The 36th Snowstorm Special was held February 5-7, 2010, with a turnout of twenty-eight players participating.  Though numbers were down, the competition was up.  Many games featured rating differences of over 400 points, but were strongly contested to the bitter end.  Some draws were given up to lower rated opponents even by the best players in the field.  For the final crosstables, click the link below:

http://main.uschess.org/assets/msa_joomla/XtblMain.php?201002076831

Congratulations to FM Andrey Chumachenko, NM Philipp Lamby, Expert Kevin Kane and “Super A” (former Expert) Douglas Holmes for tying for the top place with a score of 4-1.  Many of our local players won or tied for many of the class prizes, in fact, a total of 18 players out of 28 participating won prize money.  Thanks to all who showed up to play and gave it their best shot.  For those that missed the tournament for whatever reason, notice that some prizes were given out due to the low number of participants in their class.  Don’t let that happen again next year!

Grand Master Kaidanov won 13 games and drew 1 in his simultaneous exhibition.  He won all four boards in his blitz simul and won his blindfold blitz game.

For the third straight year Josh Nissenboim has successfully drawn our visiting Grand Master.  Granted the first time they didn’t see him coming,  in hindsight Ftacnik  didn’t really stand a chance.  The second time though, he must have been wondering at how this so called B player was tauntingly, and needlessly, throwing away pawns in a hopelessly drawn opposite color bishop ending until he was up his three useless pawns.  It seems no surprise that Ftacnik didn’t show for a third humiliation.

I’m ashamed to admit I wasn’t sure that Josh would do it again.  When GM Kaidanov announced that he would be taking the white pieces my doubts grew.  When David Grimaud announced that Josh had twice drawn Ftacnik I became down right skeptical.  But as Josh offered a draw in a position I thought he might have been winning I’ve started to ask myself not why these GM’s are letting Josh draw them but why he’s letting them draw him.

The club championship was harrowing, well kind of. In the end it was a tie for first between Stephen Welt and David Causey with 4.5/5. As was pre-arranged the players were to play an indefinite sequence of 2-game mini-matches (G/45) until there was a decisive result. The first and second week experienced missed wins by both sides, and all 4 games were drawn. In week 3 of the playoff Stephen struck in the first game with a win in a Q+R+6 pawns vs Q+R+6 pawns ending. In the second game Stephen offered a draw in a winning position. The draw was accepted, ending the match.

Enjoy a video of this last game.

After five rounds both sections are competing in play offs.  In the upper section David Causey and Stephen Welt have tied for first and will begin a mini match on June 3rd.

Round 1

Morton, Ian _0_     Causey, David _1_
Vonderlieth, John _1_     Bryan, Paul _0_
Nissenboim, Josh _0_     Welt, Stephen _1_

Mummert, Billy _1_     Reed, Susan _0_
Gordon, Miller  _1_     Sun, Qinli _0_
Horton, George, _0_     Mummert, Terry _1_

Round 2

Welt, Stephen _1/2_     Causey, David _1/2_
Bryan, Paul _0_    Nissenboim, Josh _1_
Morton, Ian _0_     Vonderlieth, John _1_

Mummert, Terry _0_     Reed, Susan _1_
Sun, Qianli _1_     Horton, George _0_
Mummert, Billy _0_     Miller, Gordon _1_

Round 3

Causey, David _1_     Vonderlieth, John _0_
Nissenboim, Josh _1_     Morton, Ian _0_
Bryan, Paul _0_     Welt, Stephen _1_

Reed, Susan _1_     Miller, Gordon _0_
Horton, George _0_     Mummert, Billy _1_
Sun, Qianli _1_     Mummert, Terry _0_

Round 4

Causey, David _1_     Bryan, Paul _0_
Vonderlieth, John _1_     Nissenboim, Josh _0_
Welt, Stephen _1_     Morton, Ian _0_

Reed, Susan _0_     Sun, Qianli _1_
Miller, Gordon _1_     Horton, George _0_
Mummert, Terry _1_     Mummert, Billy _0_

Round 5

Nissenboim, Josh _0_     Causey, David _1_
Welt, Stephen _1_      Vonderlieth, John _0_
Morton, Ian _1_     Bryan, Paul _0_

Horton, George _0_     Reed, Susan _1_
Mummert, Terry _1_     Miller, Gordon _0_
Mummert, Billy _1_     Sun, Qianli _0_

When the “dust settled” on the 35th Snowstorm Special on Sunday, FM Andrey Chumachenko and SM Klaus Pohl shared the top prize with a final score of 4 1/2 points out of 5.  They drew each other in a long battle on Saturday night and dispatched all other opponents to achieve their respective victories.

Other prizes won were by Donny Gray (GA) and Wayne Christensen(SC), who shared the Expert prize with a score of 3 1/2-1 1/2. James MacDougall(SC) won the Top “A” prize outright with 3 1/2 points while 2nd place “A” prize was shared among fellow “A” players, Doug Holmes(SC), John Vonderlieth(SC),Stephen Welt(SC), and Yuval Shemesh(NC), each with 3 points.

Top “B” was shared by Ian Morton(SC) and Bill Taylor(SC), both with 3 points.  The Top “C” prize came down to one of the last games, when Wayne Hedger(GA) survived against Chad Moody(NC) to tie Miki Yasuoka(NC) at 2 1/2 points after having lost to Miki earlier.  The only question concerning the “D” prize was how it would be shared since there were only two entrants in the class.  In the end, it was shared equally between Erik Mullah(SC) and Devin Duque(NC), both ending with 2 1/2 points.  The largest group was in the Class “E” and under, where Justin Gonzalez(NC) and William McCorkle(GA) tallied 2 points to share the prize equally.

