Chess Horizons 2001 U. S. Open Larry Eldridge out of first place and earn one of those coveted qualifying berths. After the usual down-to-the-wire Three other Bay Staters — scramble, the 2001 U.S. Open Mikhail Perelshteyn, Bill wound up in a four-way tie among Paschall, and Bill Kelleher — New York grandmasters Alex achieved the same final result of Wojtkiewicz, Joel Benjamin, and 7 points, but their roads were a Alexander Stripunsky plus IM tad less difficult and their Fabian Doettling of France, all with tiebreaks not quite as good, so 7.5 out of 9 points. they missed out in the qualifying But while winning a major cham- derby. pionship, or even one-fourth of such And just another half-point back a title, is a pretty big thing, most of was local master Lou Mercuri, the excitement this year centered who despite his inactivity in re- Photogrpaher: Cortizas around other aspects of the nine-day cent years couldn’t resist a Eugene Yanayt, 2nd place, Denker extravaganza that attracted nearly “comeback” when the U.S. Open Tournament of Highschool 500 competitors from a half-dozen was being held virtually in his Champions and winner of a countries to the Sheraton Tara Ho- own backyard. University of Dallas scholarship. tel in Framingham Aug. 4-12. But the achievements of this quin- ciously provided his annotations for One was the outstanding success tet only begin to tell the story of the Chess Horizons. of so many Boston area and New impressive showing among the 220 Riordan went on to score 6 points, England players. Another was the or so local and regional players who as did quite a few other local and week-long battle for qualifying made up nearly half the field. area players including Allan berths in the upcoming U.S. Cham- Charles Riordan, a 21-year-old Bennett, Lawyer Times, and school- pionship — the first time this has Cambridge native who just gradu- boy stars Kent Leung, Eugene been a part of the Open. ated from Harvard University, Yanayt, and Jack Stolerman. As the top local hope, Igor Foygel pulled off the biggest shocker of the Yanayt added to his laurels by was in the spotlight on both counts. entire tournament with a victory coming in second in the concurrent And in the end it was indeed the over the very strong grandmaster Denker Tournament of High School veteran senior master from Sam Palatnik of Tennessee by way Champions, and winning the four- Brookline who carried the region’s of Ukraine. year college scholarship awarded to banner highest, holding his own It was no fluke, either, but a solid the highest-finishing non-12th- against top grandmasters in the clos- win in which Riordan outplayed the grader. ing rounds to finish just a half-point veteran GM all the way. He has gra- Another group had 5.5 — still an This year marked the sixth time the U.S. Open has been held in or around impressive result in such a major Boston in a long and colorful history. The first was 1938, when I. A. Horowitz event — including National El- and Isaac Kashdan shared the championship (the tournament had not ementary Champion Noah Pang of then acquired its current name, but the USCF traces the lineage of the Cambridge, New Hampshire Open through a succession of iterations back to 1900). schoolboy whiz Josh Friedel, In 1944 at the Boston City Club, while the tournament was still a small Women’s IM Esther Epstein, former round-robin event attracting just 18 players, Sammy Reshevsky won the Maine champion Jarod Bryan, New last of his three U.S. Open titles. By 1964 when the Open returned to Hampshire master Hal Terrie, Eric Boston at the Sheraton-Plaza Hotel, the size of the field was up to 229 as Pal Benko won the second of his eight championships. Godin, Mark Shmulevich, Steve Only six years later, in 1970, the Open returned to the Hub, this time at the Parker House, and pulled a record field of 303 entries. There were five Chess Horizons is the winner of grandmasters (a lot for that time), and the winner was world champion- the 2001 Chess Jounalists of ship candidate Bent Larsen of Denmark. America award for Best State In 1988 it was back again, this time at the Lafayette Hotel, where 618 Magazine. Please consider a entrants made it the fourth largest to that point. Dmitry Gurevich won the subscription to our award tournament, but the big news was a victory by the computer Deep Thought winning magazine. Thank you. over IM Igor Ivanov, the most spectacular tournament success by a com- puter program up to that time. As for Boston players, only one