On September 26-27, 1998, 112 players (including 2 GM's, 1 IM, and 2 FM's) from many parts of the country--some as far as Texas and Illinois--came to Cambridge, Massachusetts to participate in the 26th annual Harvard Open. The tournament was directed by Michael Gosselin, who was assisted by Allan Ong, and it was held on Harvard's campus at Lowell Lecture Hall. Originally, the entire tournament was supposed to be played in that building, but a rocky start (in which two of the tournament rooms were locked!) forced the first two rounds of the Under 1600 section to be played across the street in Memorial Hall. As a first-time organizer of this event, I chose to play in the first round of the tournament after having to manage this fiasco, and was promptly upset by Gilberto Kernahan (1927). However, after the uncertainty of the first round, things thankfully began to settle down, and the rest of the weekend went smoothly.

In the 40-player Open section, grandmasters Sergey Kudrin and Alexander Ivanov finished tied for first with 4/4, each taking home $296 and 7.5 grand prix points. There was a six-way tie for third between FM's Jacob Chudnovsky (2403) and William Paschall (2394), yours truly (2244), David Tylevich (2228), Robert Armes (2085), and Kernahan, each with 3/4. Armes and Kernahan shared the top U2200 prizes. Chudnovsky lost a heartbreaker in the last round to Kudrin in which he missed a draw, while Tylevich (after defeating IM Josh Manion with black in round 3!) lost to Ivanov in the final round. After beating me, Kernahan then won his next two games to go 3-0 before losing in the final round to Paschall. Armes moved into the tie with an impressive final round win over Paul MacIntyre, while I snuck into the tie with a victory over rising junior Andrew Bakker.

The 36-player Under 2000 section ended with a crowd at the top, as Geoffrey Polizoti (1977), Christopher Dingle (1650), and Ilya Bronshteyn (1613) all finished in the winner's circle with 3.5/4, sharing 1st, 2nd, and top under 1800 prizes. Lu Yin (1766) took the second place under 1800 prize with 3/4.

In the 36-player Under 1600 section, Rory Bauer (1531) and Alexander Demidov (unr.) shared first place with 4/4. Five players tied for top under 1400 wth 3/4: Jack Litwinsky (1381), Christopher Lee (1369), Tom Newman (1358), and Robert Roiter (1278), and Robert Title (1231).

September 27th also marked the 3rd annual Harvard Open Scholastic, in which 45 children took part. In the High School stection, Igor Pedan (1276) swept the field to go 5-0 and win the title. 2nd through 4th in the High School section were Paul Grabowski (1158) with 4/5, Dennis Lui (Unr.) with 3/5, and Erik Savage (812) with 2/5. Top team honors went to Wellesley High School.

In the Junior High Section, Joseph Caldwell (1123) took first place with 3.5/4, with Christo Estremera (1076) and Shauna Tracey (1056) finishing 2nd and 3rd with 3/4, and Rudolf Hersh (1110) finishing 4th with 2.5/4. Winchester Chess Club took top team honors, while Roxbury Latin finished second in the team standings.

In the Elementary section, Julia Kerr (849) took first place, winning all four of her games. Taking clear second was Meldonique Patterson with 3.5/4, while Stephanie Filipek and Roman Pedan finished 3rd and 4th respectively with 3/4. Christian School 1 finished as the top team, while Winchester Chess Clubtook finished as the second-place team.

Both tournaments were a huge success for the Harvard Chess Club, as many players remarked positively about the tournament atmosphere. In addition, the Harvard Open was profitable for the HCC for the first time in a decade. I would like to personally thank everyone who participated in each tournament as well as those who assisted in the moving of chairs and tables, especially Allan Ong and T.K. Yang. I hope to see even more people participate in the 27th Annual Harvard Open and 4th Annual Harvard Open Scholastic in 1999!

Below is the last round encounter between Kudrin and Chudnovsky, and 2 games involving the organizer :). My thanks to Jacob for providing the first game and the analysis. More games from the tournament should be forthcoming.

Round 4, Board 1
White: FM Jacob Chudnovsky (2403)
Black: GM Sergey Kudrin (2610)
(annotations by FM Chudnovsky)

