San Diego County Championships

August 8 & 9, 2009 San Diego County Championships

2225 Sixth Avenue (near Ivy) in Balboa Park San Diego 92101  (619) 239-7166

$$3,500 in Guaranteed Prizes!! 

Prize Winners:

Open Section: First Place: Dionisio Aldama (4 1/2), $500

Second Place: Joel Banawa (4), U2400: Giovanni Carreto (4), U2300: Eugeny Shver (4), U2200: Leonard Sussman (4), $212 each

Leonard Sussman is our new San Diego County Champion, as he is the only player out of the above 5 players from San Diego County. This is a repeat performance for Lenny, he was also the County Champ in 2007. Peter Graves was the Champion in 2008, but could not play this year.     

U2100/2nd U2200: Rick Aeria (3 1/2) and Barry Lazarus (3 1/2), $125 each

2nd U2400: Romeo Ignacio (3 1/2)  2nd U2300: John Rinaldo (3 1/2), $50 each

2nd U2100: Raoul Crisologo (3), Michael Nagaran (3), Leo Raterman (3) and Daniel Giordani (1912), $12 each

Reserve Section: (U2000): First Place: Antonio Gonzalez (4), U1900: Daniel Collins (4), U1800: Semen Filatov (4), $233 each

Second Place: Jess Orlowski (3 1/2), Alejandro Ruiz (3 1/2), 2nd U1900: John Badger (3 1/2), $66 each 

2nd U1800: Nestor Dagamat (3), $50  

U1700: Ronaldo Salenga (2 1/2), $200

2nd U1700: Manny Abundo (2) and Tom Kuhn (2), $25 each

Booster Section (U1600): First Place, Todd Arone (4 1/2), $150

U1500: Joseph Komrosky (4) $100

2nd Place: James Hillard (3 1/2), $75

U1400: Cristhian Garcia (3), $50, 2nd U1500: Andrew Ritter (3), $50, 2nd U1400: Claire Negus (3), $50

Note: some of these prizes have been adjusted from what was initial paid out. In the rush to pay out prizes at the end of the day, sometimes our brains are fried from too much chess (and directing!) and we (Bruce and I) make a few errors, but we always correct them the next day. That's why we always say prizes are "subject to review".     

Plus Best Game Prize of $25 for each section! To be announced...

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75 Total Players, great attendance, thanks everyone, we were able to exactly cover the Guaranteed Prize Fund.   

Open (37 players): players listed in pre-event rating order 

7 Masters: Dionisio Aldama (2489), Joel Banawa (2413), Bruce Baker (2306), Giovanni Carreto (2241), Jorge Balares (2221), Craig Clawitter (2204) and Romeo Ignacio.

18 Experts: Juan Nunez (2192), Eugeny Shver (2143), Alan Tsoi (2132), Michael Brown (2109), Kyron Griffith (2106), John Rinaldo (2101), Ignacio Sainz (2094), Rick Aeria (2078), Barry Lazarus (2077), Leonard Sussman (2072), Raoul Crisologo (2065), Alejandrino Baluran (2049), Daniel Grazian (2042), Jamieson Pryor (2027), Michael Nagaran (2013), Carey Milton (2013), Hin Tsang (2000), and Leo Raterman (2000)  

12 Class A (playing up): Carl Bolm (1976), Jason Qu (1949), Peter Hodges (1946), Fausto Robles (1936), Tom Fries (1924), Roberto Aiello (1915), Ryan Polsky (1913), Daniel Giordani (1912), Rick Dyberg (1872), David Delgadillo (1850), Wael Shreiba (1850), Alicia Narducci (1808)  

Reserve [U2000] (22 players):

11 Class A: Antonio Gonzalez (1995), Jesse Orlowski (1995), Dennis Saccuzzo (1956), Alejandro Ruiz (1948), Robert Defore (1905), Joel Batchelor (1888), John Badger (1878), Daniel Collins (1837), Chuck Ensey (1836), Bret Strunk (1835) and Joselito Quiba (1801)

11 Class B: Nestor Dagamat (1773), Mike Friedel (1754), Frank Arias (1707), Ronaldo Salenga (1684), Aaron Ibarra (1676), Richard Martin (1658), Semen Filatov (1650), Manny Abundo (1629), Tom Kuhn (1627), Anthony Harbone (1623), Numan Abdul-Mujeeb (1578, playing up) 

Booster [U1600] (16 players):

5 Class C: Gene Arnaiz (1563), Todd Arone (1530), Armando Garcia (1500), Steven Dahl (1492), and Gene Fernando (1400)

11 Class D and below: Cristhian Garcia (1372), Morgan Fox (1352), Fred Cleveland (1340), James Hillard (1297), Joseph Komrosky (1295), Andrew Ritter (1243), Robert Martin (1124), Claire Negus (1099), Jerry Qu (894), Andrew Negus (894), Xiao Li (385) 

See Photo Section for some nice pix and more commentary

Note that the Open Section was huge this year compared to last year's 24 players. The break down was

               2009: 37 Open + 22 Reserve + 16 Booster = 75   

               2008: 24 Open + 31 Reserve + 25 Booster = 80

               2007: 21 Open + 31 Reserve + 22 Booster = 74

               2006: 15 Open + 20 Reserve +12 Booster = 47    

The reason is that this year 12 Class A players decided to "play up" and try their chances in the Open, where they didn't have much chance of making money, but they could possibly score a big upset, or at least have a chance against a high rated player.         

  

August Gambito Opens: #434, #433, #432, #431

Gambito #434  8/22/09

Registration: 10 AM to 10:25, Entry Fee; $20, 4 rounds at 10:30 AM, 12:15, 2:45 and 4:30 and then we are done by 6 PM.  G/40 with 5 second delay.  

