Menon Approaches 2400 With Strong 2016 US Open Showing

 

Gopal Menon's 6.5/9 at the 117th US Open Championships in raised his rating to 2394, within a pawn's throw of the coveted 2400-mark.

With 24 Illinois entrants, 11 finished with plus-scores, five were even at 4.5 and three were just a half-point away with 4.0's. The nine-round tournament was hosted at the Marriott Indianapolis East completed August 7. Complete US Chess posting is here.

In the ninth round, Menon closed with a draw against IM Andrey Gorovets of Texas. He was perfect against six lower-rated opponents, losing only to a pair of grandmasters: Aleks Lendrman in the fourth round and California-based Melikset Khachiyan in the seventh round.

The 6.5 tally was good enough to tie for 18th overall and represented the second best score among players rated Under 2400 (tied).

Pre-event ratings were fairly predictive of scoring for Illinois entrants with a few outliers.

Three Illinois masters finished with 6.0's: Michael Auger, Pete Karagianis and Jason Drake, as did Experts Max Zinski and Tianlu Peng. Tianlu won prize money through her mixed double pairing with Julian Proleiko who also had 6.0.

2100's seemed to be the magic rating to achieve a 5.5 score with Nicholas Bartochowski, Nate Kranjc and Duncan Shepherd achieving that tally.

5.0 postings were achieved by Zach Holecek and Shreya Mangalam, both in the mid-1900's to mid-2000's range.

4.5's were earned by Charles Craigmile, Abhy Venkat and Matthew Halloway, all in their 1800's prior to the event. But a pair of pre-event 1700's also earned 4.5 results: Ryan Obermeyer and Madhav Parthasarathy.

George David and Arthur Xu both earned 4.0's with 1800 pre-event ratings as did Aren Emrikian who entered with a 1400 official rating. Aren's live rating was much higher and the Open saw his rating climb 55 points to 1684.

Six-year old Aren, who is skipping from kindergarten to second grade come fall, defeated a 1974 in the first round before dropping a marathon game to eventual co-champion GM Gil Popilski in round two. Popilski is an Israeli grandmaster currently based in Texas.

Popilski and GM Alex Shabalov both posted 8.0/9's with Shabalov winning a blitz playoff to earn the coveted 2016 US Open Championship cup. Both co-champions won $4800 a piece.

To watch a six-year old compete at the board so admirably against world-class competition for three, four or five hours uninterrupted will be an enduring memory for this reporter (not that he didn't take a well-earned mommy break from time to time!). Fellow six-year old Rachael Li of Texas (sister of third place finisher IM Ruifeng Li) also made a lasting impression. With a 4.5 tally, she enhanced her rating from the 1400's to the 1600's... up 181 points. Rachael earned prize money with her brother for top brother-sister total as well as a Class D prize (her official rating at the start of the tournament was still at 1274).

Aren and Rachael are shining examples of how well a six-year old mind can master chess even if the anterior cingulate cortex of the nacent brain is still under construction.

Illinois newcomer seven-year old Linda Pham played earnestly in both the US Open Scholastic and the four-day US Open (eventually merging with six-day and nine-day players). Arriving from Viet Nam, by way of California, Linda and her family are taking residence in Chicago.

Leslie Bale, William Wang, Spencer Vincent and Jack Heller rounded out the Illinois entrants in the main event field.

Former ICA President Carl Dolson, now a resident of Indiana, won Class C prize money with his solid 4.5 tally, tying for second place with five others.

380-some played in the US Open. The $50,000 prize fund based on 500 entries was reduced to $40,000.

The event featured a baker's dozen of grandmasters and nine of the top 32 rated players in the US according to July 2016 US Chess ratings.

Illinois' 24 player entourage was the fourth largest of any state behind host Indiana (71), California (29) and neighboring Ohio (25). Despite having one fewer player than the Buckeye State, Illinois posted 11 more points in total (111.5 to 100.5).

As far as side events, Hanson Hao posted a 4.0/5 in the Weekend Swiss held July 30 and 31, tying for second place with five others. The field attracted 57 players including James Webb, Megan Chen and the aforementioned Jack Heller. 

Bloomington Normal area's Vishnu Anagani competed in the high school section of the US Open Scholastic held July 30, while brother Chidambara Anagani gave it a shot in the K-12, Under 1200. Linda Pham competed in the K-6, Under 1000.

Next year's US Open will take place in Norfolk, VA before returning to the midwest in 2018 at Middleton, WI, just outside Madison.