Fantasy Chess Finishes
By Arun Sharma   
May 22, 2008
LangerCLolead.jpgIlan Meerovich earned the top score in the 2008 Fantasy U.S. chess championship competition, taking the grand prize of a Monroi PCM and a board signed by all the participants in the 2008 Frank Berry U.S. Championship. Michael Langer was on four of the top five teams, so he was the #1 key to success. Langer's own team also scored higher than any other U.S. Champ participant, so he wins the 100$ bonus prize. Karthik Ramachandran won the daily prize with 5/7, and also jumped from 43rd-54th into the overall winner circle with 4th place.

If you wish to check how many points your team’s final score, login at http://aero.eudemonia.net/fantasychess/fc_login.php using the same email and password you used to register for the contest.

So with a fairly tame last round in the Championships, yesterday’s leaders mostly were able to hold onto their positions and take the prizes they had probably set their eyes upon.  Recalling the 0.5 bonus for IM Zatonskih for winning the Woman’s playoff, these are the final standings by points.

38.5 Points:  1st – 2nd
38 Points:  3rd
37.5 Points:  4th – 6th
37 Points:  7th – 12th
36.5 Points:  13th
36 Points:  14th – 27th
35.5 Points:  28th – 40th
35 Points:  41st – 63rd
34.5 Points:  64th – 88th
34 Points:  89th – 122nd
33.5 Points:  123rd – 164th
33 Points:  165th – 217th
32.5 Points:  218th – 265th
32 Points:  266th – 306th
31.5 Points:  307th – 351st
31 Points:  352nd – 398th
30.5 Points:  399th – 427th
30 Points:  428th – 457th
29.5 Points:  458th – 480th
29 Points:  481st – 493rd
28.5 Points:  494th – 504th
28 Points:  505th – 511th
27.5 Points:  512th – 518th
27 Points:  519th – 520th
26 Points:  521st – 522nd
25 Points:  523rd
23.5 Points:  524th
22 Points:  525th
17 Points:  526th



Congratulations to the winners who are:

1st Place:  Ilan Meerovich (2553.8571) – 38.5 Points 


Alex Onischuk                  6.5
Yury Shulman                    7
Katerine Rohonyan           6
Sergey Kudrin                    6
Tatev Abrahamyan            6
Josh Friedel                      5.5
Sergey Galant                  1.5

Prize:  Monroi PCM + Signed Board of Championship Participants
PCM.jpg
Paul Clift and Ilan Meerovich won the grand prizes, Monroi PCM's


2nd Place:  Paul Clift (2555.0000) – 38.5 Points 

Irina Krush                       7.5
Anna Zatonskih                 8
Yury Shulman                    7
Eugene Perelshteyn        5.5
Josh Friedel                      5.5
Michael Langer                3.5
Sergey Galant                  1.5

Prize: Monroi PCM

3rd Place:  Karl Bodenheimer (2546.5714) – 37.5 Points 


Irina Krush                       7.5
Anna Zatonskih                 8
Sergey Kudrin                   6
Tatev Abrahamyan            6
David Pruess                     4
Michael Langer                 3.5
Sam Shankland                2.5

Prize:  Two Years USCF Membership

4th Place:  Karthik Ramachandran (2554.1429) – 37.5 Points
 

Anna Zatonskih                 8
Alex Onischuk                  6.5
Yury Shulman                    7
Alexander Ivanov             5
Katerine Rohonyan            6
Michael Langer                3.5
Sergey Galant                 1.5

Prize:  One Year USCF Membership

5th Place:  Jordan Langland (2554.8571) – 37.5 Points 


Irina Krush                       7.5
Katerine Rohonyan            6
Sergey Kudrin                   6
Tatev Abrahamyan            6
Tsaagan Battsetseg         4.5
David Pruess                     4
Michael Langer                 3.5

Prize:  Signed Copy of Joel Benjamin’s book, American Grandmaster


These are the Top 100 Entrants in the Overall Contest (in tiebreak order):

