Los Angeles Open final

The 2008 Los Angeles Open, held at the LAX Hilton from October 31 to November 2, ended in a 4-way tie at 4-1 among GMs Rogelio Antonio and Melisket Khachiyan, IM Entico Sevillano, and master Jeol Banawa. Only Banawa suffered a defeat, losing to Antonio in round 2. In the Amateur (U2000) section, Bobby Hall took clear first with 4½-½. Both sections of the 40-player Halloween Scholastics produced perfect scores, with Ishan Bose-Pine taking the Open and Ankur Gupta the Reserve. Dan Alvira swept the Hexes with 3-0. Complete standings are available at westernchess.com.

Gregg Small - IM Enrico Sevillano [A13]

Los Angeles Open, Los Angeles 2008

1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.Qa4+ Bd7 6.Qxc4 Bc6 7.0–0 Nbd7 8.b3 Bd6 9.Bb2 0–0 10.d3 Bxf3 11.Bxf3 Ne5 12.Bxe5 Bxe5 13.Nc3 Nd5 14.Bxd5 exd5 15.Qc5 c6 16.Rac1 Qf6 17.Nb1 Rfe8 18.Qc2 Re6 19.Nd2 Rae8 20.e3 h5 21.d4 Bd6 22.h4 g5 23.hxg5 Qxg5 24.Nf3 Qg4 25.Nh4 Rf6 26.Rce1 Re4 27.Ng2 h4 28.Qe2 Qg6 29.gxh4 Rxh4 30.f4 Qg3 31.Rf3 Qh2+ 32.Kf2 Rg6 33.Rg1 Rhg4 34.Kf1 f5 35.Qc2 Qh5 36.Rf2 Rg3 37.Qe2 Qh2 38.Qd3 Qh3 39.Qc2 Rxe3 0–1

Barry Lazarus - David Minasyan [B45]

Los Angeles Open, Los Angeles 2008

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Ndb5 Bb4 7.Nd6+ Ke7 8.Nxc8+ Rxc8 9.Bd2 Re8 10.Bd3 Kf8 11.0–0 d5 12.exd5 exd5 13.Bf5 Rc7 14.Nb5 Rce7 15.c3 Bc5 16.Bf4 Re2 17.b4 Bb6 18.Nd6 R8e7 19.Nxb7 Bxf2+ 20.Rxf2 Re1+ 21.Qxe1 Rxe1+ 22.Rxe1 Qb6 23.Nc5 a5 24.Bd6+ 24...Kg8 25.Rfe2 g6 26.Bc2 axb4 27.Kh1 bxc3 28.Re8+ 1–0


Prize Winners
Open
1st-4th: GM Rogelio Antonio, GM Melikset Khachiyan, IM Enrico Sevillano, Joel Banawa, 4-1; 5th: Gregg Small, 3½-1½; 1st-2nd U2200: Takashi Kurosaki, Yuliya Cardona, 3½-½; 3rd U2200: Tianyi He, Joshua Gutman, Giovanni Carreto, Richard Ding, Michael Brown, 3-2.

Amateur
1st: Bobby Hall, 4½-½; 2nd-3rd: Barry Lazarus, Konstantin Kavutskiy, 4-1; 1st U1800: Ariel Gerardo, 4-1; 2nd U1800: Ernesto Soto, 3½-1½; 3rd U1800: Jeffrey Ding, Ryan Polsky, Bill Conrad, Anna Karapetyan, Ron Morris, 3-2; 1st U1600: Daniel Mousseri, 3-2; 2nd-3rd U1600: David Minasyan, Alvin Huang, Carla Naylor, Numa Abdul-Mujeeb, 2½-2½; U1400: Beverly Woolsey, Chadi Hamwi, Armen Sarkissian, 2-3; U1200: Michael Tornabane, Robert Bryan Martin, 1-4.

Scholastic Open
1st: Ishan Bose-Pine, 5-0; 2nd: Kyle Huang, 4-1; 3rd-4th: Darren Leung, Albert Lu, 3½-1½; 5th: Happy Ullman, 3-2.

Scholastic Reserve
1st: Ankur Gupta, 5-0; 2nd-3rd: Hovanes Salvaryan, Benjamin Allins, 4-1; 4th-5th: Sridhar Madala, Jonathan Naylor, 3-2.
Hexes: Daniel Alvira, 3-0.

Photos: Last-round matchups featured Khachiyan-Sevillano on Board 1 (top) and Faber-Antonio on Board 2 (bottom).