About the Masters

Past Results

Other Things

Born and raised in NYC, former junior star, Donny Ariel’s main strength is that he shows no fear. In one event he had the black pieces against Yudasin in the last round. He had two points and Yudasin had three, thus Donny needed the win. Yudasin offered him a draw at the start of the game, and where some players might accept, thinking “Theres no way I can beat a strong GM like Yudasin with the black pieces”, Donny politely declined and went on to win the game. Donny is a very innately talented player, yet does not possess the theoretical knowledge of most players his strength, he makes up for this in fighting spirit. Donnys weaknesses may be that his tactics are not spectacular and he is sometimes prone to major blunders in winning positions. Despite all of this, his fighting spirit more than makes up for this and gives him great chances against ANY opponent, as he has shown by drawing Novikov (with black) in both of their games and breaking even (one win and one loss) with Yudasin. The sad news for all is that Donny has moved back to California to finish his schooling at Santa Cruz and thus will no longer be a regular participant in the NY Masters.