Premier Section

Though several GMs thought about entering this event, it would be two GMs from Texas who would become the top rated ones and come through to tie for 1st place in the FIDE-rated Premier section. They had asked to play in the 2-day schedule and the organizers agreed to it, though few players did as those games were not FIDE rated.

Top-rated GM Vladimir Belous (2689 USCF) won his game against Martin Hansen (2159), while GM Andrey Stukopin (2671) beat Raghav Venkat (2125). Others winning their 1st round games in this schedule were John Ludwig (2465) and FM Dalton Perrine (2287). FM Corey Acor (2397) started with a draw. Out of those who started on Friday night, FM Yans Girones Barrios (2508) was held to a draw by Matt Helfst (2030).

After the merge, the two GMs met in the 4th round and drew their game. This lead to the important final round, with the GMs (tied with 3½-½ scores) paired against the top two players with 3-1 scores. This resulted in draws with Stukopin-Ludwig and Acor-Belous, leaving Stukopin and Belous tied for 1st.

The organizers of the event had been a little concerned, as registrations were slow in coming in. But by the tournament weekend, so many players had registered that tables were “reorganized” to accommodate the 162 players that finally came by on Saturday. With 43 of these players being in the Scholastic Section (counting as ½), the announcement of a prize fund payout, guaranteed at 80%, was raised to 93.2%.

GMs Stukopin and Belous split $1765. Ludwig, Acor, and Jindrich Zapletal (2272) earned $124 each, leaving Martin Hansen (2159) with the big $465 Under 2200 prize. Another player surprised with his winnings was Nick Moore (2089), who won the 2nd U2200 prize of $279. Six players split the 3rd U2200 prize of $186. Top Senior was Alexander Starr while Top Woman went to Cindy Jie; they each received $186.

The Under Sections

The top rated players who entered the Under 2000 section were Dylan Todfield (1978), Ryan Hamley (1968), Anthony Coleman (1953), and Glenn Buyo (1929). Todfield lost his 1st game and came back with wins in the next 3 rounds. Buyo had a ½-point bye in the 1st round, but won the rest of his games. Coleman, who plays in chess tournaments at least once a week, won his 1st game and had a tough time until his last few games, finishing with 3-2 and far out of the money. This left most of the prize money in the hands of some of the lower rated players who did well. Paul Leggett (1764) and Glenn Buyo, at 4½-½, split $1209. William Bowman (1883), with 4-1, won $279; Keshav Singh (1796), also at 4-1, won the top Under 1800 prize of $465. Alan Wang (1732) and Nick De La Colina (1729), both at 3½-1½, won the 2nd and 3rd Under 1800 prizes, splitting $463.

The winner of the Under 1600 Section was Trongan Hoang, the father of Truman Hoang. He won his first 4 games with ease, and being 2 points ahead of the pack, he gave his last round opponent a draw and finished 4½-½, winning $744. He’d only played three games since June 2011 when he entered the 2016 Orlando Autumn Open. He entered this Sunshine event rated 1589, just low enough for this section, and his current rating is now 1700. Four players tied at 3½-1½ and shared all three Under 1400 prizes, totaling $930. Renato Dacanay and Eduardo Vinent shared the $93 Senior prize.

Scholastic Section

The Scholastic Section was limited to players in grades K-12 who were rated Under 1200. There were 43 of them; the highest rated was Tyler Von Lindenberg at 1198, but as we all know that the ratings of scholastic players can be a lot different from their playing strength. Some have just started playing and some have been climbing faster than we can describe. In this section, two players tied for 1st and split $651: Andrew Tiansay (958) and Daut Yakupov (1135), both with 4½-½ scores. Tiansay won the Age 14 Trophy and Yakupov won the Age 7 Trophy. Three players tied for 3rd place and shared $186; one of them, Tyler Von Lindenberg, also won the trophy for Top 11-year-old. Four players shared the Under 800 prize of $93. The remaining age-trophy winners were David Rodriguez (13), Rohith Karthik (12), Javier Rojas (10), Sisira Yerrajennu (9), and Dennis Colar (8).

Harvey Lerman was the Organizer and Chief TD for this tournament as it was FIDE rated. Steven Vigil was the Chief TD of all but the FIDE rated section; he also handled all “back-room” registrations and computer functions. Alexander Starr was the organizer of the two side events, and he was aided by Jon Haskel who supported the DGT board live broadcasts as well as the ADV operations for the ChessStars Side Events.

-Central Florida Chess Club