Round Five Fantasy Chess
By Arun Sharma   
May 18, 2008
If you wish to check how many points your team currently has, login at http://aero.eudemonia.net/fantasychess/fc_login.php using the same email and password you used to register for the contest.

With another day of action in the books, the Fantasy Standings once again managed to stay fairly stagnant with a very small number of changes to the leader board (with the notable exception of your reporter being knocked off of it, for now anyways!). Despite the leader board staying largely the same, none of the top contestants had an amazing day today which has created a large logjam at the top, and clearly nothing is even close to decided yet. 

With her fifth consecutive win, Irina Krush has managed to be the current most important pick to place oneself on the leader board with Daniel Ludwig and Sam Shankland close behind.  

Overall Standings by Points:


22.5 Points:  1st – 7th
22 Points:  8th – 13th
21.5 Points:  14th – 23rd
21 Points:  24th – 43rd
20.5 Points:  44th – 79th
20 Points:  80th – 116th
19.5 Points:  117th – 162nd 
19 Points:  163rd – 222nd
18.5 Points:  223rd – 278th
18 Points:  279th – 329th
17.5 Points:  330th – 385th
17 Points:  386th  – 429th
16.5 Points:  430th – 474th
16 Points:  475th – 497th
15.5 Points:  498th – 513th
15 Points:  514th – 515th
14.5 Points:  516th – 521st
14 Points:  522nd
13.5 Points:  523rd – 524th
12 Points: 525th
8 Points:  526th

The Top Thirteen teams are:

1st Place:  Karl Bodenheimer (2546.5714) – 22.5 Points


Irina Krush                         5
Anna Zatonskih                 5
Sergey Kudrin                   4
Tatev Abrahamyan            3
David Pruess                     2
Michael Langer                 1.5
Sam Shankland                  2

2nd Place:  Daniel Bryant (2552.2857) – 22.5 Points


Irina Krush                        5
Gregory Kaidanov             3
Yury Shulman                    4
Sergey Kudrin                    4
Daniel Ludwig                    3
Larry Kaufman                 1.5
Sam Shankland                  2

3rd – 4th Place:  Nicholas Karas (2553.2857) – 22.5 Points


Irina Krush                        5
Alex Onischuk                  3.5
Sergey Kudrin                    4
Josh Friedel                        3
David Pruess                     2
Daniel Ludwig                    3
Sam Shankland                  2

3rd – 4th Place:  Michael Zhong (2553.2857) – 22.5 Points


Irina Krush                        5
Anna Zatonskih                 5
Julio Becerra                    3.5
David Pruess                     2
David Vigorito                   2
Daniel Ludwig                    3
Sam Shankland                  2

5th Place:  Janani Ramachandran (2553.8571) – 22.5 Points

Irina Krush                        5
Anna Zatonskih                 5
Alex Onischuk                  3.5
Yury Shulman                    4
Daniel Ludwig                   3
Michael Langer                 1.5
Sergey Galant                   0.5

6th Place:  Christopher Heung (2554.2857) – 22.5 Points


Irina Krush                        5
Alex Onischuk                  3.5
Yury Shulman                    4
Julio Becerra                    3.5
Daniel Ludwig                   3
Michael Langer                 1.5
Sam Shankland                  2

7th Place:  Michael Aigner (2554.4286) – 22.5 Points


Irina Krush                        5
Yury Shulman                    4
Julio Becerra                    3.5
Josh Friedel                       3
David Pruess                     2
Daniel Ludwig                    3
Sam Shankland                  2

8th Place:  Robert Cousins (2549.1429) – 22 Points

Irina Krush                        5
Yury Shulman                    4
Katerine Rohonyan         3.5
Josh Friedel                       3
Dean Ippolito                    1.5
Daniel Ludwig                    3
Sam Shankland                  2

9th Place:  Kevin Hyde (2553.4286) – 22 Points

Irina Krush                        5
Anna Zatonskih                 5
Alex Onischuk                  3.5
Katerine Rohonyan         3.5
Daniel Ludwig                    3
Larry Kaufman                 1.5
Sergey Galant                   0.5

