IMs Renato Terry and Karina Ambartsumova extended their records for 3 0 Thursday tournament victories on Thursday, April 16. Terry won a record 11th victory in the third tournament of the day, advancing ahead of GM Jose Martinez for the most wins since the event started last year. Meanwhile, Ambartsumova took the women’s prize in the second tournament of the day, scoring her 13th title to date. The first tournaments of the day went to IM Yoseph Theolifus Taher, who won an event for the second straight week. GM Parham Maghsoodloo won the second event of the day, despite not playing two games.
1st Tournament: Taher Wins For Second Straight Week
Taher won his first ever 3 0 Thursday in the third tournament last week. He picked up where he left off this week, winning the first tournament of the day. He recovered from a third-round loss to win six games in a row and take clear first with 9.5/11. In the ninth round, he scored a dominant win against GM Sina Movahed, one of the top performers in many recent blitz events.
Taher clinched the win in the final round, using a Benko Gambit against GM Matthias Bluebaum.Â
Movahed took second place with nine points, finishing ahead of IM Matvey Galchenko on tiebreaks. IM Deysi Cori took the women’s prize for the second time.
2nd Tournament: Maghsoodloo Overcomes Non-Games To Win
In the second tournament, Maghsoodloo lost two games without making a move. He was online and paired but did not play a move in the games. However, Maghsoodloo won all nine games that he actually played and took clear first place.Â
In the fifth round Maghsoodloo won by just a tenth of a second on the clock against GM Benjamin Bok.
In the ninth round, Maghsoodloo defeated Taher, preventing him from winning a third consecutive event.
Maghsoodloo followed by grinding out a win against Martinez in the tenth round.
Terry took second place with 8.5 points, ahead of IM Ilan Schnaider on tiebreaks. Ambartsumova took the women’s prize with seven points, defeating three opponents rated over 3000 along the way.
3rd Tournament: Terry Wins 11th Title
After nearly winning the second tournament, Terry left little doubt in the third event. His undefeated 9.5/11 score was a point and a half ahead of the rest of the field. In the ninth round he defeated GM Aryan Tari in a long endgame.Â
Terry followed up with a convincing win against Taher.
Martinez took second place with eight points, leading a pack of four players on eight points. The next best tiebreaks belonged to IM Sunle Gong, who took third. GMs Oleksandr Bortnyk and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son also scored eight points each. IM-elect Rose Atwell scored six points to take the women’s prize.
3 0 Thursday is a set of three weekly Swiss tournaments for verified titled players featuring their favorite time control. Each of the three tournaments is an 11-round Swiss with a 3+0 time control. The combined prize fund is $3,000 every week.