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 The largest multi-day tournament in Massachusetts, the Eastern Class Championship, was held in Sturbridge March 5th-7th. 198 players competed in eight sections. Because this was a class championship players were only allowed to play up one section, ensuring stiff competition.
The 30-player Master section ended in a three-way tie between grandmasters Joel Benjamin of New York and Alexander Ivanov of Newton, Massachusetts and international master Robert Hungaski of Connecticut with 4-1 scores. Benjamin was awarded an additional prize for finishing first on tiebreak. In the last round he beat California grandmaster Josh Friedel, formerly of New Hampshire, to catch up with Ivanov and Hungaski, who drew their game.
Alex Fikiet, a promising young player from Connecticut, won the 27-player Expert section with a score of 4 1/2-1/2, giving him a post-t o u rnament rating of just under 2200. He drew in the last round with Ian Harris, who tied for second with James Nitz and Mikhail Sher.
Yuval Shemesh of North Carolina won his first four games and then drew in the last round against Victor Archavski to win the 49-player Class A section.
Augusto Gutierrez of New Jersey won the 32-player Class B section with a last round win against James Asaro of Vermont. Asaro had won his first four games while Gutierrez had been held to draw against Robert Kwong of New York.
Max Krall of Connecticut, winner of the 28-player Class C section, was the only player in the tournament with a perfect score, but he only won four games over the board, getting a full point bye in the first round. As a result of this tournament his rating jumped 180 points,
from 1406 to 1586.
Timothy Lavoie of Natick, MA and Ian Lomeli of Connecticut tied for first in the 25-player Class D section. They were paired in the last round, each having won his first four games, and they drew.
Brian Eibert of New Hampshire had a slow start in the 11-player Class E section, drawing his first two games, but won the last three to finish first.
First-time player Seetharam Ganesan lost in the first round to Haocheng Huang, but he came back and won the remaining five games in the six-player Under 900 section, including a last round win against Huang. (With six players and six rounds, each player had to play one opponent twice.) Since Ganesan was unrated, Huang was awarded the first place prize money.
Bill Goichberg directed this Continental Chess event, assisted by his wife Brenda and by Bob Messenger.
White: Joshua Friedel
Black: Joel Benjamin
19th Eastern Class Championships,
Round 5, March 19, 2009
[B04] Alekhine's Defense
1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. Nf3 dxe5 5. Nxe5 c6 6. Be2 Nd7 7. Nf3 g6 8. c4 Nc7 9. Nc3 Bg7 10. O-O O-O 11. Re1 b6 12. Bf4 Ne6 13. Bg3 Bb7 14. d5 Nc7 15.dxc6 Bxc6 16. Nd4 Bb7 17. Bf3 Bxf3 18. Nxf3 Ne6 19. Qe2 Bxc3 20. bxc3 Ndc5 21. Rad1 Qe8 22. Qe3 Qa4 23. Qh6 Rae8 24. Rd4 f6 25. Rg4 Rf7 26. h4 Rd8 27. Nd4 Ng7 28. h5 g5 29. f4 Qd7 30. fxg5 Qxg4 31. g6 Qxh5 32. gxf7+ Qxf7 and Black won. 0-1
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