Yermo's Travels: the Twin Ports Open

Destination Duluth

The summer of 2017 has been quite busy for yours truly. Having captured my first U.S. Senior title at the end of July, in August I hit the chess trail like it’s 1995 over again. That memorable year I crisscrossed the country high and wide, played almost 200 tournament games, and nearly drove (pun intended) myself to exhaustion.

I hope I’m not foolish enough to repeat this experience 22 years later. Yet, in the second weekend of August my wife and I took a trip up north to the southern shores of Lake Superior. The largest of the five Great Lakes, it has the size of an inland sea and therefore creates its own microclimate.

The cool breezy summer nights offer a much-needed respite to the heat-weary Midwesterners. So, they pack their cars and trucks, campers and trailers and head up north on I-35. Some 150 miles from Minneapolis they reach their destination.

Coming to Duluth

The panoramic view of the lake gives a dramatic backdrop to Duluth's hilly streets

The first five editions of the Twin Ports Open were held in downtown Duluth, next to the famous Lift Bridge, a popular tourist attraction.

This is not a drawbridge, this whole section of the roadway actually goes up to allow boats to come through, then lowers back again to let the cars drive across.

The tournament site was The Suites, where we played in 2012-2016. Great views and nice restaurants all about, the hustle and bustle of the touristy area was not an ideal location for a chess tournament. So, in 2017 the Twin Ports Open moved over the state line to the Barker Island Resort in Superior, Wisconsin.

Aerial view of Barker's Island

In the summer, it becomes one of the area's vacation hotspots

The principal men behind the event are the “Dane Brothers”, Dane Mattson and Dane Zagar, who are very active in the area’s chess community. Being modest men, they didn’t allow their pictures to be taken, but they can be found on the group photo below (tall young dudes with glasses).

The event kicked off Friday night with a special exhibition game of Chess960. Both IM John Bartholomew and I had a team of consultants to help us, while NM Mike Zaloznyy of Las Vegas, Nevada graciously agreed to serve as the runner, bringing moves from my room to John’s and back. It was an interesting game, and I wish I had a score of, but ultimately it was taking a bit too much time and by agreement it was decided in a blitz battle between selected representatives. In a huge time scramble John’s guy checkmated my guy, but there were smiles all around.

Somehow the Danes were able not only to secure a prime location at the yachting resort, but even had the city's Mayor Jim Paine greet the players and make a ceremonial first move!

Our family duo were the joint winners in 2016, but this year both Camilla and I had to take a backseat to more motivated players.

WGM Camilla Baginskaite, wife and partner

Camilla didn’t deem any of her efforts worthy of publishing, so I’ll start with a game of my own against the above mention Mike Zaloznyy.

A strategic weapon against 1.d4: The Queen's Indian Defense

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The brutal schedule of weekend tournaments now calls for three games on Saturday and two more on Sunday. Combined with the travel, it makes for a kind of weekend you’ll need two more weekends to recover from.

I felt pretty beat up toward the end of Saturday sessions and took a side of caution against young Iowa State Champion NM Daniel Brashaw. An uneventful draw left us at 2.5/3 while the competition was pulling away.

The following morning I played a critical game against GM Bryan Smith of Philadelphia. Getting a second black in a row was not anticipated, but Bryan’s perfect score up to that point made him due for white.

I can imagine how Bryan must have felt after the game. Yet, one doesn’t get to grieve too long in American open tournaments. Less than ten minutes later we sat at the board again for our Round Five games.

I struggled somewhat against NM Wilson Gibbins’s Accelerated Dragon, but ultimately was able to prevail. We joked that something felt odd about this game, as in all previous events we always played each other in Round Two, and Wilson had White!

In the meantime, the big battle was fought on Board One.

A great tournament for Bryan, who took his victory lap the next day, giving a simul to the local players.

GM Bryan Smith, the tournament winner, gives a simul to the locals

Final Standings

1. Smith 4.5
2-4 V. Georgiev, Bartholomew, Yermolinsky 4
5-12. Gareev, Baginskaite, Brashaw, Wasiluk, J. Neal, Fellman, Drake, Matus 3.5

I just managed to get to the winners podium together withh Vladimir Georgiev and John Bartholomew, who took half-point byes to accommodate their busy schedules. In the meantime, Timur Gareyev, who spent the entire tournament on board one came away empty-handed. However, he will be featured in the next episode of my travelogue, titled “In The Iowa Wetlands”. Stay tuned!