2008 Club Championship Round 2 of 7 2/27/08 7:00 PM
Club Championship Section (16 players)
Commentary by Rick Aeria and Chuck Ensey
Here are the results from Rd 2. Click here to view current standings
What a fighting round! This was a night where the younger generation flexed its muscles and beat the veterans. By that I mean defending champion, John Funderburg, and debutant Mariano Lozano. ...and Brad Salz!
I want to add my profound thanks to all participants for their courtesy, patience and indulgence in allowing me to collect game scores to make this report possible.
Board 1 David Hart (1) - Bruce Baker (1) 1/2-1/2
A match between two wily veteran masters here. After David went astray in the opening, Bruce gave his best impression of the Flying Wallendas (an old but famous acrobatic troupe) winning a pawn but Hart managed to consolidate and restore equality. A draw was the reasonable outcome.
See the game here.
Bd 2 John Funderburg (1) - Carl Wagner (1) 1-0
The Thunderbird trots out the Trompowsky Opening! Surprise, surprise, surprise! Barely out of the opening, veteran Carl Wagner makes a horrible blunder leaving his queen 'en prise' and resigns before the defending champion, John Funderburg can capture her.
With 2-0 The Thunderbird grabs a share of the early lead. Can the young champion and student of Cyrus Lakdawala be the first club champion to repeat since the Great One retired from club championship play in 2003?
See the game here.
Bd 3 Todd Smith (1) - Ignacio Sainz (1) 1-0
Master Todd Smith stakes his claim to share the lead with the Thunderbird with powerful play demolishing Ignacio's French Defence.
Better late than never. Here is the game, courtesy of Ignacio Sainz. Muchos Gracias. amigo!
See the game here.
Bd 4 Ron Bruno (1/2) - Eric Montany (1/2) 1-0
Former club champion (2006) Master Ron Bruno spoils debutant Eric Montany's first game in the final (Eric took a half point bye in round one) with a scintillating display even though he was in serious time trouble.
See how Ron puts away his opponent once he has a winning position. Merciless accuracy that will remind you of a young Bobby Fischer!
See the game here.
Our hero, NM Ron Bruno holding GM Sergey Kudrin to a draw at the US Amateur West Team Championships. Ron scored an undefeated 5-1 to tie for first place on board 1 with GM Kudrin!
Bd 5 George Zeigler (1/2) - Leonard Sussman (1/2) 1-0
It is unfortunate that someone had to lose this game. Both players acquitted themselves admirably and for the most part, both players were true to their styles of play.
George Zeigler is a very original and creative chessplayer. Lenny Sussman is a very, very tough man to beat. George's queen visits the h6 square four times (Lenny's queen gets to the f8 square 5 times). Very Zen-like! A very original game! Did you know that George Ziegler, with this fine win under his belt, has an unbeaten streak of 18 games going in this club?
See the game here.
Bd 6 Raoul Crisologo (0) - Mariano Lozano (1/2) 0-1
Raoul Crisologo is one of the top experts in the club and a very fine positional player. Youngster Mariano Lozano sets up a Dutch Stonewall and takes the fight to Raoul winning a critical game with the Black pieces.
See the game here.
Bd 7 Brad Salz (0) - Jim Humphrey (0) 1-0
Two veteran experts cross swords with no quarter given. This time victory favors the strategist Brad.
See the game here with Brad Salz's annotations.
There will come a time when Brad will be the lowest rated player in a section and he will go 0-7, but today is not that day... no, NOT This Day, NOT in this place!! (apologies to Lord of the Rings). He found the courage to march his King Pawn to victory (Return of the King!) and bring glory for all Salzkind.
Even though 2 pawns down in the endgame, Brad claims he had the better position, and he may just be right...Judge for yourself...
Jimmny Crickets! Get ahold of yourself, Chuck "Tolkien" Ensey!
Bd 8 Carey Milton (0) - Phil Roth (0) 0-1
The mysterious Philip Roth emerges from seclusion to play as a house player against that famous tactician, Carey Milton. Phillip is a Sicilian Dragon player par excellence. Carey Milton is certainly no vestal virgin with the white pieces against the Dragon and plays his pet early ..g4 line. Dragon positions being what they are, even the Great Swindler can get burned in the sharp tactics. House players beating the finalists? Dragoneers, rejoice! This game is one for the ages!
See the game here.
A rare archival photo of the mysterious "Philippe" Roth (left) taken with his Mexican cohort David Delgadillo a.k.a. "El Mariachi". No chess pieces were harmed or abused during the shooting of this footage.
Bye: Alejandro Garamendi
Reserve Championship (U1800): (16 players)
Bd 9 Vincent Broman (1) - Shaun Sweitzer (1) 0-1 See Game here!
