By Arun Sharma
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May 23, 2007 |
Photo Jennifer Shahade
by Arun Sharma
The Fantasy Competition closed quite differently from the main tournament. Instead of the leader throughout, Gilberto Luna II, taking home the grand prize, an upstart who had made little noise in the standings came out on top. Congratulations to Asher Gabara who not heeding the potential danger in choosing a team of maximal rating, was the only person to score 35.5 Points, and will take home the 80 GB Video Ipod. Our leader throughout the later stages of the competition, Gilberto Luna II is probably disappointed not to win first. Still, he takes home the second place prize of the one-hour lesson with IM Josh Friedel. Congratulations to all five winners!
Optimal Team Contest Part II.
Nobody picked the "optimal team," but who would have ended up comprising it? Greg Shahade is rather bitter about his inability to pick the optimal team yesterday. (He offered $20 to anyone who could find a better team, and at 7:30 AM, James Dickson found a team that had the same score as Greg's but won on tiebreak, being .57 points lower rated.) Today, Greg is certain that he has found that particular team (again with no computer assistance), and is once again offering a $20 prize to the first person to post a better one in the comments section.
"Perfect Team Take 2" (2504.7142) - 37 Points
Alexander Shabalov 2660 7 Sergey Kudrin 2612 5.5 Julio Becerra 2608 6 Joseph Bradford 2475 5 Robert Hess 2448 4.5 Michael Langer 2334 4.5 Ron Burnett 2396 4.5
Fantasy Final Stats
Final Standings by Points:
35.5 Points: 1st 35 Points: 2nd - 3rd 34.5 Points: 4th 34 Points: 5th - 9th 33.5 Points: 10th - 21st 33 Points: 22nd - 43rd 32.5 Points: 44th - 67th 32 Points: 68th - 116th 31.5 Points: 117th - 159th 31 Points: 160th - 217th 30.5 Points: 218th - 277th 30 Points: 278th - 317th 29.5 Points: 318th - 356th 29 Points: 357th - 374th 28.5 Points: 375th - 380th 28 Points: 381st - 382nd 27.5 Points: 383rd - 384th 27 Points: 385th - 386th 26 Points: 387th
Top Five Teams
1st: Asher Gabara (2510) - 35.5 Points
Alex Onischuk 6.5 Alexander Shabalov 7 Joseph Bradford 5 Robert Hess 4.5 Justin Sarkar 4 Bryan Smith 4 Ron Burnett 4.5
Prize: 80 GB video Ipod
2nd: Gilberto Luna II (2504.2857) - 35 Points
Alex Onischuk 6.5 Jaan Ehlvest 5 Alexander Shabalov 7 Julio Becerra 6 Ray Robson 3.5 Michael Langer 4.5 Irina Zenyuk 2.5
Prize: 1 Hour lesson with IM Josh Friedel
3rd: Ryan Miller (2509.1429) - 35 Points
Alex Onischuk 6.5 Gregory Kaidanov 6 Alexander Shabalov 7 Irina Krush 4 Robert Hess 4.5 Ron Burnett 4.5 Irina Zenyuk 2.5
Prize: 1 Year USCF Membership Extension
4th: Charles Hughes (2510) - 34.5 Points
Alexander Shabalov 7 Alex Stripunsky 5.5 Melikset Khachiyan 5 Irina Krush 4 David Pruess 4.5 Justin Sarkar 4 Michael Langer 4.5
Prize: Autographed Copy of "The Art of Learning" by IM Joshua Waitzkin
5th: Olufemi Oyekan (2482.7143) - 34 Points
Alex Onischuk 6.5 Alexander Shabalov 7 Irina Krush 4 Justin Sarkar 4 Ron Burnett 4.5 Ray Robson 3.5 Michael Langer 4.5
Prize: Autographed Copy of "ChessBitch" by WGM Jennifer Shahade
Keys to Success (Number of times each player appears in top five teams):
Alexander Shabalov 5 Alex Onischuk 4 Irina Krush 3 Justin Sarkar 3 Ron Burnett 3 Michael Langer 3 Robert Hess 2 Ray Robson 2 Irina Zenyuk 2 Gregory Kaidanov 1 Jaan Ehlvest 1 Alex Stripunsky 1 Julio Becerra 1 Melikset Khachiyan 1 Joseph Bradford 1 David Pruess 1 Bryan Smith 1
I just want to take a moment here to thank everyone who took the time to enter and/or follow this competition. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did, and if there is sufficient interest, hopefully we will be able to do many similar type competitions in the future (especially in future US Championships). Any feedback you have into how we can make the later ones even better than this one would be much appreciated. Congrats again to all the winners and until the next competition, so long!
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