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 d6 7. Be2 Nxd4 8. Qxd4 Bg7 9. Be3 0-0 10. Qd2 a6 11. f3 Be6 12. 0-0 Qa5 13. Nd5 Qxd2 14. Nxe7+ Kh8 15. Bxd2 Rfe8 16. Nd5 Nxd5 17. cxd5 Bxd5 18. Bc3 Bxc3 19. bxc3 Bc6 20. Bc4 Kg7 21. Rad1 Rad8 22. Bd5 Bxd5 23. Rxd5 Re5 24. c4? (No better was 24. Rfd1 Rxd5 25. Rxd5 Kf6 with the idea of 26...Ke6 and 27...Rc8 =/+, but simply 24. Rd4 would have led to a dead-drawn double rook endgame. Now black gets an advantage, and white has to fight for the draw.) 24...Rxd5 25. cxd5 Rc8 26. a4 b5 27. axb5 axb5 28. Rb1 Rc5 29. Kf2 f5! 30. Ke3 Kf6 31. g3 Rc3+ 32. Kd4 Rc4+ 33. Kd3 fxe4+ 34. fxe4 Ke5 35. Rxb5 Rd4+ 36. Ke3 Rxe4+ 37. Kf3 h5 38. Rb8 Rg4 39. h3 Rg5 40. g4 Kf6 41. Rb5 Re5 42. gxh5 Rxh5 43. Kg4 Rg5+ 44. Kf4 Rf5+ 45. Kg4 Re5 46. h4 Re4+ 47. Kg3 Rd4 48. Rb8 Rxd5 49. Rf8+ Ke7 50. Rg8 Kf7 51. Rd8 Rd4 52. Kf3 Rd1 53. Ke4?! Re1+ 54. Kd5? (White undertakes an erroneous maneuver. If I had kept the king close enough to defend the h-pawn, it would have been very difficult for black to make progress. The white rook moves back and forth between d8 and g8, attacking whichever pawn is not protected by the black king, and it is not clear how black's king can advance.) 54...Rh1 55. Rxd6?? [It seems that even here white had a study-like draw: 55. Rd7+! Kf6 (55...Ka8 56. Rxd6=) 56. Rxd6 Kf5 57. Kc4!! (in the game I only saw 57. Kd4 Rd1 -+), e.g. 57...Rxh4+ 58. Kd3 Rf4 (58...Re4 59. Rxg6) 59. Ke3, and this should be a draw because the white king has gotten back on defense, or 57...Rc1+ 58. Kb3 Re4 59. Kc3 Re6 (59...Re4 60. Kd3) 60. Rxe6 Kxe6 61. h5 gxh5 62. Kd4=.] 55...Rxh4 56. Ke5 Kg7 (Now black has a winning endgame because the white king is cut off from behind and can't help stop the black pawn.) 57. Rd1 Kh6 58. Rg1 g5 59. Kf5 Rf4+ 60. Ke5 Kg6 61. Ra1 Rb4 62. Rf1 g4 63. Rf8 (63. Rf4 Ra5+ 64. Ke5 Kg5 65. Rf8 Ra3) 63...Kg5 64. Rg8+ Kh4 65. Kf5 Kh3 66. Rh8+ Kg2 67. Ra8 g3 68. Ra2+ Kh1 White resigns (0-1)

Round 1
White: Gilberto Kernahan (1927)
Black: Shearwood McClelland (2244)

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 Ne4 3. Bf4 c5 4. f3 Nf6 5. d5 Qb6 6. Bc1 e6 7. e4 exd5 8. exd5 d6 9. c4 Bf5 10. Bd3 Bxd3 11. Qxd3 Nbd7 12. f4 Qb4+ 13. Nc3 b5 14. cxb5 c4 15. Qf3 Nc5 16. Ne2 Nd3+ 17. Kf1 Be7 18. a3 Qc5 19. Be3 Qc7 20. Rb1 0-0 21. g3 Nd7 22. Kg2 Bf6 23. Rhd1 Qa5 24. Bd4 Rfe8 25. Bxf6 Nxf6 26. Nc1 Ne1+ 27. Rxe1 Rxe1 28. Nb3 Qxc3 29. Qxc3 Rxb1 30. Nd2 Re1 31. Qxc4 Rae8 32. Nf3 R1e2+ 33. Kh3 h6 34. a4 Rxb2 35. Qc7 Ne4 36. Qd7 Kf8 37. Qxa7 g5 38. fxg5 hxg5 39. Kg4 Rf2 40. Nxg5 Nf6+ 41. Kh3 Ne4 42. Nxe4 Re2 43. Nd6 Re7 44. Qd4 R8e5 45. b6 Rh5+ 46. Kg4 Rexh2 47.b7 Black resigns (1-0)

Round 3
White: Abram Ryrakhovsky (2072)
Black: Shearwood McClelland (2244)
(Annotation by LM Shearwood McClelland)

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 d6 5. d3 e5 6. Bd2 Nc6 7. Rb1 0-0 8. Qc1 Be6 9. Nf3 Ne7 10. Ng5 Bc8 11. Nge4 Nxe4 12. Nxe4 f5 13. Nc3 c6 14. h4 Qe8 15. h5 Be6 16. Bh6 Qf7 17. hxg6 hxg6 18. Bxg7 Qxg7 19. Qg5 Kf7 20. Kd2 Rh8 21. b4 a6 22. a4 d5 23. Rxh8 Rxh8 24. b5 d4 25. Na2 Rh5 26. bxa6 bxa6 27. Qxe7+ Kxe7 28. Rb7+ Bd7 29. Bc6 Qh6+ 30. Kc2 Kd6 31. Bxd7 e4 32. Bc8 exd3+ 33. Kxd3 a5 34. Rd7+ Kc6 35. Rxd4 Rh1 36. Nc3 Qc1 37. Bd7+ Kc7 38. Nb5+ Kb6 39. Rd6+ Kc5 40. Flag fall (0-1). [Its hopeless for White, as Black's king will be able to go to b4 and escape all the checks, leaving White helpless against the numerous Black threats, most notably ...Rd1+.]

Complete list of standings (includes results from 1997 Harvard Open and Harvard Open Scholastic)
USCF Crosstable of 1998 Harvard Open

(Both files graciously provided by Mark Kaprielian.)

The Harvard Crimson ran an article on the tournament in the September 28th issue, which can be found here.