Only 17 players today. Two obvious reason were 1) The uncomfortable HEAT WAVE we have been experiencing in San Diego and most of the West 2) Players may have been resting up for the big 3 day event next weekend.

We played in two sections today for a change...Prize winners today were:

First/Second Place: Dionisio Aldama (3 1/2) and Cyrus Lakdawala (3 1/2), $50 each

U2400: Hin Tsang (2 1/2), $45  U2200: Roberto Aiello (2 1/2), $45

U2000: Chris Wonnell (1 1/2) and Chuck Ensey (1 1/2), $20 each

In the Reserves: Charlie Berkman (4), $40; BU1600: Kenneth Xu (2 1/2), $30    

Estimated biggest rating point gainers in Open Section:

Roberto Aiello +18 to 1937 and Hin Tsang +18 to 2043

Reserve Section estimates:

Kenneth Xu +106 to 1446, Fred Cleveland +22 to 1414, Charlie Berkman +21 to 1805

Cyrus and Dionisio drew in Round 3. Hin Tsang won U2400 despite not playing the last round. He upset Romeo Ignacio in Rd 3. It looked like a draw as both players banged out moves with only the 5 second delay left on their clocks, but Ignacio finally lost by hanging his Queen, which Hin had done earlier, but Romeo didn't see it in the rush to keep checking the King (it look like perpetual check for a long time).  In the Reserves, Charlie Berkman swept through the small field (only 6 players) without much resistance. Good news for Reserve players, he is now over 1800! Kenneth Xu continues to soar in rating (it was on old scholastic rating he is now bringing up to date), but he is still likely way underrated.   

Last Gambito Open before the Southern California Open on 9/05, 9/06, 9/07. Don't forget to sign up ASAP. Entry fee is still only $120 (low rate has been extended until 8/31). Two byes available, 5 Sections, $20,000 in prizes. 

Gambito #433  8/22/09

Only 20 players today, a bit of a light turnout. Dionisio Aldama was rumored to be playing, but in fact did not show up. Bruce Baker also took the day off. We used a modified McMahon with Masters and Experts starting with 2 points, Class A players with 1 and B/C's with 0. 

2 Masters Cyrus Lakdawala (2505) and Roemo Ignacio (2203)

4 Experts: Leonard Sussman (2113), Varun Krishnan (2101), Carey Milton (2027) and Hin Tsang (2017)

5 Class A: Roberto Aiello (1903), Chris Wonnell (1901), Jacoby Johnson (1872), Madhavan Vajapeyam (1835) and Chuck Ensey (1819)

7 Class B: Jason Ma (1777), Mike Friedel (1743), William Delaney (1732), Jason Arbeiter (1729), Aaron Householder (1726), Scott Householder (1629) and Anthony Harbone (1600) 

2 Class C: Tom Kuhn (1584) and Fred Cleveland (1363) 

Biggest rating point gainers today: Jacoby Johnson +55 to 1927, Tom Kuhn +31 to 1615, Fred Cleveland +29 to 1392 and William Delaney +24 to 1756

Here were the prize winners:

First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (6), $100

Second Place: Romeo Ignacio (4 1/2), $50

BU2400: Leonard Sussman (4), $50 

BU2200: Hin Tsang (4), $50    BU2000: Jacoby Johnson (4), $50

BU1800: Jason Arbeiter (3) and William Delaney (3), $25 each

BU1600: Tom Kuhn (2), $40

Total Prizes $390  

Gambito #432   8/15/09 

26 players, good turnout. McMahon pairings were used with Masters=4, Experts=3, Class A=2, Class B=1 and Class C=0.   

Here are the prize winners:

First Place: Dionisio Aldama (7 1/2), $100

Second Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (7), $60

U2400: Jeff Arnold (6), $60

U2200: Leonard Sussman (5 1/2), Dimitry Kishinevsky (5 1/2) and Kyron Griffith (5 1/2), $20 each

U2000: Richard Wong (5), $60

U1800: Aaron Householder (3), Scott Householder (3), Mike Friedel (3) and Eusy Ancheta (3), $15 each

U1600: Kenneth Xu (3), $60     

Total Prizes = $460

Gambito #431   8/01/09     August Super Gambito

$830 in Prizes. 36 Players, great turnout, here are the players in rating order:

Open (17 players):

4 Masters: Cyrus Lakdawala, Dionisio Aldama, Bruce Baker, Romeo Ignacio

6 Experts: Jorge Balares, Rick Aeria, Leonard Sussman, Raoul Crisologo, Aaron Wooten, Paul Agron

7 Class A: Jesse Orlowski, Fidel Gonzalez, Jason Qu, Chris Wonnell, Esteban Escobedo, Chuck Ensey, Madhavan Vajapeyam  

Reserve (19 players):

13 Class B: Charles Berkman, Ron Rezendes, Nestor Dagamat, Jason Arbeiter, William Delaney, Aaron Householder, Mike Friedel, Winston Zeng, Scott Householder, Matt Souza, Jason Ma, Anthony Harbone, Eusy Ancheta

6 Class C: Tom Kuhn, Gene Arnaiz, Michael Chen, Harold X Gonzalez, Fred Cleveland, Patrick Edwards

Jason Jacoby filled in as a house player in the Open Section for 2 games. In the Reserve section, Helmut Keil filled in for 1 game and Karl Lindberg for 2 games. Thanks guys, we had an odd number in each section today.

