GM Robert Hess won the
Boardwalk Open which was held in Asbury Park, NJ this weekend (October 22-24). GM Mark Paragua and IM Justin Sarkar tied for 2nd. GM Alex Lenderman, WIM Alisa Melekhina and NM Ed Allen shared 4th.
Final round play on the top 6 boards (back & center rows below) was delayed more than 20 minutes due to pairing foul-ups.
In the photo above Lenderman (red shirt), IM Mikhail Zlotnikov (beige suit) and Ms. Melekhina collect their belongings while, in the backround, Hess awaits the missing Paragua and NM Vladimir Lipman gets ready to play Sarkar.
When everyone was located and everything was straightened-out, boards 1-4 began as follows:
Paragua - Hess
E20 Nimzo-Indian Defense
Romanishin Variation
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 c5 5.g3 cxd4 6.Nxd4 Ne4 7.Qd3 Qa5 8.Nc2 (or transposition) Nxc3 (8...Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 Nc5 seems better) 9.Nxb4 Nxa2 10.Rxa2 Qxb4+ 11.Bd2 Qe7
Sarkar - Lipman
D36 Queen's Gambit
Exchange Variation
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 c6 6.e3 Bd6 (or transposition) 7.Qc2 0-0
Lenderman - NM Troy Daly
A40 Modern Defense
1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.dxc5 Qa5+ 5.Bd2 Qxc5
Zlotnikov - Allen
A05 Reti Opening
King's Indian Attack
1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 b6 3.Bg2 Bb7 4.0-0 Nf6 5.d3 e6 6.Nbd2 Be7 7.e4 d6 8.a4 0-0 (or something similar)
Actually, my primary reason for visiting the event was to see how Asbury Park, where my family vacationed in the late 60s and early 70s, looks now.
Not surprisingly, most of the places I remembered from that era are gone: the Golden Sands Motel (
which apparently was on 3rd Ave.), the Taylor Pork Roll Restaurant and the horrible
Homestead Restaurant...
... which was over the water and served a crappy meatball when you ordered a hamburger!
The
Howard Johnson's Restaurant, which was boarded-up when
No Reservations host Anthony Bourdain did a segment from there for his 2005
New Jersey episode, however, has re-opened as
McCloone's Asbury Grille and
Tim McCloone's Supper Club.
Anyway, I had a good time hanging-out with my 2009 USATE teammates Ziggy, Ari and Don V and going down memory lane. The weather was so great not even a pair of 1.5/4 scores could keep Eve and Ilya Zhurbinskiy from smiling as they strolled the boardwalk!!
