As I mopped up water in the men’s bathroom, I reminded Kush that chess tournaments are unpredictable events.
I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.
Today was our first quad event of the year in Livingston. Twenty-two kids signed up to play in groups of four. That doesn’t mathematically work out, so one of the groups would have six players.
As Noreen and I set up for the event, a young man named Kush Mody walked into the tournament saying he was ready to volunteer. You may remember Kush from our last event in which he won first place in the highest section. He asked me at the time how to become a tournament director. I told him to buy the rulebook and read it, register as a tournament director with the US Chess Federation, and to start knocking on doors and volunteering as an apprentice TD at every chess tournament he can.
Lots of people ask about becoming a tournament director, but few actually go through with it. So I was pleased when Kush walked in the door. I gave him a friendly warning that the day was going to be unpredictable. Chess tournaments always are.
Our first bit of unpredictability happened about two minutes later. One of the players in the six-person quad called out sick. So I revised the group and printed a new set of pairings. Five players in a group meant someone would have a bye each turn. The byes ultimately went to Theodore Wang, Marcel Navas, and Anish Shrivastava. They watched the other players and generally soaked in the chess atmosphere. I made a point of thanking each one for their patience. The ultimate winner of quad 5 was Isabella Lebersfelt with three wins.
Quad 4 has its own share of unpredictability. Prisha Sampat and Aliza Zaslavsky played a hard-fought game in the second round. Aliza was favored to win by nearly 300 rating points, but Prisha Sampat pulled off the upset.
Of course unpredictability works both ways. Bryce Cheng pulled off his own coup against Prisha in the final round. Prisha had mating material on the board vs. Bryce’s king, but Bryce hung in there until the game ended in a stalemate.
Ultimately the quad 4 winner was Kevin Zhang, who walked away with both a perfect three points and the prize fund.
Quad 3 had many hard-fought games. Number four seed, Suhani Kumar, pulled off the draw against the highest rated quad member, Greyson Wallace, in the first round. That draw came back to haunt Greyson later, when he finished half a point short of sharing in the prize money.
The prize itself was split between Ches Chen and Ari Bajraktari who each finished with 2 points. There was lots of tough chess playing in this quad, with everyone having both high and low moments during their three games.
Quad 2’s unpredictability was when Ethan Karni withdrew from the event. He wasn’t feeling well and opted to head home. Feel better, Ethan! Your participation makes these events more fun for everyone.
This left Ryan Zarineh, Emma Hovsepyan, and Aaron Zhang duking it out for the prize money. All of their ratings were very close so their games could easily go either way.
In the end Aaron pulled off the wins he needed and left the tournament with three points.
That leaves Quad 1, our highest rated players. Kian Zarineh pulled off a draw against Andrew Goldfarb in the first round. Andrew’s rating was about 200 points either, so he was slightly favored to win.
Like Prisha and Greyson back in quad 3, missing that half a point ultimately kept Andrew from sharing in the prize fund. That award went to Samuel Hovsepyan and Agrany Kancharlapalli, both of whom finished two points each.
The day had its other unpredictability as well. During one round two players were off to the side playing a friendly (non-rated) game. Black had a king + queen + rook + bishop against a lone White king. In any realistic sense the game was over, although checkmate hadn’t occurred yet. White didn’t want to resign but didn’t want to suffer checkmate. So, he began removing Black’s pieces from the board. That prompted his opponent to cry foul, and so the squabble ensued. Through a combined effort of pseudo-parenting and tournament directing I helped the players work it out.
The real excitement of the day occurred when several boys raced through the tournament room shouting, “the toilet is pouring water all over the floor!” I raced to the scene (asking them to stop shouting as I went) and they were right. Someone had clogged up the toilet and proceeded to flush it multiple times.
As I mopped the floor, I grinned and welcomed Kush to tournament directing and all the glamor therein. And I reminded him that chess tournaments are always unpredictable events.
Thanks to everyone who attended today. We hope to see you at our next event.
Today’s winners:
Quad 1: Samvel Hovsepyan and Agrany Kancharlapalli (tie)
Quad 2: Aaron Zhang
Quad 3: Ches Chen and Art Bajraktari (tie)
Quad 4: Kevin Zhang
Quad 5: Isabella Lebersfeld
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