Millionaire Chess 01+02: The Richie Rich of Opens is back!

by Hinduja Reddy - 07/10/2016

On 6th October the 3rd Millionaire Chess Tournament started in the Atlantic City. The venue has moved to a 'poorer' neighbourhood, and the prize fund has been reduced. But nonetheless, the charm remains, and so does the hunger among the players to win the prizes. Quite a handful of Indians are playing the mega-event this year. We bring you a brief report.

Millionaire Chess 01+02: The Richie Rich of Opens is back!

Photos by David Llada

Remember this cartoon?

Richie-Rich. That is precisely what happens when you play the richest open chess tournament in the world. You are pampered to the point of disbelief. If you win, you win prize money that may, frankly speaking, change your views about chess forever.

The richest open in the world is back! Millionaire Chess third edition is scheduled to take place from October 06 to 09, 2016, in Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City. The tournament is famous around the world for the quantum of prizes that it offers. The prize fund is mouth-watering even for the lower categories (eye-watering for those who cannot play it and are forced to watch others win).

The first prize in the Open is $30,000, with $12,000 category prize for first place in 2400-2549, and under 2400 each as well. Each of the U2200, U2000, U1800 categories has a first prize of $12,000, while the U1600 category has $10,800. Almost all the categories have prizes up till the 40th place! Considering that each dollar is worth Rs. 67 today, do the math!

In any case, winner or not, the concept is simple -- to provide chess players with a world class tournament that will give them memories of a lifetime.

The playing venue: Harrah's Resort Atlantic City

The conference hall

The food court

The stage is set

GM B. Adhiban (2689) has slipped to 1.5/2

24-year-old Adhiban is on his career high rating of 2689. He is the top seed of the open category. In the first round, he won the game without any hiccups but in the second round, he drew his game against GM Alexander Ivanov (2476).

Here is the first game where Adhiban conducted a smooth attack:

[Event "Millionaire Chess Open 2016"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.10.06"]
[Round "1.1"]
[White "Perez, Robert M"]
[Black "Adhiban, B."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E32"]
[WhiteElo "2323"]
[BlackElo "2689"]
[PlyCount "84"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[TimeControl "7200"]
[WhiteClock "0:25:40"]
[BlackClock "0:38:30"]

1. d4 {3} Nf6 {10} 2. c4 {0} e6 {8} 3. Nc3 {13} Bb4 {0} 4. Qc2 {9} d6 {70} 5.
Nf3 {288} Nbd7 {119} 6. g3 {642} O-O {515} 7. Bg2 {19} e5 {21} 8. O-O {148} Re8
{48} 9. a3 {638} Bxc3 {21} 10. Qxc3 {5} e4 {261} 11. Ne1 {85} Nf8 {244} 12. Nc2
{32} h5 {556} 13. h3 {742} a5 {232} 14. b4 {64} axb4 {259} 15. axb4 {0} Rxa1 {
47} 16. Qxa1 {6} d5 {118} 17. c5 {702} Bd7 {74} 18. Qb2 {37} Qc8 {143} 19. Kh2
{8} c6 {4} 20. Bg5 {638} N6h7 {467} 21. Bf4 {506} h4 {266} 22. Ra1 {124} Ng6 {
1221} 23. Qc1 {64} f6 {756} 24. Ra3 {240} Kf7 {87} 25. Bd6 {235} Ng5 {385} 26.
g4 {78} Kg8 {0} 27. Kh1 {1120} Nf7 {15} 28. Bh2 {0} f5 {1} 29. f3 {8} Kh7 {175}
30. fxe4 {373} fxg4 {31} 31. e5 {183} g3 {88} 32. Bg1 {45} Bxh3 {10} 33. Rf3 {
32} Rf8 {73} 34. Qf1 {105} Bxg2+ {75} 35. Qxg2 {0} Ng5 {37} 36. Rxf8 {0} Qxf8 {
2} 37. Be3 {0} Ne4 {34} 38. Ne1 {0} Qf5 {39} 39. Nd3 {5} h3 {95} 40. Qf3 {0}
Nh4 {50} 41. Qf4 {0} Qxf4 {0} 42. Nxf4 {0} Nf2+ {0} 0-1

USA's GM Sam Shankland, the second seed, is also on 1.5/2

World Junior champion GM Jeffery Xiong is on 2.0/2. [We have an in-depth interview under production. Will be out soon!]

Rahul Srivatshav P (2277) is playing in the open category and posing here for his red-carpet moment, one of the unique features of the event! (You're welcome, chess24.)

Many Indians traditionally play this mega-event in the USA. There are a handful of Indians who are playing in the U2200, U2000, U1800, and U1600 categories.

For example, Meet Puri (1468) is playing in the U1600 category, with his eyes firmly on the prize-money.

The event has a 'Best Dressed Player' award for every round. The first round prize went to Malcolm Barrington who dressed up in an Indian Sherwani!

A small tactic to savour: Griffith-Shimanov; Black to play

Pairings for Round 03:

Bd	#	Res	White	#	Res	Black
1	4		GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli	16		GM Alexander Shabalov
2	17		GM Conrad Holt	5		GM Jeffery Xiong
3	21		GM Oliver Barbosa	7		GM Aleksandr Shimanov
4	8		GM Emilio Cordova	23		GM Mark Paragua
5	25		IM Akshat Chandra	9		GM Dariusz Swiercz
6	27		IM Awonder Liang	11		GM Varuzhan Akobian
7	12		GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista	47		FM Levy Rozman
8	52		Yoav Lederer	14		GM Samuel Sevian
9	30		GM Alexander Fishbein	1		GM B. Adhiban
10	2		GM Samuel L Shankland	31		GM Ashwin Jayaram
11	28		GM Alexander Ivanov	3		GM Rauf Mamedov
12	6		GM Gawain C B Jones	33		GM Denes Boros
13	10		GM Jianchao Zhou	37		IM Colomban Vitoux
14	13		GM Yaroslav Zherebukh	39		FM Igor Sorkin
15	19		IM Andrey Gorovets	43		IM Daniel Jere
16	45		IM Farai Mandizha	20		GM Ioan-Cristian Chirila
17	50		FM William Morrison	26		GM Eugene Perelshteyn
18	15		GM Alejandro Ramirez	56		IM Oladapo Adu
19	57		Qibiao Wang	18		GM Alexander Stripunsky
20	59		FM Kyron W Griffith	22		GM Magesh Chandran Panchanathan
21	60		FM Hans M Niemann	24		GM Kayden W Troff
22	65		Nasyr Akylbekov	29		IM Pablo Salinas Herrera
23	32		GM Nikola Mitkov	62		Rahul Srivatshav P
24	34		GM Pontus Carlsson	67		FM Rico Salimbagat
25	72		FM Zhuo Ren Lim	35		IM Aman Hambleton

Find the rest of the pairings of open and other categories here

PGN Download

Interview with GM Maurice Ashley, organizer of the event.

More photos by David Llada