Ahyan vs Lucas Alvarez, National K-12 Chmp, Orlando, Florida, Round 4

Ahyan vs Sriram, National K-12 Champ, Orlando, Florida, Round 3

Ahyan vs Nocholas Samowitch, National K-12 Chmp, Orlando, Fl, Round 2

Ahyan vs Kim Carolina, National K-12 Chmp, Orlando, Florida, Round 1

Ahyan vs Aravind Kannapan, California Class Warfare, Round 4

Ahyan vs Adrian Kondakov, Claifornia Class Warfare, Round 3

Ahyan vs Benny, California Class Warfare, Round 2

Ahyan vs Nivita Reddy, California Class Warfare, Game 1

First Ever Millionaire Chess Open Tournament - A Grand Experience

I came back 15th October from Las Vegas after playing in Millionaire Chess Open Tournament that was held during 9th to 13th October at Planet Hollywood. My son Ahyan Zaman also played the tournament while my wife, daughter and mother-in-law accompanied us. We thoroughly enjoyed participating in this high stake chess tournament which exceeded our expectations in all angles. MC partners GM Maurice Ashley and Amy Lee went extra miles to make sure everything about this tournament is classy and beyond comparison with other traditional or regular chess tournaments in terms of playing experience or following the event as a spectator.

We flew from San Francisco at 8th night and after checking in at Planet Hollywood, we saw Amy Lee and Maurice Ashley well after midnight still receiving the guests and players at conference center reception desk. Each player received a gift pack that includes a nice leather chess bag, 6 months free ICC membership, MC branded chocolate, wrist band, various discount coupons amongst. The next morning we attended the opening breakfast buffet where famous Indian-Japanese born Comedian Dan Nainan made started the event with funny jokes that made us laugh aloud. That's when I met lot of our team mates whom I have been knowing for last 8/9 months online - Daaim, Adia, Brendan, Keith, Jones, IM Akshat Chandra and his father, Christopher Yoo and his father to name a few. We also had big group from Fremont there - other than me and Ahyan there were Shafieen and his parents, coach Ted, IM Ricardo, little kid Alekhine. As per my count 582 players participated in 6 sections although it may be a little more or less. After the comedy show we had speeches from GM Maurice Ashley and Amy Lee before we went out for red carpet photo shoots with Maurice in a long but quick queue.

The first round started 7 minutes late of 12 noon. That I thought was a pretty good success for a first round of a first time tournament. But I saw Amy was not happy even for being only 7 minutes late. There were extensive security check including scanner, cell phone check-in station as well as separate scanner for players rest room. The playing hall was huge and square shaped. All the world champions' large pictures were showing up in banners. As players from 44 countries registered, we saw 43 flags flying around in the stage, only missing Switzerland as the Swiss player registered at the very last moment when organizers had no way to order a large new flag. I and Ahyan took picture with the Bangladesh flag on top of the stage. Top boards were played in the stage with the moves digitally getting transferred to the live broadcast camera feeds. Top camera and filming crews were hired for the event. The 3 commentators in live broadcast area were - British IM Lawrence Trent, Australian WIM Arianne Caoili and American GM Robert Hess. The live broadcast / games viewing room were adjacent but separate from the playing venue where we could go and enjoy the fun filled commentaries from them. The second round started at 7 PM. But for the rest of the events it was 11 AM and 6 PM, 2 rounds daily.

The organizers set the tone of the tournament in right direction from the very beginning and the players were all well-behaved and pleasure to meet with. The playing area had a festive atmosphere all around. Whenever I would get chance between the breaks of my games I would either go to skettles room to analyze my game with my opponent after finishing it or sit in the live viewing room and follow the commentary with interest. Mauruce Ashley worked with MIT Lab to unleash a new techological advancement in Chess Spectatorship -  DeepView. To know more about it, you can check out this article - http://www.wired.com/2014/10/maurice-ashley-deepview-chess/

There were various chess merchandises available including what MC offers in their web site's shop page. We bought hoodies and T-shirts with custom prints whatever we liked. The whole playing venue were so lively all the time no matter what time of day or night you step in. We bought 3 chess sets with Millionaire logo on the board and got this signed by GM Maurice Ashley on the back.

