Alex Chastukhin: 2012 City Champion

The 2012 Cincinnati City Championship is complete! Check out games from the later rounds as well as all the results below.

Read below for an account of the tournament from Robert Chenault.

At the conclusion of the tournament, there were actually two players tied for first place with 5-1 scores, Andy Mackowiak and Alex Chastukhin. So this meant a playoff. But there was controversy…Andy Mack (as we call him) and Alex (The Ukrainian Fist…. as we call him) they had already played head to head. When that game was played, Andy Mack rocked it slow and ever so tender…. pulling out the win against Alex. Duane Larkin, the TD, ruled that this head to head tie breaker did not determine a clear champion (engraving a name in the trophy) and a playoff was ordered.

The playoff was held one week later during the Annual CCC Christmas Party. It was a two game playoff match, game in 30. The Ukrainian Fist represented and played masterly, winning both games. Alex Chastukhin’s name will be engraved in the coveted city championship trophy, a long running tradition that dates back to 1959. Andy Mack was gracious in the playoff lost, still allowing us to eat the Panera Bagels and cream cheese that he provided for the Christmas party. Andy Mack also had a great tournament, beating two masters, FM Hans Multhopp and Alex. The only lost that Andy Mack suffered was to close personal friend Andy Ward (who has inside knowledge on the rising expert’s game)

We had a strong field of 20 players, 3 masters, 3 experts and 3 class A players. Sergey Berchenko who, showed up and played after a 3-year hiatus …he looked great. Sergey’s presence made the tournament. Sergey has more city championship wins under his belt than anyone else, with 8 wins. We wanted to see a match between Berchenko and Chastukhin (Russian vs. Ukrainian) but it did not happen because Anthony Bayless scored a surprising upset against the Russian Master Berchenko. That was not the only upset that made headline news…. Ben Bryant beat the 2012 CCC Club Champion Robert Chenault. Unbelievable. As a matter of fact, Ben (a 1650 rated player) had the best tournament overall…. gaining over 100 rating points. Ben defeated a master (Berchenko), then a strong expert and lastly a class A player.

Jeremy Schiedt took home the under 2000 prize; Ben Bryant handily grabbed the under 1800 prize, Mike Hall (his return to chess) did well and tied for his under 1500 section, along with Brad Warren who also played well. We all got a chance to celebrate at the Christmas Party, good food. Hans ran a chess book auction that was a big hit and it raised good money for the club.

#	Name	Rtng	Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Rd5	Rd6	Total	Prize
1	Sergey Berchenko	2266	W11	L7	W8	W9	L15	Bye	3.5
2	Oleksandr Chastukhin	2222	W12	W6	W9	W3	L4	W15	5.0	$165
3	Hans Multhopp	2200	W14	W10	D7	L2	W8	L4	3.5
4	Andrew Mackowiak	2030	W15	L9	W11	W7	W2	W3	5.0	$165
5	Duane Larkin	2013	Bye	L14	W17	-	L10	D13	2.0
6	Robert Chenault	2001	W16	L2	W14	L15	W7	W9	4.0
7	Anthony Bayless	1987	W18	W1	D3	L4	L6	Bye	3.0
8	Jeremy Scheidt	1910	W17	Bye	L1	W10	L3	W14	3.5	$90
9	Andrew Ward	1883	W19	W4	L2	L1	W11	L6	3.0
10	Jeffrey Palun	1837	W21	L3	L15	L8	W5	W16	3.0
11	Jack Riesenbeck	1770	L1	W13	L4	W16	L9	W12	3.0
12	Vito Carla	1721	L2	L17	W13	-	W19	L11	2.0
13	Keevin Lee	1700	Bye	L11	L12	W17	L14	D5	2.0
14	Tim Lake	1667	L3	W5	L6	W21	W13	L8	3.0
15	Benjamin Bryant	1648	L4	W19	W10	W6	W1	L2	4.0	$90
16	Jeff Davis	1595	L6	L21	W19	L11	W20	L10	2.0
17	Mike Hall	1290	L8	W12	L5	L13	W21	-	2.0	$45
18	Dennis Chenault	1161	L7	-	-	-	-	-	0.0
19	Brad Warren	740	L9	L15	L16	W20	L12	W21	2.0	$45
20	Austin Lewis(house player)	389	-	-	W21	L19	L16	-	1.0
21	Jordan Smith	UNR	L10	W16	L20	L14	L17	L19	1.0