Results for Round 5 of The 2007 Markowski Open
Final Count: 92 players, not including 4 house players
Comments by Chuck Ensey and Rick Aeria (his are in blue)
The SDCC's premier event is entering the home stretch. According to my latest computer model, there will be 13 players with 5 or more points (not counting Bruno & Smith), all of whom will get into the Championship. But there will also be a lot of good players with 4 1/2 that won't make it. Reserve Championship aspirants should strive to score at least 3 1/2 points, but many with 3 will probably still get in with good tiebreaks. Good Luck everyone!
Bd 1 Ronald Bruno * - John Funderburg 1-0
After 23.Qxf4 by Ron, John lost his way somewhat with 23...Re8; better moves were 23. Qxc2, 23. Kg7 or Kh8 according to Cyrus Lakdawala, but he still should draw this. See analysis at Cyrus Annotates.
After what can only be described as a fierce attack, Ron went into a deep think of over thirty (!) minutes to choose between pertpetual check (a logical outcome) or to risk everything with 22.Rfe1?! Ron actually looked up and gave me a sheepish grin and went for the 'gusto' and his courage was rewarded when the Thunderbird failed to find the correct defence.
Bd 2 Ignacio Sainz - Robert Richard 0-1
Bob Richard seems to have maintained his excellent form despite a layoff from chess to write a book about prehistoric times and man's early relationships with wolves/dogs.
Bd 3 David Hart - Chris Borgan 1-0
Bd 4 Marc Duesterwald - Alex Garcia-Betancourt 1-0
Germany's Pride and Joy must still be on European time as he arrives very late and has to play "action" chess. Here he has 7 minutes to Alex's 43. Practice at the fast-paced Gambito Open (G/45) pays off!
Bd 5 Bruce Baker - Carey Milton 1-0
Bruce handles Carey's Sveshnikov with consummate skill and Carey's monarch takes a lonely walk to the guillotine.
Bd 6 Adam Corper - Fawsi Murra Jr 1/2-1/2
The Longest Game of the Night, over at 12:30 AM. Even at that late hour, there was a crowd of 6 or more spectators watching the showdown. It was a titanic struggle, ending in a blitz game as Fawsi was reduced to 7 seconds on the clock, but managed to foil Adam's victory plans and even won a Rook at the end, but couldn't win with a lone Knight vs a passed pawn. Earlier in the game Adam was struggling to survive, but towards the end it looked like he might win. What a game! I hope we get a copy of it.
BREAKING NEWS! Former club champion and master Dr. Adam Corper is soon to be wed 
Bd 7 Leonard Sussman - Nikolay Arutyunov 0-1
Lenny said said he had a bad feeling about this game before it even started and his premonition proved to be accurate, Nikolay was not to be denied in this game, he is on a roll with 3 wins in a row.
Here Nikolay looks like he is getting squeezed, but he came out of it with flying colors!
Lenny was coming off a phenomenal weekend tying for first in the SCCF's January Open with NM Lenoid Balmazi, young NM John Byrant, our own Dimitry Kishinevsky and John Funderburg. In the process Lenny had defeated Club Champion Ron Bruno in a nightmare Najdorf. Tonight, Lenny got his pieces uncoordinated on Nikolay's queenside and the young and ever-improving Russian scored a signal victory over one of the club's legends.
Bd 8 Dimitry Kishinevsky - Theron Pummer 1-0
Theron has been amazing. He nearly drew this game for another upset from what little I saw.
Uh-uh! Dima had this one neatly sewn up.
Bd 9 Roger Dooc - Rick Aeria 0-1
After the round had already started Alfredo DeLeon called in and said he couldn't make it, in fact he had to withdraw from the tournament. PLEASE try to let us know before 6:30 if you can't make a round. We are lucky to have Roger Dooc, a very capable Class A player to stand in when needed as a house player, otherwise Rick would have had no one to play.
In a tense position, fraught with pitfalls, Roger Dooc played a dramatic rook sacrifice, which if accepted would lead to dangerous complications favorable to him. Instead I opted for mate-in-one and whispered "Checkmate" to prevent any further demonstrations. Instead it backfired and disturbed all my colleagues in the surrounding boards who jumped up like a grenade landed in their midst. My apologies to all.
That's funny! My, those chess players have jumpy nerves! Come on Rick, that's like yelling "Fire" in a crowded movie theatre!
Bd 10 Jim Humphrey - Shaun Sweitzer 1-0
Bd 11 Jerry Soelberg - Todd Smith * 0-1
Bd 12 George Zeigler - Dayne Freitag 1-0
Strategist George Zeigler took one in the chin last week and may have hoped for an easier "Swiss Gambit" pairing. Instead he gets Viking "Dangerous" Dayne Freitag who never backs away from a scrap.
Before the game began, George walked over an uncharacteristically, almost apologetically, announced to the implacable Dayne that he was out for blood after the fiasco last week.
Warrior Dayne (at least his chessic persona that night) was later borne by Valkyries to Valhalla for his valiant efforts.
Bd 13 Richard Jensen - Ed Baluran 0-1
The modern-day "Nimzo" versus the "Balladeer", who is rumored to be resisting the move to the retirement home that some members of the club are trying to put him in. A great matchup of a positional player versus a very good tactician!
After a gritty struggle, the grizzled veteran walked up to me and announced. "The Balladeer is not ready for the retirement home!" I thought Rich was going to draw this close Rook & Pawn ending, but his King was cutoff and confined to one file on the side of the board which led to his defeat (The Balladeer proves all Rook endings aren't drawn after all!)
