'07 Senior Open

2007 SCCF SENIOR & JUNIOR OPEN 

April 21 - 22, 2007   5 Round Swiss

 

Dr. Carl Wagner wins SCCF Senior Title on tiebreaks! 

Total attendance of 44 was less than the hoped for 60, but still decent, and a big improvement from the last few years. The Seniors held up their end of the bargain, supplying 26 players, but the Juniors came up light with only 18 players. This is the first year we included a Junior Section, so possibly the news hadn't sunk in yet to all the population of chess players out there. The Senior Prize fund was enhanced by donations from several of the "ancient" players (although we failed to attract a player over 80, who could have picked up $100 just for showing up) to bring it up to the advertised amount, while the Junior Prize fund had to be reduced by about one third. The age based prizes for the Juniors were also not claimed as we had only 2 players under 20 (Varun Krishnan, 9 and Jason Qu, 12) and they both won bigger class prizes. Everyone had a really great time, so please try to make this event next year if you didn't play this year, it was a lot of fun. 

The first 3 games on Saturday were G/90, while the two longer games on Sunday were G/120, a new time control we thought would be fun to try. All games had a TEN second time delay instead of the normal 5. I like that a lot, to me 5 seconds just isn't enough when you are scrambling for a move. We'd like to play 40/60, SD/1, but these 6 hour games just aren't feasible if you want to squeeze in 5 rounds. The surprise this year was very few people took byes in the third round, just Balares, Ignacio and Sussman among the top players. Carl played tough competion in all 5 rounds, an 1889 in round 1, and then four Experts in a row ( #6, #7, #5 and #3 rated, in that order: Milton, Crisologo, Sussman and Balares).

After 2 rounds, Raoul Crisologo was on a roll, winning his first two games, including a big win over NM Bruce Baker, so he was tied for first with Leonard Sussman and Carl. Lenny took a bye on Saturday night in round 3, while Raoul lost to Carl. The tough loss to Carl appeared to take the wind out of Raoul's sails, as he lost his next game on Sunday morning to Bob Defore and then drew with Bob Draper. 

Round 4 featured a battle of Nadjorf specialists, with Carl Wagner as White and Lenny Sussman playing the famous Black side of the fabled Sicilian opening. I didn't get a chance to see much of the game, but it looked like a good one, maybe Carl will pass it on to us.         

I like 5 rounds better than 4, because it gives you a better chance of getting a clear winner, although that didn't happen this year, we still had a 3-way tie. Carl says he prefers playing just 4 rounds, he says that 5 rounds are just too brutal (Cyrus agrees!), so he opted to take a quick draw in the last round because he wasn't feeling all that sharp, having had major heart surgery just a few weeks ago. Carl figured it was better to be safe than sorry and locked in his tie for First Place rather than risk losing everything due to getting tired. I was very surprised that he took a quick draw in round 5, but then after he explained his reasons to me, I completely understood. And as it turns out, he had the better tiebreaks anyway, and so he won the Title of SCCF Senior Champion. No trophies, but Carl says he has plenty of those and doesn't need another one cluttering up his shelf. He missed a chance for a $300 payout for clear first, but as they say, a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.  

Note: the slightly larger and bolder type in this report is for the benefit of our Seniors!   

Prizes in Senior Section (over 50 years old) 

First Place/Second Place/Third Place tie: Carl Warner (4), Rick Aeria (4), Carey Milton (4) $166 each

Best Under 2200 (tie): Jorge Balares (3 1/2), Leonard Sussman (3 1/2), John Rinaldo (3 1/2 & Best over 60), $100 each 

BU 2000: Ben Barquin (3 1/2) $150  2nd U2000: Robert Defore (3), Rick Dyberg (3) $25 each

BU 1800: (tie): Morgan Fox (2 1/2) , Robert Draper (2 1/2), Anthony Harbone (2 1/2 & Best over 70) $100 each  

BU 1600: Gene Arnaiz (2) $150, 2nd U1600 Reno Tyrell (1) $50

 

Ron Bruno Sweeps The "Junior" Field With A Perfect 5-0 Score

Ron beat a Class B player in round 1, then a strong A player in rd 2. Then came his biggest test, against Mark Duesterwald, rated 2369, nearly 100 points higher than Ron, but he was up to the challenge and prevailed in a see-saw game. On Sunday he still had to face the #3 and #4 rated players, Romeo Ignacio and Dimitry Kishinevky, but he passed that test too. Ron's rating is now 2292, just a mere 8 points from 2300.   

Prizes in Junior Section (under 50 years old):

First Place: Ron Bruno (5) $200   Second Place: John Badger (4) $100

Third Place: Mark Duesterwald (3 1/2) $50

BU2200: Esteban Escobedo (3 1/2) $100, 2nd U2200: Dimitry Kishinevsky (3) $50 

BU2000 (tie): Varun Krishnan (3), Peter Hodges (3) $75 each

BU1800: Jason Qu (2) $100

2nd U1800 tie: Jamieson Pryor (1 1/2), Chris Wonnell (1 1/2) $25 each

BU 1600 Tom Kuhn (1) $100

The full results can now be viewed on the USCF website, along with the rating changes.

Best Game Prize Junior Section: Dimitry Kishinevsky ($15) for win over Hercules Madriaga. See Cyrus Annotates to view this game and others from this event, we will keep posting good ones as they get analyzed. 

The biggest gain was turned in by Morgan Fox with +118 points (1356>1474). Another big gainer was Anthony Harbone +67 (1610>1677). Rick Dyberg popped up 39 points (1852> 1891), thanks to 2 big upset wins over NM Bruce Baker and Expert Mike Nagaran (one of last year's Co-Champions). Gene Arnaiz also gained 35 points (1538>1573) and John Badger gained 34 (1859>1893). Ron Bruno tacked on 22 points (2270>2292). 

Questions: Call Bruce Baker at the SDCC at 619-239-7166 or email Chuck Ensey at chucnglo@aol.com