A couple of interesting happenings came out of this 7 round tournament, which took place between December 26 and December 29.
In the U1250 section, Weibel 3rd grader Atri Surapaneni was in a 4-way tie for first place with 6.0 out of 7.0 and as a result will pick up a check for $2,111! Atri had been playing in tournaments for barely over a year and this was his very first adult tournament that he's ever played in. Interestingly enough, Atri's mom had to go back to work on Thursday to attend meetings and as a result Atri had to take 1/2 point byes for the last 2 rounds. Once Atri won his first 5 games, naturally he wanted to continue on, but alas you can't take back byes once they are locked in, which in this case was before the start of Round 4. Those two 1/2 point byes came in handy in hindsight, as no one else got above 6.0. Way to go Atri! Along the way, he picked up almost 200 rating points, to 1229.
The other story belonged to Weibel 6th grader Kevin Moy, who played in the U2100 section. Going into the tournament, Kevin needed 34 points to break 2000 and gain the title of Expert. After a uneventful draw in the 1st round (book moves for 20+ moves) and a missed tactic that could have resulted in a potential win in the 2nd round that ended up as a draw, Kevin had picked up a couple of points but nothing much more. However, wins in the 3rd and 4th rounds all of a sudden had gotten him pretty much right at 2000. Kevin had already taken a bye for Round 7 which was already locked in. The thought process then became the following - at 3.0 out of 4, if Kevin won Round 5, he would play Round 6 because he could get to 5.5 which would be a pretty nice chunk of money. If Kevin lost Round 5, he would play Round 6 because well, he would be below 2000 and would need a win to get back to 2000. So what happened? - he drew. Albeit, the draw was against none other than former U10 World Youth champion Jason Cao (2082), which gave Kevin a couple of extra points for cushion. After thinking about it overnight, Kevin and his dad decided that getting to 5.0 and a few dollars (probably no more than $200) wasn't worth the "risk" of dropping below 2000 with a loss, and as such, decided to take a 0-point bye for Round 6 and walk away. Kevin's rating is now 2007, which now qualifies him for the 2012 World Youth championship in Slovenia. (Though there are rumors floating around in regards to changing the qualification rules for 2012). Congrats to Kevin.
Other Weibel Team member results:
Abhishek Handigol 3.5 out of 7.0 in U1700
Anthony Zhou 2.5 out of 7.0 in U1700
Anvi Surapaneni 3.0 out of 7.0 in U1250
Also, Weibel Team coaches:
IM Ricardo DeGuzman fiinished in a tie for 12th with 4.0 out of 7 in the Open Section
Uyanga Byambaa 4.0 out of 7 in the U2100 section
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KUDOS KUDOS to Kevin for both BEING THE FIRST WEIBEL STUDENT TO BECOME AN EXPERT while still at Weibel and, if they don't change the requirements, qualifying for the World Youth. That would make it five years in a row a Weibel student has qualified. I wonder how many other schools have accomplished this with four different players.
ReplyDeleteAlan