Touring the American West, Vegas revisited
By GM Timur Gareev
I recently concluded travels lasting over a month and a half, during which
I was fortunate enough to experience Mexico City, San Diego, Los Angeles, Palm
Springs, the Hawaiian Islands and of course Las Vegas, I where I played at the
North American Open, which I won with a 8.0/9 score. ChessBase had a
big report by Beau Mueller on the event, to which I want to add an annotated
game (which you will find at the end of this report).

But before we get to that I would like to share some pictures I took on
my motorbike
tour through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

The "City of Rocks" in the desert

The mountains around San Diego

The Gila Cave Dwellings

Me in my travel gear at the Gila Forrest Lookout
Las Vegas and the North American Open
Every year Las Vegas plays host every year to one of America's biggest class
opens, the North American Open (NAO). Chess enthusiasts of all strengths from
all over the world flock to the entertainment metropole for these tournaments,
with hopes of winning relatively big prizes ($80,000 in the 2012 NAO) and experiencing
all that the city has to offer.

Las Vegas, founded in 1905, is located in an arid basin on the desert floor
of Nevada and is surrounded by dry mountains. The city's tolerance for gambling
and various forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and
made it world famous. The gambling and entertainment industry is mostly focused
in the "Las Vegas Strip", which is where the largest and most notable
casinos and buildings are to be found. These aerial photos, which were featured
in Beau Muellers
report, were shot by Ingrid Friedel during a flight last November in a single-engine
Cessna piloted by Unix-inventor Ken Thompson.

This year's North American Open, held at Bally's Casino Resort from December
26th-December 30th, drew a whopping 633 players competing in seven sections.

The venue: Bally’s Casino billboard with Caesar’s Palace visible
in the background
The open section featured 16 GMs, and I won it with an undefeated 8.0/9 score,
a point ahead of the field. This brought me the title of North American Open
Champion along with a prize of nearly $10,000. Here are tht top scorers of the
NAO:
# |
Name |
Rtng |
State
|
Pts
|
Prize |
1 |
GM Timur Gareev |
2660 |
TX
|
8.0
|
$9690.00 |
2 |
FM John Daniel Bryant |
2416 |
CA
|
7.0
|
$4704.00 |
3 |
GM Chao Li |
2670 |
CHN
|
6.5
|
$1474.00 |
4 |
GM Sam Shankland |
2595 |
CA
|
6.5
|
$1474.00 |
5 |
GM Alejandro Ramirez |
2554 |
TX
|
6.5
|
$1474.00 |
6 |
IM Zhanibek Amanov |
2359 |
KAZ
|
6.5
|
$2352.00 |
7 |
GM Sergey Erenburg |
2637 |
ISR
|
6.0
|
$715.40 |
8 |
GM Gior Kacheishvili |
2602 |
NY
|
6.0
|
$715.40 |
9 |
GM Joshua Edward Friedel |
2494 |
NH
|
6.0
|
$715.40 |
10 |
GM Dmitry Gurevich |
2485 |
IL
|
6.0
|
$715.40 |
11 |
GM Arthur Chibukhchian |
2448 |
ARM
|
6.0
|
$715.40 |
12 |
FM Yian Liou |
2352 |
CA
|
6.0
|
$715.40 |

One of the key games that brought my final success was in the seventh round:
1.e4 | 1,185,960 | 54% | 2421 | --- |
1.d4 | 960,101 | 55% | 2434 | --- |
1.Nf3 | 286,728 | 56% | 2440 | --- |
1.c4 | 184,987 | 56% | 2443 | --- |
1.g3 | 19,897 | 56% | 2427 | --- |
1.b3 | 14,604 | 54% | 2428 | --- |
1.f4 | 5,958 | 48% | 2376 | --- |
1.Nc3 | 3,917 | 50% | 2383 | --- |
1.b4 | 1,791 | 48% | 2379 | --- |
1.a3 | 1,250 | 54% | 2406 | --- |
1.e3 | 1,081 | 49% | 2409 | --- |
1.d3 | 969 | 50% | 2378 | --- |
1.g4 | 670 | 46% | 2361 | --- |
1.h4 | 466 | 54% | 2382 | --- |
1.c3 | 439 | 51% | 2425 | --- |
1.h3 | 289 | 56% | 2420 | --- |
1.a4 | 118 | 60% | 2461 | --- |
1.f3 | 100 | 47% | 2427 | --- |
1.Nh3 | 93 | 66% | 2506 | --- |
1.Na3 | 47 | 62% | 2476 | --- |
Please, wait...
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d5 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Na3 c3 8.bxc3 c5 9.Ne5!? Nd5!? 9...Nbd7 10.Nd3 9...Nfd7 10.Ng4 10.Nac4 10...Nb6 11.Nh6+ Kh8 12.dxc5 Qxd1 13.Rxd1 Na4 14.Nb5 9...Nc6! 10.Nxc6 bxc6 11.Bxc6 Bh3 12.Re1 Rc8 13.Bf3 Qa5 10.Bb2 Nc6 11.Nac4 Be6 12.Nxc6 bxc6 13.Ne5 13.Rc1 Rb8 14.Ba3 cxd4 15.cxd4 Nb4 16.Qd2 c5 13...Bxe5! 14.dxe5 Rb8 15.Qc2 Qa5 16.c4 Nb4 17.Qc3 Qa4 18.Qb3 Qa6 19.Rfc1 Rfd8 20.Ba3? 20.Qe3 Nxa2 21.Rc2 Qa4 22.Be4 Bxc4 23.e6 20...Nd3 21.exd3 Rxb3 22.axb3 Qb6 23.Rc3 Rd7 24.Bc1 Bf5 25.Bf1 Kg7 26.Be3 Qb4 27.Bd2 h6 28.h4 Qb8 29.Ra5 Qxe5 30.b4 Qb8 31.b5! Qd8 32.Rb3 cxb5 32...Rb7 33.Raxb5 Bxd3? 33...e5 34.Bc3 Qe7 35.f4!? g5!? 34.Ba5! Qa8 34...Bxf1 35.Bxd8 Bxc4 36.Ba5 Rd1+ 37.Kg2 Bd5+ 38.f3 Bxb3 39.Rxb3± 35.Bxd3 a6 36.Rb6 Qf3 37.Bf1 Qe4?! 38.Re3 Qf5 39.Rxa6 g5 40.Bc3+ 40.hxg5 hxg5 41.Rc6 40...f6 41.h5 Kf7 42.Be2 42.Bg2 Rd1+ 43.Be1 42...g4 43.Rae6 Qxe6 43...Rb7 44.Bd3 Qxh5 45.Be4 44.Rxe6 Kxe6 45.Bxg4+ f5 46.Be2 Rd6 47.Kg2 Rb6 48.Bf3 Kf7 49.Bd2 1–0
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Gareev,T | 2660 | Shabalov,A | 2578 | 1–0 | 2012 | D77 | North American Open | 7.2 |
Please, wait...
Before coming to Vegas I spent two weeks in Hawaii and had an amazing travel
adventure, an exciting chess camp, and the remarkable experience of playing
a 27-games blindfold simul. This was reported by Keahi Renaud in a big
ChessBase pictorial. For me it was a big adventure and will be the focus
of the article on my planned journey to the “64 Blindfold Chess World
Record”. This will appear here in the next few days.
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