Wilder Wadford outdid himself this year with the Land of the Sky tournament, gaining USCF Heritage status in its 25th iteration. A great turnout of 252 players made this an exciting event that made the attendees glad they came and those who missed it sorry they didn’t get there. Two players, Bruce Goodwin and Lee Zinzow, were recognized for having attended all 25 Land of the Sky tournaments.
A new section structure this year made for fairly wide rating categories (Open, U2200, U1700, U1200) so the organizers decided to use accelerated pairings to lessen the potential disparities in the first two rounds. Accelerated pairing also cuts down on the potential for multiple players to finish with perfect scores as the top scorers are more likely to play each other. A new time control (40/120; SD 30) reduced the previous secondary time control by 30 minutes, helping keep the tournament on schedule. The two middle sections were named Asheville (U2200) and Buncombe (U1700). Since the higher section was named for a smaller area, it seems that the Open section should have been named Crown Plaza and the U1200 section should have been North Carolina in keeping with the progression from narrower to broader!!
The Open section had four Grand Masters (Alexander Shabalov, Alexander Ivanov, Timur Gareev, and Sergey Kudrin) and a small, but strong population of strong players from the southeast. Gareev and Kudrin swept through their opposition and the chance for perfect scores (4.5/5.0) was only marred by their draw against each other in round 3. Ivanov took clear 3rd with 4.0 and four North Carolina players, Craig Jones, Ron Simpson, Chris Mabe, and John Timmel all scored 3.0/5.0 to tie for 4th place with three others. There were two really notable games in the top section. In round 3 Georgia’s Richard Francisco upset GM Shabalov in a game that was awarded the Best of the Tournament prize. That was preceded in round 1 by John Timmel’s draw against GM Ivanov when Ivanov ran extremely low on time and accepted Timmel’s draw offer when it appeared he could not queen his pawn advantage. Ivanov then ran into NC high schooler Tanqi Wang and Virginian Rusty Potter in the next two rounds, both also managing to draw the GM.
The U2200 section came down to a face-off between Patrick McCartney and scholastic star JP Flynn, both with perfect 4.0 scores going into round 5. The game ended in a draw and allowed NCCA President Gary Newsom to catch them with his round 5 win as did Cezarte Ramos of Georgia. All finished 4.5/5.0. James Thompson and Alexi Gorbounov (4.0/5.0) tied for 5th with two others. Thompson had a nice win over a 2100 level player to improve his rating from 1939 to 1980, creeping ever closer to the Expert level. Gorbounov had not played since 2009 and it was nice to see him back on the chess scene. He says he plans to be active again and wants to return to the Expert level. The other very notable result in this section was 6th grader Chad Moody beating two 1800 level players and raising his rating from 1662 to 1727!
The only perfect score (5.0/5.0) in the tournament was accomplished by Jordan Joseph in the U1700 section (courtesy of your intrepid reporter who assisted Jordan by getting demolished by him in round 2). Joseph was playing in his first tournament since last year’s Land of the Sky and made a huge rating jump from 1577 to 1705!! Close on his heels were Praveen Suthaharan and Suhas Madiraju (4.5/5.0) who failed to catch Jordan because they played each other and drew. They tied with Nicholas Thompson of Georgia also. Suthaharan improved from 1665 to 1723 and Madiraju from 1606 to 1682. Other notable results from this section include Derek Chen jumping over 100 points from 1375 to 1485 and 3rd grader James Dill getting a win over a 1551.
The U1200 section was won by Luis Frommer and Neel Madhukar, both with 4.5/5.0 scores. They did not face each other, but both improved drastically, Frommer from 1170 to 1265 and Madhukar from 1078 to 1231.
A big thanks to everyone who helped make this such a memorable Land of the Sky on its silver anniversary. Wilder Wadford continues to put on an outstanding event in a beautiful setting. He continues to set the standard for 1st class chess events in North Carolina.