NM Wilson Spaqi 9-0, wins Friday Night Blitz Tournament hosted by Your Next Move Chess Club

NM Wilson Spaqi defeated expert Ben Al-Shami in the final round to secure victory during the blitz tournament held September 11th by Your Next Move Chess Club of Cleveland. 

This was the second blitz tournament in as many weeks held at UnBar Cafe in Cleveland's Larchmere District, In the previous week, Spaqi famously defeated IM Calvin Blocker in an armageddon match and was looking for a repeat. This week's format, however, was quite different.

To start, the time control was a bit longer, at 10 minutes. Instead of an open swiss, 16 players were grouped into 4 quads, playing double-round robin for a total of 6 games. The winner of each quad advanced to the finals, where another round robin decided the overall victor.

Spaqi went 6-0 in his individual quad but was tested on several occasions by his class A opponents. He was in particular danger against Donald McClendon, where he escaped after being a piece down in the middlegame. 

Al-Shami also went an impressive 6-0 in arguably the strongest quad of the event, while the other quads were won Danny Benovic and Demir Tulunoglu - both of which could be considered upsets if one focused on rating alone.

In the finals, Spaqi and Al-Shami both defeated Benovic and Tulunoglu to reach scores of 8-0, leading to a tense final game.  Below is the result:

Friday night blitz resumes September 18th at the UnBar Cafe. Can Wilson Spaqi make it three in a row? Tune in next week to find out!

Final Standings