localite has Best in Chess, U. S. Open: A History, by Larry Eldridge U. S. Open: A History, ever won the Open: Weaver Adams in 1948. Mark Donlan, Editor. October - December 2001 31 Chess Horizons Brudno, Bijan Hararian, Bob enough to qualify. Why? I simply semifinals, and now I really wanted Armes, George Winsor, Dan didn’t have the experience in such to make the best of this chance and Bartley, and Rob Huntington. a big one-section tournament. I had play in the U.S. Championship. Foygel’s quest, though, was the no idea there would be that many I know from experience that you talk of the tournament. The popu- people with 7 points. I guess my should have only one goal. A couple lar master who emigrated from math calculations aren’t as good as of times when I had a chance to Ukraine several years ago had a big my chess calculations!” choose between a sharp and a more “rooting section” all week — a fact Actually, it’s pretty hard for any- safe line, I chose the safer one. he acknowledged in his post-tour- one to figure out what is going on Maybe in a different situation I nament comments. at the Open for the first few days. would have chosen differently. But “I want to mention the wonderful In order to give the optimum num- I wasn’t going to burn any bridges!” support I got from players at the ber of people a chance to play, there Igor said that he and just about Metrowest Chess Club and all over are five different schedule options everybody else involved assumed Massachusetts,” he said. “I really in the first five rounds (actually five that 7 points would pretty much appreciated it. It made me feel like separate mini-tournaments), fol- guarantee a qualifying berth. But I’m part of the Massachusetts chess lowed by “the big merge,” when all then — Surprise! — It didn’t. None community.” players are grouped together for the of the quadruple-champions was Nobody knew quite what to expect final four sessions. involved: all were either already in this new qualifying process, Foygel played in the matinee whereby the top 10 men and the top and won that “tournament,” two women would earn berths in an beating perennial rival John expanded U.S. Championship field Curdo in Round 5 to emerge in Seattle next year. with 4.5 points. But a draw with First, not everybody was in the schoolboy star Leung in Round hunt. Only U.S. citizens were eli- 6 set him back. He needed a win gible, and some of those had high in Round 7 to stay in conten- enough ratings that they were al- tion, and he got it vs. Master ready seeded into the Seattle event Donny Ariel. and didn’t have to try to qualify. With 6 points, Igor was now So the race was among those who actually in a multiple tie for the didn’t fit either of the above catego- tournament lead, and in Round ries — and who thought enough of 8 he got paired with the black their chances to pay a $50 extra fee. pieces against the super-strong Fifty men and seven women did GM Leonid Yudasin on Board this, including a couple who gave One. Needing at least a draw, Photographer: Cortizas new meaning to that famous expres- he achieved that result to reach GM Arthur Bisguier sion: “the triumph of hope over ex- 6.5. seeded or not U.S citizens. But 16 perience.” By the last round, Benjamin and of those who scored 7 points were When Ben Johnson coined the Doettling emerged as co-leaders eligible for the 10 places, so it went phrase centuries ago, he was talk- with 7 points each, while Foygel to tiebreak points. ing about remarriage. was part of a veritable “army” with “I didn’t try to figure it out,” But surely it applies to these two 6.5. He got white against the Turk- Foygel said of that suspenseful post- players, one rated 1628 and the ish grandmaster Suat Atalik. tournament hour or so while the other unrated, who threw their So the stage was set. Either Ben- tiebreaks were decided. “I was so money away in a paroxysm of self- jamin or Doettling could win the tired. I just waited around. I had no delusion if there ever was one. championship outright with a vic- control. If it happened, it happened. Needless to say, their fantasies tory, but if they should draw, as they If it didn’t, it didn’t.” didn’t last long; both lost their first eventually did, anyone who won For Igor it happened, but the other two games en route to minus scores. one of those last-round games on the New Englanders weren’t so lucky There were plenty of serious con- next few boards would tie for the as Michael Mulyar, Alexander tenders, though, and many of them, U.S.