North American Open, December 26-30, 2014

23rd Annual North American Open
December 26-30, 2013
The 23rd Annual North American Open was held at Bally’s Casino Resort, 3645 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, Nevada.

GM Giorgi Kacheishvili had the best tie-breaks out of 8 players who finished tied 1st-8th in the Open Section with 6½ points to claim the title of North American Open Champion and take his winnings to nearly $3,000. GMs Yi Wei, Sergey Erenburg, Timur Gareev, Alex Shimanov, Varuzhan Akobian and Alex Lenderman, along with IM Chen Wang completed the group at the top. Along with his top place finish, Wang’s performance was also good enough for a GM norm.

IM norms were achieved by Ryan Goldenberg, FM Razvan Preotu, FM Roman Sapozhnikov, FM Arthur Shen and Gregory Young.

As usual, this writer was a spectator, and I saw as well as our resident, GM Timur Gareev, Ryan Phillips, Juan Jauregui, Raymond Seid, John Currell, Vivian Liu, Karl Ulbrich playing in this event. Juan finished with a great 4.5/7, and commented it was a hard event.

The final standings for all sections and the prizes are posted at http//www.northamericanopen.com for all those who played in this annual event.

here are a couple games from one of the winners, Timur Gareev and another themetic game where Larry Christiansen pitches his queen away.

[Event “Las Vegas, NV”]
[Site “Las Vegas, NV”]
[Date “2013.12.26”]
[Round “2.1”]
[White “Mulyar, Michael”]
[Black “Gareev, Timur”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “A46”]
[WhiteElo “2423”]
[BlackElo “2650”]
[PlyCount “106”]
[EventDate “2013.12.??”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “USA”]
[Source “MonRoi”]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 b5 4. Bg2 Bb7 5. O-O Be7 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. c4 a6 8. b3
c5 9. dxc5 Bxc5 10. Bb2 d6 11. Qc2 Nbd7 12. Rad1 Rc8 13. Qb1 Rc7 14. b4 Bb6 15.
cxb5 axb5 16. Qd3 Qa8 17. a3 Qa6 18. e3 Ba7 19. Rc1 Rfc8 20. Rxc7 Rxc7 21. Rc1
Rxc1+ 22. Bxc1 Bd5 23. Bb2 Qb7 24. Ne1 Bxg2 25. Nxg2 d5 26. Ne1 Ne8 27. Nef3
Nd6 28. Qc3 f6 29. Nd4 Bxd4 30. Qxd4 e5 31. Qd3 Nb6 32. Nb3 Na4 33. Na5 Qf7 34.
Bc1 Nb6 35. Nb3 Nbc4 36. Nc5 e4 37. Qd1 Ne5 38. h4 Nf3+ 39. Kf1 g5 40. hxg5
fxg5 41. Bb2 Nc4 42. Bc3 h5 43. Kg2 h4 44. Nxe4 h3+ 45. Kh1 dxe4 46. Qd8+ Kh7
47. Qh8+ Kg6 48. g4 Nfe5 49. Qh5+ Kf6 50. Qh6+ Ke7 51. Qxg5+ Ke6 52. Qh6+ Kd5
53. f4 exf3 0-1

[Event “Las Vegas, NV”]
[Site “Las Vegas, NV”]
[Date “2013.12.29”]
[Round “7.2”]
[White “Gareev, Timur”]
[Black “Yermolinsky, Alex”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D90”]
[WhiteElo “2650”]
[BlackElo “2510”]
[PlyCount “79”]
[EventDate “2013.12.??”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “USA”]
[Source “MonRoi”]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. h4 c6 6. Bg5 O-O 7. Bxf6 Bxf6 8. h5
g5 9. h6 Bf5 10. e3 e6 11. Bd3 Bg6 12. Qe2 Nd7 13. Rd1 Re8 14. Kf1 a6 15. g3 b5
16. cxd5 cxd5 17. a3 Nb6 18. Kg2 Rc8 19. Bxg6 hxg6 20. e4 Kh7 21. Rd3 Nc4 22.
e5 Be7 23. a4 bxa4 24. Nxa4 Rb8 25. b3 Na5 26. Qe3 Rb4 27. Rc3 Nxb3 28. Rxb3
Rxa4 29. Rb7 a5 30. Qd3 Rf8 31. Nh2 Rb4 32. Ra7 Kxh6 33. Ng4+ Kg7 34. Qf3 Rg8
35. Nf6 Rh8 36. Rd7 Qf8 37. Rc1 Rc4 38. Rxc4 dxc4 39. d5 c3 40. Qxc3 1-0

[Event “Las Vegas, NV”]
[Site “Las Vegas, NV”]
[Date “2013.12.29”]
[Round “7.17”]
[White “Sapozhnikov, Roman”]
[Black “Christiansen, Larry”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E43”]
[WhiteElo “2293”]
[BlackElo “2582”]
[PlyCount “129”]
[EventDate “2013.12.??”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “USA”]
[Source “MonRoi”]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 c5 5. e3 O-O 6. Bd3 b6 7. O-O Bb7 8. a3
Bxc3 9. bxc3 Be4 10. Be2 Nc6 11. Ng5 Bg6 12. f3 d5 13. Bd2 cxd4 14. cxd4 dxc4
15. Bxc4 Nxd4 16. Rc1 b5 17. Ba2 Nf5 18. Qe2 Qb6 19. g4 Nd6 20. h4 h6 21. Nh3
Nc4 22. Nf4 Nd5 23. Nxg6 fxg6 24. Bxc4 bxc4 25. Rxc4 Rad8 26. Rf2 Qd6 27. f4
Qxa3 28. Bc1 Qe7 29. g5 h5 30. Qc2 Kh7 31. Qe4 Nb6 32. Rc6 Rfe8 33. Rfc2 Rd1+
34. Kh2 Nd5 35. Qf3 Rd3 36. Qe4 Rb3 37. Qe5 Qd7 38. Rc7 Nxc7 39. Rxc7 Qxc7 40.
Qxc7 Reb8 41. Kg3 R8b7 42. Qe5 R7b6 43. Bd2 Rc6 44. Kf3 a6 45. Qe4 Rd6 46. Bb4
Rd1 47. Bc5 Rf1+ 48. Ke2 Rbb1 49. Qe5 Rbe1+ 50. Kd3 Rd1+ 51. Ke4 Rd5 52. Qc3
Rb1 53. Bd4 Rb7 54. Qc6 Rdd7 55. Qxa6 Re7 56. Be5 Rb4+ 57. Kf3 Rbb7 58. Bd6
Red7 59. Qc6 Ra7 60. Ke4 Rdb7 61. Ke5 Rb3 62. Bc5 Ra5 63. Kxe6 Rc3 64. Kd6 Ra2
65. Qb7 1-0