This was the Longest Game of the Night by a wide margin. Broman had a few pawns for a piece when I first looked at the game, but it looked grim for him. He struggled on valiantly, but it was pretty much hopeless unless Shaun made a big error -and we have all done that before! Finally Vincent had to give up a Bishop to stop a passed pawn. Shaun was left with a Bishop and Knight versus King - could he checkmate with this spare material?? Vincent proved he could do it against Erik Marquis last year. But Shaun didn't have to test his endgame and mating knowledge since it turns out he also had a Rook pawn, making the task so easy Vincent had to resign. Vincent joked that not only was the Bishop the right color (same as the queening square of the rook pawn) the Knight was of the right color too!
Bd 10 Hector Gonzalez (1) - Robert Draper (1) 0-1
Bob appears to be in great form and is a strong threat to win the Trophy now that the highest rated player, Vincent Broman has stumbled. Of course it is way too early to write anyone off yet, because there are still 5 rounds to go. But at least Vincent won't go undefeated this year. After my game was over, Bob said he enjoyed watching it, but why didn't I just mate in two instead of going into a long (but won) endgame?? I told him I needed to practice my endings, NO, not really, I said he must be crazy, I wouldn't miss a mate in 2, but the more I thought about it, I realized he was right! So Bob not only won his game, he had improvements in mine - ouch...So I don't look forward to meeting him in some later game; our games are ALWAYS knockdown, drag out, full blown battles with lots of strife.
Bd 11 Chuck Ensey (1/2) - Erik Marquis (1) 1-0 see game here
Erik seemed to have the better opening (a Grunfeld) but the somewhat tricky tactics confused both of us and at one point he allowed me to take a Knight for a few pawns, which was not enough compensation. I am pretty sure it was just an oversight, not a plan. The Knight was pretty bad anyway, stuck on a6 with nowhere to go but back to b8, but still if he had just retreated it he might have been better off.
Bd 12 Fawsi Jose Murra (1/2) - Ryan Nichols (1/2) 1-0
This game was won in the ending when a one pawn advantage was enough to win for Fawsi Jose.
Bd 13 Mark Lawless (1/2) - Fred Borges (1/2) 0-1
The Crime Dog Fred McGruff collars another suspect.
Bd 14 Tom Kuhn (1/2) - Rocio Murra (0) 0-1
Rocio evened the score with two wins and two losses for the Murra family tonight!
Bd 15 Julian Rodriguez (0) - Morgan Fox (0) 0-1
Morgan upsets the higher rated Julian! See game here!
Bd 16 David Hall (0) - William Murray (0) 1-0
Fred Borges Open (20 players)
Bd 17 Lennart Mathe (1) - Buddy Morris (1) 1-0
Bd 18 Mario Amodeo (1/2) - Fausto Robles (1) 1-0
Bd 19 Marty Lower (1/2) - Ed Baluran (1/2) 1-0
Bd 20 Alfredo Deleon (1/2) - Ron Rezendes (1/2) 1-0
Bd 21 Fawsi Murra Jr (1/2) - Roxas Acosta (1/2) 0-1
Bd 22 Damani Fair (1/2) - Thirunathan Sutharsan (1/2) 0-1
Bd 23 Nate Plapp (1/2) - Theron Pummer (1/2) 1-0
Bd 24 Pejman Sagart (1/2) - Dayne Freitag (1/2) 0F-1F
Bd 25 Caley Anderson (1/2) - Jason Qu (1/2) 0-1
Bd 26 Richard Jensen (0) - David Delgadillo (0) 1/2-1/2
Fred Borges Reserve Section (U1800) (12 players)
Bd 28 Jerry Soelberg (1) - Steve Perry (1) 0-1
Bd 29 Karen Kaufman (1) - Anthony Harbone (1) 0-1
Karen appeared to have a won game, but converting it against a higher rated player is never easy.
Bd 30 Arnold Berlin (1/2) - Robert Samuel (1/2) 1-0
Bd 31 Patrick Edwards (1/2) - Michael Ryan (0) 0-1
Bd 32 Monica Ness (0) - Alan Rhoads (0) 0-1
Alan scores his first victory at the club; he is an unrated new member.
Bd 33 Maria Murra (0) - Michael Wang (0) 0-1
Bye: Pete Lill
You can still join this event in round 3, and get TWO 1/2 point byes for Rd 1 and Rd 2, There are 3 different ways to join: 1) just email me at chucnglo@aol.com , or 2) leave a message on the club phone (or speak to Bruce Baker) at 619-239-7166, or 3) show up before 6:30 PM on Wednesday and register in person. Entry fee is $25.
See the Pairings Page for the expected match-ups next week
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