On Sunday, July 12, four chess warriors competed in the Rochester Chess Online Rapid Invitational Tournament held on Chess.com. Master Matt Jensen provided the live commentary. The contestants played a 4-player round robin consisting of 3 games of G/10 + 2 sec increment.

Rochester Chess Rapid Invitational, Sunday, July 12, 2020, 10 AM on Chess.com.

The games were very exciting to watch with each playing having to think quickly while finding moves in complicated positions. Master Jensen added to the excitement by explaining complicated moves and potential tactics to the spectators watching on Zoom. In the end, Master Gordon Ruan edged out expert Jake Kohlenberg to finish in first place. Expert Justin Ricker finished in third place. Rochester chess veteran Piyush Mukherjee admitted to being rusty but promised to be a force to be reckoned with in the next edition of the Rochester Chess Online Rapid.

Thanks to the participants and commentator for what turned out to me an entertaining Sunday morning of chess. You can learn more about the participants and commentator by reading their chess bios below.

Pairings: Players listed first have white and should challenge black to a G/10 + 2 game.

Piyush Mukherjee:

I started playing Chess at the age of 8. I was basically an impatient kid with loads of energy driving parents insane. Dad decided that it be best if I learned some patience. 🙂 I hated the game until my dad came home one day and showed me something shorter than Scholars’ mate – Fool’s mate! Dad was the only coach I had. Many memorable experiences but the ones I loved the most were team achievements besides winning tournaments! Won the city trophy for my engineering school in Mumbai including individual honors, we won multiple times for Rochester [in the Twin Cities Chess League] under B2 as well as Ultimates!

Jake Kohlenberg:

I grew up in the Milwaukee, WI area. I began playing chess competitively around age 13 and I competed in and won numerous tournaments in Wisconsin. I was approaching a standard USCF rating of 2200 (current USCF rating 2180) when I moved to MN for residency training at Mayo Clinic. Unfortunately I have not been able to play a rated tournament in several years but I am looking forward to returning to chess when I have more free time! I do enjoy playing blitz on chess.com and my current USCF blitz rating is >2200.

Gordon Ruan:

I was initially taught by my Dad. My coach was IM Levon Altounian. I am a medical resident at the Mayo Clinic, currently in my third year of training. After residency, I will stay here to complete my sub-specialty training with the hematology/oncology department. For my chess background, I started playing when I was 9 years old and played competitively up until college.

Justin Ricker

I started playing chess casually with my dad when I was about 8 years old and he often let me beat him. I was thrilled from the victories and began playing online within a couple of years. I joined a scholastic league and began playing in OTB tournaments. Many of my opening choices have been shaped by coach Matt Jensen’s input and it has led me to success. I became a USCF expert after one of my favorite tournaments of all time, the Rochester Open. Since then, I have enjoyed playing regularly online and occasionally OTB chess.

National Master Matt Jensen:

I learned to play chess from my grandfather at the age of 5, and started playing at the RCC shortly after. Over the years I’ve been fortunate to have some fantastic chess coaches and mentors. Bob Luck was my coach early on and taught me many of the basics. Dennis Mays was also highly influential as a mentor and training partner throughout my formative chess years. As I played more events in the Twin Cities I started working with National Master Ed Zelkind, who was my coach from about 1200 rating through expert. My most memorable events in my youth were probably those where I outperformed my own expectations. I was champion or co-champion for the MN K-3 Championship three years in a row, and won or tied for first in the MN High School Championship three times. My best Nationals performance was in Orlando in 1997 when I was able to compete on the top boards in the K-9 section and won my tallest trophy ever. It was a big deal to me at the time!

After spending about 10 years at the expert level, I decided to make a push for my lifelong goal of reaching the National Master level in my late 20’s. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was much more dedicated chess work than I had ever spent as a child. NM Scott Riester was my training partner and helped me tremendously on both my openings and positional understanding. We would have 4-8 hour training sessions on weekends about once a month hammering out different opening lines and ideas. We’d often analyze recent grandmaster games in those same openings. All of this work made a very sharp player in what I felt was my weakest area (opening to early middlegame) and pushed my limits enough to get over the 2200 hurdle. The NM title is probably my favorite accomplishment in chess!