Markowski 05 Rd 5

2/02/05, Markowski Open, Round 5, Reported by Chuck Ensey

Baker & Wagner Draw, Tied For 1st w/ 4.5

7 Others Have 4 Points, 6 With 3.5, 15 with 3, 16 w/ 2.5 

 

Bruce Baker Tries The Modern Defense Against Dr. Carl Wagner

Carl Wagner (4 1/2) and Bruce Baker (4 1/2) still sit on top of the leader board after their draw in Round 5. Neither player seemed to press too much for the advantage, and so the game proceeded fairly calmly with an early trade of Queens and lots of other trades until they were down to Bishops of the same color, and still no one had the advantage when they shook hands. With only two more rounds to go, no one is yet assured of a playoff spot. It will probably take 5 points to qualify for the Championship round, so with two more losses even Bruce and Carl could possibly not make it into the playoffs, however unlikely that may be. It is still very much wide open, it is even possible that someone who currently only has 2 1/2 points (like me!) might make it in by winning their last two games and having really good tie breaks. Robert Richard (2 1/2) has to hope for the best in the same way I am, after a 5th Round disaster against Tim McGuiness (4). Bob sacrificed a Rook for an attack that didn't quite pan out and he eventually lost what was "The Longest  Game Of The Night". 

     

Leather Jackets Were The In Thing As Bob Richard Checks Out Rick's Opening Moves    

On Board 2, Adam Corper (4) battled the surprisingly strong newcomer Shomari Mosi (4) to a very long "drawn out" draw. But blood was drawn on Board 3, where Tom Nelson (3) was cut to pieces by the accurate play of NM Todd Smith (4).  

 

Adam couldn't break down the defenses of the recent Georgia Tech graduate

Carey Milton (4), George Zeigler (4) and Dimitry Kishinevsky (4) all won their games and joined the select group of 7 players tied for second with 4 points. Carey played a nice slashing attacking game against Gary Tuttle (3) that typifies Carey's style. This is a truly amazing game, where Carey just keeps sacrificing piece after piece to keep the attack going. It is all unsound of course, but near the end Gary overlooks a super strong move Carey is able to slip in and all of a sudden instead of Carey being busted, down a huge amount of material, it is Gary that can't stop mate without giving up his Queen! Check it out! Carey is infamous for swindling people, but this really takes the cake and had the bystanders gasping in horror! Oh, the humanity!....

George Zeigler got the best of Tom Fries (3) and Dimitry won a piece and the game from TD Dave Saponara (3). Rick Aeria (3 1/2) made a very nice Knight sacrifice that led to a win against Chuck Ensey (2 1/2). I survived the opening in good shape, but underestimated the power of the Knight sac, and didn't play the best defense after that anyway. The game can be viewed by clicking here. About six games were submitted for the Best Game prize and Rick's game was one of the better ones.

         

Mario Amodeo (3) was cursed with the famous Red Pieces, and could only manage a draw vs the dapper R. Damani Fair (3). Even the pear couldn't break the spell...

Draws were also made on some of the other top boards: Leonard Sussman (3 1/2) was able to hold out against the fearsome play of Ron Bruno ( 3 1/2) and then James Mahooti (3 1/2) held off the very careful play of Peter Bisgaard (3 1/2). Dayne Freitag (3) continues to play extremely well and drew a very tight Rook and Pawn endgame with Ignacio Sainz (3) by repeating moves as they both ran low on time before the move 40 time control.    

Franco Alejandrino (3) also had a nice win over Pejman Sagart (2). Franco is unrated but he is obviously pretty good as you can see from this game.  But the Best Game Prize went to Ed Baluran (3) for a sparkling win over Sunny Chu (2).  Ramin Sinaee (3) also turned in his win over Fred Borges (2).  One of the fastest games of the night was the quick win that Jesus Orozco (3) scored over Marc Adlam (2).

 

A hint of a smile can be detected on the face of Jesus Orozco who must know what is in store for Marc Adlam as Sunny Chu watches the carnage

Alex Garcia-Betancourt (2 1/2) had to settle for a draw with Robert Henderson (2 1/2), while on the next board over Ron Rezendes (3) racked up a quick win over Julian Rodriguez (2).

 

Alejandro Garcia-Betancourt drew in Rd 5 vs Robert Henderson

On the other side of the hall, Esteban Escobedo (3) won a difficult Rook ending against Tom Webb (2) while next to him Shaun Sweitzer (2 1/2) appeared to have a win in a similar ending, but let it slip away and had to settle for a draw with Stefan Boyland (2 1/2).  

 

What was that last move??

Bob Draper (2 1/2) was able to get a draw from the higher rated Thirunathan Sutharsan (2 1/2). Joel Batchelor (3) got a nice win over the internet player Chris McLaren (2). Khris Juroshek (2 1/2) is trying to boost his rating and took a step in that direction by beating Erik Marquis (1 1/2).

Other winners last night, all of whom beat lower rated players were: Ron Soto (2 1/2), James Malowney (2 1/2), Fred Gerlach (2 1/2), Roberto Mercado (2 1/2), Helmut Keil (2), Keith Wilson (2), Brad Ross (2), James Coulston (2), Bill Murray (1 1/2) and Thomas Kuhn (1).              

 

Keith Wetterer and Thomas Kuhn battled for an elusive full point. Tom got his first win in the tournament, Keith is still loooking for one.

Pulling off upsets were Eric Addis (2 1/2), who won against Chris Borgan (1 1/2), and newcomer and unrated player Angelo Esposito (2) won over Bob Samuel (1). Also Mark De Yoe (1 1/2) was able to draw with the always dangerous Alina Markowski (1 1/2), for whom this tournament is named.

Buddy Morris (3 1/2), Aaron Wooten (2 1/2) and Monica Ness (1/2) all took half point byes.

Expected pairings next week are Baker-Smith, Kishinevsky-Wagner, Milton-Corper, Zeigler-McGuiness, Mosi-Bruno, Bisgaard-Sussman, Aeria-Mahooti, Sainz-Morris, Nelson-Rezendes, Escobedo-Baluran, Tuttle-Saponara, Amodeo-Freitag, Orozco-Batchelor, Fair-Fries, Alejandrino-Sinaee, Richard-Draper, Wooten-Gerlach, Sutharsan-Chu, Henderson-Soto, Malowney-Mercado, Ensey-Boyland, Betancourt-Addis, Sweitzer-Juroshek, Sagart-Keil, McLaren-Adlam, Borges-Edwards, Coulston-Webb, Rodriguez-Esposito, Ross-Wilson, Borgan-Murray, Markowski-Clevenger, Hall-DeYoe, Kaufman-Marquis, Kuhn-Soltan, Samuel-Melcher, Tyrell-White, Wathen-Ness, Phelan-Wetterer. The first name is playing White. The farther down on the list you are, the more likely it is that the pairing will be changed as illnesses occur or whatever excuses come up. The top boards are more likely to play as they need every possible tie break to win, and taking a bye or missing a round can hurt your tiebreaks.