GM Brodsky Repeats as Charlotte Open Champion: Full Recap!
One of the Charlotte Chess Center's flagship events, the annual Charlotte Open, took place over MLK Day weekend at the UNC Charlotte Marriott Hotel and Conference Center. A grand total of 393 players participated in the weekend's festivities, which included a K-8 scholastic tournament on Saturday and the blitz championship on Sunday evening. Five Grandmasters competed in the tournament, alongside many other titled players, experts, and Charlotte Chess Center regulars!
The Charlotte Open, held from January 18 to 20, was a six-round USCF standard-rated tournament with the Championship, U2100, and U1900 sections also FIDE-rated. Given the guaranteed prize fund of $15,000 for the standard tournament and another $1,000 for the blitz, it's no surprise that the competition was fierce! Only one player in the entire main event, U1900 champion Freya Austin, managed a perfect 6/6 score.
Each section's top board was broadcasted live on chess.com, and the games can be viewed on chess.com's Events page. Some notable games are included with light annotations below, with the entire selection of DGT games available here. Additionally, WGM Dina Belenkaya, Antonio Padron, and Emily Higgins each streamed their games live on Twitch.
Championship
The big winner this weekend was GM David Brodsky, who also won last year's event! Brodsky finished with the same 5.5/6 score this year as he did last year, ceding a single draw in the fourth round against FM Ryan Amburgy. For his excellent performance, Brodsky won the tournament's top prize of $1400.
Here's his second round win against NM Matthew Guo Diao, featuring the flashy 18. Nb5!:
Brodsky entered the final round tied for first on 4.5/5 with Amburgy, while FM Vishnu Vanapalli and GM Alonso Zapata trailed with 4/5 each. In the matchup between the two GMs on board one, white used a space advantage to apply pressure in the middlegame, then broke through on the kingside to clinch at least a share of first place.
Needing a win to tie for first, Amburgy suffered his only defeat of the event at the hands of FM Vanapalli, one of the CCC's strongest regular players. Vanapalli's win vaulted him into second place, earning him $800.
Six players tied for fourth-through-ninth place in the final standings, including the aforementioned GM Zapata and NM Diao, GM Alexander Fishbein, CM Tyson Brady, NM Siddharth Singh, and NM Andrew Wu. Singh won $400 for finishing as the top U2250 player in the event, while the rest took home $210 each. Andrew Wu, a CCC regular who hit NM at our Reverse Angle event in August last year, upset GM Fishbein in the fourth round for his second highest-rated win ever!
Also finishing in the money from the Championship section were NMs Sam Copeland, Saharsh Santosh, and Vishnusankar Jonnalagadda, as well as experts Varun Gadi and Beiyang Ni, all tying for the second U2250 prize and winning $40 each. Ni in particular had a fabulous performance, losing only once against a slate of strong titled players and gaining 77 points of USCF rating.
Full standings of the Championship section with prize results can be found here.
Under 2100
After drawing in the first round against Amay Chaudhury, NM Benjamin Snodgrass proceeded to go on a tear, winning his next four games before clinching at least a share of first with a last-round draw. With Eshwar Kothapalli (who otherwise had a tremendous performance and gained 53 points) losing to Brian Remhoff on board two, Snodgrass took first place outright. Here's his round five victory against Aashish Anantharaman:
Snodgrass won $1000 with 5/6, while Krishna Rallabandi, Karthikeya Malireddy, Brian Remhoff, and Arya Sharma each scored 4.5/6 and took home $256.25 each. Click here to view full standings from the U2100 section.
Under 1900
The only perfect scorer in the main event was Freya Austin, who gained an incredible 173 points of USCF rating for her 6/6 score!
Freya defeated three higher-rated players, including this win against Sri Pallapothu in the fifth round to put her in the driver's seat:
With a win in the last round against Brian Mapakamise, Freya clinched the $1000 first place prize. Just behind her were Shvakat Muhammad and Cody Smith, each winning $400 for shared second place. Smith, who streams chess under the moniker CLSmithXV, recently did an analysis session of his games on Twitch (click here for the VOD!).
The final prizewinner in the U1900 section was Kyle Cameron, finishing on 4.5/6 and earning $225 for fourth place. Full standings with prize results from the U1900 section can be found at this link.
Under 1700
The $800 first place prize in the U1700 section came down to the last round matchup between Shreyas Karki and Adam Schoonveld, both entering the game on 4.5/5. Karki had conceded a lone draw against Andrew Charles Moore back in the third round, while Schoonveld drew Robert Halliday in round five after winning all his previous games.
