The 2nd Annual Fall International Chess Festival took place on 2-4th November at the Metropolitan Hotel in Troy, Michigan (suburban Detroit).
The tournament format was 5-round Swiss with Open section being FIDE rated. The Festival had four sections: Open, U1800, U1400 and U1000. A total of 183 players competed.
The Open section had 59 players. Grandmasters Yuri Shulman and Mesgen Amanov shared the first place with 4,5 points each. The top prizes were $2,500 – $1,500 – $900 – $500 – $300 – $100.
Open section standings (USCF ratings):
1-2. GM Yuri Shulman 2643 and GM Mesgen Amanov 2556 – 4,5 points each
3-6. GM Alexander Shabalov 2675, GM Sergey Kudrin 2608, GM Ben Finegold 2588 and Aaron Kahn 2421 – 4,0
7-15. GM Sam Shankland 2686, GM Victor Mikhalevski 2632, Atulya Arya Shetty 2441, Carl Brandon Boor 2379, Iryna Zenyuk 2336, Jiaxu Ye, Michael Bowersock 2202, John R Brooks 2196 and Carla Heredia 2098 – 3,5 etc
GM Yuri Shulman (photo by CCSCSL)
The U1800 section had 45 participants. Mengshuang Li took a clear first place with 4,5 points and the $1,000 prize.
The U1400 section saw 37 players competing. Kyle Schwiebert ad Matthew Douglas Minear shared the first place with 4,5 points each. Top prizes were $750 – $400 – $250 – $150.
The U1000 section had 43 participants. This group was played over 4 rounds of Swiss system. Rohan Talukdar won with the perfect 4/4 score to earn $150.
GM Mesgen Amanov (left, photo by Arman Karakhanyan)
