The Greater Boston Open was held on October 26th at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough. GM Alexander Ivanov and NM Michael Vilenchuk, an Ohio native and current Brandeis student, shared first in the top section with 3.5 points out of 4. Howard Goldowsky and Larry Eldridge shared tops in the U1900 with the same score. The U1600 and U1200 would have clear winners with perfect scores in Alan Sikarov and David Zhao, respectively. 

 

The 44th Continental Open was held from August 7th through 10th in Sturbridge. Three players tied for first with 5/6. Unfortunately, none of these three – New York GM Alexander Stripunsky, Connecticut GM Sergey Kudrin, or Connecticut IM Jan Van de Mortel – represented the host state. The Commonwealth fared better in the U1900, where Mark Fins claimed sole first, the U1700 (Malachi Davis), and the U1500 (Bharath Heggadahalli). Each of these players claimed their section’s top spot with a 5.5/6 score.

 

Interestingly, with Maine’s Aaron Spencer sweeping the U2100, Vermont’s Andy Yang sweeping the U1300, and New Hampshire’s Ed Rogers earning sole first in the U1000, this left Rhode Island as the only New England state without a section winner in the field. Puny Rhode Island. Massachusetts was well represented at the Hartford Open between September 26th and September 28th . IM Samuel Sevian and FM Christopher Chase shared first in the open section with 4.5/6 each, while NM Farzad Abdi took sole third with 4/6. Read more about Sevian’s climactic match with GM Ivanov on page 13.

 

A remarkable feat was achieved by Worcester’s Brett Kildahl over nine days between October 28th and November 5th.

Within this stretch, he would claim first in the top section of three different multi-week evening tournaments across the state – the Metro West Chess Club’s Trick or Treat Swiss (where he tied with Eric Godin), the Worcester Chess Club’s Obviously October Open, and the Wachusett Chess Club’s Ernest Fandreyer Memorial. With this quite possibly unprecedented achievement, Kildahl earned a healthy chunk of prize money and his first rating over 2200. Congratulations, Brett!