Prize Winners:

Open Section: 

First Place/Second Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (3 1/2) and Dionisio Aldama (3 1/2), $115 each

BU2400/2200/2nd U2400/U2200: Romeo Ignacio (2 1/2), Jorge Balares (2 1/2), Raoul Crisologo (2 1/2) and Aaron Wooten (2 1/2), $55 each

BU2000/2nd U2000: Jesse Orlowski (2), Jason Qu (2), Chris Wonnell (2), $38 each

$15 Best Game goes to Cyrus Lakdawala for win over Jorge Balares  

Reserve Section:     

First Place: Jason Ma (4), $90

Second Place: Nestor Dagamat (3) and Mike Friedel (3), $17 each

BU1600: Tom Kuhn (2 1/2), $80

Second U1600: Gene Arnaiz (1 1/2), Michael Chen (1 1/2) and Patrick Edwards (1 1/2), $10 each

$15 Best Game goes to Jason Arbeiter for win over Gene Arnaiz

Biggest rating point gainers Open - Chris Wonnell +38 to 1930, Raoul Crisologo +21 to 2058  Reserve - Jason Ma +132 to 1777, Tom Kuhn +34 to 1624  

Two big suprises today were:

 1) The appearance of Dionisio Aldama of Phoenix (and formerly of Cuba), a strong player at Cyrus Lakdawala's rating level. He drew his game with Cyrus, beat Bruce, Rick Aeria and Paul Agron. Bruce gave him a tough game, but faltered when he got very low on time.  Rick said Dion is a tactical genius and he seemed to effortlessly find great moves against him.

2) The performance of Jason Ma, who seems to be gaining strength weekly. He had the only perfect score in the event with 4 wins and won the Reserve Section even though he was only the 11th strongest player by rating. His rating will soar after this event. He beat the #2, #4, #3 and #7 rated in that order, all players over 1700. Jason is only 12 years old and currently rated 1645, but I suspect he will 1800 shortly.

 

Jerry Soelberg Open Rd 6

Round 6 of 6    08/05/09  7 PM

68 players total. This is a McMahon pairing event, everyone plays in one big section but we separate the players by assigning initial bye points so that Masters and Experts start with 4 points, Class A players with 3, B=2, C=1, D/E=0. Currently we have 19 M/E, 17 A, 12 B, 10 C and 10 D/E = 68 total, not including a few house players.  

LAST ROUND RESULTS!    

Board 1  Carl Wagner (8) - Jorge Balares (7 1/2)  0-1 

Bd 2  Ignacio Sainz (7) - Bruce Baker (8)  0-1

Bd 3  David Hart (7) -  John Funderburg (7) 1-0

Bd 4  Manuel Herrera (6 1/2) - Paul Agron (7)  1-0

Bd 5  Roberto Aiello (6 1/2) - Antonio Gonzalez (4)  0-1

Antonio filled in for George Zeigler who was a no show

Bd 6  Raoul Crisologo (6 1/2) - Aaron Wooten (6 1/2)  1-0

Bd 7  Jamieson Pryor (6) - Jason Qu  (6 1/2)  1-0   

Bd 8  Alejandrino Baluran (6) - Vincent Broman (6)  1-0 

Bd 10  Thomas Fries (6) - Saeid Abdoli (6)  0-1

Bd 11  Ron Soto (5 1/2) - Joel Batchelor (5 1/2)  0-1

Bd 12  Steve Perry (5 1/2) - Alfredo Deleon (5 1/2)  0-1

Bd 13  Fausto Robles (5 1/2) -  Damani Fair (5 1/2)  1-0

Bd 14  Bill Whitney (5 1/2) - Marty Lower (5 1/2)  0F-0F 

Bd 15  Chris Wonnell (5) - Jerry Soelberg (5)  1/2-1/2 

Bd 16  Shaun Sweitzer (5) - Buddy Morris (5)  1/2-1/2

Bd 17  Chuck Ensey (5) - Erik Marquis (5)  1-0

Bd 18  Tom Kuhn (5) - Fawsi Jose Murra (5)  0-1

Bd 19  Santiago Rubio-Fernaz (4 1/2) - Mike Friedel (4 1/2)  0-1

Bd 20  Roger Dooc (4) - Steve Gordon (4)  0-1

Bd 21  Robert Samuel (4) - Larry Vikander (4)  1/2-1/2

Bd 22  Brian Kelly (4) - Jim Krooskos (4)  1-0

Bd 23  Julian Rodriguez (4) - Matt Souza (4)  1-0

Bd 24  Libano Rodriguez (4) - Anthony Harbone (4)  0-1

Bd 25  Patrick Edwards (3 1/2) - Roger Wathen (4)  0-1

Bd 26  Fred Borges (3) - Mark Lawless (3)  1-0

Bd 27  Jim Coulston (2 1/2) - Cristhian Garcia (3)  0-1

Bd 28  Mike Ryan (2) - Bill Murray (2 1/2)  1-0 

Bd 29  David Peabody (2) - Darryl Woodson (2)  1-0

Bd 30  Monica Ness (1 1/2) - Karl Lindberg (1)  0-1

Withdraw: Mariano Lozano (6), Lennart Mathe (6), Ramin Sinaee (5 1/2), Bob Defore (5), Samuel Odedina (3 1/2), Helmut Keil (1), Maria Murra (1)

Prizes $860 Total 

Master/Expert (4 bye points)

First Place: Bruce Baker (9), $100    Second Place: Jorge Balares (8 1/2), $70

Third Place: David Hart (8) and Carl Wagner (8), $25 each

First/Second BU2200: Manuel Herrera (7 1/2) and Raoul Crisologo (7 1/2), $50 each

Third/Fourth U2200: John Funderburg (7), Ignacio Sainz (7), Jamieson Pryor (7), Alejandrino Baluran (7), Paul Agron (7), $10 each

Class A (3 bye points)

First Place: Saeid Abdoli (7), $60

Second/Third/Fourth Place: Fausto Robles (6 1/2), Roberto Aiello (6 1/2), Joel Batchelor (6 1/2) and Alfredo Deleon (6 1/2), $22 each   

Class B (2 bye points)

First/Second/Third Place: Shaun Sweitzer (5 1/2), Jerry Soelberg (5 1/2), Mike Friedel (5 1/2), Steve Perry (5 1/2), $32 each

Class C (1 bye point)

First Place/Second/Third Place: Julian Rodriguez (5), Erik Marquis (5) and Steve Gordon (5), $37 each

Class D (0 bye points)

First Place: Roger Wathen (5), $50

Second/Third Place: Jim Krooskos (4), Libano Rodriguez (4) and Cristhian Garcia (4), $17 each   

Next week: San Diego Shootout, 6 Rounds at G/90 with 10 second delay. 3 sections. Sign up online by emailing chucnglo@aol.com $25 entry fee, 2 byes available...Winner gets a berth into the 2010 Club Championship! 

