'07 Capa Rd 1

Capablanca Challenge Round 1  5/23/07

This is a McMahon Swiss. Players get "bye" points depending on their rating strength. This way strong players end up playing each other and the tougher competition makes up for the extra points they receive. It is a good system because people end up playing other players who are close to their own rating, instead of having big rating mismatches (and subsquent slaughter on the board) that can occur with a normal Swiss pairing that matches top against bottom (as in the Markowski Open). So it ends up being very much like a Class tournament where "B" players play "B" players, etc, except that instead of having 5 separate Classes, where an odd number of players can cause problems, we are all in one giant section, so it eliminates the need for more than one "house" player to play on the unpaired boards. Instead, for instance, the lowest performing Class "A" might play the highest performing "B" and so forth. Again, paired players should be fairly close in rating, especially after a few rounds are in the books.

Bye points:

Masters & Experts = 4, Class A = 3, Class B = 2, Class C = 1, Class D/E = 0.  Players are allowed to play "up" only if they are very close to the next rating level. For instance, if you were 1990, you could play "up" as an Expert and receive an extra bye point, but then you would be ineligible for the Class A prize.   

There are 6 rounds, and two 1/2 point byes are available for nights that you can't play (except in the last round, as usual, unless you ask for an irrevocable bye before round 2).   

Email me (Chuck Ensey) at chucnglo@aol.com to join this tournament.  54 players so far.

Masters (3): Bruce Baker, David Hart, Todd Smith

Experts (7): Rick Aeria, John Funderburg, Alejandro Garamendi, Manuel Herrera, Jim Humphrey, Dimitry Kishinevsky, George Zeigler

Class A (19): Roberto Aiello (bye Rd1), Mario Amodeo, Ed Baluran, Ben Barquin, Vincent Broman, Bob Defore, Alfredo Deleon, Esteban Escobedo (bye Rd 1), Tom Fries (bye Rd 1), Richard Jensen, James Malowney, Lennart Mathe, Fawsi Murra Jr, Jason Qu, Ron Rezendes (bye Rd 1), Pejman Sagart, Jerry Soelberg, Ron Soto, William Wijaya 

Class B (10): Fred Borges, Robert Draper, Chuck Ensey, Damani Fair (bye Rd 1), Anthony Harbone, Erik Marquis (bye Rd1), Fawsi Jose Murra, Fausto Robles, Julian Rodriguez, Shaun Sweitzer  

Class C (10): Daniel Baglaizo, Morgan Fox, David Hall, Tom Kuhn, Mark Lawless, Rocio Murra, William Murray, Ryan Nichols (bye Rd1), Michael Ross, Robert Samuel (bye Rd 1)  

Class D/E (5): Anthony Arciga, Patrick Edwards, Christian Garcia, Monica Ness, Manuel San German

All the pairings had players within 200 points of each other and often much less. There were a fair amount of upsets, that is, where the lower rated player beat the higher rated. I have put the upset winner's name in bold...   

Board 1  Rick Aeria - Todd Smith  1-0

Bd 2  David Hart - George Zeigler  1/2-1/2

Bd 3  Alejandro Garamendi - Bruce Baker  0-1

Bd 4  Dimitry Kishinevsky - Jim Humphrey  1-0

Bd 5  Manuel Herrera - John Funderburg  0-1

Bd 6  Ed Baluran - Ron Soto  0-1

Bd 7  Alfredo DeLeon - Fawsi Murra Jr  1-0

Bd 8  Mario Amodeo - James Malowney  0-1

Bd 9  Vincent Broman - Ben Barquin  0-1

Bd 19  Bob Defore - William Wijaya  1-0

Bd 20  Jerry Soelberg - Lennart Mathe  0-1

Bd 21  Richard Jensen - Jason Qu  1/2-1/2

Bd 22  Fausto Robles - Pejman Sagart  1/2-1/2

Bd 23  Bob Draper - Shaun Sweitzer  1/2-1/2

Bd 24  Anthony Harbone - Chuck Ensey  0-1

Anthony's pet opening almost got me again. A wild middle game finally simplified to a won ending for me but it was by no means easy, at one point I almost overlooked a sneaky mate in two if I had taken the offered poisoned piece. 

Bd 25  Julian Rodriguez - Keith Bresee  0-1

Keith stepped in as a house player, I thought Reno Tyrell was playing, but he wasn't.   

Bd 26  Morgan Foz - Rocio Murra  0-1

Bd 27  Tom Kuhn - Daniel Bagliazo  0-1

Daniel won a King and pawn ending with an extra pawn

Bd 28  David Hall - William Murray  1-0

Bd 29  Michael Ross - Anthony Arciga  1-0

Bd 30  Patrick Edwards - Monica Ness  1-0

Patrick pushed a dangerous passed pawn all the way to the Queening square and victory, Monica's King was forced out of the way by a Bishop check.

Bd 31  Manuel San German - Christian Garcia  0-1

Bd 32  Mark Lawless - Fred Borges  0-1 

These 2 players were unpaired by mistake, so I had them play. It was a bit unfair for Mark, but he is a sport and gave Fred a tough fight.

Byes: Roberto Aiello, Esteban Escobedo, Damani Fair, Tom Fries, Erik Marquis, Ryan Nichols, Ron Rezendes

See Pairings Page for Tentative Pairings for the next round ...