1957
Evans and Byrne over Fischer
The 1957 Western Open tournament was held in the Venetian Room of the Astor Hotel. It was won by Evans and Byrne over, among others, young Bobby Fischer. Other notable participants were former French champion Stephen Popel, and Hans Berliner.
1958
Newcomer Benko Wins
Once again in the Venetian Room of the Hotel Astor, the Milwauke Chess Foundation and the Milwaukee Municipal Chess Association co-sponsored this tournament. Two rounds per day, it took place over the 4th of July weekend, July 3-6 1958. Pal Benko, who won this year’s event, also had qualified for the Zonal championship that year, and would later finish second (to Mikhail Tal) in the Portoroz Interzonal.
Benko won the event on tiebreaks over the young man from Minnesota, Milton Otteson. It was a bit of a nail-biter at the end, as going into the last round there were six players all tied with 6 points. Donald Byrne drew his game with Poschel, to give them both 6.5, while Benko beat the Canadian, Fuster, and Otteson defeated former French Champion Stephen Popel. As is usual, the extra digits at the end of each player’s score are the tiebreak points calculated for the event.
The scoresheet I have for this event is incomplete. If anyone has the results from the bottom of the table, please contact me.
1959
Benko Wins Again!
This third running of the New Western Open once again saw Pal Benko and Robert Byrne fighting for the lead. They were running dead even until round 6, when they met. Benko won that encounter and went on to win the tournament with an unbeaten score of 7.5, giving up a draw in the final round to Byrne’s fellow Indianan Martin Harrow, who finished even with Byrne at 6.5. Former French Champion Stephen Popel finished in a tie for 4-11 places with 6.0, his only two losses coming at the hands of Benko and Harrow.
Benko earned his prize money, playing each of the other top 6 finishers in the last 5 rounds. Starting in round 4, Benko played Henin, Popel, Byrne, Ulvestad, and Harrow, giving up only a draw to Harrow in the final round, long after it made any difference to anyone but Harrow, who needed a full point just to tie with Benko for the top spot.
The tournament was held once again in the Venetian Room of the Hotel Astor in Milwaukee.
2001
Szpisjak is Perfect
The 44th running of the New Western Open saw a dramatic increase in attendence over previous years, as many out of state players joined many new Wisconsin players in discovering this event. This year’s event marked a return to the two-section format of the last decade, and with it came numbers from the same era.
Steven Szpisjak of Illinois led the Open section with a perfect 5-0 score. Second place finisher (and Madison West Alumnus) Victor Chubukov finished at 4-1, his only loss being to Szpisjak in the first round. In fact, Szpisjak defeated four of the top ten finishers enroute to his perfect score. The story of the section was Jose Rodriguez, a sixth-grader who ended up playing (and losing to) Szpisjak in the final round.
Boyd Reed took top spot in the Reserve section, scoring 4.5/5 (the draw coming in the final round game with Ram Liebenthal). Five players shared second through fifth with 4 points.
The tournament was held once again in the Director’s Rooms of the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Milwaukee Wisconsin.
2002
Betaneli, Stamnov win
The 46th running of the New Western Open was won by Alex Betaneli and Aleksandar Stamnov, both with scores of 4.5/5. Overall attendence was down a little from last year with 78 total entries to the event. Despite this overall drop, the Open section attendence was up 3 players from last year, while the Reserve section dropped from 54 players to 39.
The co-champions met in round four and played to a hard-fought draw. In addition to playing each other, both players faced two other players from the pool of six masters in the event; Betaneli defeating last year’s champion Steven Szpisjak and Vadim Ruzell, while Stamnov defeated Steven Tennant and Glen Gratz. But the big story of the section this year was Eugene Gorodetskiy. Coming into the event rated 1575, he went undefeated (three wins and two draws) against opposition averaging 1932 (including a final round win against a player rated 2123)!
The story of the Reserve section this year was first place. Brayden Glad, a junior from Marquette University High School, took first place with a perfect 5.0 score. Glad, rated 1393 going into the event, successfully took on all challengers, defeating his nearest competition, Erik Santarius, in round 3 and beating Dennis Seibel, who trailed Glad in the last round by a half point, to secure a clear first. Santarius tied with Larry Schmitt at 4.0/5 for second.
The tournament was held in the Director’s Rooms of the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Milwaukee Wisconsin.
2003
Snakebit, or an IM Comes to Town
The 47th Western Open seemed snakebit. Almost no publicity attempts paid off for the event, ads were lost, regional magazine publication deadlines were missed, almost nothing worked out. As a result, the turnout was the lowest in recent memory.
In the middle of all this came a late email from IM Stanislav Smetankin: would the tournament allow him to play? With an IM (almost a GM, as Smetankin holds a FIDE rating of 2485 with 2 GM norms and is looking for a third) coming, the email campaign began, and the Open section was at least not empty, with 32 players — second highest attendence since the tournament was split into two sections.
