TOURNAMENT CHESS AT ICA: BACK TO LIFE!

The recent 10 Section quad-tournament held at ICA on November 20 of 2021, marked the return of in-person tournament chess to the area after the current pandemic put a serious crimp, not only in the chess activities of local players and clubs, but in the World of Professional Chess as well. The last Candidates Tournament, held to determine the next challenger to FIDE World Champion Magnus Carlsen, which commenced in 2020, and which was ultimately won by Russian Federation’s Ian Nepomniatchchi, had been suspended on March 26, 2020 and not resumed until April 19, 2021, due to concerns over the mounting coronavirus health crisis. Nepo himself famously declined the offer of a friendly handshake from former World Champion and all-time chess-great Anatoly Karpov due to health concerns.

The pandemic had a no less deleterious impact on local chess tournaments and lessons. Many lessons had to be held by Skype and Zoom. Some tournaments, including one organized between America’s International Chess Academy, headed by the redoubtable Diana Tulman -- against the well-known Grandmaster, chess writer and teacher, Alex Barburin and the students of his Chess School of Dublin, Ireland -- were held through the internet, where CoVid-19 and variants are not an issue. The New Jersey-Dublin match was played by students of a wide range of skill-levels and resoundingly won by our own International Chess Academy. Several of the games of the tournament were annotated by Grandmasters and were featured in an article written by ICA’s Nicholas Katz which appeared in Issue 21 of American Chess Magazine.

But the hunger for over-the-board chess has all the time remained – nothing can replace the feel of the chess pieces in one’s hand, nor the excitement and tension, not to mention the comradery, of meeting your opponent face-to-face over the chessboard. And, so the November 20, 10-section quad held at the home branch of the International Chess Academy, marking our return to over-the-board chess was, despite the slightly surreal aspect of everybody wearing surgical masks, a very big deal.

One Tournament Director said that he is “extremely happy that we are able to do it in person because I’m really tired of running online tournaments instead of real chess because online unfortunately some people cannot stop themselves from cheating and that is not happening here. In this tournament we had forty participants which was just great for our first time back.”

Section 1 was won by Ilya Asulin (1779) with a perfect score of 3.0. Section 2 was won by the bright young star Sujia Dia (1379) who is poised to be ranked the number one 7-year-old in the country. Other quad winners were Mark Kogan (3.0), David Mo (2.0), Christopher Corcoran (3.0), James Chen (2.5) who split first-place with Maana Chinni (2.5), and Section 7 and 8 winners Juno C Moo (3.0) and Yuxin Wu (2.5). Section 9 was topped by Owen Browen with a perfect score, as was Section 10 by currently unrated Samuel Shapiro. All winners received cash prizes.

Needless to say, the tournament was considered a great success by all the participants, directors, and members of the ICA staff. Our complete schedule of 2022 tournaments is posted here. We look forward to seeing you there!

-Jonathan Freiberger