FM Nathan Solon Victorious Again at CCC's ALTO: Full Recap!

This past weekend, the Charlotte Chess Center hosted our fall 2024 ALTO tournament at the SouthPark Hilton Garden Inn. ALTO stands for At Least Twenty-One, meaning that all participants in the tournament needed to be at least twenty-one years old!

This ALTO tournament consisted of five rounds of long time control chess. All sections were USCF-rated, with the top two also FIDE-rated. A total of 130 players participated in the event, vying for a share of the $5,000 guaranteed prize fund.

Championship

Our clear first place winner in the Championship section was FM Nathan Solon, ceding only a final round draw to NM Todd Bryant and winning all four of his other games. The man is no stranger to ALTO, having won clear first place in the September 2023 iteration of this event!

Solon is a well-known chess coach and former poker player who operates a chess blog called Zwischenzug (in which he posted a few thoughts about his performance in this tournament! Find all that and more here). Here's his win with the white pieces against CCC regular Shawn Bale:

Solon's roommate for the event, the aforementioned NM Todd Bryant, was also among the top finishers in the Championship section. Bryant went undefeated, gaining 29 USCF rating points, no small feat for a titled player. Along the way, he also employed the Trompowsky Attack, creating serious chances against GM (and CCC instructor!) Kayden Troff.

Entering the final day of the tournament, the only two players with a perfect 3/3 in the Championship were FM Solon and former US Women's Chess Champion WGM Sabina-Francesca Foisor. The two players faced off in round four, with Solon's victory giving him a commanding lead over the rest of the field:

In the last round, IM Dean Ippolito defeated Miles Tisserand on board two in a very clinical win as white, vaulting himself into a tie for second with 4/5 total. Board three saw another crucial matchup, as GM Troff took on WGM Dina Belenkaya in a battle of chess content creators! GM Troff frequently streams under the moniker ChessSharkz (alongside Antonio Padron, who also played in this tournament!), while WGM Belenkaya broadcasted the game live for her large Twitch audience.

FM Solon only needed a draw to clinch clear first, and in the last round, he happened to face his friend and roommate NM Todd Bryant. In his blog, Solon describes the mind games that happen when paired against a friend, a complicated (and often painful) experience familiar to any seasoned chess player. As it turned out, both players were referencing the same course on the Trompowsky Attack in their preparation! Although black had some little chances throughout the game, neither side was ever particularly close to winning:

Solon's 4.5/5 score netted him the first place prize of $800, with six players tying for second-through-seventh behind him with 4 points: GM Kayden Troff, IM Dean Ippolito, NM Thomas Kung, WGM Sabina-Francesca Foisor, NM Alexander Crump, and NM Todd Bryant, each winning $133.33. Steven Rand, who went undefeated in the four rounds he played, took the Top U2200 prize, while the U2000 prize was split between Rochan Bakthisaran and Ishaan Ballal. View full prize standings from the Championship section here.

U1800 Section

While 4.5/5 was the winning score in the Championship section, both the U1800 and U1400 sections saw perfect scorers topping the standings. In the U1800, it was Ramon Oropeza, who gained over 100 USCF rating points and defeated three of the other players in the top five! 

Here's Ramon's game in round three against Isaac Cutler, who won all his other games to tie for second place with 4/5 himself:

Oropeza took home $500 for clear first place, while Isaac Cutler tied with Zachary Smith for second and won $250 each. Cannada Lewis and Andrew Pleva tied for the Top U1600 prize ($175). Full standings from the U1800 section can be viewed here.

U1400 Section

Aidan Heberle was our other perfect scorer this past weekend, going 5/5 in the U1400 and winning himself the $500 first place prize. Just behind him was Alec Pickup (4.5/5, $300) in clear second place, while David Jorgenson, Spencer Boone, Etienne Vouga, and Alyssa Albertson tied for third-through-sixth and won $100 each. Olivia Delos won the $150 prize as the top finisher with a rating under 1000. 

Here's the game that clinched Aidan first place, his win in the last round against Steven Libonati:

Full standings of the U1400 section can be found here, and detailed results with rating changes are available on the USCF tournament crosstables.

A big thanks to our tournament directors, to Kelly Centrelli for the photographs used in this article, to organizer/CCC founder Peter Giannatos, and of course to all who participated in the event!

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NM Dennis Norman

Chess Coach - Club Journalist