Smetankin took first place with 4.5/5, giving a quick draw to State Junior champ Ashish Vaja in the last round to clinch clear first. Vaja, who was playing very well this week, ended up tied for 2-3 with local Expert Tom Mertins. This cleared the way for Brian Lilly, Oshkosh, to win the Expert prize while locals Jeremy Lynch and Paul Fricano tied with Madison’s Joe Richards to win the under 2000 prizes.
This year the Reserve section was won by Siarhei Biareishyk, a student at Madison West High School with 4.5 points, the only mar on his perfect score being a draw given to teammate Fan Wu. The draw enabled Wu to tie with Patrick McElwee, Milwaukee, and Ben Roberts, Green Bay, for second place with 4 points.
Class C in the Reserve section was the most cosmopolitan, with Iceland’s Arnar Sigurdsson tieing with Costa Rican Greivin Torrentes and Milwaukee’s James Smith, all at 3 points. Class D was won by Steve Clipson, Madison, while Brookfield’s Vignesh Somasundaram tied with Derek Jones (Bettendorf, Iowa) for second. Rhinelander’s Matt Peacock won class E, a half-point ahead of second-place John Brandt.
The tournament was once again held in the Director’s Rooms of the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Milwaukee Wisconsin.
2005
Angelo Makes Three
This year the Western added a third titled player to the mix: IM Angelo Young joined IM Stanislas Smetankin and IM Stanislav Kriventsov at the top of the wall chart. And it was no surprise to see them joined again at the top of the crosstable after the dust settled. Joining the three IM’s (with 4/5) was FM Aleksandar Stamnov and NM Steven Tennant. IM Smetankin gave up half points to NM Alexander Betaneli and IM Young, IM Young gave up his other half point to IM Kriventsov, who gave up his other half point to Geoffrey Polizoti. FM Stamnov gave up half points to Erik Santarius and Gary Aranovich, while Tennant was the only member of the top 5 to avoid drawing; he lost to Young in the third round.
The Reserve section was won by Rishi Sethi with 4.5/5, his final round draw with Jimmy Yu clinching a clear first place finish.
2006
Cinderella Drops a Slipper
It was shaping up to be a real Cinderella story. Young Erik Santarius was standing toe-to-toe with the best in the region, and hadn’t blinked.
Round one saw the top of the tournament in no trouble at all. But then came round two, and the story began. IMs Smetankin and Young handled their opponents (Smetankin beating NM Bill Williams and Young beating Ashish Vaja) as did NM Steven Szpisjak and NM Alex Betaneli, who coached Santarius at Madison West. But their comrades at the top didn’t fare as well. FM Ruslan Ahundov, former champion of Turkmenistan, encountered Santarius. Unaware that a 300-point rating deficit should be a fatal handicap, the young man pressed the FM hard, eventually settling for a draw when Ahundov proved too tough a nut to crack completely. And NM Steven Tennant fell to Rene Glen Ancheta in a second upset.
In round three, the story gathered speed.
Smetankin and Betaneli drew, giving Young an opening to take a half-point lead, which he did by defeating Szpisjak. Ahundov recovered from the previous round’s draw, winning handily over Ancheta and moving into a tie with Betaneli and Smetankin for second place, where he was joined by Santarius with a houdini-like escape from a lost position against Patrick McElwee.
This set up some important fourth round pairings. Young drew quickly with Smetankin, while Ahundov defeated Betaneli, moving him into a tie with Young for the lead, Smetankin a half-point back and Betaneli a full point back. Santarius then defeated Szpisjak in the longest game of the round to join Young and Ahundov at the top of the tournament, while Ancheta beat Jon Breider to join Smetankin in second place.
After Young and Ahundov drew in the final round, we thought perhaps we could hear the pumpkin carriage’s wheels on the road outside. If Santarius could reach deep into his bag and pull out just one last trick, he could jump past Young and win the event outright. We held our collective breaths waiting for a Cinderella finish.
But it was not to be. The slipper didn’t fit; the carriage was just a pumpkin after all. IM Smetankin was never really in trouble, and with the win moved into a tie with Ahundov and Young. The three were joined by Ancheta, who won over Williams, and Santarius had to be content with winning the class prize, instead.
In the Reserve section there was a real free-for all. Top-rated Sasha Velikanov was knocked off in round three by second seed Thomas Edelin, who was knocked off the top board in the folowing round by Bill Murtaugh, who fell in turn to David Sagunsky.
Sagunsky won the section clearly, with 4.5/5 (giving up a draw to Sou Her in round three). Velikanov took second place overall, as well as the trophy for Best Junior. Edelin tied with Murtaugh and Geremy Webne-Behrman for third place overall, with the latter two also winning their class prizes as well.