Cover Story / Millionaire Chess 2
MILLION SQUARE CHALLENGE Nakamura would go on to test his luck in the
Million Square challenge against the other eight section winners. The questions rotated between calculating time (e.g. if it is 5:40 what time will it be in 118 minutes?) and number sequences. The contestants only had 10 seconds to respond and were eliminated for an incorrect answer. After several rounds of players stumbling over
the time calculation questions, U2200 winner P.P. Prachura emerged as the winner. His prize was a 1-in-64 chance to win a clear million dollars. The organizers had the payout insured according to the odds of winning. The winning square was officially sealed until chosen by the contestant. Prachura went with c4 in honor of his favorite English opening. Alas, the million dollar square was ... b1.
At A Glance ⁄2 Yangyi Yu 11 ⁄2 ⁄2
Consolation Match: Samuel Sevian 11 Ronalld Burnett 1 Farai Mandizha 21
⁄2
Quang Liem Le 1 ⁄2
⁄2 Gil Popilski 1
; 2400-2549 Semi-finals: Marcin Tazbir 21 ⁄2
; 2400-2549 Finals: Holden Hernandez 21
Gil Popilski 11 ⁄2
⁄2
; Kaiqi Yang 2 Rico Salimbagat 0; Under 2400 Consolation Match: Ronald Burnett 11 ⁄2
ENDGAME Thus marked the end of America’s grandest
open Swiss tournament. For some, Millionaire Chess 2 will be defined by the controversy and missed opportunities. However, as chess players we should take a step back and consider that Millionaire Chess is meant to do more than merely facilitate a tournament and a hefty payout. How does the brand help chess advance as a whole? According to Maurice, although Millionaire
Chess is one of the biggest chess stories to make it into mainstream sources like The New York Times, “we have a long way to go to convince sponsors that chess is captivating enough to attract the attention of a wide-scale audience. Corpora - tions are very conservative with their dollars since they have shareholders to answer to. Our event
is seen as cool, but it will take time and hard effort to bring on board those all-important sponsors on board.” If we accept that increasing the appeal of chess
will attract mainstream attention, benefit all players, and encourage top talent, then we have a responsibility to face the challenge. Amy knows that the challenge cannot be taken on alone: “We would love for chess players to try to use their connections to bring corporate sponsors to the table. It is a matter of exposure now. We know we can put on a world class event.”
See more reporting about Millionaire Chess 2 by GM Cristian Chirila at US Chess News on
uschess.org, October archives.
Millionaire Chess Open 2
Date: October 8-13, 2015 | Location: Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada | 544 players, 6 sections | Top Finishers: Open, Open Semi- finals: Quang Liem Le 2 Aleksandr Lenderman 0; Hikaru Nakamura 21 Finals: Hikaru Nakamura 11
Marcin Tazbir 11 ⁄2
; Holden Hernandez 11 ⁄2
Rico Salimbagat 1 ⁄2 Samuel Sevian 1 ⁄2
; Under 2400 Semi-finals: Farai Mandizha 11 ⁄2
; Under 2400 Finals: Kaiqi Yang 31 ; 1st: Hikaru Nakamura ($100,000); 2nd: Le Quang Liem ($50,000); 3rd: Yangyi Yu ($25,000); 4th: Aleksandr Lenderman ($16,000); 5th-
8th: Wesley So ($7,000), Luke McShane ($7,000), Fabiano Caruana ($7,000), Evgeniy Najer ($7,000); 9th-14th: Evgeny Bareev ($4,000), Gata Kamsky ($4,000), Ray Robson ($4,000), Gregory Kaidanov ($4,000), Jeffery Xiong ($4,000), Jianchao Zhou ($4,000); 1st 2400-2549: Holden Hernandez ($40,000); 2nd 2400- 2549:Marcin Tazbir ($20,000); 3rd 2400-2549: Samuel Sevian ($11,700); 4th 2400-2549: Gil Popilski ($8,000); 5th 2400-2549: Axel Rombaldoni ($3,150); 6th 2400-2549: Niclas Huschenbeth ($3,150); 1st Under 2400: Kaiqi Yang ($38,000); 2nd Under 2400: Farai Mandizha ($19,000); 3rd Under 2400: Ronald Burnett ($11,000); 4th Under 2400: Rico Salimbagat ($7,000); 5th Under 2400: Eduardo Rojas Sepulveda ($2,000); 6th Under 2400: Craig Hilby ($2,000); U2200, Semi-finals: Ted Castro 11 ⁄2
