GMs Aleksey Dreev and Alejandro Ramirez
GM Aleksey Dreev dominated the UTD Invitational (which Dr.Alexey Root also wrote about on CLO). The top seed posted a fine 2806 tournament performance to take first place, a full 2 points ahead of GM Ramirez in 2nd place. The main test for the UT Dallas chess team will be at the Pan-American Intercollegiate in Milwaukee. The UTD A team has started at 4-0 the first two rounds. More information can be found at the official Pan-Am site.
But one of the biggest stories at the 2010 UTD Invitational would have to be the incredibly low number of draws (22%) at the tournament. Players were going all out each round to win. Both Darwin Yang and Steven Zierk were coming off very good tournaments and had high expectations for an IM norm (4.5 points) and a GM norm (6.0) respectively. It was not to be this tournament. The real tragedy was UT Dallas team member, IM Julio Sadorra, who finished ½ point short of his 3rd GM norm. I say tragedy, because in round 2 he lost by forfeit when his cell phone rang on the 7th move of his game against GM Alejandro Ramirez.
See a few games below and see more on Monroi.com.
5189
5190
For more info on the GM Invitational, go to utdallas.edu/chess/media-info/special-events.html.