2003-05 Commentary

Charles Riordan captured clear first place, drawing fellow master John Curdo in their last-round showdown to maintain the half-point lead he had built up by being the only competitor to win his first three games. Riordan thus took the top prize with 3.5 points, while Curdo shared runner-up honors with Igor Foygel and Tim Hanke, each of whom won his last-round game to pull into the three-way deadlock at 3 points apiece.

The U1800 section wound up in a three-way tie for first place among top-seeded Ames Abbot, No. 4 Jim Todhunter, and "giant killer" John Stengrevics. The latter two were tied for the lead with perfect scores going into the last round but drew their head-to-head match while Abbot (who had dropped a half-point via a second-round bye), defeated Bill Michaels to grab a share of top honors. The tournament was a particularly impressive one for Stengrevics (1471), who was ranked only 22nd of the 30 competitors in this section, but staged a string of upsets including wins over No. 2 seed Larry Eldridge and 1648-rated Peter Karp in addition to his last-round draw with Todhunter, and apparently gained 100 or more rating points. .

The only perfect record in the tournament occurred in the U1450 section, where unrated Eric Sonnenstuhl swept through unscathed to take clear first place. John Harvey and Hen Forber-Pratt shared runner-up honors at 3.5 each.

Young Yowana Wamala scored the biggest upset of the final round, defeating Travis Nilsson despite a 327-point rating differential (515-842). Others: Ethan Thompson (1490) defeated Bill Stein (1726); John Stengrevics (1471) drew Jim Todhunter (1738); Severine Wamala (1548) defeated Walter Champion (1654); Hen Forber-Pratt (1173) defeated John Mc Laughlin (1425); and Stephen Schnair (1158) defeated Fred L Harvey (1297)

Master Charles Riordan defeated expert Ed Epp to take command with the only perfect score heading into the last round, while on Board 2 veteran master John Curdo topped Tomas Girnius to move into second place and set up a last-round battle with Riordan for all the marbles.

Jim Todhunter and John Stengrevics emerged as the co-leaders at 3-0 in the U1800 section and will meet on Board One in the finale, while Ames Abbot and Bill Michael reached 2.5 points each and will play on Board 2, each still with a chance to share the top spot if the Board One game should end in a draw.

There's a three-way tie among Greg Siciliano, Jim Krycka, and Eric Sonnenstuhl with 3.0 each in the U1450 section, with a couple of others at 2.5 and still in contention.

Upsets: Jeff Penta (1842) defeated John Chamberlain; Ethan Thompson defeated Walter Champion (1654); Raymond Salemi (1045) defeated Pierre Fleurant (1428); Justin P Grimes (1075) defeated James Klinkenberg (1406); Jessica N Wamala (1262) defeated John Mc Laughlin (1425); John M Harvey

(1274) defeated Jacob K Wamala (1431).

Two more players jumped in for Round 3, raising the record total entries to a new high of 89.

Six players jumped in for Round 2, raising the total entries to an all-time club record of 87 (more than have played even in the so-called "biggies" in April and November each year). The breakdown is 20 in the Open Section, 30 in the middle group, and 37 in the bottom section.

On the playing front, an exciting second round left Charles Riordan, Ed Epp, and Tomas Girnius atop the Open standings with the only perfect scores at the halfway point. John Curdo won to remain just a half-point off the lead, as did Niki Konovalchuk via his second straight upset. Meanwhile top-seeded Igor Foygel rebounded from his first-round loss to climb back within striking distance for a share of the prize money.

Riordan defeated expert John Chamberlain on Board One, while Epp turned back Trevor De Koekkoek, the surprise conqueror of Foygel the previous week. But the game of the night was Girnius’s exciting victory over Max Enkin, which he fashioned via a pretty exchange sac followed by a mating net the young expert couldn’t extricate himself from.

Riordan has the white pieces against Epp on Board One for the third round, while the other top matches are Girnius-Curdo and Foygel-Konovalchuk.

Upsets abounded in the U1800 section, leaving an unlikely quintet tied for the midpoint lead, only one of them (No. 4 seed Jim Todhunter) having been ranked among the top 20 at the start. Sharing the top spot with him are John Stengrevics, Lomer Cormier, Jim Rafferty, and Plamen Krastev.

