Bob Samuel Rd 1

The Robert Samuel Open  Round 1  4/16/08    7 PM sharp!

Robert Samuel is one of the longest standing club members, going back to the 1970's, and he is still as active as ever, attending faithfully every Wednesday night for countless years. Chess great for both young and old people and everyone in between. For the older players, it is a great way to keep your mind sharp, and studies have shown that excercising your brain with chess improves your life tremendously in all areas. It's a fact!! Young players benefit from learning spacial skills, logic, effective planning and understanding consequences of their actions.

Sign up for this event online by emailing to Chuck Ensey at chucnglo@aol.com (must do so before 4 PM the night of the event) OR by calling into the club telephone # 619-239-7166 before 6:30 PM the night of the event, or just showing up in person at the club before 6:30 PM on Wednesday. Entry fee is $25, as usual.

This is a 6 round event in 3 sections: 1) Masters and Experts 2) Class A and B players 3) Class C and below. Time control is our usual 40/90, SD/60 with 5 second time delay.

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I do not normally comment on Up-Coming Club Tournament Promotions but I would like to make an exception here for a most exceptional and deserving club member, the honorable Mr. Robert  Samuel!  I remember Mr. Samuel way back to 1970 in when there was no San Diego Chess club but rather the Clairemont Chess Club.  We met every Thursday evening at the North Clairemont Recreation Center on Clairemont Drive.  I was just a whippersnapper back then when David Delgadillo had a luxuriant  full head of black hair and young Fred Borges, one of the top club players, strutted his stuff. Carl Wagner was a senior master back then. Mr. Robert Samuel (we young'uns didn't dare call him 'Bob' back then - he was "Mister Samuel") was already a solid, respected club member with an even more solid game.  I recall my first and only game with Bob Samuels as an unrated player.  Bob put a lot of positional pressure and I barely hung on.  Then by dint of sheer dumb luck, I managed to grab a piece late in the game and win.  Bob Samuels, always warm, jovial, gracious congratulated me and made me, the newcomer Asian kid, feel welcome and at home.  I quickly learned that he was also my postman!  Mr. Samuels had a way with the chess pieces back then as he had a way with handling the dogs along his postal route.  My dog, Napoleon,  loved Mr. Samuels - or was it the Bon-Bons that Bob brought with him?

On April 16th, we have an opportunity to celebrate and recognize one of our most longstanding, cherished and founding club members - Bob Samuel.  Please join in the fun!

Rick Aeria

P.S.  There was such a positive response to the coverage of the SDCC Finals.  Thank you, respondents that have expressed your appreciation on-line as well as personally.  I have decided to give the Bob Samuel Tournament the same coverage, hopefully, with Chuck Ensey's help!

Round 1 results:

Open Section

Many of the finalists from the San Diego Chess Club Championships choose not to participate and we can hardly fault them for not playing.  After all, fourteen gruelling weeks between the Markowski Qualifier and the Finals is quite an undertaking.  To that end, I cannot but admire the ones that chose to play!  Theys guys really love chess! So a salute to Masters Bruce Baker and Todd Smith; a salute to Experts Carey Milton, Mariano Lozano, George Zeigler and Raoul Crisologo too!

As for the coverage, maybe I bit off more than I can chew as I was pinned to my chair all night and did not get to walk around and examine the games.

Board 1  Todd Smith - Carey Milton  1-0

Bd 2  Mariano Lozano - George Zeigler  1-0

Mariano can add another 'feather' to his sombrero as he beats the usually hard-to-beat George Zeigler.  Remember that 19-game unbeaten streak?

Here is the game courtesy of Mariano Lozano.

Bd 3  Rick Aeria - Phillip Roth  1-0

One has to be very careful playing Phil Roth as Phil has a very narrow opening repertoire but what he knows he plays to near angelic perfection!  A very avant garde player, Phil indulges himself by taking a lot of time think up original ideas even during the game and this is his strength as well as his Achilles heel.

This time, Phil gets 'jiggy' with my pet English Opening.  He equalizes easily and then demonstrates a new and irritating plan but generating play on the a-file.  Things looked prospectless until I glanced at the clock and - Yes! Roth's old nemesis rears its ugly head....

See the game here.

Bd 4  Ron Soto - Raoul Crisologo  1-0

Bd 5  Ed Baluran - Theron Pummer  1-0

Bye: Bruce Baker

Premier Section

Bd 10  Chuck Ensey - Lennart Mathe 0-1

Bd 11  Alfredo Deleon - Jerry Soelberg  1/2-1/2

Bd 12  Shaun Sweitzer - Thirunathan Sutharsan  0-1

Bd 13  Dayne Freitag - Fawsi Jose Murra  1-0

Bd 14  Vincent Broman - Anthony Harbone  1-0

Bd 15  Nate Plapp - Bob Draper  1-0

Bd 16 Damani Fair - Fausto Robles  0-1

Bd 17  William Wijaya - Fred Borges  1-0

Bd 18  Hector Gonzalez - Jason Qu  0-1

Bd 19  David Delgadillo - Rocio Murra  0-1

Bd 20  Erik Marquis - Ron Rezendes  0-1

Bd 21  Roxas Acosta - Ryan Nichols  1-0

Bd 22  Caley Anderson - Arnold Berlin  1-0

Bd 23  Bob Defore - Arash Nahavandi  1-0

Bye: Fawsi Murra Jr.

Reserve Section

Bd 24  Michael Ryan - Patrick Edwards  1-0

Bd 25  Fred Cleveland - Tom Kuhn  0-1

Bd 26  Robert Samuel - James Mayer  1-0

Bd 27  Victor Delgadillo - Mark Lawless  1-0

Bd 28  Monica Ness - Bassam Shammas  0-1  

Bye: Morgan Fox, Steve Perry