Cevdet KIZIL; Champion of Southern New Hampshire University (U.S.A.) Summer Chess Tournament '04
(The article below is a copy of Southern New Hampshire University Chess Club's review for the Spring Chess Tournament '04)
The SNHU Summer Chess Tournament '04 was organized by The SNHU Chess Club on June 12, 2004. The warm weather outside was enough to make the competition's participants happy and smile. Thus, everyone was ready to begin the organization with a high morale. The SNHU Shapiro Library was selected as the ideal location for the tournament and a room was reserved well in advance to run the competition in best conditions.
Strong players had signed up to join the tournament. For instance, M. Turker Firik (Turkey - 2nd place in SNHU Spring Chess Tournament '04), Le T. My Hanh (Vietnam - strongest woman chess player of the university), Ahmet Ucar (Turkey - star of some beautiful games in his early ages) and Aybars Altiok (Turkey - the winner of all his friendly games in the SNHU) were some of the leading strong players.
On the other hand, Amine Abdeddine (Morocco) had decided joining this tournament to try his chance again even though he was knocked out in the 1st Round at SNHU Spring Chess Tournament '04. However when he was asked to explain his decision, he said: "I thought I had to join the SNHU Summer Chess Tournament '04, because I was eliminated in the 1st Round of the previous tournament by Cevdet Kizil, the competition's champion, not by an ordinary player. Besides, this tournament will run with the league style, not with the single elimination system. This means I will have the opportunity to play many games and I will have much more chances compared to the previous tournament."
In addition to Amine Abdeddine, there were two other surprises before the tournament. These were Ferdinand Faustino (Philippines - 3rd place of SNHU Spring Chess Tournament '04) and M. Sinan Pirimoglu (Turkey - 4th place of SNHU Spring Chess Tournament '04). Ferdinand Faustino had reported that he would not be able to join this tournament since he was very busy at that time. And M. Sinan Pirimoglu had told that his morale in the last days was very low, so it was impossible for him to play in the tournament with such a bad morale since he would not be able to concentrate.
To speak about the favorite player of the tournament, that was nobody rather than Cevdet Kizil, the champion of the previous tournament (SNHU Spring Chess Tournament '04). On the opposite side, Tacker Frink (U.S.A.) who had applied to join the tournament was a player nobody knew anything about. Thus, the favorite player of the tournament was indeed determined with some limited information.
In conclusion, the tournament was ready to begin. Only one player, Ahmet Ucar was missing since he got sick because of a flu the day before the tournament.
So the games began and all of them were passing very informative and full of cruel battles. This was true for the entire tournament, starting from the first match and ending at the last one. In the end, when the tournament was over, Cevdet Kizil (Turkey) had earned the "Chess Champion" title of Southern New Hampshire University for the second time in a row. He was awarded the "Honor Plaque" for his "Championship in Southern New Hampshire University Summer Chess Tournament '04". Another eye-catching statistics for Cevdet Kizil was that he was still going on his way "unbeaten" in all of the tournaments he joined in the SNHU since his arrival to the U.S.A. Next, the runner-up of the tournament was Tacker Frink (U.S.A.) who had won all of his games in the tournament but not the one against the tournament champion, Cevdet Kizil. The mysterious player, Tacker Frink, whose all information was completely secret and unknown before the tournament had gained the 2nd place so was awarded his plaque. The last player to rank in the first three and earn a plaque was M. Turker Firik (Turkey) who was very successful except his matches against Cevdet Kizil and Tacker Frink. Definitely, it was a little bit disappointing for him to rank 3rd this time because he had the 2nd place in SNHU Spring Chess Tournament '04. Following that, Amine Abdeddine (Morocco) had shocked many people when the tournament was finished. Because he had ranked 4th in this tough tournament. Moreover he had beat two very strong players - Le T. My Hanh and Aybars Altiok. If chance would be with him that day and he would not lose against Tacker Frink (tournament runner-up) with only 1 second difference at that match, things could be too much different and a lot of balances could change in the competition. Thus he was so successful compared to his 1st Round knockout in the SNHU Spring Chess Tournament '04. After that, of course some players were far away from their dreams when the tournament was ended. As an example, the well known strong woman player Le T. My Hanh (Vietnam) was unable to win a prize even though her goal was at least to rank 3rd before the start of the tournament. At last, the most negative result was for Aybars Altiok (Turkey) who had won all of his friendly games in the SNHU before. However, the Southern New Hampshire University Summer Chess Tournament '04 (an official competition) was extremely reverse for him where he lost all of his games and ranked in the last place. Despite that, it should never be a bad result for Aybars Altiok and Le Thi My Hanh since the tournament had contained a lot of first class players.
Just after all of the tournament games were completed and the results were announced, it was now the time to vote for the best matches of the tournament. Along with his "Honor Plaque", Cevdet Kizil was also very pleased to learn that three of his games were selected as the best games of SNHU Summer Chess Tournament '04. His game against Tacker Frink in which he had mated his opponent with some very well-thought variations in a very limited time period was selected as the best game of the tournament and won the "Beauty Award". Next, his impressive game against Aybars Altiok where he had mated his opponent in only 9 moves was voted to be the tournament's second best game. Then, his win against Le T. My Hanh where he had sacrificed some of his pieces but could still have an astonishing mate by using his positional advantage was called as the third best game of the competition.
Top 3 Players of the SNHU Summer Chess Tournament ‘04
Cevdet Kizil (Turkey) – Champion
Tacker Frink (U.S.A.) – 2nd Place
M. Turker Firik (Turkey) – 3rd Place