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by Steven Vigil, CFCC Senior Tournament Director

The 2023 Winter Open Chess Tournament took place from January 27-29. The 3-day event was held at the Holiday Inn Resort in Lake Buena Vista, a now familiar venue for Central Florida Chess Club weekend tournaments. With a field of 220 players in 6 sections, this marked the largest attendance ever for a CFCC event! The tournament was five rounds.

Players had the option of a 3-day schedule starting Friday evening with the full time-control of 90 minutes with 30 second delay or could opt for a 2-day schedule starting Saturday morning, with the first two rounds having a shorter time control of 60 minutes with 5 second delay. The top 2 sections (Master/Expert & Class A) were also dual rated for FIDE and USCF.

The action kicked off on Friday night at 7:00pm with about 70 players for the 3-day schedule. This included two of the three International Masters playing in the tournament. The competition resumed Saturday morning at 11 a.m. with the full roster of players now present in the tournament room. The 2-day schedule then played 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 rest of the tournament with the full 90 minute/30 delay time control. This was the first time CFCC used a 30 second time delay that players seemed to enjoy. The third-round games finished just after 9pm. This was followed by the blitz tournament side event that began around 9:30 (see below).

Sunday morning began with a free chess lecture given by FIDE Master, Alex Zelner. A group of approximately thirty people gathered to hear Alex’s insightful and entertaining analysis of the Chigorin Defense. He presented a miniature, challenging the crowd to solve the tactical combination of the game’s finish.

The fourth round of the tournament then began at 10 a.m. This was followed by the fifth and final round of the competition that started at 2:30 p.m. and continued through the afternoon. In the end, six undisputed champions were left standing. Each winning their section outright.

Master/Expert (FIDE) Section

Twenty-nine players competed in the FIDE rated Master/Expert section, the tournaments’ top section. Congratulations to Canadian IM Artiom Samsonkin (2563) who won clear first place in the Master/Expert Section. IM Samsonkin scored an impressive 4.5 points winning the first-place prize of $1200! Artiom’s only blemish was a 4th round draw with Ryan Hamley (2196). Although he did not win a prize, Ryan had an impressive performance, also scoring a win against IM Augusto Campos (2430) in round 2.

IM Facundo Pierrot (2451) from Argentina finished in clear second with a score of 4 points. IM Pierrot was rewarded for his undefeated performance (3 wins and 2 draws) with the $700 second place prize. A group of six players finished with a score of 3.5 points to share the 3rd/4th place prize of $191.67. They were Osvaldo Pena (2246), Nick Moore (2235), Joshua Harrison (2119), Vikram Rajmohan (2112), Jason Shen (2071) and Theo Slade (2149), who was the only other undefeated player in the section (2 wins and 3 draws).

Class a (FIDE) Section

With a mix of savvy veteran tournament players and young talents who “played up” a section, the Class A/U2000 Section was very competitive with 26 players.  There were four players who finished undefeated, and only four players had more than 3 wins overall.

Topping the field with 4.5 points was Ayush Maddikonda (1809) who took home a prize check of $800. Six players scored 3.5 and shared the 2nd/3rd/4th place with 3.5 points. Jacob Sperber (1796), Om Mishra (1782), Gary Cote (1800), Peter Bias (1836), Samuel Rodriguez Guitian (1627) and Sophie Li (1692) each won $183.33

CLass B Section

The Class B (U1800) Section was the smallest in the tournament with 21 players. Much like Class A, it featured many young up-and-coming talents, and many seasoned tournament players. This left only 5 players with 3 or more wins after the 5 rounds of play were complete. Among them was section champion Nazar Deputat (1577), who finished with an impressive perfect score of 5 points.

One of the final games late in the 3rd round on Saturday night, Nazar was seeking a draw in an inferior endgame, and pulled off an unlikely checkmate to get the win. He then won two tough games on Sunday to secure the $800 first place prize. Four players: Paul Leggett (1744), Archit Shankar (1560), Peyton Kromash (1680), and Kamal Amiral (1565) went on to tie for 2nd/3rd/4th place and each a $268.75 share of the prize.

CLass C Section

In the Class C (U1600) section Liam Gale (1384) topped the field of 35 players with 4.5 points to win clear first place and the $800 prize. Guillermo Mansilla (1471) who’s only loss came against Liam in the final round, finished with 4 points to tie with Paul Kuzio (1486) for 2nd/3rd place and $275 each. Paul had a nice performance coming back from a first round upset loss to win 4 games in a row.

