Now, I really understand that Mig does not know anything about chess. No wonder his rating is 1753. See
http://www.64.com/cgi-bin/ratings.pl/USCF/12525629
In his report, Mig states:
"In a huge payday, Israeli Grandmaster Ilya Smirin won the 2000 New York Open ahead of a field full of other GMs to take the $14,000 prize. Coming a half-point behind were GMs DeFirmian, I.Ivanov, Goldin, and Khenkin. Khenkin had reason to be bitter, having started the final round in the lead with seven points. But he lost against an inspired Nick DeFirmian to take $3,500 with the other second-place finishers."
This, of course, is completely wrong. Khenkin did not start the final found in the lead with 7 points. He started the final round in a three way tie for first with 6 1/2 points. http://w-w-w.com/nyopen/open_final.htm
In the last round, Khenkin agreed to a quick draw with Tregubov. This left Smirin to battle with 16-year-old grandmaster Alexander Grischuk for the first prize of $14,000. Smirin finally won.
An inspired Nick DeFirmian did not defeat Khenkin in the last round. Instead, the inspired DeFirmian defeated Artashes Minasian, the last champion of the Soviet Union, in the last round.
When Mig used to report results from Argentina, we could understand why he often made mistakes. However, now he is living in New York City.
Of course, I am biased. I have not been an admirer of Mig ever since he said repeatedly on the chess newsgroups that Oliver Jovanovic should be sent to prison, when he obviously knew nothing about the Jovanovic case.
Sam Sloan
PS Here are the games:
[Event "New York Open"] [Site "Manhattan"] [Date "2000.05.11"] [Round "9"] [White "Khenkin, Igor"] [Black "Tregubov, Pavel"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "D63"] [WhiteElo "2622"] [BlackElo "2615"] [PlyCount "32"] [EventDate "2000.05.11"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 dxc4 8. Bxc4 a6 9. Bd3 c5 10. Ne5 cxd4 11. exd4 Nxe5 12. dxe5 Nd5 13. Bxe7 Qxe7 14. O-O Rd8 15. Qg4 Bd7 16. Nxd5 exd5 1/2-1/2 [Event "New York Open"] [Site "Manhattan"] [Date "2000.05.11"] [Round "9"] [White "DeFirmian, Nick"] [Black "Minasian, Artashes"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C16"] [WhiteElo "2570"] [BlackElo "2598"] [PlyCount "73"] [EventDate "2000.05.11"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 b6 5. a3 Be7 6. Bb5+ c6 7. Ba4 Ba6 8. Nce2 h5 9. c3 g6 10. Nf3 Nh6 11. h4 Nf5 12. g3 Kf8 13. Bg5 c5 14. Bxe7+ Qxe7 15. O-O Kg7 16. Re1 Bxe2 17. Rxe2 Rc8 18. Bc2 c4 19. Ng5 Nc6 20. Kg2 Rh8 21. Qd2 b5 22. Qf4 a5 23. f3 Rh6 24. Rf2 Rah8 25. Rh1 Kf8 26. Rff1 a4 27. Bxf5 gxf5 28. g4 Qd7 29. gxf5 exf5 30. Re1 Nd8 31. Kf2 Rg6 32. Rhg1 Ke7 33. Nxf7 Kxf7 34. Rxg6 Kxg6 35. Qg5+ Kf7 36. Qf6+ Kg8 37. Rg1+ 1-0