In July 2016, the Thousand Oaks Chess Club hosted its first-ever weekend tournament! The 2016 Conejo Valley Summer Open was held Saturday and Sunday, July 30-31, at the beautiful Bethany Church on the Hill. This event attracted 49 players, and we gave out over $1900 in prize money! Taking place in three sections, 3 rounds were played on Saturday and 2 on Sunday at a moderate time control of G/90 d5. The venue was fantastic, and many players expressed their delight at having a local opportunity to play chess over the weekend.

 

     The strong competition produced many interesting battles, and more than a few upsets! This was especially true of the 9-player Open Section, which consisted of one FM, four NMs, and two strong experts, plus two Class A players. The first round saw upsets on all three boards! (Three players had round 1 byes). After 3 rounds, NM Craig Anderson was in clear first with a perfect 3-0 going into the second day. NM Leo Creger and Matthew Shuben trailed him with 2-1. In Round 4, Anderson ended up losing to Creger, and the two tied for 1^st at 4-1, netting them a nice $300 each. Up-and-coming young expert Joaquin Perkins came from behind, winning his last two games, both of which were intense battles that could have gone all three ways for a long time. He took 3^rd place with 3.5 points. A-player Renato Dikit took the Best Under 2000 prize. There were only 2 draws in the entire section!

 

   

      The middle section, Under 1800, saw a cool 25-player turnout. In the end, young Benjamin Bankhead emerged on top with a perfect 5-0 score, a full point ahead of his closest competitor. His performance as the only perfect score in the tournament earned him $280 in cash and 73 ratings points, pushing his rating over the A barrier for the first time! B-player Patrick Gordon-Davis executed an extreme “Swiss Gambit”; he dropped the first round to 1322-rated 6-year-old Bryan Xie, then proceeded to win the last 4 rounds to finish in clear 2^nd with 4-1! Regular TOCC players Samuel Katagi and David Steinhart split 3^rd place, and 1445-rated Surya Bhamidipati clinched the Best Under 1600 prize, all with 3.5 points.

 

     

The 15-player Under 1400 Section had quite an unexpected champion! In this section, due to the large percentage of kids, we gave out trophies as well as cash prizes. Six-year-old Shravan Sriram, rated only 506 in the July supplement and 795 in the most recent unofficial ratings, came out on top. He had a perfect 4-0 score after the first four rounds (which included taking out the section’s top rated player, veteran Robert Armstrong) then “settled” for a draw in the last round to clinch clear 1^st. He took home $160 plus the shiny 1^st place trophy. Unrated player Neeraj Verma took 2^nd place with 4-1 (he lost only to Shravan). Like in the Under 1800, the 3^rd place prize was split between two players; 1030-rated Kaylee Yang and Armstrong. Both got $48, but her better tiebreaks netted Kaylee the 3^rd place trophy. She was the lucky one that managed to not lose to Shravan in the final round! The Best Under 1200 prize was split three ways, between August Yin, Gabriel Lin and Ekaterina Kiseleva. Having the best tiebreaks, August clinched the cute mini-trophy. Riday Bhatrai took the Best Under 800 prize outright. All four players finished with 3 points out of 5.

 

The tournament had a strong showing of players both from the TOCC club and beyond it, great for an inaugural event. Feedback was highly positive, and we hope to be able to hold another one in the near future… so stay tuned! 😉

 

 

Click here for all new ratings on the USCF! 

Full standings are below. See also Completed tournaments tab. (includes all winners and prizes)

 

2016 Conejo Valley Open Final Standings

 

SwissSys Standings. 2016 Conejo Valley Summer Open: Open Section

#	Name	Rtng	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Tot
1	Leo C Creger V	2191	L3	B—	W7	W2	W4	4.0
2	Craig R Anderson	2082	W5	W3	W6	L1	W7	4.0
3	Joaquin K Perkins	2017	W1	L2	D8	W5	W6	3.5
4	Pablo Pena	2171	H—	W8	D5	W6	L1	3.0
5	Larry L Smith	2252	L2	W9	D4	L3	W8	2.5
6	Matthew Shuben	2140	W9	W7	L2	L4	L3	2.0
7	Renato Dikit	1855	B—	L6	L1	W8	L2	2.0
8	Rick Bucaria	1955	H—	L4	D3	L7	L5	1.0
9	FM William Duckworth	2277	L6	L5	U—	U—	U—	0.0

