Currently 8 American players are competing.
After round 2
in 50 + section:
GM Alex Yermolinsky and GM Alexander Shabalov are 1.5 /2
in 65 + section
FM Gregory Markzon is 2/2. Gregory will need a good luck in round 3, he is playing (with black pieces) against IM Kamran Shirazi who out rates him by 300 FIDE points.
As per wikipedia, Shirazi achieved the dubious distinction of losing the shortest decisive game in the history of the U.S. Championship: his game as White against John Peters, which went 1.e4 c5 2.b4 cxb4 3.a3 d5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.axb4??
Do you have a link?
Alex Relyea
Wikipedia
Link to profile of IM Shirazi in wikepedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamran_Shirazi
Link to World Senior page:
Not the best day for American players.
In 50 + GM Alex Yermolinsky drew his game, while GM Alexander Shabalov lost.
in 65 + FM Gregory Markzon lost his game.
Also of note three brothers : Jhunjhnuwala : Ramesh (won his 3rd round game), Naresh and Suresh are playing.
They also have another brother : very strong FM Krishan Jhunjhnuwala, who is my former teammate in NY Banker Athletic league.
Krishan is not playing for some reason.
Round 4 worked better for American players:
In 50 + section, GM Alexander Shabalov won, GM Alex Yermolinsky drew.
All three brothers Jhunjhnuwala also drew their games.
in 65 + section FM Gregory Markzon won his game and is currently a top scoring American player with 3 out of 4.
He faces higher rated IM Afek Yochanan from Israel.
My personal observation is that lower rated seniors do not show too much respect to stars of the past and there are number of upsets.
Also of note is that none of US Women are competing.
Solid performance by top rated American players in round 5.
In 50+ both GMs Yerlmolinsky and Shabalov won their games and currently chasing the leaders with 3.5 /5
In 65+ FM Markzon drew his game and also sits at 3.5 /5. Gregory gets another IM in round 6.
November 17th is the day off the classical time control games.
There are different ways of spending your rest day, but some players decided to play more chess and took advantage of blitz side events provided by organizers.
A somewhat surprising winner of 50+ Open event is a WGM Elvira Berend. Being eligible for all women event, Elvira preferred an Open section where she started at 5th seed.
She crushed through the competition scoring 6 points (with 5 wins and 2 draws).
As I took interest in the Senior Chess only recently, I have to admit that I haven’t heard about this player until just now and that prompted some searching.
According to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvira_Berend :
Elvira Berend (born 19 September 1965), née Sakhatova, is a Kazakhstan born Luxembourg Woman Grandmaster (WGM) (1995). She is a three-time Luxembourg Chess Championship winner (1998, 2015, 2016) and two-time World Senior Chess Championship winner (2017, 2018).
In the main event W50+ Elvira is not doing as well. She lost in the first round to a lower rated Romanian player and is currently sitting at 3.5/5, 0.5 behind the leaders.
After tough round #6, GM Alex Yermolinsky emerged as the top scoring American player.
Alex is at 4.5 /6 and the only American player that didn’t loose a single game. Alex has all the chances to join the leaders if he keeps his solid performance.
GM Alexander Shabalov lost to IM Fred Berend, husband of WGM Elvira Berend (the hero of the blitz tournament).
FM Gregory Markzon lost his 6th round game in 65+ section and is currently at 3.5/6.
In W 50+ WGM from Luxemburg Elvira Berend won her 6th round game and is now one of four leaders.
Georgian legend former World Champion GM Nona Gaprindashvili is a sole leader in W 65+ with 5.0 / 6
Notable upset is the win of Canadian FM Viktor Plotkin over legendary GM Lev Psakhis.
Short report from round 7.
50+
GM Alexander Shabalov won his game and moved to 30th place with 4.5 /7.
GM Alex Yermolinsky drew and currently occupies 20th place with 5.0 /7. Alex is our best hope for medals/prizes, but needs to start winning more games to catch up leaders.
Of remaining American players in this section, Naresh Jhunjhnuwala is the best with 3.5 /7
65+
FM Gregory Markzon lost his game and is at 3.5 /7.
In round 8 all titled American players won their games and made a step forward.
50+
GM Alex Yermolinky with 6.0 points now and in joint share of 3rd place.
GM Alexander Shabalov with 5.5 points moved to 20 place (share of 11th).
65+
FM Gregory Markzon won his game and is back to business with 4.5.
With three rounds till the end there is still a chance to see at least one of the American players in the medals.
