'06 Finals Rd 3

SDCC Championship & Reserve Finals, Lasker Open Round 3 - March 8th 2006

 

RON BRUNO TAKES CHARGE 3-0

Dr. Carl Wagner just half a point behind

By Rick Aeria, Chuck Ensey & Andy Bell

Results From Round 3 Finals:

Board 1 Funderburg - Bruno 0-1

The fantastic flight of the John Funderburg, the Thunderbird, finally came to an abrupt end.  Blasted from the azure skies by chess master Ron Bruno's accurate tactical eye and bristling arsenal of opening novelties. Hey, Ron, we just got a call from Vice-President Dick Cheney. He wants to know if you would like to go hunting next week, it appears that they are missing one partner. Don't worry about bringing the buckshot, they have plenty!

Bd 2 Wagner - Corper 1-0

 MIT "Rat-Ringer" Dr. Carl Wagner won a signal victory against a very well-prepared Dr. Adam Corper. Carl played a no-nonsense variation to take the tactical sting out of Scandinavian Defence and then simply outplayed the younger Brit! At a venerable age with two National Senior titles and four State Senior titles, Carl still demonstrates that he has what it takes to defeat the defending club champion (twice!) since December 2005! Bravo, Carl!

This positions Carl to challenge for the lead next week as he takes on tournament leader, Ron Bruno.

Bd 3 Sussman - Hart 0-1

Playing black, NM David Hart plays the risky but imaginative Dzhindzhi Indian Defence and catches veteran New York former master Leonard Sussman off guard. David Hart is starting to conduct himself like a contender and if pack leader Ron Bruno ever slips up, Hart will be waiting for his moment.

Bd 4 Baker - Kishinevsky 1/2-1/2

Was that perfume  or aftershave I was smelling from board four? Oh! It's just Bruce and Dimitry performing a chessic rendition of "Brokeback Mountain" with a 'grandmaster draw'. [AB here:  Bruce noted that this was a draw by rep and that no better moves were available to either party.]

Bd 5 Aeria - Smith 1-0

A bloody up-and-down 72-move battle. We started tamely enough with an archaic opening from 1769 - The Ponziani. Then things started to get tense after Todd missed the right riposte (... b5! instead of ... b6 ?!). Todd then put his queen in harm's way allowing a 'petite combinaison' (Nxb6) but I got lackadaisical with (Qe2 ?) and Todd found (...Ra2! winning) but under the relentless ticking of the clock missed finding the best move and instead played (... Kxg8 ?). So the struggle flared up anew with Todd taking a torturous and solitary King March to my g3-square! Then the game got bizarre and utterly surreal! So before Chuck gets to butcher ... eh, annotate, this game - I better do it and 'fess up myself.

So here is the updated  game. My instructor, IM Cy Lakdawala, has added his own notes to the game.

Note that kindly masters Wagner and Hart are starting a collection to get me a beginner's book "Chess Tactics for Dummies". Sign me up for that one too, Rick (Chuck) Also "Annotating Chess Games for Dummies"! Despite the mistakes on both sides, there were also a lot of  really great moves and strange tactics and this game still won the week's Best Game prize of $10.   

Bd 6 Betancourt - Borgan 1/2-1/2

C'mon cowboys! This is the SDCC Championship Final! Not prom night! Fight! Fight! If this grandmaster draw trend keeps up, I am going to be awarding a Miss Congeniality  "prize" to the biggest offender(s)!

Bd 7 Milton - Garamendi 0-1

Milton plays a dubious continuation (Qg4 without a3) against Garamendi's French Defence Winawer Variation. The Bolivian must have refreshed himself in the sacred waters of his homeland's Lake Titicaca because he gives an almost perfect text book Winawer French demonstration to wipe the peripathetic Milton off the board.

Bd 8 Sainz - Salz 1-0 

Sainz initiates the 'Jagd' (German - Hunt) Variation on Brad Salz' Alekhine Defence and scores his first kill in this finals.

