Georgia G/45 Championship

34 players, rated between 1104 and 2483 entered the 2008 Georgia G/45 Championship. In his first tournament in his new home, IM Kirill Kuderinov went through the field like a hot knife through butter, winning all four games with seeming ease. They were, in order, Zimmy (1696); Michael Easterwood (2032); Joe Moon (2096); and the current holder of both the State Champion and Georgia Senior Champion, Mr David Vest (2201). For his efforts the IM took $250 from the House.
With his short last round victory vs The Pipe, Hartley Chiang (2066) took clear second and $150. Mr Chiang was held to a draw by Joe Scott (2085) in the penultimate round. It's good to see Joe back in action! Years ago the argument could be made that Joe was second only to the great IM Boris Kogan in Georgia. Joe, along with Wayne Christensen (2075), Misael Mestres (2049), Daniel Gurevich (2023), Joe Moon (2085), and Alan Piper each finished 3-1 and won $30. Klaus and The Drifter also finished with a 3-1 score, but, because they have devoted themselves to the royal game and become MASTERS, they went home empty-handed!
Although performing over two hundred points lower than his rating (1962-PR 1741), Paul Taylor won the class A prize of $150 by scoring 2 1/2 points. Such are the vagaries of the swiss system...
GCA board member Mike Mulford (1773), Ben Moon (1763), Carter Peatman (1698), and Ryan Christianson (1648) each took home $37.50 with an even score.
There was a four way tie in the Under 1600 section between Reece Thompson (1476), Gary Loveless (1420), Ananth Punyala (1291), and David Mbonu (1242), each with 2 points, good for $37.50 each.
Mr Mbonu, who was so excited about the tournament he called the House at 8 am, five hours before the start of the first round, and an hour and a half before we opened, had a PR of 1902 and gained 119 points! Ananth Punyala gained 59 with his 1615 PR. Ryan Christianson gained 26 points with his 1933 PR.
After the tournament I had an opportunity to interview the new IM in town, Kirill Kuderinov. He said he considered his best result to have been the 7 out of 10 oints he scored in the 2004 Olympiad on boards 2 and 3, against 6 GM's and 4 IM's! He was working at Six Flags in Texas and hopes to attend college in the area. I asked about the forfeit in the last round of the US Open and he said the TD's had been notified that he would be leaving early to travel to Chicago and it was their mistake that he was paired. The player with whom he was paired thereby received a gift last round point and won big money.
On a more somber note, I must report that the owner of the House of Pain, Thad Rogers has recently undergone major surgery. Our thoughts are with him and his wife, Janet.

A couple of games from the last round...The Pipe had called earlier in the week checking on the round times. He laughed when I asked him in how many of these G/45's he had played. Seems Alan had somewhere to be at 6 pm. He decided to play, hoping for a short game. Be very careful what you ask for...

Chiang (2066) - Piper (2071) [B12]
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 dxe4 4.fxe4 e5 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Bc4 Nf6 7.Bxf7+ Ke7 8.Bb3 Bxf3 9.Qxf3 Qxd4 10.Nc3 Nbd7 11.Be3 Qb4 12.0–0–0 Nc5 13.Bxc5+ Qxc5 14.Qf5 Ke8 15.g4 Qe7 16.g5 Nh5 17.g6 Qc7 18.Bf7+ Ke7 19.Qe6# 1–0

Seeing the game puts me in the awkward position of wondering why The Pipe did not avail himself of the half point bye in the last round. Although it is an abomination, it is legal...

The second game features two opponents with a 'history.' Seems Mr Walker shows no respect for the venerable 'Viktor Korchnoi of Southern Chess', LM Klaus Pohl. Like the great Bobby said, "Sometimes you give a lesson; sometimes you take a lesson." The 72 year young Klaus gave Mr Walker yet another lesson today! It is not often one gets to announce mate. I happened to be standing at the board when mate was announced. It was a BEAUTIFUL THING!

Pohl (2218) - Walker (1987) [B50]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 e6 4.d3 a6 5.0–0 b5 6.Bb3 Qc7 7.c3 Nf6 8.Re1 Nc6 9.Nbd2 Be7 10.a4 Bb7 11.d4 c4 12.Bc2 e5 13.Nf1 0–0 14.Ng3 Rfe8 15.Nf5 Bf8 16.Bg5 Nd7 17.h3 f6 18.Bd2 Nd8 19.N3h4 Kh8 20.Qh5 Ne6 21.d5 Nec5 22.Re3 Nb6 23.Rg3 Nbxa4 24.Ng6+ Kg8 25.Nh6+ gxh6 26.Ne7+ Kh8 27.Rg8# 1–0