1. Ilan Meerovich (2553.8571) – 38.5
2. Paul Clift (2555.000) – 38.5
3. Janani Ramachandran (2553.8571) – 38*
4. Karl Bodenheimer (2546.5714) – 37.5
5. Karthik Ramachandran (2554.1429) – 37.5
6. Jordan Langland (2554.8571) – 37.5
7. Cullen Bryant (2548.5714) – 37
8. Kevin Hyde (2553.4286) – 37
9. Joseph Freiberg (2553.5714) – 37
10. Mark Fortunati (2553.7143) – 37
11. Chris Williams (2554.5714) – 37
12. James Dickson (2555.0000) – 37
13. Michael Langer (2552.5714) – 36.5
14. Rita Mirchandani (2539.1429) – 36
15. Tatev Abrahamyan (2539.2857) – 36
16. Robert Cousins (2549.1429) – 36
17. Arun Sharma (2550.8571) – 36
18. Thomas Langland (2552.5714) – 36
19. Rich Van Riper (2552.7143) – 36
20. Alec Getz (2553.2857) – 36
21. Nicholas Karas (2553.2857) – 36
22. Severo Caluza (2553.4286) – 36
23. Gerald Roberts (2553.8571) – 36
24. Christopher Heung (2554.2857) – 36
25. Renier Gonzalez (2554.7143) – 36
26. Frank Johnson (2554.7143) – 36
27. Luris Murnieks (2554.7143) – 36
28. Rawn Prowell (2549.7143) – 35.5
29. Christopher Sawyer (2551.8571) – 35.5
30. Harrison Leven (2552.000) – 35.5
31. Ian Harris (2552.1429) – 35.5
32. Peter Hess (2552.4286) – 35.5
33. Kevin Leuthold (2553.1429) – 35.5
34. Gil Luna (2553.1429) – 35.5
35. Virgil Green (2553.2857) – 35.5
36. Peter Stokes (2554.2857) – 35.5
37. Vadim Martirosov (2554.2857) – 35.5 
38. Michael Aigner (2554.4286) – 35.5
39. Derek Sachs (2554.5714) – 35.5
40. Raymond Griffin (2555.000) – 35.5
41. James Jacobsen (2519.4286) – 35
42. Adam Weissbarth (2549.7143) – 35
43. John Sheatsley (2551.1429) – 35
44. Sam Shankland (2551.1429) – 35
45. David Reading (2551.4286) – 35
46. Carol Hess (2552.1429) – 35
47. Ryan Franz (2552.1429) – 35
48. Daniel Bryant (2552.2857) – 35
49. Ryan Ko (2552.8571) – 35
50. Harut Akopyan (2553.0000) – 35
51. David Jamison (2553.1429) – 35
52. Bob Halliday (2553.4286) – 35
53. Brian Chan (2553.4286) – 35
54. Alan Myatt (2553.8571) – 35
55. Movses Movsisyan (2554.2857) – 35
56. Evan Rabin (2554.4286) – 35
57. Jason Wu (2554.4286) – 35
58. David Hater (2554.7143) – 35
59. Jason Mueller (2554.8571) – 35
60. Alex Strunk (2554.8571) – 35
61. Andrew Whatley (2555.0000) – 35
62. Igor Zhislin (2555.0000) – 35
63. Magesh Panchanathan (2555.000) – 35
64. Carl Aridas (2544.5714) – 34.5
65. Zachary Haskin (2544.8571) – 34.5
66. Betsy Dynako (2547.1429) – 34.5
67. James Pinkerton (2547.5714) – 34.5
68. Ketan Kapre (2551.0000) – 34.5
69. Danavi Wollin (2551.1429) – 34.5
70. Tim Steiner (2551.2857) – 34.5
71. Caleb Molitoris (2551.5714) – 34.5
72. Joseph Thuemler (2551.7143) –34.5
73. Randolph Kaech (2552.0000) – 34.5
74. Keith MacKinnon (2552.8571) – 34.5
75. Michael Zhong (2553.2857) – 34.5
76. Edward DeSelm (2553.2857) – 34.5
77. Sergey Galant (2553.5714) – 34.5
78. Kevin Connelly (2553.5714) – 34.5
79. Ed Feldman (2553.7143) – 34.5
80. Michael Reading (2553.8571) – 34.5
81. Norman Saba (2554.4286) – 34.5
82. Jack Millman (2554.5714) – 34.5
83. Joanna Gossell (2554.7143) – 34.5
84. Gary Kevin Ware (2554.8571) – 34.5
85. Dan Yeager (2554.8571) – 34.5
86. Ricardo Fabian (2554.8571) – 34.5
87. Richard Reich (2555.0000) – 34.5
88. Justin Sarkar (2555.0000) – 34.5
89. Richard Rivera (2515.7143) – 34
90. Dmitry Shneider (2537.4286) – 34
91. David Courture (2540.0000) – 34
92. Joe Bradford (2544.0000) – 34
93. Austin Finell (2544.4286) – 34
94. Mike Belorusov (2544.8571) – 34
94. Steven van Enk (2547.1429) – 34
95. Sara Walsh (2547.4286) – 34
96. Raven Sturt (2549.4286) – 34
97. Derek Tan (2549.5714) – 34
98. Andrew Tichenor (2550.0000) – 34
99. Mark Ashland (2550.0000) – 34
100. Mario Aguila (2551.0000) – 34


