by Arun Sharma

The Fantasy Competition closed quite differently from the main tournament. Instead of the leader throughout, Gilberto Luna II, taking home the grand prize, an upstart
who had made little noise in the standings came out on top. Congratulations to Asher Gabara who not heeding the potential danger in choosing a team of maximal rating, was the only person to score 35.5 Points, and will take home the 80 GB Video Ipod. Our leader throughout the later stages of the competition, Gilberto Luna II is
probably disappointed not to win first. Still, he takes home the second place prize of the one-hour lesson with IM Josh Friedel. Congratulations to all five winners!

Optimal Team Contest Part II.

Nobody picked the "optimal team," but who would have ended up comprising it? Greg Shahade is rather bitter about his inability to pick the optimal team yesterday. (He offered $20 to anyone who could find a better team, and at 7:30 AM, James Dickson found a team that had the same score as Greg's but won on tiebreak, being .57 points lower rated.) Today, Greg is certain that he has found that particular team (again with no computer assistance), and is once again offering a $20 prize to the first person to post a better one in the comments section.

"Perfect Team Take 2" (2504.7142) - 37 Points

Alexander Shabalov 2660 7
Sergey Kudrin 2612 5.5
Julio Becerra 2608 6
Joseph Bradford 2475 5
Robert Hess 2448 4.5
Michael Langer 2334 4.5
Ron Burnett 2396 4.5

Fantasy Final Stats

Final Standings by Points:

35.5 Points: 1st
35 Points: 2nd - 3rd
34.5 Points: 4th
34 Points: 5th - 9th
33.5 Points: 10th - 21st
33 Points: 22nd - 43rd
32.5 Points: 44th - 67th
32 Points: 68th - 116th
31.5 Points: 117th - 159th
31 Points: 160th - 217th
30.5 Points: 218th - 277th
30 Points: 278th - 317th
29.5 Points: 318th - 356th
29 Points: 357th - 374th
28.5 Points: 375th - 380th
28 Points: 381st - 382nd
27.5 Points: 383rd - 384th
27 Points: 385th - 386th
26 Points: 387th



Top Five Teams

1st: Asher Gabara (2510) - 35.5 Points

Alex Onischuk 6.5
Alexander Shabalov 7
Joseph Bradford 5
Robert Hess 4.5
Justin Sarkar 4
Bryan Smith 4
Ron Burnett 4.5

Prize: 80 GB video Ipod


2nd: Gilberto Luna II (2504.2857) - 35 Points

Alex Onischuk 6.5
Jaan Ehlvest 5
Alexander Shabalov 7
Julio Becerra 6
Ray Robson 3.5
Michael Langer 4.5
Irina Zenyuk 2.5

Prize: 1 Hour lesson with IM Josh Friedel


3rd: Ryan Miller (2509.1429) - 35 Points

Alex Onischuk 6.5
Gregory Kaidanov 6
Alexander Shabalov 7
Irina Krush 4
Robert Hess 4.5
Ron Burnett 4.5
Irina Zenyuk 2.5

Prize: 1 Year USCF Membership Extension


4th: Charles Hughes (2510) - 34.5 Points

Alexander Shabalov 7
Alex Stripunsky 5.5
Melikset Khachiyan 5
Irina Krush 4
David Pruess 4.5
Justin Sarkar 4
Michael Langer 4.5

Prize: Autographed Copy of "The Art of Learning" by IM Joshua Waitzkin


5th: Olufemi Oyekan (2482.7143) - 34 Points

Alex Onischuk 6.5
Alexander Shabalov 7
Irina Krush 4
Justin Sarkar 4
Ron Burnett 4.5
Ray Robson 3.5
Michael Langer 4.5

Prize: Autographed Copy of "ChessBitch" by WGM Jennifer Shahade



Keys to Success (Number of times each player appears in top five teams):

Alexander Shabalov 5
Alex Onischuk 4
Irina Krush 3
Justin Sarkar 3
Ron Burnett 3
Michael Langer 3
Robert Hess 2
Ray Robson 2
Irina Zenyuk 2
Gregory Kaidanov 1
Jaan Ehlvest 1
Alex Stripunsky 1
Julio Becerra 1
Melikset Khachiyan 1
Joseph Bradford 1
David Pruess 1
Bryan Smith 1

I just want to take a moment here to thank everyone who took the time to enter and/or follow this competition. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did, and if there is sufficient interest, hopefully we will be able to do many similar type competitions in the future (especially in future US Championships). Any feedback you have into how we can make the later ones even better than this one would be much appreciated. Congrats again to all the winners and until the next competition, so long!