The board one battle was decided by a shocking tactical blow in the form of 12...Ng4!, winning material by force. Despite Schoonveld's best efforts, Karki converted the advantage into a win:
Karki's pre-tournament rating of 1496 would have allowed him to play in the U1500 section, but by winning first place playing up in the U1700, his USCF rating catapulted all the way to 1702!
With a win in the final round over the aforementioned Halliday, Andrew Moore advanced into sole possession of second place ($400). Schoonveld, Mustafa Muhammad, and Harith Hmimda brought home $166.67 each and tied for third in the final standings.
Under 1500
While every other section in the main event produced a clear winner, the U1500 section saw a logjam at the top. Entering the final round, Ryan Huang had a perfect 5/5 score and needed only a draw to clinch clear first, but he was upset by Alec Pickup to bring both players to 5/6. Meanwhile, Max Witherell, who had lost to Huang in the fifth round, won his final game against Dominic Billi to achieve a 5/6 score himself.
This led to a bit of a Rochambeau situation: all three players had perfect scores against the rest of the field, and each had a win and a loss within the group. All three came away with $500 and well over 100 rating points gained.
Our other U1500 prizewinners were Arjun Raja and Adhvik Manoj, each scoring 4.5/6 and receiving $100 for shared fourth place. Click here for full U1500 standings.
Under 1300
Our U1300 champion was Tom Riva, who defeated four higher-rated players on the path to a 5.5/6 score. His last round draw against Sujit Vakkalanka clinched him the first place prize, but it was his win in the fifth round against Christopher Eyer that put him ahead of the field:
Riva's fantastic performance earned him $700 and also gained him a whopping 228 points, sending his USCF rating to a new peak of 1423!
Spencer Boone shared second place with Vakkalanka and Samrat Konduru, each finishing on 5/6 and winning $300. Full standings of the U1300 section are available at this link.
Under 1100
In his first USCF-rated tournament ever, Robert Lewison scored 5.5/6 to top the U1100 section.
After a first round victory, Lewison drew Saketh Mamidipally in the second round before rattling off four straight wins to close out the event, including the game shown below to clinch first place. Lewison came away with the $700 first place prize and a provisional rating of 1459 from his incredible debut tournament.
Lewison's opponent in the final round, Michael Cummings, finished tied with CCC coach Mik Abdulwakil, Sidhanth Manivannan, and Eric Brannick for second place, each winning $225. Brannick in particular had a tremendous performance, with his rating jumping from 834 all the way over 1100.
U1100 standings with prize results are available here.
Scholastic Championship
Alongside our main tournament, the CCC also hosted two side events. Saturday saw the five-round scholastic tournament, open to players rated under 700 and featuring many familiar faces from our Academy Classes and school programs. The winner and only perfect scorer was Luke Ta, a regular at our North Center and a student in the Advanced class (taught by yours truly!).
Finishing with 4/5 and tying for second were six players: Vivaan Singh, Vishan Alapati, Reyansh Gade, Daniel Ye, Ganesh Palaniappan, and Ryan Chen. James McWhorter finished as the only 3.5/5 and placed eighth, while nine players tied for the final two top ten spots with 3/5. See the complete standings here.
Blitz Tournament!
On Sunday evening, players in the Charlotte Open were welcome to participate in the $1,000 blitz side event, which was six rounds across two sections. In the top section, GM David Brodsky again posted a 5.5/6 score, but this time it wasn't enough for clear first! FM James Chirilov held Brodsky to a draw in the final round to split the top prize ($225 each).
GMs (and CCC coaches!) Kayden Troff and Olexandr Bortnyk tied with WGM Dina Belenkaya for third place and secured $34 apiece. Varun Gadi won the $50 prize as the top U2200 player, while Kishan Karthigeyan won $40 as top U2000.
In the U1700 section, Tyler Murrah posted a perfect 6/6 score to win $160, with Aditya Bang and Anvika Kore placing second and third, winning $80 and $40 respectively. Class prizes went to Aum Menon (top U1400 - $40) and Trevor Neumann (top U1200 - $40). Full standings for both the Championship and U1700 sections are available on our website.
For detailed results of the whole tournament, including rating changes and standings for both side events, view the USCF crosstables. A big thanks to all who helped make this event possible, including all the players, tournament directors, and organizer/CCC founder Peter Giannatos. I'd also like to thank Kelly Centrelli for providing the photographs in this recap, with the full gallery viewable here.
We hope everyone who participated had a wonderful time, and we hope to see you around at future Charlotte Chess Center events!
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NM Dennis Norman
Chess Coach - Club Journalist