⁄2 Michael Mahoney 1 ⁄2 ; P. P. Prachura 3 Davaaochir Nyamdorj 1; Consolation Match: Michael Mahoney 11 ⁄2 Davaaochir Nyamdorj 1 ; Finals: P. P. Prachura 3 Ted Castro 1; 1st: P. P. Prachura ($38,000); 2nd: Ted Castro ($19,000); 3rd: Michael Mahoney ($10,000); 4th: Davaa-Ochir Nyamdorj
($8,000); 5th: John Rosell ($6,000); 6th-7th: Andrew E. Lebovitz ($4,500), Arthur Guo ($4,500); 8th-18th: Nabil Feliachi ($3,273.73), Willi Gross ($3,273.73), Virgilio T. Reyes ($3,273.73), Jeremy Keller ($3,273.73), Hafez Tari ($3,273.73), Libardo Rueda ($3,273.73), Benjamin Bar Moon ($3,273.73), Vigneshw Nesamani ($3,273.73), Gunasekaran Dinesh Kumar ($3,273.73), Rafael Rodriguez ($3,273.73), Julio Rebolledo Arias ($3,273.73); U2000, Semi-finals: Ruben Burciaga 3 Michael Shtabsky 1; Lisandro Geraldo 11
⁄2 Nicholas Williams 1 ⁄2 ; Consolation Match: Michael Shtabsky 11 ⁄2 Nicholas Williams 1 ⁄2 ; Finals: Lisandro
Geraldo 2 Ruben Burciaga 0; 1st: Lisandro Geraldo ($36,000); 2nd: Ruben Burciaga ($18,000); 3rd: Michael Shtabsky ($9,000); 4th: Nicholas Williams ($7,000); 5th-11th: Scott E. Poling ($3,357.14), Richard D. Willis ($3,357.14), Lopez Aristizabal ($3,357.14), Lolomari E. George ($3,357.14), Boyi Gong ($3,357.14), Courtney Barnes ($3,357.14), Michael D. Higgins ($3,357.14); U1800, Semi-finals: Jamie Lynn Olsen-Mills 2 Jose Castillo 0; Vaibhav Aggarwal 2 George Terarakelian 0; Consolation Match: George Terarakelian 3 Jose Castillo 1; Finals: Vaibhav Aggarwal 2 Jamie Lynn Olsen-Mills 0; 1st: Vaibhav Aggarwal ($34,000); 2nd: Jamie Lynn Olsen-Mills ($17,000); 3rd: George Terarakelian ($8,500); 4th: Jose Castillo ($6,500); 5th-6th: Sharma Dushyant ($4,500), Novica Kecojevic ($4,500); 7th-17th: Rick Lutzke ($2,681.12), Reinaldo Estrada ($2,681.12), Srihari Nesamani ($2,681.12), Shijil Kundilakkandi ($2,681.12), Artem Verdiyan ($2,681.12), Bhaskar Nagaiah Sanjeevi ($2,681.12), Sheen Kaul ($2,681.12), Christopher Tyau ($2,681.12), Brian Bannon ($2,681.12), W. David Lewis ($2,681.12), Immanuel Singuillo ($2,681.12); U1600, U1600 Semi-finals: David Olea 11
⁄2 Sundaram Gopikrishnan 1 ⁄2 ; Khasen Levkin 3 Christian Silvestre 1;
U1600 Consolation Match: Christian Silvestre 3 Sundaram Gopikrishnan 1; U1600 Finals: Khasen Levkin 2 David Olea 0; 1st: Khasen Levkin ($30,000); 2nd: David Olea ($16,000); 3rd: Christian Silvestre ($8,000); 4th: Sundaram Gopikrishnan ($6,000); 5th: Dmitriy Kovalkov ($4,000); 6th-15th: Mani Terrazas ($2,440), Robert M. Colucci ($2,440), Orrin C. Hudson ($2,440), David Tsay ($2,440), Keith Brown ($2,440), Rushaan Mahajan ($2,440), Timothy Fisher ($2,440), Mark Allan Bateman ($2,440), Sergey P. Lokhov ($2,440), Paul Falbo ($2,440); U1400 Semi-finals: Rigoberto Rodriguez 4 Anton Butenko 3; Jonathan Barbosa 2 Yehia Massoud 0; U1400 Consolation Match: Anton Butenko 3 Yehia Massoud 1; U1400 Finals: Rigoberto Rodriguez 11
⁄2 ⁄2 ⁄2 Kolya Ludwig 11
Lee Prince 1 ⁄2
⁄2 Jonathan Barbosa 1 ; Jason Edwards 3 Jonathan Bates 1; U1200 Consolation Match: Jonathan Bates 21 ⁄2 Lee Prince 11 ⁄2 ⁄2 ; 1st
U1400: Rigoberto Rodriguez ($24,000); 2nd U1400: Jonathan Barbosa ($12,000); 3rd U1400: Anton Butenko ($6,000); 4th U1400: Yehia A. Massoud ($4,000); U1200 Semi-finals: Kolya Ludwig 11 Finals: Jason G. Edwards 21
; U1200 ; 1st U1200: Jason G. Edwards ($20,000); 2nd U1200: Kolya Roy Ludwig ($10,000); 3rd U1200: Jonathan L. Bates
($6,000); 4th U1200: Lee Prince ($4,000); Unrated, 1st: Joel Volotzky ($3,000); 2nd: Kai Wang ($1,500); 3rd: Oluwagbemiga Akingbade ($1,500). | Chief Tournament Director: Francisco L. Guadalupe.
EF: $1,000 by 3/31, $1,250 by 6/30, $1,500 by 9/30, $2,000 after 9/30 or onsite. For more details about the Millionaire Chess Open, see
https://millionairechess.com/millionaire-chess-2015.
www.uschess.org 31
; Open Consolation Match: Yangyi Yu 2 Aleksandr Lenderman 0; Open ⁄2
; 2400-2549 ⁄2 ⁄2
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