| |  GM Alexander Ivanov, 58, of Newton (above), MA and national master Farzad Abdi, 33, of Rockland, MA shared top honors in the 74th New England Open, held August 30 - September 1 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Leominster, MA.  The duo tallied 4.5 points each out of 6 in an Open section field of 21 players to earn the title of New England co-champions for 2014. Ivanov, who had not played in a New England Open since 2010, was dealt a setback in the first round when he was upset by 10-year-old expert Carissa Yip of Andover, MA (below), in a game that made chess history. The win by Yip set a new world record for the youngest female to defeat a grandmaster in rated play. The record was held by Judit Polgar, who had downed her first GM at the age of 11.
 Despite the loss, Ivanov determined to stay in the tournament and not repeat what he did at the 2007 New England Open in Manchester, NH, where he also lost in the first round to an expert, Patrick Sciacca, and opted to drop out of the tournament and drive immediately to Albany, NY to compete in the 129th New York State Championship, where he tied for first place with fellow GM Ildar Ibragimov and won the title as a result of a playoff.
Going into the sixth and final round seven players were tied for first with 3.5 points out of 5. Besides Ivanov and Abdi, they included former New England champions IM William Paschall of Budapest, Hungary (above, left), a summer resident of South Yarmouth, MA and FM Chris Chase of Somerville, MA (above, right), as well as 2014 Mass. state champion Mika Brattain of Lexington, MA (below), FM Steven Winer of Belmont, MA, and NM Andrew Liu of Westborough, MA.
 Draws resulted in the games Paschall vs. Liu and Brattain vs. Winer, while Ivanov bested Chase and Abdi downed fellow NM Lawyer Times of Hyde Park, MA.
 Capturing the top U2300 prize with a score of 4-2 was Andrew Liu (below), while Sherif Khater of Nashua, NH won the top U2200 prize with a 3.5-2.5 tally.
In the 32-player Under 2000 section, Scott Didham of Sharon, MA and James Apiri of Worcester, MA tied for first place with scores of 5-1. Sharing the top U1850 prize with 4-2 results were Howard Goldowsky of Canton, MA and Joseph Bennett of Hubbardston, MA.
  A total of 36 players competed in the Under 1750 section, where Kevin Zimmerman of East Hartford, CT finished first with a score of 5.5-0.5. Tying for second place with 4.5-1.5 tallies were Anton Barash of Brighton, MA (above), and Stephen West of Westford, MA. Sharing the top U1600 prize with 3.5-2.5 results were David Todd of Boxford, MA, Nikita Roldan-Levchenko of Allston, MA, Evan MacLure of Lexington, MA, Allen Song of Wellesley, MA and Abhinav Govindaraju of Concord, NH.
In the 23-player Under 1500 section, first place with a score of 5-1 went to Udhay Vijay of Nashua, NH. Sharing the 2nd/U1350 prizes with 4.5-1.5 results were Robert Walton Jr. of Manchester, NH, Gershon Gilman of Newton, MA, Stacy Angle of Acton, MA and Jiahui Li of Worcester, MA. Tying for the U1200 prize with 3.5/6 were Pooja Welling of Nashua, NH and David Katsman of Chestnut Hill, MA.
The 74th New England Open Blitz Championship attracted 17 players. FM Denys Shmelov of Pepperell, MA won the championship with a score of 9 points out of ten. Sherif Khater finished second with a 7.5 point tally. Farzad Abdi won the top U2300 prize with 6/10, while William Ravn of Standish, ME captured the top U2000 prize with the same score. Nikita Roldan-Levchenko won the top U1800 prize, scoring 5.5/10.
 74th New England Open Scholastic Results:
K-12 U1500 (15 players):
1st: Abhinav Govindaraju, 3.5/4
2nd: Max Bennett, 3.5
3rd: Jerry Li, 3.5
Medal: Anish Kammila, Justin Jin – 3 ea.
K-12 U900 (18 players):
1st: Raymond Xu, 4/4
2nd: Andrew Gao, 3.0
3rd: Arjun Girish, 3.0
Medal: Timmy Guan, Shrujal San – 3 ea.
K-6 U1400 (20 players):
1st: Daniel Zhou, 4/4
2nd: Jerry Li, 3.0
3rd: Aaron Huang, 3.0
Medal winner: Boshen Li, 3.0
K-6 U500 (14 players):
1st: Daniel Lobo, 3.5/4
2nd: Ethan Lubomirski, 3.0
3rd: Sujith Yeruva, 3.0
Medal winner: Carah Su, 3.0
K-3 Under 1200 Section (7 players):
1st: Jerry Li, 4/4
2nd: Meghana Kancharla, 3.0
3rd: Noah Brauner, 2.0
Medal winners: Raymond Xu,
Venkatraman Varatharajan, Arya
Chawla, 2 ea.
K-3 Under 400 Section (8 players)
1st: Ethan Lubomirski, 4/4
2nd: Adam Lubomirski, 3.0
3rd: Evan Lavallee, 3.0
This year's New England Open, sponsored for the fourth year in a row in Leominster by the Massachusetts Chess Association, drew a total of 175 players in 11 sections. Chief TD was Robert Messenger of Nashua, NH. He was assisted by George Mirijanian of Fitchburg, MA, Nicholas Sterling of Needham, MA and Steve Frymer of Lexington, MA.
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