CCC Hosts Charlotte Summer Open: Full Recap!
On July 19-21, 2024, the Charlotte Chess Center hosted the 2024 Charlotte Summer Open at the Southpark Hilton Garden Inn. A total of 160 players, hailing from nine states, competed in five rounds of classical chess for a total guaranteed prize fund of $6,500. The tournament was held over International Chess Day weekend!
The event featured four sections, with the Championship, U2000, and U1700 all FIDE-rated. All participants in the tournament were also welcome to participate in the free blitz side event, which was held on Saturday evening and included GMs Daniel Naroditsky and Olexandr Bortnyk.
The top games from each section were viewable live on chess.com in the Events page. Click here for the entire slate of live games, with some included and annotated below. Additionally, WGM Dina Belenkaya streamed her games to an international audience, with the VODs still available on her Twitch page.
Championship
The race for the top in the Championship section was tightly contested between a large group of titled players, including IM Tianqi Wang, FMs Sudarshan Sriniaiyer, Vishnu Vanapalli, and Kelvin Sanchez, as well as NM Naveen Prahbu, WIM Michelle Catherina Prince, and the aforementioned WGM Dina Belenkaya. Ultimately, it was Wang, Sriniaiyer, Vanapalli, and Sanchez each scoring 4/5, tying for first place and taking home $500 each.
Early in the event, it was perhaps WIM Michelle Catherina Prince who impressed the most, starting on 2/2 and scoring wins against both NM Prabhu and WGM Belenkaya.
Prince entered the last round on 3.5/4 but was defeated by FM Vishnu Vanapalli, one of the CCC's highest-rated players and the winner of our Charlotte Spring Open back in March. Vishnu employed the Four Knights Scotch and used the break c2-c4 to fix black's pawns on dark squares. The c5-pawn in particular became a weakness in the ensuing endgame:
Vishnu finished on 4/5 alongside the three other players mentioned above. One of them was FM Sudarshan Sriniaiyer from Virginia, who squeezed water from stone in a Berlin against Sri Bondalapati in the fourth round.
Sriniaiyer's win earned him a last-round pairing against IM Tianqi Wang, who also entered the final round on 3.5/4. Although white had some light pressure at times, black was solid and neither player was ever especially close to winning.
The game clinched each player a share of the first place prize alongside FM Vanapalli, as well as FM Kelvin Sanchez, who lost to IM Tianqi Wang in round two and won all his other games to finish on 4/5 as well. All four received $500, while NM Zubin Baliga, Jacob Stoll, and Aaron Wang each won $100 for splitting the Top U2200 prize.
The first place plaque went to IM Wang on tiebreaks.
U2000 Section
The U2000 section saw the event's only perfect score. Ishaan Ballal, who posted a perfect 5/5 at the most recent ALTO, repeated his feat in the U2000 section of the Summer Open.
The clinching victory came in the last round against Steve Alappatt, who often features in our weekly newsletter posts as a player in both our OTB and online events. If you're wondering why Alappatt’s rating is listed over 2000, that's because he broke that rating barrier shortly before the Summer Open at a recent Wednesday Action Quads!
For his 5/5 score, Ishaan won the clear first place prize of $600. Our other U2000 section prizewinners were Patrick McCartney, Caton Tsao, and Smayan Ammasani, each scoring 4/5 and tying for second place, taking home $266.67 each.
U1700 Section
Two players tied for first place in the U1700 section: Nikolas Lewis and Dylan Pfeifer. The co-champions never actually played each other, instead drawing different opponents in round three and winning all four of their other games.
The remaining prizes were split between Arnav Singh, Diya Balamurugan, David Chamness, and Jonathan Gao. Two of those players (Balamurugan and Gao) pulled a "Swiss Gambit" of sorts, losing in round one before winning all their remaining games. All four received $100 for splitting third place.
U1400 Section
Our second clear winner was James Everly, scoring 4.5/5 in the U1400 section and gaining over 300 (!) points of USCF rating in the process.
Entering the last round, Everly was the only player with a perfect 4/4, while Shrehit Dhiman trailed with 3.5/4 and a host of other players had three. Everly's "Grandmaster draw" against Dhiman clinched clear first, along with the $600 top prize.
Dhiman received $300 for second place, along with Kai Ali Modaresi-Beal who also scored 4/5. Our final main event prizewinner was Akash Murthy, who scored 3.5/5 and finished as the top U1200 player ($200).
Congratulations to all top finishers! The detailed results can be viewed via the USCF rating report, and full standings with prize results are available on our website.
Blitz Tournament!
Alongside the main event, the Charlotte Summer Open also included a blitz tournament, free for all participants in the classical tournament. As they have often done at CCC blitz events, Grandmasters Daniel Naroditsky and Olexandr Bortnyik dominated the field. The two GMs each held a perfect score entering the final round, and made a draw against each other to clinch shared first place ($150 each).
Also finishing near the top of the standings were FM Kelvin Sanchez, WGM Dina Belenkaya, Chase Bellamy, and Saharsh Santosh, each scoring 5/6 and splitting third place, earning $12.50 apiece.
The "under prizes" went to Steve Alappatt (U2000), Jairaj Desai (U1700), and James Everly (U1400). All three took home $50, making Everly the biggest winner of all at the Summer Open when combined with his main event winnings!
Photos in this recap were provided by Kelly Centrelli, with the full Summer Open photo gallery viewable on our website. Thanks to all who participated, and we hope to see you at future Charlotte Chess Center events!
-------------------------------------------------------------
For upcoming tournaments, bookmark our Events Schedule. The CCC hosts nearly 8 events a week at our facilities in North and South Charlotte, along with bi-monthly major events such as the Charlotte Doubles Championship and Charlotte Fall Open.
Not a member of the CCC? Join over 1000 members today!
NM Dennis Norman
Chess Coach - Club Journalist