Bd 14 Marty Lower - Buddy Morris 0-1
The Trickster proves too much for Marty to handle with a Queen and Bishop battery aimed straight down Marty's throat. But according to my sources Marty had a draw locked up but just missed the correct sequence.
Bd 15 Thomas Fries - James Malowney 1-0
Thomas Fries is playing sizzling hot chess lately but now he gets the club Veep who is also preparing for his run to the finals.
Bd 16 William Wijaya - David Delgadillo 1/2-1/2
The Conqueror and 'El Mariachi' battle it out to a standstill.
Bd 17 Luis Castaneda - Brad Salz 0-1
Brad is playing a convincing role as "The Invisible Man" but now he will make his appearance amongst the contenders for the final rounds.
Who can forget the memorable events of the last championship when Brad decided the final outcome of the championship by flagging NM Carl Wagner and and thus crowning NM Ron Bruno.
Bd 18 Fawsi Jose Murra - Fidel Gonzalez 0-1
Oh no! Fawsi loses on time again! Ouch! But Fidel is pretty hard to do well against anyway...
Bd 19 Erik Marquis - Manuel Herrera 0-1
Bd 20 Robert Defore - Robert Henderson 1-0
Robert Henderson is out of the lemonade business (see his first round encounter with Dimitry Kishinevsky) but beware of quiet Robert Defore. Still waters run deep!
And they don't come deeper than Bob Defore as Henderson's position becomes innundated and his pieces float away!
Bd 21 Mario Amodeo - Pouyan Azarshahri 1-0
Mario says Pouyan has some great attacking intuition and I agree, I've had some scary escapes from him myself.
Bd 22 Anthony Harbone - Lennart Mathe 1/2-1/2
Anthony was actually up a pawn here, but couldn't make progress in the Rook ending.
Bd 23 Ron Soto - Fausto Robles 0-1
No this one is not a typo, Fausto pulled off a very nice upset. He said he was "lucky" to win, but luck seems to go to the aggressive, the well prepared, the ---- fill in the blank for all these sayings. Is there luck in chess? People deny it, but of course, there really is, for instance, you might play the right move for the wrong reason, or your opponent might have a won game and just get distracted by a pretty girl or whatever. I did not see much of this game, so I don't know what happened, but I can tell you from my personal experience that Ron Soto is one tough hombre and he is extremely difficult to beat. He always takes ALL the time available to him and he is very careful, and rarely makes a mistake So kudos to Fausto, who has been greatly improving his game over the last year.
Bd 24 Rocio Murra - Esteban Escobedo 0-1
Just one little pawn and a few tempi were enough to win this game at the end.
Bd 25 Eric Castro - Santiago Rubio-Fernaz 1-0
Bd 26 Pejman Sagart - Hector Gonzalez 1-0
Bd 27 Jaimeson Pryor - Mark Lawless 1-0
Bd 28 William Murray - Joel Batchelor 0-1
Bd 29 Roberto Aiello - Genaro Lara 1-0
Bd 30 Ramin Sinaee - Christian Garcia 1-0
Bd 31 Kevin Oakes - Ron Rezendes 0-1
"A long, long time ago in a galaxy, far far away..."
"Prez Rez" makes a late run for the finals with and impressive pyrotechnic display.
Bd 32 Gary Tuttle - Steven Perry 1-0
Steve says he played Gary at the club 20 years ago!
Bd 33 Amando Malvar - Daniel Bagliazo 1-0
Bd 34 Julian Rodriguez - Chuck Ensey 0-1
The long-waited celeb matchup! "Elvis" versus "Jessica Simpson"! The joke here is that we have teased Chuck that he plays like a grandmaster for two to four games a year but the rest of the time....
Kudos to Chucky for being able to juggle his responsibilities of running a big tournament, being the tournament director and money collector. If we had a category for selfless volunteers, Chuck Ensey is World Champion!
No, sorry that was a typo, which often happens when I try to quickly post the results at 1AM! I did win this game, but let me tell you, it was a bruising battle. Actually Fritz says Julian missed a crushing move that would have won the game for him at one point. We both enjoyed the exciting game. I will post it here later...
Bd 35 David Hall - Vincent Broman 0-1
Bd 36 Damani Fair - Michael Ross 1-0
Bd 37 Jason Qu - Karen Kaufman 1-0
Bd 38 Fred Borges - Tom Kuhn 1/2-1/2
Tom Kuhn claimed a draw by repetition, but Fred was willing to accept a draw at that point anyway.
Bd 39 Jachin Tyrell - Robert Samuel 1-0
Bd 40 Mayra Murra - Marcus Hilgers 1-0
A rematch of a pairing late last year that ended in a draw, but this time Mayra prevailed.
Bd 41 Patrick Edwards - Caley Anderson 0-1
Bd 43 James Aranda - Morgan Fox 1/2-1/2
Bd 43 Keith Wetterer - Hai Qu 0-1
Full Point Bye: Maria Murra I couldn't find a player for the last board. 87 players attended this round, a great turnout, with only a few byes. But the bye on the top board changed a lot of pairings, something we should be used to by now. I never pay much attention to the expected pairings, but some people love to see them so we try to keep them happy. 1/2 Point Byes: Monica Ness, Richard Russell; 0 Point Byes: Marc Adlam; Withdraw: Ben Barquin, John Falchi, Alfredo DeLeon See the Pairings Page for next week expected matches
* Denotes that these players have already qualified from earlier events for the Finals along with Maksim Gusev
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