50+ section
In round 9th both GMs Alex Yermolinsky and Alexander Shabalov drew and with 6.5 points for Alex and 6.0 for Alexander are occupying 8th and 20th place respectively.
65+ section
FM Gregory Markzon lost his game and is currently at 50% with 4.5.
Another American player in this section, Leonid Bondar, won his game and is also at 50% with 4.5.
At this point our hopes are on Alex Yermolinsky. In round 10, Alex is facing IM Angelo Young from Philippines. Angelo drew against GM Shabalov in round 9.
World Senior Chess Championship 2019 is coming to conclusion and tomorrow, November 23rd, is going to be the last 11th round.
In 50+ section:
GM Alexander Shabalov won his 10th round game against Italian GM Michele Godena and moved to a 14th place.
GM Alex Yermolinsky made a draw and is occupying 12th place. Both American Grandmasters are at 7.0/10.
Let’s wish them luck in the last money round. A win is needed to get some kind of prize.
On non-titled American players in this section, Naresh Jhunjhnuwala is the top scoring player with 50% (5.0/10).
In 65+ section:
FM Gregory Markzon won his 10th round game and is currently at +1 with 5.5/10.
Another American player in this section Leonid Bondar drew and is at 5.0/10.
Both Gregory and Leonid are unfortunately not in contention for any prizes.
This thread seem to be gaining views and if it gets over 500 of those, I am planning to put some interesting upsets with my commentary.
World Senior Championship ran to completion on 11/23.
50+ section
GM Alexander Shabalov pressed hard in his game again GM Soffer, but was unable to win it.
He earned 7.5 /11 and ended up on 17th place on tie-breaks.
GM Alex Yermolinsky also drew in 20 moves vs. IM Nikoloz Managadze and with 7.5 /11 got 14th place.
Remaining US players in this section:
Jhunjhnuwala brothers:
Top scoring of brothers : Naresh earned 60th place with 6.0 points.
Ramesh didn’t do as well and withdrew earlier and his place is 129 with 3.0 points
Finally, lowest rated of brothers : Suresh ended with 4.0 points and 114th place
Michael Gilbert : 4.5 points and ended up in 105 place.
In 65+ section:
FM Gregory Markzon drew 11th round game, he ended up with 6.0 /11, 66th place.
Leonid Bondar also drew and ended up with 5.5 /11, 102th place.
It will be interesting to find if our top GMs won any prizes. Regulations are not very clear on that. We used here in US that cash prizes are typically split evenly and tie-breaks are not used. However in the rest of world and especially in Europe cash prizes are often being determined by tie-breaks.
If anyone knows this information, please update the thread.
Since tournament is concluded today, so will my daily updates.
Here are final notes:
I recently aged into Senior category myself and that ignited my interest to those types of events.
In the past two years, I myself played in three of such events:
To get taste of International Senior competitions I teamed with a group of other enthusiasts and I am actually going to participate in the World Senior Team Championship in Prague 2020.
I am curious what other American Seniors are thinking about the state of Senior Chess here in US and the World.
Perhaps that will justify opening another thread.
NM Mikhail Koganov
I have heard a rumor that Canada is planning on putting a bid for the 2021 Pan American Senior Championships. That is a 9 round event [often with up to 2 games per day] where the top finisher in each section [50+ & 65+] earn a GM Norm and get the IM title automatically [if not already achieved], and the 2nd & 3rd place finishers get an IM norm. It would be nice if in the (far) future if the event was held here in the US.
Larry S. Cohen
The difficulty is making the numbers work here given the cost of space. We looked into it this summer and couldn’t figure out a way to do it without significant financial risk
I personally like the synergy of senior and scholastic events. Would running something like this in conjunction with Grade Nationals in December make any sense?
The schedules don’t mesh. The grade national is a 3 day event with a 4th day for arrival and side events. The Pan Am Senior takes at least 7 days in a hotel. The senior requires meal plans. No US Chess events have that. We really struggle to find any hotels that want to give up ballroom space for two weekends when we try to schedule the US Open.
I’ve had more than one hotel sales department tell me it’d be a lot easier to schedule chess events if meals were built in. Any time you tie up the banquet space without any meals, you’re effectively idling much of the kitchen staff. Similarly, if an event doesn’t include a large block of sleeping rooms, then other parts of the staff are effectively idled.
FIDE requires participants at FIDE-awarded events stay at the designated hotel(s) and meals are included. This probably helps with hotel negotiations, though if the national government is involved in organizing the event, which is common in many countries, the hotel might not have a lot of choice but to go along.