  

 

 

Jerry Soelberg Open Rd 5

Round 5 of 6    07/29/09  7 PM

68 players total. This is a McMahon pairing event, everyone plays in one big section but we separate the players by assigning initial bye points so that Masters and Experts start with 4 points, Class A players with 3, B=2, C=1, D/E=0. Currently we have 19 M/E, 17 A, 12 B, 10 C and 10 D/E = 68 total, not including a few house players.  

Results for Round 5:  

Board 1  Jorge Balares (6 1/2) - Bruce Baker (8)  1-0

Bruce had numerous opportunities to draw this game from what I heard, but it is well known that Bruce hates to draw. Many is the game he has lost trying to stretch a draw into a win that just isn't there. Leading the event with 8 points, a draw would have been a good result for Bruce in this case, but it just isn't in his nature to split the point...     

Bd 2  John Funderburg (7) - Carl Wagner (7)  0-1

Carl won the battle of the only two players with 7 points. Age and experience won out over  youth and enthusiasm this time. Also the Master beat the Expert which is to be expected, but John is the Club Champion and tough for anyone to beat as he proved earlier this year...      

Bd 3  Mariano Lozano (6) - Ignacio Sainz (6)  0-1

The higher rated Expert beat the lower rated Expert, but it was a close call... 

Bd 4  Jason Qu (6) - Manuel Herrera (6)  1/2-1/2

Jason is doing quite well in this event...

Bd 5  George Zeigler (6) - Raoul Crisologo (6)  1/2-1/2

Wow, what a battle, The Longest Game of the Night, by far. It looked like George had the win in hand, but Raoul brilliantly defended a Rook ending while down two pawns to none. It was a rook pawn and a bishop pawn and somehow Raoul was able to block both pawns from Queening. Amazing!        

Bd 6  Jamieson Pryor (5 1/2) - Alejandrino Baluran (5 1/2)  1/2-1/2 

Ed couldn't make progress against the accurate play of Jamieson, Canada's proud native son. 

Bd 7  Aaron Wooten (5 1/2) - Bill Whitney (5 1/2)  1-0

Bill's prepared line didn't catch Aaron off guard at all, Aaron was cool, calm and collected as usual and then he tricked Bill into missing a tactic...  

Bd 8  Roberto Aiello (5 1/2) - Ron Soto (5 1/2)  1-0

A mini win streak for Roberto who had been in a bit of a slump (especially at the Gambito Open) before this string of wins. 

Bd 9  Alfredo Deleon (5 1/2) - Thomas Fries (5)  0-1

Tom is one tough customer despite his very friendly demeanor.

Bd 10  Fausto Robles (5) -  Ramin Sinaee (5)  1/2-1/2 

This was no simple draw, it was very complicated and tricky for both sides...

Bd 11  Saeid Abdoli (5) - Chris Wonnell (5)  1-0

Saeid has been impressive since joing the club. Watch out for this guy! 

Bd 12  Marty Lower (5) - Damani Fair (5)  1/2-1/2

No surprise here, these two players know each other too well...

Bd 13  Santiago Rubio-Fernaz (4 1/2) - Phil Skiba (3 1/2)  0-1

Phil filled in for a last minute cancellation...

Bd 14  Jerry Soelberg (4 1/2) - Chuck Ensey (4 1/2)  1/2-1/2

I was very lucky to draw when Jerry got a little careless in an easily won endgame. Of course, no game is "easily won" until the point is recorded...  

Bd 15  Fawsi Jose Murra (4) - Roger Dooc (4)  1-0

Roger can't seem to catch a break in this event...

Bd 16  Anthony Harbone (4) - Tom Kuhn (4)  0-1

Tom rebuffed all the traps Tony likes to set and stayed the course for the win...

Bd 17  Larry Vikander (4) - Shaun Sweitzer (4)  0-1

Shaun ground out the technical win with 2 Bishops versus a Rook.

Bd 18  Erik Marquis (4) - Julian Rodriguez (4)  1-0

Erik's rating has taken a beating lately, but he is just as dangerous as always...

Bd 19  Mike Friedel (3 1/2) - Matt Souza (4)  1-0

The two friends had to play each other and it was an exciting game, Mike nearly had a heart attack when he thought he had blown it at one point, but he survived the unexpected assualt.

Bd 20  Jim Krooskos (3 1/2) - Robert Samuel (3 1/2)  1/2-1/2  

Bob is happy to draw anyone these days and it was a good result for Jim too 

Bd 21  Mark Lawless (3) - Brian Kelly (3)  0-1

Mark fell to the much higher rated Brian who had been down on his luck lately 

Bd 22  Fred Borges (3) - Libano Rodriguez (3)  0-1

A nice checkmate by Libano

Bd 23  Roger Wathen (3) - James Coulston (2 1/2)  1-0

I'll bet this was an interesting game, but I didn'ty see any of it...

