Army Man Arthur Feuerstein Co-Winner Of ICA OPEN!
Upsets Zlotnikov & Kudrin To Claim Mutual 1st With ICA Coach Stripunsky!
In 1960 Arthur Feuerstein, a government issued warrior of the United States, won the inaugural US Armed Forces Championship. Having already finished ahead of future world champion Bobby Fischer in the 1956 US Blitz championship, and having already held Fischer to drawn games on two occasions (here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044406, and here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044437) Feuerstein was at that point just starting on a chess career that has to this point already spanned into a jagged half century of absolute adventure.
An adventure that based on this past ICA OPEN victory doesn’t look like it is coming close to ending.
Arthur started by beating the 30th and 6th finishing participants, before going up against favored, multiple time ICA OPEN winner Sergey Kudrin in the third round. Kudrin, who once held the former world champion Mikhail Tal to a draw, and who usually finished ahead of Arthur in previous tournaments, was not able to overcome the tough veteran on this occasion. With Kudrin out of the way, and the last round looming, Feuerstein finished the show with a sparkling win over another ICA OPEN winner, and top finisher in Mikhail Zlotnikov.
Finishing in co-first, and with an almost equally impressive performance as Feuerstein’s, was ICA coach Alex Stripunsky. Stripunsky started by edging, 36th placing Greg “Leg” Gabovich, and 15th finishing George Grasser. Going into the third round, Alex took out 5th finishing Igor Yeliseyev, and 4th placing, one time ICA coach Gregory Markzon.
Both Arthur, and Alex received 248 dollars each for their performances.
Six people finished in co-third place, with the above mentioned Mikhail Zlotnikov ahead of the bronze pack due to tie-breaks. The other finishers, in order of tie-break standing, were Gregory Markzon, Igor Yeliseyev, Dragomir Tomic (who received a 90 dollar prize for the highest finishing player with a rating under 2000), Marlo Micayabas, and finally Alex Katz. Everyone besides the aforementioned Dragomir got 36 dollars a piece.
Ariel Shusterman finished in 11th place with 2.5 points and received 90 dollars for the best performance of a player with a rating under 1800.
Michael Lim finished in 18th place with 2 points and got 68 dollars for being the best finisher under the age of 13.
Joel Pruzansky and Fred Sauberman, both with 2 points finished in 19th, and 20th place respectively, and got 34 dollars each for being the top finishers over the age of 65. Of note is that this prize, usually monopolized by Arthur Feuerstein, went into the hands of somebody else because of Arthur’s first place finish.
Finally, Albert Starominsky, finished in 22nd place, and received 90 dollars for the best finish of a player with a rating under 1600.
36 players participated in the OPEN SECTION this time around.
Congratulations to all the winners and hope to see you all at the next tournament.
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