GM Aleks Wojtkiewicz
For example, in December 2003 GM Aleks Wojtkiewicz and GM Petr Kiriakov came to Atlanta to play in the 33rd Annual Atlanta Open. The only two GMs in the tournament, they were clear favorites to win. Local expert Anthony Ritz (2166) drew with both GM Wojtkiewicz (2653) and FM Grigoriy Kapranov (2396). Georgia's top-rated player IM Carlos Perdomo (2459) drew with GM Kiriakov (2645) to win 1st place in the tournament. FM Kapranov also lost to both scholastic star Xiao Chang (2096) and Brandon Hutchinson (2002).
GM Petr Kiriakov vs IM Carlos Perdomo
The Chess Drum describes Atlanta players as a "scrappy bunch" whose "monthly 5-round Swiss tournaments are always competitive." In this article, you can read how the House of Pain regulars scored well at the Emory Castle Grand Prix, where local David Vest (2162) beat IM Irina Krush (2460).
David Vest vs IM Irina Krush
Even though I'm still a class player, it's nice to know I'm paying my dues at Atlanta's infamous House of Pain.
5 comments:
That picture of David Vest makes him look like a transient! It's got to be disconcerting to any master class player who underestimates him based upon his appearance.
I've never had my picture taken for winning a tournament section (or won a trophy). The few I've won always seems to be the ones where the photographers aren't around and they don't hand out trophies. But half the time it does look like they're being booked for something, the way they make them stand up against a blank wall.
David is one of the strongest players at the Chess Center, and he's one of the small group of "executioners" we have that take titled scalps fairly regularly. I've never played David yet, but from what I've seen he plays some offbeat systems and has a very unique, dynamic style of play.
Pity that in my undergraduate days at Georgia Tech (in Atlanta for those of you not familiar with it) I wasn't playing much chess then...Sounds like I could have lost a few points on my GPA by spending a lot of time at the Atlanta Chess Center...
Congrats again on making class A!
Thanks, Chris :)
I also went to Ga. Tech for about a year (during my 10-year B.A. program), but I wasn't playing much chess then either. We do have a semi-regular player at the Chess Center who either just graduated or is about to graduate from Tech, and I believe his GPA is quite high. His name is Lawrence White. I had the honor of losing to him in late 2002 when he was rated 1768, and now he's up to 2006.
Pretty remarkable progress for Lawrence. He was a Class B player by the time he'd lost his provisional status.
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