10th Place:  Anders Getz (2553.5714) – 22 Points

Anna Zatonskih                 5
Alex Shabalov                    3
Sergey Kudrin                    4
Alex Yermolinsky              3
John Fedorowicz               2
Daniel Ludwig                    3
Sam Shankland                  2

11th Place:  Chris Williams (2554.5714) – 22 Points


Anna Zatonskih                 5
Gregory Kaidanov             3
Yury Shulman                    4
Katerine Rohonyan          3.5
Josh Friedel                        3
Michael Langer                 1.5
Sam Shankland                  2

12th Place:  Ricardo Fabian (2554.8571) – 22 Points

Irina Krush                        5
Alex Shabalov                    3
Yury Shulman                    4
Josh Friedel                       3
David Vigorito                   2
Daniel Ludwig                    3
Sam Shankland                  2

13th Place:  Paul Clift (2555.0000) – 22 Points


Irina Krush                        5
Anna Zatonskih                 5
Yury Shulman                    4
Eugene Perelshteyn         3
Josh Friedel                       3
Michael Langer                 1.5
Sergey Galant                   0.5

Once again the scores for the daily award fell off a bit (just as they did for the top contestants) as three people once again managed 6 / 7, but only five managing 5.5 / 7. 

Day Five Daily Prize:


1st Place:  Rich Van Riper (2552.7143) – 6 Points (21 Points in Overall Contest)

Irina Krush                         1
Anna Zatonskih                 1
Katerine Rohonyan          1
Dean Ippolito                    1
Iryna Zenyuk                     0.5
Daniel Ludwig                   1
Michael Langer                 0.5

2nd Place:  Betsy Dynako (2547.1429) – 6 Points (19.5 Points in Overall Contest)


Yury Shulman                    1
Benjamin Finegold            1
Katerine Rohonyan          1
Batchimeg Tuvshintugs   0.5
Dean Ippolito                    1
David Vigorito                   0.5
Daniel Ludwig                    1

3rd Place:  Alexandra Hess (2554.7143) – 6 Points (18.5 Points in Overall Contest)

Anna Zatonskih                 1
Alex Shabalov                    1
Yury Shulman                     1
Dean Ippolito                    1
Esther Epstein                     1
David Vigorito                   0.5
Michael Langer                 0.5

Amongst the championship players, Michael Langer seems destined to hold a 0.5 point lead every day as that’s where he stands once again, despite holding this narrowest of leads over a different person every day, in this case Sergey Galant.

Michael Langer (2552.5714) – 21.5 Points


Irina Krush                         5
Anna Zatonskih                  5
Varuzhan Akobian            2.5
Katerine Rohonyan         3.5
David Vigorito                   2
Michael Langer                 1.5
Sam Shankland                   2
Sergey Galant                   0.5

Sergey Galant (2553.5714) – 21 Points


Irina Krush                         5
Alex Shabalov                    3
Yury Shulman                     4
Eugene Perelshteyn          3
Katerine Rohonyan         3.5
Sam Shankland                   2
Sergey Galant                   0.5

Keys to Success (Number of Times each player appears in the Top Thirteen teams of the Overall Contest).  To those curious about the relevance of this statistic:  it’s basically two things, one it obviously shows who the “key” players to have on your team are for the purposes of being at the top of the standings in this contest as well as demonstrating who the more and less popular picks are. For example, Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih have the same score while Krush was the more expensive player, rating-wise. That she has been much higher on the Keys to Success for the last few days shows how many more teams she is on.

Irina Krush                        11

Daniel Ludwig                   10
Sam Shankland                 10
Anna Zatonskih                  7
Yury Shulman                     7
Josh Friedel                        6
Alex Onischuk                    5
Michael Langer                   5
Sergey Kudrin                     4
David Pruess                      4
Julio Becerra                      3
Katerine Rohonyan            3
Sergey Galant                     3
Alex Shabalov                     2
Gregory Kaidanov              2
David Vigorito                     2
Larry Kaufman                    2
Eugene Perelshteyn           1
Tatev Abrahamyan             1
Alex Yermolinsky                1
John Fedorowicz                 1
Dean Ippolito                       1