1/2006 - This is probably the most controversial pick in US White Knight
Awards' history. It's controversial, because 16-year old Gaston Needleman hails from Argentina, and the
tournament that earned him the US Dark Horse award was the Americas
Continental Championship, which was held in Argentina this past August.
But Gaston qualified for this award because this tournament
includes all of the Americas, which includes the United States. The
other reason was that many top US Grandmasters participated in this event, which
included Alexander Shabalov, Varuzhan Akobian, Boris Gulko, Alexander
Onischuk, Gata Kamsky, Yuri Shulman, Alexander Ivanov, Sergey Kudrin, and
Ildar Ibragimov.
In August of 2005, at the Americas Continental Tournament, the young, untitled Gaston Needleman finished in an 8 way tie
for 2nd place, with 8 points out of 11. He was only rated 2245 at the
time of this tournament. He drew with
GM Gata Kamsky and had a nice
win over GM Alexander
Shabalov.
In September, Gaston also took part in the Argentinean Championship,
where he tied for 6 thru 7th place. Not a bad result for the lowest rated player in the
tournament.
Gaston proved to be too much for Anatoly Karpov in a simul at San Luis.
Due to his outstanding performance in August, Gaston got an invitation to the FIDE World Cup. Unfortunately for Gaston,
he was Kayoed by GM Alexander Grischuk in the first round. No question,
Gaston is a rising Argentinean star.
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