 

SwissSys Standings. 2016 Conejo Valley Summer Open: Under 1800 Section

#	Name	Rtng	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Tot
1	Benjamin Bankhead	1708	W13	W12	W11	W6	W9	5.0
2	Patrick Gordon-Davis	1638	L19	W18	W21	W5	W6	4.0
3	Samuel S Katagi	1744	L12	W8	D13	W15	W11	3.5
4	David Steinhart	1689	W18	W14	D5	L9	W13	3.5
5	Surya Bhamidipati	1445	W23	W9	D4	L2	W14	3.5
6	Phoenix Changkachith	1716	W16	W17	W10	L1	L2	3.0
7	Dmitry Altshuller	1706	L17	W22	D14	D16	W19	3.0
8	Mike Owen	1658	D22	L3	H—	W20	W16	3.0
9	Eric A Woo	1629	W20	L5	W19	W4	L1	3.0
10	Naren Krishnan	1602	W15	W19	L6	H—	H—	3.0
11	Brent R Bennett	1579	W21	W24	L1	W12	L3	3.0
12	Brandon J Xie	1569	W3	L1	W24	L11	W17	3.0
13	Justin Yao	1554	L1	W25	D3	W17	L4	2.5
14	Antonio Malapira	1469	W25	L4	D7	W23	L5	2.5
15	Kshitij Patibandla	1278	L10	D16	W25	L3	W22	2.5
16	Michael J Moody	1565	L6	D15	W22	D7	L8	2.0
17	Manuelito Pascua	1481	W7	L6	W23	L13	L12	2.0
18	Irina Ivanova	1424	L4	L2	L20	X25	W23	2.0
19	Bryan Xie	1322	W2	L10	L9	W21	L7	2.0
20	Beverly Woolsey	1317	L9	L23	W18	L8	B—	2.0
21	Aryan Gutla	1259	L11	B—	L2	L19	W24	2.0
22	Destin T Petri	1401	D8	L7	L16	W24	L15	1.5
23	Han Gunn	1698	L5	W20	L17	L14	L18	1.0
24	Frank Zazanis	966	B—	L11	L12	L22	L21	1.0
25	Gerry B Mendoza	1701	L14	L13	L15	F18	U—	0.0

 

SwissSys Standings. 2016 Conejo Valley Summer Open: Under 1400 Section

#	Name	Rtng	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Tot
1	Shravan Sriram	506	W5	W14	W3	W2	D4	4.5
2	Neeraj Verma	unr.	W6	W13	W9	L1	W7	4.0
3	Robert Armstrong	1386	W15	D10	L1	W8	W9	3.5
4	Kaylee Yang	1030	L9	W5	W11	W10	D1	3.5
5	August Yin	1188	L1	L4	W15	W13	W12	3.0
6	Gabriel Lin	1098	L2	W12	L8	W11	W10	3.0
7	Ekaterina Kiseleva	841	L10	W15	W14	W9	L2	3.0
8	Riday Bhatrai	741	L11	B—	W6	L3	W13	3.0
9	Robert Liu	1219	W4	W11	L2	L7	L3	2.0
10	Alyssa Changkachith	1210	W7	D3	D13	L4	L6	2.0
11	Sabrina T Shenker	1194	W8	L9	L4	L6	W15	2.0
12	Sasha Patibandla	1024	L13	L6	B—	W14	L5	2.0
13	Elias V Simon	1212	W12	L2	D10	L5	L8	1.5
14	Inika Vellore	unr.	H—	L1	L7	L12	B—	1.5
15	Inay Vellore	1067	L3	L7	L5	B—	L11	1.0