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by Steven Vigil, CFCC Senior Tournament Director

The Central Florida Chess Club held its 2022 Autumn Open Tournament from September 16-18. The tournament was held at the Holiday Inn Resort in Lake Buena Vista. This was the third CFCC event at this venue, and CFCC’s final weekend tournament of 2022. Over 130 players in 6 sections participated in the tournament, choosing between a 2 and 3-day schedule.

The 3-day schedule began their first round on Friday night at 7:30pm with 35 players. They competed with a time control of 2hrs. per side + 5 second time delay. Play continued Saturday morning at 11 am. at which time the 3-day schedules began their second round and the 2-day schedule began their first game with a time control of 1 hour with a 5 second delay. The 2-day schedule then began their second-round games at 2pm. Round 3 started at 5pm on Saturday evening with the 2&3-day sections now merged into one section for the duration of the tournament with the full 2-hour time control. After a delay due to a computer glitch, the fourth round started on Sunday morning at round 10:30am. The fifth and final round began at 2:45pm. Here is a recap of the winners and prizes awarded in each section.

Expert/Master Section

Fifteen players competed in the Master/Expert section, the tournaments’ top section. Congratulations to USCF expert Vincent Stone (2151) who won clear first in Master/Expert Section. Vincent scored an impressive 4.5 points winning the first-place prize of $700. Vincent defeated the highest rated player in the tournament Nick Moore (2238) in the fourth round and then drew his final game against Joshua Harrison (2095) to secure his first-place finish. Nick Moore won the rest of his games to finish with 4 points and win clear second place and a prize payout of $350. Joshua would finish the tournament with 3.5 points tying him for third place (and the U2200 prize ) with Aaron Bias (1960). Joshua and Aaron took home $254 each.

Class A Section

In the A Section, Agrim Kumar (1761) and Kai Tabor (1995) who shared first place in the Class A section. Despite never meeting over the board, and taking byes, both players topped the field with 4 points and won $367.50 each. Despite “playing up” a section Srijan Ganta (1747) and Sophie Li (1673) put forth solid performances. Their only loss each came at the hands of Kai Tabor and their only draw was to Peter Bias (1919). Srijan and Sophie also never faced off, but their score of 3.5 points was good enough to earn them each a $122.50 share of 3rd place.

Class B Section

Congratulations to Jayashree Sekar (1600) who was one of only two players in the entire tournament to finish with a perfect score of 5 points! Jayashree took home a prize check of $490. Tristan Elvers (1520), a talented youngster, won the $228.00 second place prize with his score of 4 points. There was a four-way tie for third place between Akash Athi Kesevan (1429), Carliteau Leger (1549), Analaya Muneepeerakul (1566) and Patrick Stots (1622). Each player finished with 3.5 points and won $61.25 each.

Class C Section

Meanwhile in Class C, Jesse Deng (1322) and Aarna Warekar (1396) drew their final round game to finish with 4 points each to share first place and $350 each. Luca Alon Donayre (1538) won clear third place and a prize of $140. Stuart Elvers (1424), Joshua Simring (1366), Kaan Damriel (1286), and Darsheel Panchal all shared the U1500 prize winning them each $26.25.

Class D Section

Historically always one of the largest sections in the tournament, 26 players competed in the Class D. Congratulations to Alison Solik (1267), the only other player to run the table and score a perfect 5 points! Alison was happy to take home her well deserved prize check of $455. Daniel Yang (1019) also went undefeated in the section with 3 wins and 2 draws. His 4 point finish put him in a tie with Brian Blanchard (1391) who only lost one game to Alison. This netted the players $149 each for 2nd/3rd place. Yi Sha (1283) and David Bonilla (1116). With 3.5 points each Yi Sha (1283) and David Bonilla (1116) Shared the U1300 prize and took home $52.50 each.

Scholastic U1200 Section

The U1200/Scholastic Section featured 35 players, who all competed on the 2-day Schedule. Congratulations to Rui Sha (1131) who finish with 4.5 to win a clear first place prize of $315. A group of 4 players shared 2nd/3rd place and took home $39.50 each. They included: Jonathan Solik (1017), Fritz Valcourt (1107), Ishaan Jain (1182) and Ashish Jagan (1018). Pearson Fraser (912) won $53 for clear first U1000. Joseph Toth (583) and Aanya Kumar (757) each won $17.50 for best score U800 with 3 points each.

One of the highlights of the tournament was family members winning prizes. Brothers Ru and Yi Sha both took home prize money. Two sister and brother pairs, Alison and Jonathan Solik and Agrim and Aanya kumar all won cash prizes. Father and son, Stuart and Tristan Elvers also each brought home some cash to their biggest fan; (wife and mom) Vanessa Elvers.

Saturday Night Blitz

A blitz tournament was held on Saturday night at 9:30pm. A group of 18 players competed in the four double-round event where each player plays one game with white and one game with black. Congratulations to Blitz tournament winners, Vincent Stone(2060) and Kyle Knapp(1597) who tied for first place with a score of four points and each won $85 each. Carlos Hoyos (1898) and Talha Olsoy (1529) won third place with 6 points each.

Side Events

A small crowd gathered at 9am on Sunday morning to catch the master lecture given by FM Alexander Zelner. As always Alex gave an entertaining lecture, this time showing famous games and themes in the Pirc Defense. The lesson offered something for chess players at every level. Alex and Dr. Catherine Zelner also ran the chess shop throughout the weekend. They had an impressive collection of books as well as a variety of chess equipment for sale.

The Central Florida Chess club would like to thank all who participated in the 2022 Autumn Open to help make it a successful event. The experienced team of Steven Vigil (STD) and Charles Hatherill (ANTD) served as tournament directors for this event. They worked diligently to have the tournament submitted for rating and most of the prizes paid out shortly after its completion on Sunday evening.

CFCC’s next 2/3-day event, the 2023 Winter Open & Scholastic will be at the same venue, January 27-29. We look forward to seeing you there!

2022 Autumn Open Slideshow Gallery

All tournament photos have been uploaded.