 Bd 27  Samuel Odedina (2 1/2) - Bill Murray (2 1/2)  1-0

All of a sudden Sam is coming on strong after a long string of losses

Bd 28  Karl Lindberg (2) - Patrick Edwards (2 1/2)  0-1

Karl had a good position, but misplayed a few tactical moves

Bd 29  Cristhian Garcia (2) - Mike Ryan (2)  1-0

Cristhian is another one who is on a hot streak 

Bd 30  Darryl Woodson (1) - Maria Murra (1)  1-0

Darryl is too strong to be at the bottom of the pairing chart

Lots of byes tonight!! See below...

Byes: David Hart (6 1/2), Paul Agron (6 1/2), Lennart Mathe (6), Vincent Broman (5 1/2), Joel Batchelor (5), Steve Perry (5), Robert Defore (4 1/2), Buddy Morris (4 1/2), Steve Gordon (3 1/2), Helmut Keil (1), Monica Ness (1). No show: David Peabody (2) 

Pairings for the last round are already posted in the next blog

ALSO: NEWS FLASH!!!   There will be a simul with IM Enrico Sevillano

At the SDCC on Friday night 7/31/09 at 7 PM, $10 a board. Help him raise money for a trip to the US Open next week...thanks...  

 

 

Jerry Soelberg Open Rd 4

Round 4 of 6    07/22/09  7 PM

68 players total. This is a McMahon pairing event, everyone plays in one big section but we separate the players by assigning initial bye points so that Masters and Experts start with 4 points, Class A players with 3, B=2, C=1, D/E=0. Currently we have 19 M/E, 17 A, 12 B, 10 C and 10 D/E = 68 total, not including a few house players.  

Please call the club phone at 619-239-7166 if you can't make a round, you can get a 1/2 point bye if you call by 6:30 PM on Wednesday. (Maximum of 2 byes). You can also email chucnglo@aol.com but if you go this route please do it by 4:00 PM on Wednesday at the latest, after that time please call the club.  

Results for Round 4  

Board 1  Bruce Baker (7) - David Hart (6 1/2)  1-0

Bd 2  Carl Wagner (6) - George Zeigler (6)  1-0

Bd 3  Manuel Herrera (6) - John Funderburg (6)  0-1

Bd 4  Alejandrino Baluran (5 1/2) - Jorge Balares (5 1/2)  0-1

Bd 5  Lennart Mathe (5 1/2) - Mariano Lozano (5 1/2)  1/2-1/2

Bd 6  Paul Agron (5 1/2) - Aaron Wooten (5 1/2)  1-0

Bd 7  Raoul Crisologo (5) - Alfredo Deleon (5 1/2)  1-0

Bd 8  Ron Soto (5) - Bill Whitney (5)  1/2-1/2

Bd 10  Jason Qu (5) - Saeid Abdoli (5)  1-0

Bd 11 Joel Batchelor (5) -  Jamieson Pryor (4 1/2)  0-1 

Bd 12  Robert Defore (4 1/2) - Roberto Aiello (4 1/2)  0-1

Bd 13  Chris Wonnell (4 1/2) - Marty Lower (4 1/2)  1/2-1/2

Bd 14  Vincent Broman (4 1/2) - Buddy Morris (4 1/2)  1-0

Bd 15  Chuck Ensey (4) - Ramin Sinaee (4 1/2)  1/2-1/2  

Bd 16  Thomas Fries (4) - Fawsi Jose Murra (4)  1-0

Bd 17  Roger Dooc (4) - Steve Perry (4)  0-1

Bd 18  Damani Fair (4) - Anthony Harbone (4)  1-0

Bd 19  Jerry Soelberg (3 1/2) - Mike Friedel (3 1/2)  1-0

Bd 20  Robert Samuel (3 1/2) - Santiago Rubio-Fernaz (3 1/2)  0-1

Bd 21  Shaun Sweitzer (3) - Steve Gordon (3 1/2)  1-0

Bd 22  Mark Lawless (3) - Larry Vikander (3)  0-1

Bd 23  Brian Kelly (3) - Julian Rodriguez (3)  0-1

Bd 24  Tom Kuhn (3) - Fred Borges (3)  1-0

Bd 25  James Coulston (2 1/2) - Erik Marquis (3)  0-1

Bd 26  Glenn Rose (1) - Mike Ryan (2)  0F- 0F

Bd 27  Bill Murray (2) - Patrick Edwards (2)  1/2-1/2

Bd 28  Libano Rodriguez (2) - David Peabody (2)  1-0

Bd 29  Roger Wathen (2) - Monica Ness (1)  1-0

Bd 30  Helmut Keil (1) - Samuel Odedina (1 1/2)  0-1

Bd 31  Darryl Woodson (1) - Jim Krooskos (2 1/2)  0-1

Bd 32  Maria Murra (1) - Cristhian Garcia (1)  0-1

Byes: Ignacio Sainz (6) zero point bye; 1/2 point:Fausto Robles (4 1/2), Matt Souza (3 1/2)

house games:

Bd 33  Antonio Gonzalez (4) - Nick Schoonmaker (4)  1-0

Bd 34  Philip Skiba (3 1/2) - Julia O'Neill (3)  0-1

Bd 35  Karl Lindberg (1) - Jerry Cupat (1) 

Withdraw: Dimitry Kishinevsky (5 1/2), Jeff Turner (6)

Withdrew last week: Chris Calbat (2), Todd Smith (5)

Round 6 Pairings will be posted Thursday night, but here are the top boards;

Balares-Baker, Funderburg-Wagner, Hart-Agron, Lozano-Sainz, Qu-Herrera, Zeigler-Crisologo  

 

Jerry Soelberg Open Rd 3

Round 3 of 6    07/15/09  7 PM

68 players total so far, George Zeigler, Ignacio Sainz and Anthony Harbone have joined us in this round (but Todd Smith has dropped out) .  

This is a McMahon pairing event, everyone plays in one big section but we separate the players by assigning initial bye points so that Masters and Experts start with 4 points, Class A players with 3, B=2, C=1, D/E=0. Currently we have 19 M/E, 17 A, 12 B, 10 C and 10 D/E = 68 total, not including a few house players.  

