2012 Philadelphia Open Underway
The 6th Annual Philadelphia Open is underway at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel.
The event takes place from 4-8 April and has a $80,000 projected prize fund with $60,000 guaranteed.
In addition to the main Open there are many other section ranging from the "Under 2200" to the "Under 1000".
The Open section is a 9 round Swiss tournament which should provide GM and IM norm opportunities. Some games from the first round are below.
Familiar names to Chess.com members are taking part, including Sam Shankland, Jon Hammer and Magesh Panchanathan among others. A total of 79 players are entered in the Open; the top 40 are:
| Name | St. | Elo | |
| 1 | GM Varuzhan Akobian | CA | 2621 |
| 2 | GM Tamaz Gelashvili | GEO | 2619 |
| 3 | GM Sergey Erenburg | ISR | 2616 |
| 4 | GM Giorgi Kacheishvili | GEO | 2612 |
| 5 | GM Jon Ludvig Hammer | NOR | 2606 |
| 6 | GM Gregory Kaidanov | KY | 2598 |
| 7 | GM Sam Shankland | CA | 2580 |
| 8 | GM Alexander Stripunsky | NJ | 2566 |
| 9 | GM Magesh Panchanathan | IND | 2557 |
| 10 | GM Axel Bachmann | PAR | 2556 |
| 11 | GM Alexander Shabalov | PA | 2523 |
| 12 | GM Joshua Ed Friedel | NH | 2520 |
| 13 | IM Leonid Gerzhoy | CAN | 2489 |
| 14 | IM Daniel Naroditsky | CA | 2479 |
| 15 | IM Greg Shahade | PA | 2475 |
| 16 | IM Rafael Prasca Sosa | VEN | 2475 |
| 17 | IM Nikoloz Managadze | GEO | 2475 |
| 18 | GM Mikheil Kekelidze | GEO | 2473 |
| 19 | GM Dmitry Gurevich | IL | 2466 |
| 20 | IM Irina Krush | NY | 2461 |
| 21 | IM Dean Ippolito | NJ | 2452 |
| 22 | IM Justin Sarkar | NY | 2391 |
| 23 | FM Thomas Bartell | PA | 2365 |
| 24 | IM Rulsan Kashtanov | RUS | 2361 |
| 25 | FM Teddy Coleman | NY | 2356 |
| 26 | IM Ronald Burnett | TN | 2352 |
| 27 | IM Rusudan Goletiani | NY | 2344 |
| 28 | IM Mauricio Arias Santana | CRC | 2335 |
| 29 | IM Mladen Vucic | NY | 2328 |
| 30 | IM Jay Richard Bonin | NY | 2313 |
| 31 | FM Seth Homa | MI | 2306 |
| 32 | FM Konstantin Kavutskiy | CA | 2302 |
| 33 | FM Kayden W Troff | UT | 2297 |
| 34 | Erik Santarius | WI | 2292 |
| 35 | John Rouleau | MD | 2290 |
| 36 | WGM Katerina Nemcova | CZE | 2275 |
| 37 | FM Alex Betaneli | WI | 2263 |
| 38 | WGM Nadya Ortiz | COL | 2255 |
| 39 | FM Miles F Ardaman | NC | 2254 |
| 40 | FM Eugene Yanayt | CA | 2245 |