Performance wise it was not a good tournament for me. I won 2 games, lost 3 games and drew 2 games scoring 3 out of 7 in Under 2200 section. But Ahyan won 3 games, lost 1 game and drew 3 games scoring 4.5 out of 7. This he was placed 13th to 17th jointly and received $1000 prize money. I got placed in 53rd position in my group and got $67. There was a blitz tournament at 12th October night where 200 players participate in the 4 round double game G/5 tournament. Here I scored 3 out of 8. My games can be found in these links -  Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, Game 6 and Game 7. Ahyan lost 4th game scoresheet so here are the other 6 games played by him - Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 5, Game 6 and Game 7.

12th October was also Ahyan's birthday as well as National Chess Day of USA. Amy Lee arranged a pizza party and bug house tournament in the afternoon that day and we contributed a birthday cake to celebrate Ahyan's birthday at along with it. Kids of 13 or younger and their parents attended that event. At that party I got introduced to another Bangladeshi Shafkat who, after talking for a while, turned out to be my batch mate from Notre Dame College more than 20 years back. He was in group 7 and I was in group 1 - that's why we didn't directly know each other earlier. Shafkat's son is playing in this tournament and they flew from Long Island of East Coast for this.

At 10th October Friday 5 of my colleagues from Salesforce came to the playing venue from San Francisco for 1 night to cheer me up - William Jager, Michelle Zauss, Christopher San Nicholas, John Jackson and Paul Endo. Michelle's old school friend also joined them in the venue. They actually gave me a wave during my play and the TDs had to warn them not to do so! They are a funny bunch on themselves and we hanged around for a while after my game was finished.

In the open section the tournament was won by Wesley So with confident play from start to finish. On the way of winning the $100,000 check, he defeated Rab Robson in the final who received $50,000 check as runner up. There were lots of coverage on this event before during and after the tournament was finished. Here are few links that shows how extensively media covered this tournament.

If you want to see the winners of each sections who received very handsome payouts, check this -
http://millionairechess.com/meet-the-stars/

For standings in each section, please check out this - http://millionairechess.com/tournament-2014/

The following video will show you the major happenings of Millionaire Monday in Milionaire Chess Open.

In Millionaire Monday October 13th, we visited Las Vegas's newest attraction The LINQ, the world's highest highroller which reminded me of London Eye and Dhaka's Shishu Park. We stayed back 1 more day in Las Vegas attending a time share presentation at 14th morning before coming back San Francisco at night. It was a memorable event for all of us and I already can't wait for the next year to participate in this event again.

Ahyan vs Jonathan Chen, Millionaire Chess Open, Round 7

Ahyan vs Steven E Owlett, Millionaire Chess Open, Round 6

Ahyan vs David G Genovese, Millionaire Chess Oopen, Round 5

Ahyan vs Anton Butenke, Millionaire Chess Open, Round 3

Ahyan drew the 4th round game against someone 1150 but lost the scoresheet.