Reserve Championship

Bd 9 Whitt - Oakes 1/2-1/2

Bd 10 Mathe - Ensey 0-1

Chuck picks a strange time to play like a grandmaster and wins a nice strategic miniature (20-moves) against Lennart Mathe's eccentric Dunst Opening (1. Nc3). I got to hand it to Chuck who chooses to direct 3 tournaments simultaneously and play! To win such a game is truly a stupendous feat!

 

Pejman Sagart stands by the former World Champions as depicted by artist Jovan Prokopljevic

Bd 11 Fair - Sagart 0-1

Bd 12 Sweitzer - Marquis 0-1

 

The proud father and daughter squared off in Round 3 - it was a draw, but a long hard fought one! 

Bd 13 Fawsi Murra Sr - Mayre Murra 1/2-1/2

Bd 14 Borges - Robles 0-1

Bd 15 Rodriguez - Harbone 1-0

Bd 16 Skiba (house) - Rocio Murra 1-0 

Lasker Open

The Lasker Open is a 7 week event running concurrently with the two Club Championships. We used to call it the "Practice for Non-Qualifiers", but I think the new name is more dignified. It is split in two section, Open and Reserve. In the Open Section, Alejandrino (Ed) Baluran (3), the Chess Balladeer, and maybe the most famous chess player in National City, leads with a perfect score of 3 points. In round 3 he bested the tough and high quality play of Maksim Gusev (2), a player, who like Ed, is just a few points below the rank of Expert (2000 Elo rating points).

Ed strikes a pose for the camera, he is really not that serious... just seriously "loco"! Note the flag and Balladeer coffee cup, no name place this time...  That's Maksim Gusev with the Black pieces.  

Close behind are Ramin Sinaee (2 1/2) and Fawsi Murra Jr (2 1/2). Ramin won a nice game from David Delgadillo (1 1/2) in Round 3, and Fawsi won versus Class A "Big Money" Ben Barquin (2), who has a knack for winning lots of money at the Gambito Open.  

Six players trail with 2 points, but with 4 rounds to go, there is plenty of time to catch up: Ron Soto, Maksim Gusev, Ben Barquin, Andrew Bell, David Saponara and Kwame Hooker, these are in tiebreak order. 

David Delgadillo waits for Rd 3 to start. Over David's head you can see Ryan Tester, an old club member who was just here visiting for one week, all the way from Ohio. That's Kwame Hooker in green. 

Checking in with 1 1/2 points out of 3 are David Delgadillo, Jemar Fragante, Mario Amodeo, Jerry Soelberg, John Falchi and President Ron Rezendes. I won't mention the other players with sub par scores, lets give them a chance to prove they are worthy. But at least Joel Batchelor, Tom Fries and Khris Juroshek have 1 point, poor James Malowney, Dayne Freitag and George Zeigler are struggling along with just 1/2 a point. It wouldn't be fair to mention that Carl Newell and Bob Draper are scoreless, pointless and clueless, no I'm just being mean there. Actually, I did put a hex on Bob (for spurning the Reserve Championship) , so he may go 0-7, we'll see. Carl Newell had an interesting game with Andy Bell last week in Round 2, I just got around to checking it out. Andy won with good style, see the game here. Remember to turn in those exciting games, we love them!  

 Lasker Reserve Section

 

Jackie Egger rules the Reserve Section. Next week she faces David Hall, shown on the right here, he is very sunburned from his ski trip to Mammoth. SPF 50 next time David! 

Jacquelyn Egger (3) has a perfect score here, followed by David Hall (2 1/2) and Morgan Fox (2 1/2). Bob Samuel (2) and Karen Kaufman (2) are still high up on the leader board, while Arthur Diaz (1 1/2), Reno Tyrell (1 1/2) and Albert Anderson (1 1/2) have break even scores. Down on their luck a little are Helmut Keil (1), Justin Colon (1), Tom Kuhn (1), Maria Murra (1), James Aranda (1), Parviz Soltan (1) and James Aranda (1). One player has 1/2 point, but she shall remain nameless for the moment.