🥶 It was cold out that weekend in January, but the players were warmed by blazing battles over the chessboard.... 🥵
We once again strained the capacity of the Roseville Skating Center’s banquet room, with 178 players seeking their fame and fortune in the 2025 MSCA Winter Open on January 18-19.
The crowd was ably wrangled by our TD team of Jack Bellinger, Jiten Patel, and Suhaas Pothula. This wasn't Jack’s first rodeo as Chief TD, but it was his first as Senior Tournament Director. Congratulations on reaching this big milestone! 👏
Our three large sections saw a lot of congestion at the top of the leaderboards and much prize money splitting, except for in the largest, where Sourish Majumder claimed sole first place and $650 in U1600! 💸
Premier 🟠
There was a five-way tie for first place in the Premier section at 4 points, with the usual suspects sharing in the loot: Wan, Titus, Schabert, Iwu, and Timm.
Unrated David Hamilton secured his first provisional rating of 1951 swimming in these shark-filled waters, while Zihao Wang gained only 4 provisional points, but at 2171 P21, is that close to a master’s 2200.
U1600 🔵
Middle section U1600 had a veritable throng of 73 players, with the aforementioned Mr. Majumder on top at 4.5 points followed by a logjam of 6 players tied at 4.
As a player in U1600, this reporter is seeing a lot of the same names rising to the top and playing solid chess in this rating neighborhood.
Ben Anderson, soon to be unprovisioned, had the largest provisional gain of the tournament with 179 points, while Ryker Johnson and Eeshaan Shah added big numbers to their established ratings. Ryker with +289 to 1198 and Eeshan +227 to 1099. 📈
U900 🟢
Finally we had the under section with its share of unknown new challengers just beginning their reigns of terror.
Isaac Lo and Avyukth Sandaraj tied for first at 4.5 points, followed by four players at 4, including unrated Orrin Gunnell and Edison Logan who have already played themselves up by starting out their provisional rating journeys at 906 and 1229. Shreya Binu led established rating gainers in U900 with a big +196 jump. 📈
Beyond the Numbers ↗️
It’s fun to call out the high scores and rating achievements, but chess is more than that, of course. It’s about enjoying the many rewards of this great game, the challenge of improving and overcoming setbacks, and being part of the special Minnesota chess community.
Thank you to everyone that came out to play and to support our players. 🙏