Thanks to everyone who played Fantasy Chess 2010! Congratulations to Alexander B.Adams of Minnesota, pictured to the left, who won first place in this year's competition, with the killer combo of Kamsky and Shulman on his team. Note that all the grand winners included this duo. What really set Alexander apart were his lower rated picks, Alexander Yermolinsky and Irina Krush, who both had strong tournaments.
The top five teams get prizes (first tiebreak being lowest average rating), and we've listed the top 22 finishers below.
It should be mentioned that IM Greg Shahade, tied for 15th place, was one of the organizers of the contest and was not actually eligible for prizes, though he surely would have made use of bragging rights.
1st Place: Alexander B.Adams- 38.5
Fantasy Team: (2639)
1. GM Gata Kamsky (2771)
2. GM Varuzhan Akobian (2671)
3. GM Yury Shulman (2669)
4. GM Robert Hess (2657)
5. GM Alex Yermolinsky (2572)
6. IM Irina Krush (2494)
Final Four: Kamsky, Nakamura, Onischuk and Shulman
Champion: Kamsky
2nd Place: Yiming Benjamin Wang - 38.0
Fantasy Team: (2639)
1. GM Gata Kamsky (2771)
2. GM Alexander Onischuk (2765)
3. GM Yury Shulman (2669)
4. GM Ray Robson (2607)
5. GM Jesse Kraai (2528)
6. IM Irina Krush (2494)
Final Four: Kamsky, Shulman, Onischuk and Nakamura
Champion: Kamsky
3rd Place: Mike Holsinger-37.5
Fantasy Team (2639.33)
1. GM Gata Kamsky (2771)
2. GM Yury Shulman (2669)
3. GM Robert Hess (2657)
4. GM Alexander Shabalov (2638)
5. GM Ray Robson (2607)
6. IM Irina Krush (2494)
Final Four: Kamsky, Nakamura, Shabalov and Shulman
Champion: Kamsky
4th Place: David R Bragg-37.5
Fantasy Team (2640)
1. GM Gata Kamsky (2771)
2. GM Yury Shulman (2669)
3. GM Alexander Shabalov (2638)
4. GM Alexander Stripunsky (2621)
5. GM Melikset Khachiyan (2613)
6. GM Jesse Kraai (2528)
Final Four: Kamsky, Nakamura, Shabalov and Onischuk
Champion: Kamsky
5th Place: Christopher Kuttruff -37.0
Fantasy Team (2634)
1. GM Gata Kamsky (2771)
2. GM Yury Shulman (2669)
3. GM Robert Hess (2657)
4. GM Alexander Shabalov (2638)
5. IM Sam Shankland (2541)
6. GM Jesse Kraai (2528)
Final Four: Kamsky, Onischuk, Shulman and Nakamura
Champion: Kamsky
6th Place: John Elmore –37.0
Fantasy team (2639)
1. GM Gata Kamsky (2771)
2. GM Alexander Onischuk (2765)
3. GM Yury Shulman (2669)
4. GM Ray Robson (2607)
5. GM Jesse Kraai (2528)
6. IM Irina Krush (2494)
Final Four: Nakamura, Kamsky, Onischuk and Shulman
Champion: Nakamura
7th Place: Steven Abrahams-37.0
Fantasy team (2639.5)
1. GM Hikaru Nakamura (2817)
2. GM Gata Kamsky (2771)
3. GM Yury Shulman (2669)
4. GM Alex Yermolinsky (2572)
5. GM Dmitry Gurevich (2514)
6. IM Irina Krush (2494)
Final Four: Kamsky, Nakamura, Shulman and Onischuk
Champion- Kamsky
8th-9th:
Fletcher Peavy and Maxim Sigalov-36.5
10th-14th:
Ryan Richardson, TJ (Ghost90), Steven Mullens, Adam Lee and Jorge Quiroz- 36.0
15th-22nd:
Russel Thurmond, Gary Robson, Mikhail Sher, Amir Mohammed, Michael Johnson, Greg Shahade, David Dickerson and Robert Keating- 35.5
Daily Winners:
Round 1: Anthony Venezia
Round 2: David Frey
Round 3: Brian Aguirre and Yuxin Zhao
Round 4: David Kim
Round 5: John Elmore and Yiming Benjamin Wang
Round 6: Amir Mohammed
Round 7: Alexander Adams
Round 8: Fletcher Peavy and Michael Langer
Round 9: Maxim Sigalov
Thanks to all who played, sponsors House of Staunton, chesslecture.com, Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and to Marty Hirsch of chessmagnetschool.com for programming the contest. The winners will be contacted soon for mailing information and prize preferences.