Board 1  Bruce Baker (6) - Carl Wagner (6)  1-0

Bd 2  David Hart (5 1/2) - Jorge Balares (5 1/2)  1-0

Bd 3  John Funderburg (5) - Dimitry Kishinevsky (5 1/2)  1-0

This was the Longest Game of the Night (by far), a classic battle that went right down to the last few seconds. There was a group of spectators who stayed past midnight to watch the endgame unfold. as I recall, Dimitry had a well posted Knight in the center and two pawns for the exchange, but his King was exposed to relentless attacks from John's Queen and Rook. It seemed Dimitry had good drawing chances, but he couldn't quite pull it off as John kept going for the most testing lines.

Bd 4  Ignacio Sainz (5) - Raoul Crisologo (5)  1-0

Bd 5  Manuel Herrera (5) - Ron Soto (5)  1-0  

Bd 6  George Zeigler (5) - Jason Qu (5)  1-0

Bd 7  Jamieson Pryor (4 1/2) - Jeff Turner (5)  0-1 

Bd 8  Marty Lower (4 1/2) - Lennart Mathe (4 1/2)  0-1

Bd 10  Aaron Wooten (4 1/2) - Robert Defore (4 1/2)  1-0

Bd 11  Ramin Sinaee (4 1/2) - Alejandrino Baluran (4 1/2)  0-1

Bd 12  Mariano Lozano (4 1/2) - Chris Wonnell (4 1/2)  1-0

Bd 13  Alfredo Deleon (4 1/2) - Fausto Robles (4 1/2)  1-0  

Bd 14  Bill Whitney (4) - Chuck Ensey (4)  1-0

Bad tactical vision on my part, I thought I was winning a pawn, but that was a piece I lost..

Bd 15  Saedi Abdoli (4) - Roger Dooc (4)  1-0

Roger is having a lot of tough luck so far in this event, we are so glad to see him playing as a regular instead of just a house player.  

Bd 16  Fawsi Jose Murra (4) - Joel Batchelor (4)  0-1 

Joel seems to be on a roll lately... 

Bd 17  Damani Fair (3 1/2) - Thomas Fries (3 1/2)  1/2-1/2

A nice draw for Damani, Tom is exceptionally hard to beat or even draw, he cheated me out of a win a few weeks ago. Well, not cheated, but you know what I mean, I thought I had the game in hand and then boom!, I was suddenly losing big time after taking a poisoned pawn. Maybe swindled is the word. Or maybe he just outplayed me in the endgame!

Bd 18  Buddy Morris (3 1/2) - Jerry Soelberg (3 1/2)  1-0

Jerry had 2 passed pawns, but Buddy queened first. 

Bd 19  Mike Friedel (3 1/2) - Vincent Broman (3 1/2)  0-1

Mike is training to be a TD and also is working on a deal to get some Mon Roi-like handheld computers for recording your moves (but much cheaper than Mon Roi), ask Mike if you are interested.

Bd 20  Anthony Harbone (3) - Brian Kelly (3)  1-0

Two old friends and long time club members duke it out, a minor upset for Anthony.

Bd 21  Matt Souza (3) - Robert Samuel (3)  1/2-1/2

Bob is doing well in this event, Matt is quite dangerous I can assure you...

Bd 22  Steve Perry (3) - Mark Lawless (3)  1-0

A nice Rook sac led to winning a game for Steve. 

Bd 23  Erik Marquis (3) - Phil Skiba (3)  0-1

Phil was filling in as a house player     

Bd 24  Larry Vikander (2 1/2) - Tom Kuhn (2 1/2)  1/2-1/2

A good result for Tom, Larry is a few hundred points higher rated.

Bd 25  Steve Gordon (2 1/2) - James Coulston (2 1/2)  1-0

A close endgame. Jmaes says he pushed the wrong pawn. I've done that before... 

Bd 26  Michael Ryan (2) - Shaun Sweitzer (2 1/2)  0-1

Shaun was happy to notch a win after a string of unsuccessful games.

Bd 27  Fred Borges (2) - Bill Murray (2)  1-0

A battle of 80+ year olds, the higher rated one won. 

Bd 28  Julian Rodriguez (2) - Libano Rodriguez (2)  1-0

Bd 29  Jim Krooskos (1 1/2) - Roger Wathen (2)  1-0

Bd 30  Patrick Edwards (1) - Helmut Keil (1)  1-0

A nice upset for Patrick. Helmut can't seem to close the deal in this event, but he has been right there in all 3 games.

Bd 31  Cristhian Garcia (1) - David Peabody (1)  0-1

Bd 32  Samuel Odedina (1/2) - Maria Murra (1)  1-0

New players Sam is learning how to win. I think it is his second win at the club after a string of tough losses. 

Bd 9  Monica Ness (1/2) - Darryl Woodson (1/2)  1/2-1/2

Monica struggled back from a dfficult position to earn a hard fought draw 

Bye: Paul Agron (5), Roberto Aiello (4), Santiago Rubio-Fernaz (3), Glenn Rose (1/2)

Withdraw: Chris Calbat (2), Todd Smith (5)

Tentative Pairings for Round 4 will be posted Thursday night.

