38 Compete at DeKalb's Other Tal Memorial

Aaron Maney has been practicing his chess lately and it shows. Maney defeated experts in back-to-back rounds to earn a stake of first place at The Other Tal Memorial, held Nov. 9 in DeKalb.

Jon Winick, Vincent Do and Chelsea Harper joined Maney with 3.0/4 scores. Winick's fourth-round victory deprived Maney of a perfect score. Still, Aaron, playing in his sixth tournament this fall after a three year absence from rated play, raised his USCF rating over 100 points to 1830.

Overall, 38 players battled it out in four sections of dual time-controlled chess (with a few extra games thrown in). USCF Crosstables.  

 

Maney plays with the Downers Grove Chess Club and is a participating board on their Chicago Industrial Chess League team. He recently became a welcome addition to the Aurora Naperville Chess Club. Clearly this club play is translating to tournament success.

The 13-player Open Section returned 100% of its entry fees to top-scoring entrants, with eight players sharing in the proceeds.

Home-schooled fifth-grader Tom Bareket and Iowa sixth-grader Clive Power posted level 2.0/4 scores to claim Under 1600 honors within the Open Section. Bareket, the lowest rated player in the top section, impressively went undefeated, drawing all four games.

In the 11-player Reserve Section, Kevin Taylor posted the tournament's only perfect score, going 4.0/4. Taylor bumped his rating over 100 points to 1547. Brian Gong and Jonathan Gaenzle finished a point back at 3.0/4, splitting second and third place prize money in the section.

St. Charles Club participant Ed Powers finished atop Under 1400 competitors within the section posting a 2.5/4 score. James Zhang, Adam Bareket and Daniel Renauer wound up a half-point back, all in second place among U1400's.

In the tightly-bunched Tweener's section, Aurora Naperville Chess Club's Steve Wilson drew Paul Schmitt in the final round, the only blemish on Wilson's undefeated day in only his second USCF-rated tournament. U of I graduate student Joe Riddle claimed second, a half-point back behind Steve with a 3.0 posting. Schmitt was a half-point back from that with 2.5, placing third.

The Under 1000 Booster competition saw Abhi Shankar, James Stacey and Charlie Harrison each tally 3.0/4, tying for the section championship. Stacey defeated Harrison in the first round, junior Shankar bested Stacey in the second round and Charlie prevailed over Abhi in the fourth round. This event served as Harrison's debut to USCF-rated play.

DeKalb Chess Club's Cliff Adams enjoyed the top upset (147 points!) for players not otherwise participating in prize pools.

The Other Tal Memorial represents the seventh rated-event hosted by the DeKalb club in 2013 and honored what would have been Mikhail Tal's 77th birthday.