow when the latter can be uploaded.