*Ineligible for prizes since not current USCF member.

Another draw heavy day made for some rather low daily scores with two players managing 5.5 / 7 and thirteen managing 5 / 7. 

Day Nine Daily Prize: 

1st Place:  Karthik Ramachandran (2554.1429) – 5.5 Points (37 Points and 4th place in Overall Contest )


Anna Zatonskih                 1
Alex Onischuk                   1
Yury Shulman                   0.5
Alexander Ivanov              1
Katerine Rohonyan          0.5
Michael Langer                  1
Sergey Galant                 0.5

2nd Place:  Ed Addis (2541.4286) – 5.5 Points (30.5 Points in Overall Contest)

Alex Onischuk                   1
Julio Becerra                    0.5
Alexander Ivanov              1
Boris Gulko                         1
Esther Epstein                  0.5
Larry Kaufman                 0.5
Michael Langer                  1

With a nice comeback in the final round to erase a 1.5 point deficit, Michael Langer took the $100 prize for the contest amongst the Championship players. Since he was also on four of the top five teams, this definitely makes Langer this year's fantasy champion among championship participants.

1st Place:  Michael Langer (2552.5714) – 36.5 Points


Irina Krush                       7.5
Anna Zatonskih                 8
Varuzhan Akobian            5.5
Katerine Rohonyan            6
David Vigorito                   3.5
Michael Langer                3.5
Sam Shankland                 2.5

With the remaining Championship Entrants being:

2. Tatev Abrahamyan (2539.2857) – 36
3. Sam Shankland (2551.1429) – 35
4. Sergey Galant (2553.5714) – 34.5
5. Josh Friedel (2553.5714) – 33
6. Courtney Jamison (2549.2857) – 32
7. David Pruess (2552.8571) – 31.5
8. Iryna Zenyuk (2532.8571) – 31
9. Daniel Ludwig (2551.7143) – 31
10. Jesse Kraai (2541.0000) – 30

Keys to Success (Number of Times each player appears in the Top Five teams in the Overall Contest).


Michael Langer                   4
Irina Krush                          3
Anna Zatonskih                  3
Yury Shulman                      3
Katerine Rohonyan             3
Sergey Kudrin                      3
Tatev Abrahamyan              3
Sergey Galant                     3
Alex Onischuk                     2
Josh Friedel                         2
David Pruess                       2
Alexander Ivanov                1
Eugene Perelshteyn           1
Tsaagan Battsetseg           1
Sam Shankland                   1

So once again congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who took the time to enter the Fantasy Contest; I hope you found both it and the Championships enjoyable.  As always, whatever suggestions you might have to make future contests even better would be welcomed.  So until next year, so long!