 

July Gambito Opens #430, 429, 428, 427

Gambito #430  7/25/09

26 players, excellent turnout, with the following players, in rating order:

5 Masters: Cyrus Lakdawala, Bruce Baker, Jeff Arnold, Nick Schoonmaker, Jorge Balares

8 Experts: Rick Aeria, Leonard Sussman, Kyron Griffith, Jamieson Pryor, Alejandrino Baluran, Aaron Wooten, Daniel Grazian, and Carey Milton

6 Class A: Robert Belenzon, Roberto Aiello, Chris Wonnell, Chuck Ensey, Madhavan Vajapeyam, and Julie O'Neill

4 Class B: William Delaney, Mike Friedel, Eusy Ancheta, Anthony Harbone

3 Class C: Todd Arone, Fred Cleveland, Libano Rodriguez

We used a McMahon pairing system with Master=3, Expert=2, Class A=1, B/C=0

Here were the prize winners:  

1st Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (6 1/2), $100   Second Place: Jeff Arnold (5 1/2), $60

BU2400: Bruce Baker (5), $60   BU2200: Kyron Griffith (5), $60

BU2000: Robert Belenzon (3 1/2) and Chris Wonnell (3 1/2), $30 each

BU1800: Mike Friedel (3), $60   BU1600: Todd Arone (2), $60

Total Prizes: $460

There were a number of upsets: Kyron Griffith won over Ken Arnold (182 point spread), Alejandrino Baluran won over Jorge Balares (196 point spread) and Todd Arone won over William Delaney (262 point spread)

Biggest rating point gainers were (these are estimated, real results will take a day or two):

Mike Friedel +26 points to 1715, Todd Arone +24 to 1497, Kyron Griffith +21 to 2095, Alejandrino Baluran +20 to 2042  

Welcome back to Jeff Arnold, who we haven't seen for quite a while. He earned a draw with Cyrus in the first round. Nick Schoonmaker and Julie O'Neill of Texas also made a rare appearance and their friend Robert Belenzon of San Diego also joined in the fun. With all the masters, this has to rate as one of our strongest Gambito Opens ever. Too bad a few of our other masters weren't playing too, such as Peter Graves, Avram Zaydenberg or David Hart.

Next Saturady, August 1st: Super Gambito (4 rounds, 2 Sections, $700 Guaranteed Prizes, $25 Entry Fee)

Following Weekend, August 8-9th: San Diego County Championship, see Home page for details          

Gambito #429  7/18/09

Very low turnout of 9 players due to Gay Pride festivities in the park. Leonard Sussman (3) and Raoul Crisologo (3) tied for First, $50 each.Chris Wonnell (1) was BU2000 for $20 and Todd Arone (1) BU1800 for $20. Total Prizes $120. Next year we will hold the event at the National City Chess Club to avoid the parking nightmare.    

Gambito #428  7/11/09

20 players, including 3 Masters (Lakdawala, Baker, Balares), 5 Experts (Griffith, Sussman, Milton, Kaplan, Sebeckis), 4 Class A (Wonnell, Aiello, Vajapeyam, Tagalog), 5 Class B (Dagamat, Delaney, Guy, Friedel, Harbone) and 3 Class C (Kuhn, Cleveland, Arone). Karl Lindberg and Chuck Ensey also filled in as house players in Rd 3 (Karl) and Rd 4 (Chuck). Bruce was the TD and used a "mini-McMahon", that's where Masters and Experts start with 1 bye point and everyone else 0. Here are the prize winners:

First Place: Cyrus Lakdawala (4 1/2), $100

U2400: Leonard Sussman (4), $50

2nd Place: Bruce Baker (3 1/2), $20  Bruce drew with Cy in Rd 4, but lost to Carey earlier    

U2200: Kyron Griffith (3) and Carey Milton (3), $25 each

U2000: Madhavan Vajapeyam (3), $50

U1800: William Delaney (2 1/2), $50

U1600: Tom Kuhn (2), $40

Total Prizes: $360

Super Gambito (#427)  7/04/09   

4 Rounds at G/40 w/5 second delay per move, in 2 Sections 

Great turnout, 33 players! 16 players in the Open Section: 3 Masters (Lakdawala, Baker, Balares), 6 Experts (Tsoi, Sussman, Griffith, Milton, Crisologo, Baluran), 6 Class A (Smith, Qu, Wonnell, Vajapeyam, Delgadillo, Ensey) + 1 crazy guy playing up (Cleveland!) 

We also had 17 players in the Reserve Section, including 11 Class B (Ogden, Arbeiter, Reed, Dagamat, Delaney, Navera, Ibarra, Friedel, Ancheta, Dwayne Edwards, Aaron Householder) and 6 Class C (Scott Householder, Rocio Murra, Caleb Guy, Mayra Murra, Chris Calbat, Matthew Peavy)   

Here were the Prize winners:

Open Section:

First Place: Bruce Baker (3 1/2), $125  

Second Place Cyrus Lakdawala (3), $75    BU2400: Jorge Balares (3), $75

BU2200: Jason Qu (3), $75  2nd U2400: Carey Milton (2 1/2), $25

2nd U2200: Kyron Griffith (2) and Alejandrino Baluran (2), $12 each

BU2000: Eric Smith (2), Chuck Ensey (2), Madhavan Vajapeyam (2), $33 each

Best Game Open Section: Jorge Balares ($15) for win over Carey Milton

Reserve Section:

First Place: Aaron Householder (3 1/2), $80

BU1600: Caleb Guy (3 1/2), $80

2nd Place: Mike Friedel (3) and Nestor Dagamat (3), $15 each

2nd U1600: Scott Householder (3), $30       

Best Game Reserve Section: Mike Friedel ($15) for win over Aaron Ibarra   

Good day for the Householders, Aaron gained 85 points to go up to 1735 and Scott gained 80 to go over 1670, Caleb Guy also gained a huge 116 points to go up to 1700. This event is now rated, you can check the USCF website for results. 

It was nice to see the Murra sisters participate, they did okay, but will do even better in the future as they gain a little more experience with the Gambito Open format. Also we had a player come all the way down from Riverside: Dwayne Edwards, way to go Dwayne. Also welcome back to Edgardo Navera, who has been missing in action for some time now. The same could be said for Kimberly Ogden. We recruited Caleb's dad, Van, to play a house game, so maybe he will be joining us more in the future. Caleb was a little lucky to win his last game against Aaron Ibarra, it seemed like Aaron was winning at the end, but he got low on time and finally overstepped the 5 second time delay limit.

