Toby Curtis perfect at Golden Week Open 2024 Group A, Murugappan second

by Mayur Gondhalekar - 27/05/2024

Axel Martin (FRA) and Nathan Summerville (JPN) scored 4.5/5 each at Golden Week Open 2024. Axel won the tournament due to better tie-breaks, Nathan was placed second. Shun Tokuni (JPN), Pei-Ti Wu (TPE) and Kei Sugita (JPN) scored 4/5 each. They were placed third to fifth respectively. In the Group A (Below 1700) section, Toby Curtis scored a perfect 5/5 to become the champion. Murugappan N, Yukihiko Yoshii (JPN), Kantaro Kohara (JPN) and Jie-Xin Lu (TPE) scored 3.5/5 each. They secured second to fifth place according to tie-breaks. The top three prizes in the Open were 20000, 15000 and 10000 Yen along with a plaque each. For Open A, the top three prizes were plaques with a Chessmood gift each. Photo: Japan Chess Federation

Axel Martin wins the Open

This year Sheldon Donaldson and I participated in the Japan Chess Championship, as a player and an arbiter respectively. This tournament is an annual invitational tournament, with qualifying tournaments held typically in February and March of the same year.

Open (L to R): 5th Kei Sugita (JPN) 4/5, 2nd Nathan Summerville (JPN) 4.5/5 , 1st Axel Martin (FRA) 4.5/5, 3rd Shun Tokuni (JPN) 4/5, 4th Wu Pei-Ti 4/5 | Photo: Japan Chess Federation

Group A (L to R) - 2nd Murugappan N 3.5/5, 1st Toby Curtis (JPN) 5/5 and 3rd Yukihiko Yoshii (JPN) 3.5/5 | Photo: Japan Chess Federation

But what does that mean for players who don’t qualify to the Japan Chess Championship? Are they doomed to be mere spectators, or is there any semblance of hope to get a taste of the FIDE rated tournament pie?

Fear not dear readers, for there is the “Golden Week Open” tournament: an annual FIDE rated tournament that coincides with the Japan Chess Championship, with fewer rounds, and an equally thrilling competition (albeit, at a lower average rating level).

Golden Week Open 2024, was held at the same venue as Japan Chess Championship – Curian at Oimachi, in Tokyo – from Saturday May 4, to Monday May 6. It featured five rounds, and was divided into two sections: the open section and Group A (FIDE 1700 and under).

This year saw the participation of a big group from Shanghai in both sections.

Prizes

Open section:

1st 20000 yen and plaque

2nd 15000 yen and plaque

3rd 10000 yen and plaque

4th ChessMood Prizes and plaque

5th ChessMood prizes and plaque

Group A:

1st to 3rd Plaques and ChessMood prizes

4th and 5th ChessMood prizes

Games of Murugappan

N Murugappan is a PhD student of the Department of Chemical Systems Engineering, at the University of Tokyo. He secured second place in the Golden Week Open, Group A and very kindly agreed to shares his games for the benefit of the readers.

A photo with the Chessbase reporters 😉

L to R: Mr. K Satya Sandesh, Sheldon Donaldson, Mayur Gondhalekar, N Murugappan

Final standings in Open

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	RtgI	RtgN	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	1	Martin Axel	FRA	1953	0	F-ticket	4,5	15	18	16,00	7103
2	7	Summerville Nathan	JPN	1815	1724		4,5	11,5	13	11,50	6958
3	3	Tokuni Shun	JPN	1897	1841		4	13,5	15,5	11,50	7123
4	27	Wu Pei-Ti	TPE	1602	1602		4	12,5	14	8,00	7555
5	17	Sugita Kei	JPN	1743	1719		4	11	13	9,50	6947
6	20	Ogawa Genki	JPN	1728	1411		3,5	13,5	15,5	9,00	6986
7	26	Wang Zi-Jie	TPE	1610	0	F-ticket	3,5	12,5	14	6,25	6598
8	13	Nagai Toshiyuki	JPN	1801	1561		3,5	12	13,5	7,25	7037
9	8	Erkoc Vedat	TUR	1810	1645		3,5	11,5	13	8,50	6840
10	34	Fuse Naoki	JPN	0	1598		3,5	11	13	9,25	7152

Details

Final standings in Group A

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	RtgI	RtgN	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	10	Curtis Toby	JPN	0	1300		5	11,5	13	13,50	6237
2	2	N Murugappan	IND	1527	1488		3,5	15	17	10,25	5545
3	6	Yoshii Yukihiko	JPN	0	1597		3,5	13,5	15,5	9,25	4629
4	8	Kohara Kantaro	JPN	0	1376		3,5	11	13	7,75	4967
5	5	Lu Jie-Xin	TPE	1439	0	F-ticket	3,5	11	12,5	8,25	6120

Details

Links

Japan Chess Federation

About the Author

Mayur is an IT engineer and a chess enthusiast from Mumbai, working in Japan since 2013. He has played over-the-board tournaments in India, USA and Japan. He has also been a top three finisher in a one-day OTB events in Japan in 2013, 2015, 2017 and online blitz in 2020. Currently he is making use of online platforms for chess improvement and learning Ayurveda. He loves salsa dancing, reading, traveling and teaching.