'08 Markowski Rd 1

2008 Alina Markowski Open      Rd 1       1/02/2008

This is the 2008 Club Championship Qualifier, named after the great women's chess promoter Alina Markowski. She has retired from active chess, but is still mentally sharp as ever, the last I heard, and is now into her late 90's. 

The 12 highest scoring players will win berths into the 2008 Club Championship. Four players are already seeded in: 2007 Club Champion John Funderburg, SD County Open Champ Leonard Sussman, Shootout winner Raoul Crisologo and The Masters winner George Zeigler. A total of 16 players will compete in the Club Championship, a 7 round Swiss starting on 2/20/08 and ending 4/02/08. So in 3 months we will have determined the 2008 Club Champion. Also the 16 highest scoring players rated U1800 will be eligible to play in the 2008 Reserve Championship, also 7 rounds played at the same time as the Club Championship. Those players not qualifying for the Championship series ("the playoffs", to use a sports term) will be able to compete in the Fred Borges Open for cash prizes.   

The Markowski Open is 7 rounds, with two 1/2 point byes available (last round byes must be requested before the 2nd round and are irrevocable). Entry Fee is $25, plus $60 for 2008 annual dues (this can be paid at a later date if needed). Time control is 40/90, SD/60 with 5 second delay. There is only 1 section, so the first three rounds or so you will likely be paired against someone either much higher or much lower rated. If you don't like this, then skip the first two rounds by taking byes. Most players enjoy the chance the play someone higher rated than them, after all you probably will only lose a few rating points and you might learn something important. We only do this once a year, so this is your chance to possibly play a master. Upsets are the name of the game, every year we wonder who will score a big upset in Round 1?!!

66 Players registered so far

Rating point differentials were around 400 points for this round! But we still had three draws earned by the lower rating players. Upset winners or drawers are in bold. In Round 2 the rating point difference should shrink to 200 to 300 points or less. 

Board 1  Vincent Broman - Bruce Baker  0-1

Bd 2  Carl Wagner - Pejman Sagart  1-0

Bd 3  Damani Fair - Ron Bruno  0-1

Bd 4  Todd Smith - Robert Draper  1-0

Bd 5  Chuck Ensey - David Hart  0-1

Bd 6  Dimitry Kishinevsky - Fred Borges  1-0

Bd 7  Kimberly Ogden - George Zeigler  0-1

Bd 8  Ignacio Sainz - Shaun Sweitzer  1-0

Bd 9  Erik Marquis - Carey Milton  0-1

Bd 10  Alejandro Garamendi - Hector Gonzalez  1-0 

Bd 11  Robert Henderson - Jim Humphrey  0-1

Bd 12  Eric Montany - Anthony Harbone  1-0

Bd 13  Ryan Nichols - Mariano Lozano  0-1

Bd 14  Ed Baluran - Julian Rodriguez  1-0

Bd 15  David Hall - Mario Amodeo  0-1

Bd 16  Buddy Morris - Reno Tyrell  1-0

Bd 17  Steven Perry - Ron Soto  0-1

Bd 18  Tom Fries - Karen Kaufman  1-0

Bd 19  Carlos Herrera - Nathanael Plapp  0-1

Bd 20  Richard Jensen - Robert Samuel  1-0

Bd 21  Tom Kuhn - Bob Defore  0-1

Bd 22  Thirunathan Sutharsan - Mark Lawless 1-0

Bd 23  William Murray - Dayne Freitag  1/2-1/2   The first "upset", a draw by Bill! 

Bd 24  Roberto Aiello - Michael Ryan  1-0

 

Bd 25  Morgan Fox - Esteban Escobedo  1/2-1/2  Another upset draw.. Morgan appeared to be winning at several points in the game, but Esteban is a tenacious defender.

Bd 26  Jason Qu - Alan Zade  1-0

Bd 27  Monica Ness - Joel Batchelor  0-1

Bd 28  Jerry Soelberg - Patrick Edwards  1-0

Bd 29  Brian Hatton - Ron Rexendes  0-1

Bd 30  Marty Lower - Keith Wetterer  1-0

 

Bd 21  Fausto Robles - Arash Nahavandi  1/2-1/2  This was an upset, but the rating difference wasn't as much as in other games because this game was arranged after the pairings were already posted (Arash was a late arrival). This was the Longest Game of the Night, ending around 11:30 PM.

Originally reported as a win for Fausto by Arash, but Fausto has agreed that the game was drawn... There was also some confusion on the Escobedo-Fox game as well, as a handshake was taken as a resignation, when actually it was a draw agreement. Please make clear what you are agreeing to when you shake hands!! This is not the first time this has come up, it happened last year too...

First Round Byes (1/2 a point):  Brad Salz, Manuel Herrera, Lennart Mathe, Alfredo DeLeon

See Pairings for Round 2 on Markowski Rd 2