Maryland Sweet 16

Updated: 21 Feb 2010 with USCF March 2010 ratings (No change in Top 6).

With the Chestertown tournament completed on Sat 2/20, six Rally tournaments have been completed with a total of 40 Maryland players competing..See the standings at the end of this article.

*** NOTICE: UMBC has moved up the date of their Sweet 16 tournament - It is now scheduled for Feb 27-28 (two weeks earlier than usual). This has the unfortunate effect of eliminating the Feb 27 MCA Liberty Christian tournament as a Rally tournament.

The Sweet 16 Invitational is held concurrently with the UMBC Open in a separate section. Players will play four rounds with the same time controls (20/1; SD/1) and round times as the UMBC Open on Saturday and Sunday Feb 27-28 during Rounds 1, 2, 4,and 5. [Round 3 on Saturday evening is excluded]. Only eligible players who can commit to play all 4 rounds should play in the Sweet 16. We will contact all the Qualifiers and the top alternates in the next few days to determine the final field.

The Rally standings are as follows:

TOP 6 by USCF Ratings (Mar 2010):

1. Kevin Wang (2206)

2. Gill Guo (2076)

3. James Pinkerton (2057)

4. Charles Yang (2023)

5. Ramanuja Sreenivasan (1926)

6. Benjamin Krause (1855)

NEXT 10 Qualifiers by Rating Points (Final)

7. Karl Vicente     (16.000 Rally Points)

8. Madeline Kim (14.967)

9. Tanner McNamara (13.333)

10. Dobryna Konoplev (12.510)

11. Saketh Papaiahgari (12.091)

12. Ronald Best, Jr (11.232)

13. Christopher Hazard (10.575)

14. Alan Nguyen (10.376)

15. Jeffrey Chang (9.527)

16. Srinivas Moorthy (9.038)

NEXT 6 (Alternates)

17. Michael Sklar (8.482)

18. Josev Aquino (7.838)

19. Jed Tan (5.302)

20. Derek Mizushima (5.253)

21. Steven Mullens (4.889)

22. Adip Bhargav (4.736)

Qualifying rules for the 2010 Sweet 16: Essentially unchanged from 2009.

1. All qualifiers have to had played in at least one MCA Rally tournament in Fall 2009-Winter 2010.

2. Top 6 qualifiers by USCF rating (March 2010 rating supplement) plus the next 10 highest Rally point players will comprise the 16 qualifiers. Alternates will be chosen by next highest Rally point totals. March 2010 rating supplement will be used for Ratings qualifier, as this reflects the games played through Fri Feb 5, 2010.

3. All Sweet 16 players are required to play all 4 rounds during Feb 27-28, 2010, unless there is a medical emergency or other extenuating circumstance. Failure to do so will result in barring in participating in future Sweet 16 tournaments. Failure to show affects place as well as tiebreaks for the other players. Therefore, it is much preferable to decline participating if a commitment to all 4 rounds cannot be made, so the MCA can select and notify an alternate in time.

4. The Sweet 16 tournament is a separate section of the UMBC Open with the same time controls and starting times for each round. The tournament is 4 rounds taking place during Rounds 1, 2, 4, and 5. [Round 3 - Sat evening is skipped for this section].

5. Formula for each Rally tournament - each player receives a number of Rally points = (# players) / place in tourney. If there are ties, then all players with same score receive the average of the corresponding places. Players from out of state count for determining Rally points, but do not count in the Rally Point standings.

Final 2010 Rally Standings for Maryland players (as of 2/20/2010 - 6 events completed)