Grandmaster Tamaz Gelashvili topped a 31-player Open section field to finish first at the 41st Continental Open, held August 11th to 14th at the Sturbridge Host Hotel in Sturbridge. Gelashvili ensured his 5½-½ victory with a last round win against GM Sergey Kudrin of Connecticut. Gelashvili's fellow New York GMs Giorgi Kacheishvili and Mikheil Kekelidze tied for second place, a full point back at 4½-1½. There was a six-way tie for third place between GM Alexander Ivanov of Newton, IMs Irina Krush and Justin Sarkar of New York, Jonathan Yedidia of Cambridge and Jim Rizzitano of Southborough, and 16-year-old Winston Huang of Newton.
15-year-old Darwin Ding of Lexington, with a pretournament rating of just 1910, finished clear first in the 35-player Under 2200 section with a 5-1 score. Kevin Zhou of Virginia won the 46-player Under 2000 section with 5½-½, as did Roman Cano of Pennylvania in the 32-player Under 1800 Section, Michael Kind of Manchester, New Hampshire in the 41-player Under 1600 section, and William Van Rensselaer of the Virgin Islands in the 26-player Under 1300 Section. Shawn Andrews of Vermont and Colin Smith of Maine tied for first with 5-1 scores in the 17-player Under 1000 section.
Bill Goichberg directed this 213 player tournament for the Continental Chess Association, assisted by his wife Brenda and by Bob Messenger.
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