New York 1924 Centennial Games, Analyzed by GM Lenderman
It was a great privilege for me to play in the Centennial Open, a historic tournament to celebrate the 1924 New York Centennial tournament, where I played several interesting games with some very strong players. It was won by none other than Andrew Tang, the reigning US Open Champion, and one of the top bullet players in the world, often who often plays toe-to toe with the the very best like Hikaru, Magnus, Daniel Narodtisky, and so on.
He definitely has clutch genes and knows a thing or two about winning important games on demand. Having said that, usually to be able to win a very strong event like this, you will need some critical moments in the tournament to go your way. One such crucial moment for Andrew Tang was in round 7 against a rising strong young player James Chirilov, who if he would've won the game, would've broken 2400, and most likely, clinched at least an IM norm. Unfortunately for James, just a few steps away from winning a very clutch game, he faltered, and gave Andrew Tang new life.
A clutch win, but this time, not without some help from his opponent, for whom it turned to be a heartbreaking loss costing him the norm and the 2400 rating. Still though, James has been on an incredible run, getting to FM, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he becomes an IM with such strong performances if he can improve on his consistency.
Leading up to the following moment, IM Sam Schmakel was having a great game against Andrew Tang, thanks to his excellent opening preparation. However, here he starts playing inaccurately.
After surviving two objectively lost positions, and even winning them, Tang was probably determined to try to fight to win the whole tournament. In my experience, when you're in good form plus get important breaks during the tournament, that's a deadly combo and bad news for your opponents. This time, it was time for Andrew Tang to take things in control from the start, and just play a magnificent attacking game against a very in-form player, Harshit Raja, who was coming off of 2 wins himself.
I had the unfortunate experience once of losing a last round game to Raja where all I needed was a draw to win the tournament, so it is quite clear that Raja is a very capable clutch GM as well. Here is Tang's convincing victory in the last round.
Congratulations again to Andrew, as well as two young players who also earned their IM titles at this tournament, Akira Nakada and Liam Putnam!
This article has been adapted from the Marshall Spectator and you can read the original here.
