The first installment of a series of new tournaments took place at the Raleigh Tournament Chess Club on February 8th, 2012. These tournaments are designed to add a little variety to the club’s normal schedule of G/75 ladder games.
Nine players battled things out during the Raleigh Gauntlet, a three-round Game/30 event played with a two second delay. Not only did the players play for a $40 first prize, but the club’s title belt were also on the line. Daniel Solarez made his return to RTCC action after a few months off and swept his way through the field by scoring a perfect three points. After dispatching of Jon Achelpohl and Sam Beesley, Solarez (one of two five-time club champions) faced off with top seeded Eric Lindauer. Solarez was able to push through Lindauer and secure the title.
Lagging just behind was the other five-time champ and reigning title holder Jeff Jones, who’s draw with Lindauer was his only blemish. Jones ran his number of consecutive title defenses up to eight as a result of his performance. This passes Bobby Hughes inaugural reign of seven successive defenses for second most in club history. Eric Lindauer currently holds the standard of seventeen successful defenses.
Michael Pate claimed the third place award by defeating Jon Achelpohl in the final round. Not only did he receive his entry fee back, but he won the Jeff Schneider Memorial Intercontinental title in the process.
In fact the I-C title had quite an interesting night. It started of in the hands of Supreme Lambert who lost it in the first round to Venkat Shanmugavadivel. Venkat, who had won the vacated Bantamweight title the week before only to have it stripped as he was over the 1200 rating threshhold for the title, wasted no time in acquiring some hardware. Unfortunately for him, he could not maintain his title reign as Achelpohl used his pet Bird’s Opening to wrestled the belt away. Achelpohl did not have time either as Pate ran him down for the belt.
RTCC will return to it’s normal format of ladder games for the next five weeks until it host a five-round Game/15 event on March 22nd. The entry fee for this and all “sixth week” events will be $10. In the mean time, RTCC will host TACO LXXX on February 19th, and our signature event, the Big Enchilada from March 30th-April 1st.