March 6-7, 2010 Augustana College Morrison Commons Building Sioux Falls, SD RESULTS If you had to pick a word to describe the 26th Sioux Falls Open Chess Tournament, the one that clearly comes to mind would be “tiebreak.” The 2010 version of the SF Open featured a new section (U600), but in the end all four sections were decided on computer-generated tiebreaks. Of course, this speaks volumes to the battles that were occurring in each section for the right to claim 1st place among all the 105 entrants in this tournament. Thus, it was a tiebreak that determined the player who would be bestowed the title of 2010 Sioux Falls City Chess Champion, and that player turned out to be Serif “Sheriff” Suljic of Sioux Falls. His score of 4.0/5 was also good enough for his share of the 1st place prize as he departed the SF Open with a check in the amount of $150. Also going home with his $150 check, was the player who tied Suljic with a score of 4.0/5, Curtis Carroll, the reigning SD State Chess Champion.
Of course, it was also a tiebreak that determined the 1st place finisher in the always competitive U1200 section, and the surprise of this year’s Open was that a 6th grade middle school student from Patrick Henry MS in Sioux Falls, Luke Rysavy, bested all the adults and the other scholastic players in this section to claim his 1st place trophy. Rysavy has become an emerging force in SD scholastic circles, and will be a force to reckon with at the upcoming SD Scholastic Chess Championships on March 27th. Garretson ES 4th grader Ryan Fick used a tiebreak to propel him to 1st place in the U800, and with still another tiebreak deciding the day, it was Harrisburg Explorer ES 4th grader Parker Brown who laid claim to the top finish in the U600 section.
Over President's Day weekend Alex Yermolinsky traveled east to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Milwaukee were 98 players forming 23 teams showed up for this year's edition of the US Amateur Team North. Click to see crosstables.
The young Trevor Magness, playing for Chicago Blaze, shot to NM status after his performance at the Teams North. His upset with over a 400 point difference against Yermo in round one was the start to his master run. Click here to see the game.
Alex didn't have an impressive tournament with draws in the rest of the rounds.
The Sioux Falls Open and Revival
Written by Steve Norquist
The Sioux Falls Open has a long history, including some in the 1960s which also determined the SD Chess Championship. Its “modern era” began with 3-time SD Champion Gerald Mortimer as the TD in 1972. He would invite grandmasters and IMs, including Korchnoi, Browne, Dzindzihashvili, Benko, Tarjan and Martz, to do simuls in conjunction with the tournament, often flying to Lone Pine, California (where in that era a strong GM tournament was being sponsored every year by famous concert cellist and chess fan Gregor Piatagorsky, and later by his wife doing business as the Piatagorsky Foundation) to recruit a GM by offering a weekend poker game along with the tournament and simul. Only Browne disappointed by canceling at the last minute. Mortimer ran the tournament from 1972 until 1981, when it died for a few years. Emil Knapp's SDCA Bulletin announcement in 1980, when Roman Dzindzihashvili appeared, stated that “after a warm-up tournament in Lone Pine, California,” Dzindzi won the tournament 5-0. I remember that tournament, in which Roman chain-smoked Marlboros in the Gilbert Science Center at Augustana College.
Jeff Barth and Wes Schmidt resurrected the SFO in 1985, with Jeff organizing the event and occasionally directing until the 1990s, when Wes pretty much took it over and began billing it as the “Revival of the Sioux Falls Open” every year through 2009. In the 1980s, NMs from Iowa & Minnesota would come to play, but never got in the top money. Those masters included Mitch Weiss, Cary Utterberg, and Randy Bauer. That changed in the 1990s when ND master Mike Sailer and Vermillion resident master Mark Bohannon each picked up a clear first for a Sioux Falls Open title. The 2010 event will feature GM and 2-time US Champion Alex Yermolinsky as the tournament director. Here are a few games; we hope to see you all at the 2010 Sioux Falls Open!
2010 Winter Open
Written by Bob Boland
He hadn’t played a rated tournament since August 18, 2007, and chances are there wasn’t any snow on the ground when he played back then, but on a snowy Saturday at Augustana College, Louis Horton returned to the Sioux Falls Winter Open like a blizzard with his undefeated run in the Open section, including an upset of top-rated National Master Nels Truelson. With his victory in the Open section, Horton took home the $160 top prize, and a new rating of 1848.
On a day when it appropriately snowed all day long for the Winter Open, 99 chess players registered to play in the one-day Winter Open, complete with three sections (Open, U1200, and U800) of play. The number of players was easily one of the largest chess turnouts in South Dakota in recent years, and is clearly indicative of the re-emerging chess scene in the Rushmore State. The U800 section was by far the largest to attract players with a whopping 72 players signed up to do battle across the 64-square battlefield.
With such a large turnout in the five-round U800 section, the competition to come out on top was intense, but in the end it was Garretson Middle School 8th grader, Thomas John Boland, who was the only player to go undefeated, as he defeated Discovery Elementary School 5th grader Malavika Nair in the final round.
In the much smaller U1200 section, the home team was well represented as Augustana College Chess Club member Dillon Karras became one of only three players in the entire tournament to end the day undefeated with his 1st place finish.
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