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3-way tie for Expert + Open (w/ Video & All Games) Liang, Reynolds, Tyagi share $1,000 - Dutiel & Crouse take Broken Pawn Reserve, 'iwijetunge' wins chess.com meetup February 8, 2014   The $1150 Expert Open was held at the Marshalltown Salvation Army on February 8th with 15 players from Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Wisconsin making the trip through the snowy weather to compete for the $1150 in guaranteed prize money that Tim Mc Entee was able to secure from an anonymous sponsor. While top seed Awonder Liang defeated Joe Kelly in the first round, second seed Mc Entee suffered a 177 point upset at the hands of his 2007 Iowa co-champion Rob Reynolds. The other notable upset of the round was Jeremy Madison’s 73 point win over 2012 champ Jose Gatica. In round 2, Liang stayed unbeaten by winning over Iowa K-8 champ Arshaq Saleem while Reynolds scored another upset, this time a 68 point reversal of Chris McKinney. Liang and Reynolds entered the final round with the only 2-0 scores when Madison and state high school champion Kushan Tyagi drew their game.   Tyagi set the bar at 2.5 points when his defeat of Gatica was the first result among the leaders. Madison worked hard to match Tyagi’s pace and had an advantage against Mc Entee but the three time state champ and life master held the draw to deny Madison not only a share of the clubhouse lead but the upset prize by one point over Reynolds, whose game with Liang was the last to finish. Reynolds and the world 10 year old champion battled for 3 and half hours, the last hour in a bishop vs. knight ending with equal pawns before agreeing to a draw and a shared championship with Tyagi. Liang and Tyagi earned $334 for their play, with Reynolds taking home $384 by pocketing the $50 upset prize.   23 players took part in the companion tournament, the Broken Pawn Reserve U2000. The top seeds all found their way to victory in round 1 but upsets were on tap in round 2 when top seed Edin Divanovic had to take a perpetual check against Will Polzin while third seed Adream Liang lost to Jon McKinney. This left four 2-0 scores after two rounds: second seed Tony Dutiel, fourth seed Tim Crouse, fifth seed Joe Meyer, and eighth seed McKinney. In round three Dutiel defeated Meyer in a close encounter while Crouse beat McKinney to set up a final round showdown which ended as a draw game, a shared championship, and $75 for each player. In the final round battles for the under 1800 cash, Aaron Anderson of Marshalltown scored a 285 point upset over Frank Li while Bethany Carson defeated Divanovic in a 374 point upset to share the $50 prize. Bethany’s father Tim beat Christine Denison in a final round showdown for the $50 U1400 prize but had to share it with Marshalltown Chess Club member Seth Derby when he beat Chirag Jain.   The meet-up of the chess.com ‘Team Iowa’ group was a success with half dozen members of the group (including the three admins ‘Merlin-Pendragon’, ‘SirBenjamin’, and ‘Spacebux’) taking a break from their online battles with other chess.com groups to compete in a face to face tournament with at least half dozen team members competing in the Expert or Reserve section or directing the tournament. The tournament was a rout with iwijetunge combining a first round bye and three wins for a 4-0 mark with Spacebux finishing second with 2.5 points and Merlin-Pendragon taking third with 2.0 points before the group departed to nearby Zeno’s Pizza for a meet-up party.   Tournament Organizer Tim Mc Entee said "Due to the success of this initial event, next year, we will hold it again on Saturday, February 7. The expert requirement will remain the same, the time control will remain the same. Still need to secure funding for the event and a location."   Tournament director Hank Anzis wishes to thank Major Paul Fleeman of the Salvation Army (a chess blogger and class E tournament player),Majors Beth and Ben Stillwell, and Youth At-Risk director Keith Lambersten for the use of the building and their continued support of the Marshalltown Chess Club, Ivan Wijetunge and Jon McCord for serving as house players, Tim McEntee for bringing a unique concept to life, and a special nod to the entire Liang family, Suhas Kodali, and Akhilesh Tyagi for helping put away the tables and chairs after the tournament (something that I doubt will ever make the cover of Chess Life). Tournament Games (If you have game scores you would like included, please email them to anzis@prodigy.net) A video slide show from Cliff Yates Pictures from the tournaments Rated Tournament crosstables chess.com meetup crosstable Thanks to Cliff Yates for this amazing video!
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