Iowa Players play in an IM Qualifier Event

January 23, 4 Iowans and an Illini gathered on lichess.org to play a round robin event. Each paid $10 with the winner earning an $80 entry fee to the IM Qualifier being held by Charlotte Chess Club. Tim McEntee was the organizer and director of the event. The players were Joseph Wan, Michael Takahashi, Anish Lodh, Gokul Thangavel and Abhyudhaya Venkat. Play was scheduled to begin at noon. The time control was 10/2 which was the same as the IM Qualifier.

Friday evening, Gokul contacted Tim to inform him that something came up and he could not play Saturday. After a few back and forths, it was agreed that Gokul would play his games later and he would schedule them with each player. The remaining players would play a quad on Saturday. After the quad, the standings were as follows:

Joseph 3.0

Abhy 2.0

Anish 1.0

Michael 0.0

Since Joseph was leading at this time and it was not likely that Gokul would complete his games by the Tuesday deadline to enter the IM Qualifier, Tim decided to award Joseph the free entry fee with the stipulation that if after all the games were played, someone else should have won they would be awarded an appropriate prize. Gokul completed his games on Thursday and here are the final standings.

Joseph 4.0

Gokul 2.0

Abhy 2.0

Anish 1.0

Michael 1.0

IM Qualifier

Charlotte Chess Club hosts several IM/GM norm events throughout the year. The entry fee for the event is $800. To lower the cost, they offer the IM qualifier event on lichess with an entry fee of $80. The winner of the qualifier earns a spot in a future IM norm event. If you finish 2nd through 4th, you earn a free entry fee to a future IM qualifier event. Joseph played in the Friday, January 29, IM qualifier event. Going into the last round, he had 3 points in 4 games. If he wins his last round, he would more than likely qualify for a future IM qualifier event. He had a promising position, and it was looking good for him to win. As time winded down, he made a critical mistake which cost him the game and a tie for 2nd through 5th place.

Future plans

Tim is planning on holding a qualifier event each month. The entry fee will be $10 with the winner earning a free entry to another tournament. The goal of this event is to give players an opportunity to play strong players and getting them ready for over the board tournaments which hopefully begins this summer. If you are interested in playing in such event or would like to know more, please contact Tim at timmcentee@msn.com