September 2nd, 2008 
Chris Bird Blitz player Denys Shmelov tied for 1st along with GM Alex Ivanov and Alex Cherniack in the 68th New England Open held this past holiday weekend in Boxborough, MA, from August 30-September 1.
Going into the last round Ivanov had pole position with 4½/5, having beaten Shmelov in round 4 and needing just a draw to clinch the title since Shmelov had requested a half-point bye. However, Cherniack spoiled the party for the only GM in the field to ensure a three-way tie at the top.
Blitz alumni IM Igor Foygel and FM Paul MacIntyre finished tied for 4th-6th with 4/6 while current Blitz player IM David Vigorito finished in 7th-9th with 3½/6 having lost to team-mate Shmelov in round 2.
The event was sponsored by Blitz Benefactor, the Massachusetts Chess Association (MACA).
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WOW! I talked to Denis yesterday, and he basically conceded first to Ivanov, saying that he just has to draw Cherniack in the last round, I certainly didn’t this coming either.
I was there to watch the last two rounds. Basically, the last round saw every other player drop out… an exageration, but, a sure sign that something needs to be done to give an incentive for players to play things out. Even Denys took a last round bye. I think he could have played and gotten an easy (relatively) pairing and probably won the thing outright.
GM Ivanov’s game was strange. He could have traded things off and walked away with a draw… or, just done the GM thing and offered a draw on move 3… and won the tournament. But, he kept trying to complicate and finally out-maneuvered himself. Credit Cherniak with a great game. He struggled a bit, in my opinion, in the opening… but definitely took things out of the book. Nice win! Dave amd Igor agreed to a quick draw in about 12 moves since there was little chance to share a prize.
Denys’s 5th round game with SM Bill Kelleher was the best of the day. He boldly sacked an exchange to weaken White’s Kingside… and just when it looked like White was getting the best of things, Bill came up with a bad plan (or Denys had a good one), and lost rather easily in the ending. Wow… Denys, any chance you could annotate this game for the blog?
Basically most Open section players paid because they thought they’d get a shot at Krasik or La Rocca. We dropped out en masse at the end when it became apparent neither of you was going to enter.
There were rumors that I was going to play in the open, so that’s what drew the crowd, and hence the mass exodus when I didn’t show up.
-Matt