We tied our record of 18 players in the Tuesday Night Masters. We had three new players this week as well. The strongest of them was GM Alex Wojtkiewicz (no offense Gregory and Woody), who has been missing from the New York chess scene since enrolling in UMBC. The other two newcomers played in my last US Junior Closed Championship. They were none other than Gregory Braylovsky and Shearwood (“Woody”) McClelland. Also one of our regulars, Lev Milman ,was absent this week as he is going to the Pan Ams in Argentina. Let’s wish him the best of luck, if he can win that he gets an automatic bid into the WORLD JUNIOR championships. Below is the list of players for this week

GM Igor Novikov
GM Alex Wojtkiewicz
GM Leonid Yudasin
GM Alex Stripunsky
IM Greg Shahade
FM Yuri Lapshun
IM Irina Krush
FM Ricardo D’Arruda
IM Justin Sarkar
FM Gregory Braylovsky
IM Jay Bonin
FM Lew Eisen
NM Woody McClelland
FM Ron Young
FM Boris Privman
NM Rafal Furdzik
NM Doug Pader
U2200 Qualifier – Ervin Matthew

PRIZES
1ST – 300
2ND – 140
3RD - 65

ROUND 1 – Things went as expected on the top boards, as all of the GMs won. On the lower boards things were not so easy, as a few of the stronger players were nicked for draws. Irina Krush, despite her new hairstyle, had the same result as she did the last time she played… a draw with Furdzik. Privman was able to defend a difficult position and get a draw with Lapshun. The biggest surprise was the qualifier, Ervin Matthew, scoring the draw against Justin Sarkar.

Leaders after Round 1
1 pt – Novikov, Wojtkiewicz, Yudasin, Stripunsky, Shahade, D’Arruda

ROUND 2 – On board 1, Novikov and Stripunsky had their traditional 2 move draw. On board two I was paired with Alex Wojtkiewicz. This guy used to have my number, yet the last two games of ours, despite bad positions for me, had ended in draws. My hope that this positive trend would continue was shattered as I got completely outplayed in an Accelerated Dragon. On board 3 Yudasin got a monsterous knight against D’Arruda’s bishop, and this was enough for the 2 time candidate to bring home the point. Meanwhile Lapshun took care of Furdzik and Krush stopped the qualifier to get amongst the leaders.

Leaders after Round 2
2 pts – Wojtkiewicz, Yudasin
1.5 pts – Novikov, Stripunsky, Lapshun, Krush

ROUND 3 – On board 1 Wojtkiewicz and Yudasin quickly agreed to peace. The Grandmasters didn’t seem to have any desire to fight with one another this week. Lapshun has made claims of how he always draws Novikov with the white pieces by playing a certain variation of the Poisoned Pawn. However this time Novikov wasn’t so cooperative, he eschewed the draw and Lapshun later eschewed a pawn and the game. Stripunsky, always versatile with his openings, successfully played the Closed Sicilian against Irina Krush. D’Arruda was very aggressive against Jay Bonin, sacking a pawn in the opening, however Bonin weathered the storm and then got a tremendous amount of counterplay, giving him the win and a chance for 3-1 for the third week in a row. Eisen sacrificed a pawn against Braylovsky but seemed to have very good compensation. However after Eisen succumbed to a knight fork trick in time trouble, Braylovsky improved to 2-1. I beat Sarkar in a French defense after he made what seemed to be an unnecessary pawn sacrifice.

Leaders after Round 3
2.5 pts – Wojtkiewicz, Yudasin, Novikov, Stripunsky
2 pts – Bonin, G.Shahade, Braylovsky

ROUND 4 – All the GMs agreed to quick draws on the top boards, meaning that Me, Bonin and Braylovsky had to win to join them in a massive tie for first place. I was black against Braylovsky and quickly won 2 pawns with a better position. My technique was an embarrassment as I had serious trouble winning, and only managed to do so with about 20 seconds left on my clock. Two weeks in a row Bonin went into the last round with 2/3, achieved winning positions and then made some big mistakes and could only get draws. Jay REALLY wanted to win one of these events and had to beat Lapshun with the white pieces to do it. Things were looking good as Bonin had a queen for a rook and a knight, but something went terribly wrong and it looked as though Lapshun would get at least the draw. I was still involved in a time scramble so I didn’t see exactly what happened, but when they stopped the clocks Bonin shouted “FINALLY!” as he had finally gotten ¾ and thus tied for first place.

FINAL STANDINGS

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10th New York Masters Action USA (USA), 21 v 2002
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                                           1   2   3   4  Total
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   1. Novikov, Igor A   g 2668 + 9 = 4 +13 = 2   3.0 ($85)
   2. Wojtkiewicz, A    g 2669 + 6 + 5 = 3 = 1   3.0 ($85)
   3. Yudasin, Leonid   g 2668 +15 +14 = 2 = 4   3.0 ($85)
   4. Stripunsky, A     g 2640 +16 = 1 + 7 = 3   3.0 ($85)
   5. Shahade, Greg     m 2554 +17 - 2 +14 +13   3.0 ($85)
   6. Bonin, Jay R      m 2380 - 2 +17 + 8 + 9   3.0 ($85)
   7. Krush, Irina      m 2427 =11 +18 - 4 = 8   2.0
   8. Sarkar, Justin    m 2435 =18 +10 - 5 = 7   2.0
   9. Braylovsky, Greg    2402 - 1 +16 +15 - 5   2.0
  10. Privman, Boris    f 2232 =13 - 8 =11 +14   2.0
  11. Furdzik, Rafal      2209 = 7 -13 =10 +15   2.0
  12. Pader, Douglas      2221 -14 -15 +17 +16   2.0
  13. Lapshun, Yury     f 2450 =10 +11 - 1 - 6   1.5
  14. D'Arruda, R       f 2437 +12 - 3 - 6 -10   1.0
  15. Eisen, Lewis        2304 - 3 +12 - 9 -11   1.0
  16. Mc Clelland, W      2275 - 4 - 9 +18 -12   1.0
  17. Young, Ronald     f 2270 - 5 - 6 -12 +18   1.0
  18. Matthew, Ervin      1924 = 8 - 7 -16 -17   0.5

1st place - $300
2nd place - $140
3rd place - $65