I shouldn't talk about luck, I was very fortunate to win games from two Experts, Crisologo and Sussman. Raoul went slightly wrong in a complicated variation, but then made a fatal blunder at the end of the game. He lost his next two games too, so today was not his day, but everyone has a bad day once in while, I know he will bounce back. Lenny was upset at his loss in Round 2 to Chris Wonnell and sometimes those bad feelings carry over into the next game. Leonard won a pawn quickly against me, but then went terribly wrong in the middle game when he overlooked some saving moves and underestimated a couple tactical shots I was able to pull of while his Queen was out of play after winning a second pawn.

Cyrus Lakdawala was also bemoaning his fate, joking it was one of his worst Gambito's ever, but I don't think so, he still won 2nd Place for $75. He only lost one game, a terrific upset by young, but fast rising, Kyron Griffith. After beating Cyrus, Kyron lost his next two games, exhibiting "the curse of Lakdawala". We have noticed it many times in the past, when a player gets a big upset over Cy, the next few games are often disasters. This has happened to Carey Milton many times and numerous others too. Once Carey beat Cyrus in the first round and then lost the next 3 games in a row! There could be several reasons: 1) the player is drained and tired from the supreme effort need to beat Cyrus. (Like Alekhine, you have to beat him 3 times! You might win the opening, but he will reverse things in the middle game, or if you get past the middlegame, you still have to do it all over again and win the ending, because he will cheat you of the win there unless you are very, very good). And I can imagine Bruce commenting that you might win all three phases, but then he will beat you on the clock!  Only Ali Morshedi seems to have escaped the curse so far. 2) another reason could be that the player gets overconfident after beating Cyrus, now believing he can beat anyone, and therefore the games will just win themselves with minimal effort on his part- wrong! 3) or maybe Shiva is angry that a favorite son has lost and so the curse is real!   

Kyron lost to Bruce Baker in round 3, no shame there, and then he was upset in the last round by fellow youngster Jason Qu, who is capable of upsetting lots of good players. Jason is not an Expert yet like his friends Kyron, Alan Tsoi and Daniel Grazian, but it is just a matter of time now.          

Chuck Ensey  

Jerry Soelberg Open Rd 2

Round 2    07/08/09  7 PM

66 players total so far, here are the results  

Joining us for Rd 2 were 6 new entrants: Jorge Balares, Dimitry Kishinevsky, Manuel Herrera, Jamieson Pryor, Robert Defore and Vincent Broman

Board 1  John Funderburg (5) - Bruce Baker (5)  0-1

Bd 2  Ronald Soto (5) - Carl Wagner (5)  0-1

Bd 3  Jorge Balares (4 1/2) - Jamieson Pryor (4 1/2)  1-0 

Bd 4  David Hart (4 1/2) - Mariano Lozano (4 1/2)  1-0

Bd 5  Dimitry Kishinevsky (4 1/2) - Aaron Wooten (4 1/2)  1-0   

Bd 6  Jeff Turner (4 1/2) - Manuel Herrera (4 1/2)  1/2-1/2

Bd 7  Raoul Crisologo (4) -  Bill Whitney (4)  1-0

Bd 8  Alejandrino Baluran (4) - Marty Lower (4)  1/2-1/2

Bd 9  Roberto Aiello (4) - Paul Agron (4)  0-1

Bd 10  Jason Qu (4) - Fawsi Jose Murra (4)  1-0

Bd 11 Thomas Fries (3 1/2) - Ramin Sinaee (3 1/2)  0-1

Bd 12  Vincent Broman (3 1/2) - Fausto Robles (3 1/2)  0-1

Bd 13  Chris Wonnell (3 1/2) - Damani Fair (3 1/2)  1-0 

Bd 14  Joel Batchelor (3 1/2) - Buddy Morris (3)  1/2-1/2

Bd 15  Brian Kelly (3) - Chuck Ensey (3)  0-1

Bd 16  Roger Dooc (3) - Matt Souza (3)  1-0

Bd 17  Santiago Rubio-Fernaz (3) - Jerry Soelberg (1 1/2)  0-1

Bd 18  James Coulston (2 1/2) - Mike Friedel (2 1/2)  0-1

Bd 19  Shaun Sweitzer (2) - Erik Marquis (2)  0-1

Bd 20  Robert Samuel (2) - Fred Borges (2)  1-0

Bd 21  Bill Murray (2) - Steve Perry (2)  0-1

Bd 22  Tom Kuhn (2) - Steve Gordon (2)  1/2-1/2    

Bd 23  Mark Lawless (2) - Chris Calbat (2)  1-0

Bd 24  David Peabody (1) - Julian Rodriguez (1)  0-1

Bd 25  Patrick Edwards (1) - Michael Ryan (1)  0-1

Bd 26  Helmut Keil (1) - Libano Rodriguez (1)  0-1

Bd 27  Darryl Woodson (1/2) - Roger Wathen (1)  0-1

Bd 28  Glenn Rose (1/2) - Cristhian Garcia (0)  0-1

Bd 29  Maria Murra (0) - Keith Wetterer  1-0

Keith filled in as a house player

Bd 30  Robert Defore (3 1/2) - Donald Klaas (2 1/2)  1-0

Bob was a late entrant, Don filled in as a house player 

Bd 31  Russell Bellamy (0) - Karl Lindberg (0)  0-1   house game

Bye: Todd Smith (4 1/2), Alfredo Deleon (4), Lennart Mathe (4), Saeid Abdoli (3 1/2), Larry Vikander (2), Jim Krooskos (1), Monica Ness (0), Samuel Odedina (0)

Withdraw: Ron Rezendes