Ahyan vs Adnan Joubi, Millionaire Chess Open, Las Vegas, Round 2

Ahyan vs Timothy Kallahan, Millionaire Chess Open, Las Vegas, Round 1

Ahyan vs Frenton Jacob, Friday Night Marathon, NorCal House of Chess, Round 1

Ahyan vs Michael Hillard, Tuesday Night Marathon, Round 4

Ahyan vs Daniel McKeller, Tuesday Night Marathon, Round 3

Ahyan vs Henry Louie, Tuesday Night Marathon, Round 2

Ahyan vs Lorraine Eastham, Tuesday Night Marathon, Round 1

Ahyan vs David West, Tuesday Night Marathon, Round 5

Ahyan vs Robert, William Addison Open, Round 5, Mechanics

Ahyan vs Aaron Nahn, William Addison Open, Round 4, Mechanics

Ahyan vs John E, William Addison Open, Round 3, Mechanics

Ahyan vs Gary Bricher, William Addison Open, Round 2, Mechanics

Ahyan vs Albert, William Addison Open, Round 1, Mechanics

Ahyan vs Henry Louie, Tuesday Night Marathon, Mechanics Chess, Round 2

Ahyan vs Lorraine Estham, Tuesday Night Marathon, Mechanics Chess, Round 1

Ahyan Wins Quickly In Fried Lever Attack

Ahyan used to play Fried Lever Attack a lot initially. Now Coach Ted and I tried to shift his focus on Giuco Piano. But once in a while he still ends up with Fried Lever Attack. Here are 2 of his quickest wins - the second one in last week's best of the west championship in Santa Clara Marriott organized by Bay Area Chess where he ended up being 8th in under 1400 section. He scored 4 out of 6 and grabbed $200 for the second best Under 1200 performance prize - his first tournament prize money!

First Game:



Second Game:

My mom's birthday today

Hello chess friends,

Today was my mother's Birthday so in the morning me my dad my sister said happy birthday it was awesome.My friends came and said happy birthday and I don't know what the game they gave to my mother it was weird but my mother doesn't feel well so she bought a medicine.That is it for today.Bye!

The beginning of a chess player

Hello chess friends,

This is Ahyan. My rating is 1015.You might know my dad, Ashik, his blog is DragonBishop.blogspot.com. His rating went up high lately to 2148.I really want a plycounter on my birthday.If anyone can buy it, at least that would be great.I just played the Thursday night marathon at Shore view chess. I won my second game against Aditya and his rating is 491 but his skill is around 1000. This is it for today. Bye and see you tommorow! Good luck for everyone at chess!

Hi sorry I didn't get time because I had my Friday night marathon at Norcal House of chess witch I'll get to later and I went to someone's house.Well let's start with the news so I tied with Samic in the Friday night marathon we got 4.0,but I was lower rated then him his rating is 1200,it was funny that I thought we would get money but we didn't ha ha ha ha.Well that is it for today.Bye!

Hello chess friends,

Tomorow is  going to be my moms birthday so we bought her a present and it is a surprise so I will not put on my blog because she will see it.it will be fun and my uncles dad came so we are going to their house it will be fun very fun.Today I played the calchess super state.That is it for today.Bye

Ahyan Won First Round of Shore View Chess Against Tanabh Mishra

I was a little late today by the time we reached Shore View Chess Tournament's 1st round. It was a G/60 wth 5 sec delay and Ahyan lost 12 minutes on clock. He won against Tanabh Mishra to whom he has lost in the past.

You can check the standings here - http://www.shoreviewchess.com/tournament/2/standings

Ahyan's longest game till date

Ahyan Got Featured in Millenium Chess Open Newsletter

Ahyan Zaman and Shafieen Ibrahim featured in this week's Millionaire Chess Open newsletter (#7) as young participants! Ahyan is the youngest by far to register while Shafieen was the first teenager to register for this upcoming high stake chess tournament.

http://millionairechess.com/blog/young-chess-players-ready-to-make-history/

Here is an excerpt from the post in website.

 

Ahyan, only 7 years old, started playing chess about a year and a half ago and has a great passion for the game. His father, Ashik, signed him up for the Millionaire Chess Open to gain the valuable experience of what it feels like to be part of a major tournament, and to learn how to conduct himself under those particular playing conditions.

Being a chess player himself, Ashik felt that such a big tournament can truly inspire everyone to work hard, enjoy chess, and improve one’s game.

We love their enthusiasm, as Ashik shared with us,

"We father and son are already looking forward to be bounty hunters in our respective sections!"

Ahyan’s mother and 3-year-old sister will be joining him and his father in Las Vegas, making it a vacation for the whole family. We’re sure they’ll have plenty to keep them busy as they explore the LINQ Project and watch their two favorite guys compete for the top prizes at the Millionaire Chess Open!

Ahyan vs Wali Bhai, Practice Game, January 10th 2014