Jimmy Quon Memorial (2nd Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational)
Jimmy Quon. Photo Credit: Anonymous
Jimmy Quon was a beloved chess player from the Southern California Community who taught at La Jolla Country Day School for 14 years. At one time he was teaching 15% of the student body. In the end, he had coached over 1000 players. Our deepest respect and appreciation to the meritorious efforts of Jimmy Quon in promoting and cultivating chess talents in the greater Southern California area.
Metropolitan Chess will host a Grandmaster/International Master norm round robin tournament on January 19th to 23rd of 2011. The tournament is sponsored by California Market Center, Fashion Business, Inc, Chess.com, Rock and Roll Gourmet, LawyerFy, and Betty Bottom Showroom.
This tournament is dedicated to Jimmy Quon, titled the Jimmy Quon Memorial, and will be held in Suite C998 of the California Market Center on 110 East 9th Street, Los Angeles 90079. The tournament is organized by Ankit Gupta, the chief arbiter is Randy Hough, and the deputy arbiter is Michael Belcher. The participants include: GM Dejan Bojkov (BUL), GM Melikset Khachiyan (USA), GM Mark Paragua (PHI), IM Zhanibek Amanov (KAZ), IM Timothy Taylor (USA), IM Mackenzie Molner (USA), IM Jacek Stopa (POL), IM-Elect Robby Adamson (USA), IM-Elect Daniel Naroditsky (USA), and NM Alessandro Steinfl (ITL). The FIDE average of the field is 2421, for a respectable category 7. Photos of the participants are shown below:
The tournament will be a 10 player round-robin (all play all), with rounds scheduled as follows – 19th: 7:00 PM, 20th: 11:00 AM & 5:00 PM, 21st: 11:00 AM & 5:00 PM, 22nd: 10:00 AM & 4:00 PM, 23rd: 9:00 AM & 3:00 PM. Spectators are welcome and encouraged to come to watch the games in person at the tournament site. There will be two master commentary days live on-site. These commentaries will also be viewable on www.chess.com/tv
UPDATE: Commentaries will be at 5:00 PM on January 22nd and 4:00 PM on January 23rd for the 7th and 9th rounds of the tournament, respectively. FM Joel Banawa (SoCal SCCF State Champion) and NM Konstantin Kavutskiy will be commenting together for both of the commentary days. Local players/spectators are welcome to come to the tournament site to hear the commentaries live -- talk to the security in the lobby of the building to be directed to the proper room.
Stay tuned for more updates and watch the games relayed live on www.chess.com to find out the results.
Who do you think will achieve the coveted GM norm(s) at this tournament? We'd love to hear your thoughts -- post a comment. If you would like to sign up to the MetroChess e-mailing list, e-mail ankit.gupta@metrochessla.com to be keep in the loop with events by this organization.
