Gastón Needleman
Encyclopedia
Gastón Needleman is a chess prodigy
from Mendoza, Argentina
. He attended high school at Escuela de Comercio Martin Zapata.
, August 5–16, 2005. Needleman, who with an Elo rating of 2242 was untitled at the time of the tournament, was seeded 99th. He defeated GM Alexander Shabalov
with black in round 10 and drew
with GM Gata Kamsky
in the final round, preventing Kamsky from taking first place.
The top seven finishers in the American Continental Championship were to gain paid entry to the FIDE World Cup, part of the 2005–2007 World Chess Championship cycle.
The tournament winner, Lázaro Bruzón
, received the first invitation, but a tie-break tournament was needed between the seven second place finishers to see who would be left out.
The rapid-play time control
tie-break tournament created controversy, as it appeared to some observers that the higher-rated GMs agreed to short draws with each other in order to conserve energy but fought hard in games against Needleman in order to wear him down and ensure that he would finish last.
With each player having 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move to finish each game and only 5 minutes between games, after a grueling 5 hour session Needleman finished eighth.
Needleman later said he did not think there was a conspiracy against him.
Following a request from Dr. Alberto Rodriguez Sah, Governor of San Luis, Argentina
, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
granted Needleman a paid World Cup invitation.
Chess prodigy
Chess prodigies are children who play chess so well that they are able to beat Masters and even Grandmasters, often at a very young age. Chess is one of the few sports where children can compete with adults on equal ground; it is thus one of the few skills in which true child prodigies exist...
from Mendoza, Argentina
Mendoza, Argentina
Mendoza is the capital city of Mendoza Province, in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of the Andes. As of the , Mendoza's population was 110,993...
. He attended high school at Escuela de Comercio Martin Zapata.
Chess career
At the age of 15, he scored 8.0/11 to tie with six other players for second place in the American Continental Championship, Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, August 5–16, 2005. Needleman, who with an Elo rating of 2242 was untitled at the time of the tournament, was seeded 99th. He defeated GM Alexander Shabalov
Alexander Shabalov
Alexander Shabalov is an American chess grandmaster, the multiple winner of the U.S. Chess Championships; he was the 2007 US Champion. He was born in Latvia, and like his fellow Latvians Alexei Shirov and Mikhail Tal he is known for courting complications even at the cost of objective soundness...
with black in round 10 and drew
Draw (chess)
In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...
with GM Gata Kamsky
Gata Kamsky
Gata Kamsky is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and the current World Rapid Chess Champion. He is also the current United States Chess Champion. As of September 2011, he is rated No. 1 in the United States and No...
in the final round, preventing Kamsky from taking first place.
The top seven finishers in the American Continental Championship were to gain paid entry to the FIDE World Cup, part of the 2005–2007 World Chess Championship cycle.
The tournament winner, Lázaro Bruzón
Lázaro Bruzón
Lázaro Bruzón Batista is a chess grandmaster from Cuba. On the January 2011 FIDE list his Elo rating is 2686. Bruzón was the 2000 World Junior Chess Champion. In 2004 he finished first at the XII Torneo "Guillermo Garcia" in Memoriam in Villa Clara...
, received the first invitation, but a tie-break tournament was needed between the seven second place finishers to see who would be left out.
The rapid-play time control
Time control
A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock...
tie-break tournament created controversy, as it appeared to some observers that the higher-rated GMs agreed to short draws with each other in order to conserve energy but fought hard in games against Needleman in order to wear him down and ensure that he would finish last.
With each player having 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move to finish each game and only 5 minutes between games, after a grueling 5 hour session Needleman finished eighth.
Needleman later said he did not think there was a conspiracy against him.
Following a request from Dr. Alberto Rodriguez Sah, Governor of San Luis, Argentina
San Luis, Argentina
-External links:* * *...
, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov is a Kalmyk multi-millionaire businessman and politician. He was the President of the Republic of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation from 1993 to 2010, and he has been the President of FIDE , the world's pre-eminent international chess organization, since 1995...
granted Needleman a paid World Cup invitation.