Players from 11 to 40 compete in Hoosier Open chess tournament

It was a clear choice for Greg Kennedy to take up the game of chess after driving his younger brother to several tournaments. Kennedy, a Franklin resident, began playing in 1982. After a 14-year break, he returned to the game when a tournament director in Indianapolis dragged him back into competition.

Kennedy, ranked 2,100 by the United States Chess Federation, along with 25 other chess players, gathered at the Kelley School of Business on Saturday to compete in the IU Hoosier Open.

“At the kind of tournaments I play, I’m expected to win,” Kennedy said. “If I don’t win, I fail. But there’s no guarantee that I’m going to win.”

Junior Tony Howell, president of the IU Chess Club, said the tournament was open to all ages and the games were determined by rating.

“There are amazing 8-year-olds that can overplay someone who’s 40,” he said. “We try and be as accepting as possible.”

Connor True, an 11-year-old Bloomington resident, said he has been playing chess for around five years.

“My school got three chess boards, so me and my friends started playing,” he said.

In his first match, True played an opponent significantly older than himself.

“I lost,” he said. “He had a much higher ranking, but he took his moves very slowly so I thought I could beat him by making mine fast. But he still had 10 minutes left.”

Howell said he hopes the tournament will become an annual competition.

“I’m really happy with this turn-out,” he said. “It draws everyone together, and it’s a good way for people to get their chess out.”

Each person in the tournament received the opportunity to play five games, Howell said. The competition was based on a point system: Each win earned one point, a draw earned half of a point and a loss earned zero points.

The games were based on 30-minute play, Howell said, where each player gets 30 minutes to make his moves. The maximum time limit a game can last is 70 minutes, he said.

“Most matches can last up to four hours,” Howell said. “But you’re constantly concentrating the entire time so it goes by fast.”

Sophomore Ari Terjanian, treasurer of the IU Chess Club, said he has been playing for six years. Terjanian was the third highest ranked player in the tournament but lost his first game to Kennedy.

“It’s a challenging game,” Terjanian said. “A battle of the egos. You try and force your will upon your opponent. Sometimes it doesn’t work, obviously.”

Though Terjanian said it was possible for him to tie for first place, at the end of the day Kennedy took home the prize.