There were also quite a few form reversals in the U1450 section, where seven players have come through the first two rounds unscathed: Greg Siciliano, Jim Krycka, John Harvey, Jenshiang Hong, John Bottini, Henry Forber-Pratt, and Eric Sonnenstuhl.

Konovalchuk (1816), who launched his tournament with a draw against Robert Powell (1976), continued his impressive play with a victory over Derek Slater (1997) for the top upset in the Open Section (and the only one meeting our 100-point criterion).

There were plenty of form reversals in the other two sections, though, as mentioned above: Krastev (1372) over Mark Kaprielian (1739); Stengrevics (1471) over No. 2 seed Larry Eldridge (1781); Cormier (1469) over Howard Goldowsky (1714); and Rafferty (1469) over Phil Mercurio (1600) in the middle section, and Forber-Pratt (1173) over James Klinkenberg (1406); Bottini (1210) over Harvey G Reed (1394); Hong (1268) over John Mc Laughlin (1425); and Harvey (1274) over Pierre Fleurant (1428).

The May tournament started off with a double-barreled bang as A-player Trevor De Koekkoek defeated top-seeded Senior Master Igor Foygel in one of the biggest upsets in club history and a record 81 players turned out for the opening round.

De Koekkoek, entering the tournament rated 1949 to Foygel’s 2538 and getting the black pieces to boot, outplayed the veteran senior master to hand him one of his exceedingly rare setbacks.

Aside from dropping an occasional game to a grandmaster like Alexander Ivanov or Sergey Kudrin, Foygel almost never loses at the MCC. Indeed, in six years of playing regularly in the club’s monthly tournaments this was only his third defeat at the hands of an "ordinary mortal," and the first one ever in the opening round of a tournament (see summary below).

No. 2 seed John Curdo also struggled, and had to be content with a draw against Randy Brueckner. But No. 3 Charles Riordan, the only other master in the field, won his opening test as did experts Max Enkin, Ed Epp, and John Chamberlain, and A-player Tomas Girnius. Calvin Hori got a full-point bye due to an odd number of players (19), thus joining the six winners in a multiple tie for the early lead.

A dozen players posted victories to share the early lead in 28-player U1800 section, while there were 16 first-round winners in the 34-player U1450 group.

De Koekkoek’s shocker was the big upset of the day, of course, with a 589-point rating differential, but there were several other notable form reversals as well, including that surprising draw on Board 2 between Brueckner (1910) and Curdo (2252).

Others: John Stengrevics(1471)defeated Peter Karp(1648); Lomer Cormier (1469) defeated Menno Koning (1643); James Rafferty (1469)defeated David Martin (1629); Harry Henriques (1511) drew Bill Michael (1717); and William Luff (1035) drew Pierre Fleurant (1428).

As for the turnout, attendance records have soared in the past several months, so it was no big surprise. Still, 81 players is a club record for the first round of a tournament, and with some players virtually certain to "jump in" in subsequent rounds as usual, the final tally seems sure to eclipse the previous high of 83 set just last month in the annual Spring Open.

The number also continues a recent trend in which the regular monthly tournaments have caught up, attendance-wise, to the traditional spring and fall "biggies." Last November’s Stanley Crowe Memorial, for example, drew a then-record 82 entrants, and the April tournament did it one better. But the tournaments in between weren’t far behind: 75 in January, 71 in February, and 80 in March. And now it looks as though an "ordinary" monthly tournament will soon become the biggest one ever in terms of attendance -- probably in Round 2.

FOYGEL’S RECORD

Detailing Foygel’s amazing record of success at MCC, he began with a 6-0 sweep of the club championship in April, 1997, and has lost only seven times in the ensuing six years -- twice to Ivanov, once to Kudrin, once to fellow Senior Master Chris Chase, and, as mentioned above, only three times to "ordinary mortals" rated below 2400. Heading this trio, of course, is Donna Alarie with her famous victory in April, 2000 -- still the biggest upset in club history with a 778-point rating differential (1720-2498). The others are A-player Robert Powell last October, and now De Koekkoek.

Draws have been a bit more plentiful in Igor’s MCC record (30 in all, averaging out to five per year). That’s pretty impressive in its own right, of course, and even more so considering that most of these have been of the "grandmaster" variety when the half-point was all he needed to clinch either clear first place or a share of top honors.