With a total of thirty eight entrants, 95% of the advertised prize fund of $1,500 was paid out.  Thanks to all who attended and be sure to put the 36th Snowstorm Special on your calendar for next year where we hope to increase the number of entrants and prizes, so that all can enjoy a competitve open tournament in a nice setting.

Check out the final crosstables here.

Past Snowstorm Special Champions

Click on their name for a link to their whereabouts.

1973 – William Patterson(as the S.C. Junior Ch.)
1974 - Stephen Cabaniss /James Hughey
1975 – William McClain
1976 – Charles Lawton, Jr.
1977 – Patrick Hart/Edward McCauley
1978 – Edward McCauley(2)
1979 – Jeffrey Smeltzer
1980 - Paul Tinkler / Lindsay Blanks
1981 – Paul Tinkler(2)
1982 – Patrick Hart(2)/Dale Mountford
1983 – Patrick Hart(3)
1984 – Klaus Pohl/Pat Hart(4)/Wayne Williams/Paul Tinkler(3)/Lindsay Blanks(2)
1985 – Neal Harris
1986 – Edward McCauley(3)
1987 – Edward McCauley(4)
1988 – Klaus Pohl(2)
1989 – Paul Tinkler(4)/Irving Rosenfeld/ Douglas Holmes /Ed McCauley(5)
1990 – Klaus Pohl(3)
1991 – Patrick Hart(5)
1992 – Klaus Pohl(4)
1993 – Jonathan Schroer/Matthew Morris/Lindsay Blanks(3)
1994 – Klaus Pohl(5)/Mark Hoshor
1995 – Mike Williams
1996 – Matthew Morris(2)/Douglas Holmes(2)
1997 – Wayne Williams(2)/Michael Sheaf
1998 – Paul Tinkler(5)/Douglas Holmes(3)
1999 – Paul Tinkler(6)/Douglas Holmes(4)/John Vonderlieth/Justin Daniel
2000 – Klaus Pohl(6)
2001 – Klaus Pohl(7)
2002 – No tournament held.
2003 – No tournament held.
2004 – Klaus Pohl(8)
2005 – Emory Tate/Daniel Tapia/ Leland Fuerstman
2006 – Keith Eubanks
2007 – Andrey Chumachenko
2008 – Timur Aliyev/ Chris Mabe
2009 – Andrey Chumachenko(2)/Klaus Pohl(9)

Amount in parentheses represents number of times placed or tied for first (greater than once).

The 4th Patrick D. Hart Memorial Scholastic was held on Saturday, January 17, 2009, and had a superb turnout of young players.  Though only two high school players and three middle school players attended, the elementary section had thirty-three eager chess players.  The CCC’s on Qiamli Sun (Wando HS) won his four game match with Alex Thibodeau (Thurmond HS) by an impressive score of 4-0!  In the middle school section, Chris Labrecque held off South Carolina’s 2008 Polgar representative, Hannah Whatley, to take the first place trophy, leaving Hannah with second place and Joey Scalf (Christian Academy) with third place.  As mentioned, the elementary section was the busiest, by far, and when the smoke cleared, Simeon Radev, of Bamberg, won the first place trophy on tiebreaks over Kyle McSheehy (Pinckney Elem.), both with perfect 4-0 scores.  Kean Balentine (Pinckney Elem.) took third place on tie-breaks over five others tied at 3-1.  Many thanks to Asst. TD Stephen Welt who encouraged over twenty of his chess students at Pinckney Elementary to sign up and play.  Also, thanks to our local scholastic coordinator, John Crompton, for another helping hand with the annual event.

Check out the final crosstables

The Folloween Open II had a good turnout. We had 14 participants. We had a 10-man open section and a 4 player round robin.

The open section was won by Philipp Lamby with 2.5 pts, with a fortunate draw from David Causey in a very exciting round 2 contest. David had a great position on the black side of an Accelerated Dragon/Marcozy Bind. When David offered the draw, Philipp had 1 second left on his clock against David’s 10 minutes in a dynamic position. There was a 5 way tie for second place between David Causey, Dan Quiqley, Bill Taylor, Erik Walker and Stephen Welt.

The Round Robin was won by Michael Meekins.

Congratulations to everyone who played some good games!

After taking a 1st round 1/2 point bye, Ian Morton reeled off four straight wins to overtake Columbia’s Daniel Dodds and win first prize in the Under 1800 section at the 2008 S.C. Open.  Ian’s performance raised his rating to 1760, where he is still a force to be reckoned with in his next Under 1800 section that he plays.  Congratulations, Ian, for another brilliant tournament!

Ian Morton (left) in the process of winning his final round game against Daniel Dodds.

Read on to see more images of the 2008 S.C. Open…

The 2008 CCC Championship finished on May 7 with Jim Addison winning first place with 3-0 score.  Defeating last year’s champion, David Causey, in the final round, Jim won his first CCC Championship on his first try.  Causey and top-rated Kirk McMullan tied for 2nd-3rd place with a score of 2-1.  Thanks to all seven participants for finishing with only one makeup game required during the tournament schedule.  To see the final crosstable, read on…