Round 4 - August 27, 2002

John Curdo and Trevor De Koekkoek shared first place in the August tournament with 3.5 points apiece.  Curdo rolled to three straight victories, then held the draw with the black pieces against top-seeded Igor Foygel in the last round to earn his share of the prize.

Foygel had been held to a draw by John Chamberlain in Round 3, so needed to win to leapfrog past Curdo for the top spot.  He gave it his all, but Curdo held on for the half-point that secured his place at the top.

De Koekkoek took a half-point bye in Round 2 and thus came from behind in "Swiss Gambit" fashion without having to face either Foygel or Curdo.  He still trailed the leader by a half point going into the last round, but he did upset Chamberlain there to earn his share of the top spot.

Foygel, Ed Epp, Neil Cousin, and schoolboy whiz Steve Chen finished in a four-way tie for third place at 3.0 apiece.

Jim Todhunter won the U1750 section outright with 3.5 points (a first-round bye, then three straight wins).  Walter Champion, Bill Stein, Mark Kaprielian, and Lomer Cormier tied for runner-up honors at 3.0.

Carl Phillips won the U1400 section clear, also with 3.5 points.  Tom Powers, Yuan Cao, and fifth-grader Calvin Bohn shared second place at 3.0.  Young Bohn had a sensational tournament, winning three straight games before having to skip the last round as he and his family were on vacation.  He was the clear tournament leader at this point, and thus would have clinched at least a share of first place with the half-point bye he would normally have been entitled to. Under the club’s new rules, however, last-round byes must now be requested before the start of Round 2, in order to qualify for the half-point, and alas, Calvin had neglected to do this and had to take a zero-point bye for his unplayed game.

Curdo’s draw with Foygel despite a 323-point rating difference was clearly the most important upset.  Others: Neil Cousin (1833) defeated Jason Spector (1956); Cormier (1328) defeated Ethan Thompson (1499), and Richard Albee (955) defeated Justin Grimes (1064).
 

Round 1 - August 6, 2002

The younger set has put on quite a show this summer, doing plenty of damage to both ratings and egos among the club’s veteran membership. The trend continued, too, in Round One of the August tournament. Middle schooler Chris Williams upset 1894-rated Joe Kelly in the Open section, while seventh-grader-to-be Steve Chen, following up on his outstanding performance in July, drew Rob Huntington (also rated 1894).  Meanwhile in the lower sections, Greg Siciliano and Calvin Bohn knocked off adult opponents.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Over the spring and summer as a whole, high school, middle school, and even elementary school players have turned in a series of impressive results.  Noah Pang actually won one Open section clear (ahead of masters Frank Sisto and John Curdo and expert Ed Epp), while fellow middle-schooler Niki Konovalchuk tied for first place with Curdo, Igor Foygel, and Robert Powell in another.

Kids have been even more prevalent in the middle and lower sections, with several of them  turning in impressive scores and/or pulling off major upsets.  But September is coming!  And while some of the stronger young players continue to compete during the school year, the numbers usually dwindle quite a bit when Tuesday becomes a "school night."  So another month or so and it should be easier on everyone’s ego!

As for the Round One results, Foygel and Curdo led a group of 10 players winning their initial tests in the 25-player Open section; Walter Champion and Mark Kaprielian headed a list of eight perfect scores in the 17-player U1750 section and John McLaughlin and Tom Powers topped seven competitors with 1.0 results in the 14-player U1400 section. That adds up to 56 entries, with more undoubtedly planning to jump in for Round 2.

Richard Albee (955) scored the biggest form reversal in Round One with a win over Ilya Abugov (1298)  -- a 343-point rating differential.  Greg Siciliano and Lomer Cormier shared top honors in the middle section with victories over George Goulding and John Minsk, respectively -- each with a 287-point differential.  Other upsets in that section: Ethan Thompson over Alan Beck (169 points) and Stephen Savage drawing  William Stein (131.5 points). There were no upsets meeting our 100-point criterion in the Open section.