Finishing with 3.5 points were William Hardison (1424) and Stuart Elvers (1434), who both went undefeated, and tied with Aashish Jagan (1393), Alison Solik (1352), Grace Yang (1339) and Christopher Gween (1319), who all won $41.67 each.

CLass d Section

With 38 players, the Class D (U1400) section was the largest non-scholastic section in the tournament. Congratulations to Lucio Luini (1357), who won clear first place and a prize check of $650. Lucio was one of only three players to score a perfect 5 points!

Three players: Celine Chen (1245), Sharjeel Malik (1290), Rui Sha (1377) tied for 2nd/3rd place (and top U1300) with 4 points, and each collected $200. While 4 players; Todd Kay (1319), Gary Robinson (1253), David Bonilla (1279) and Kevin Darnell tied for 4th place with 3.5 and each won $18.75. Zach Douglas (1185) took home the $75 Top U1200 prize of $75. Lisa Chapman (907) won the Top U1100 prize of $50.

Scholastic U1200 Section

The U1200/Scholastic Section was by far the largest section in the tournament with 68 players. For more than 20 of them, it marked their first USCF rated tournament. Congratulations to Aaron Sellars (560) who scored a perfect 5 points to win clear first place. Not only did Aaron win the $250 prize in only his seventh USCF event, but experienced a rating gain of 370 points! Alex Anderson (764) and Thaveesh Gallage (669) also went undefeated in the section to tie for 2nd place with 4.5 points, earning them each $100.

Six players finished with 4 points and shared the 4th pace and Top U1000 prizes. Evan Qian (803), Prajwal Nidadavolu (1053), Nicolas Yap (877), Noulin Liu (847), Joseph Toth (816), and Shang Shu Jiang (964) and each won $16.67. 

The top U800 prize was split by Benjamin Douglas (808), Zane Tsai (618), and Eben Ge (517) who each scored 3.5 points, and each won $16.67. The Scholastic section also featured the tournaments biggest upset. Panos Kyriakou (218) overcame a rating difference of 578 points to defeat Krish Palisetti (796) and win the $25 Upset Prize!

Saturday Night Blitz

A blitz tournament was held on Saturday night after play finished in the main tournament hall. The action kicked off at 9:30 p.m. with 35 players, including two IMs, competing in the four double-rounds round robin where each player plays one game with white and one game with black. Congratulations to Blitz tournament winners IM Artiom Samsonkin, and Vincent Stone (2182) who tied for first place with a score of 7/8 points and each won $160.

Interestingly, Vincent was the clear winner of the CFCC Autumn Open that was held in September 2022, and IM Samsonkin would go on to win this tournament. The players met over the board in round 3 of the blitz, in what would be a de-facto first place match, with each player scoring one victory over the other with the white pieces. IM Augusto Campos (2430) went into the final round 6-0, needing only one win to guarantee at least a share of first place, but lost both games to IM Samsonkin to finish out of the money. This allowed Vikram Rajmohan to win the clear third place prize of $80 with his result of 6.5 points.

The Top U1800 prize of $70 was won by Kyle Knapp (1683) with 6 points. Alex Anderson won $50 for Top U1400 with his 4.5-point performance. Youngsters, Samantha Davis (686) who travelled from Texas to play in the weekend tournament, and Joseph Toth drew their 4th round blitz games against one another to score 1 point, and each player received $20 for their share of the Top U1000 prize.

An action-packed weekend

The Winter Open Chess Tournament and Blitz was an action-packed, exciting weekend of chess. The Central Florida Chess club would like to thank all the players who participated and made it the most successful event in the long and storied history of the club. Thank you to CFCC Club president Larry Storch and VP Kevin Sibbitt who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to organize the event.

Steven Vigil (Senior TD) served as chief tournament director/ pairing chief for the event.  Charles Hatherill (National TD) served as chief floor director as well as chief arbiter for the FIDE sections. Sue Samuels (Club TD) assisted with the scholastic section.

Thank you also to Alex and Catherine Zelner of Orlando Chess & Games who ran the chess store throughout the weekend featuring a nice selection of books, sets and chess merchandise.

The CFCC’s next 3-day event, The CFCC Sunshine Open and Scholastic, will be held at the same venue, June 16-18 with the top two sections FIDE rated. We look forward to seeing you there!

-Steven Vigil

CFCC Chief Tournament Director

2023 Winter Open Slideshow Gallery
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All tournament photos have been uploaded.