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Chess Life Online 2009 August Five Lead in WCL Tournament of College Champs
Chess Life Online 2009 August Five Lead in WCL Tournament of College Champs | Five Lead in WCL Tournament of College Champs |
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| By Erik Patchell | |
| August 3, 2009 | |
IM Jacek Stopa, one of the leaders after three rounds, Photo courtesy monroi.com
The University of Texas at Dallas showed up in force this year with a team consisting of IMs Stopa, Zivanic, and Bercys topping the rating list. The University of Texas as Brownsville also brought a strong contingent of players with IM Daniel Fernandez leading the way. Due to the fact that there was a large rating gap between these very strong players and the rest of the field, there was a large rating disparity in all of the first round games. This led to a ‘perfect’ first round, with the higher rated player winning every game. In the second round, however, there were a few surprises. Arturo Gracia from University of Texas at Brownsville was able to draw teammate IM Fernandez and Benjamin Hutter from Grand Valley State was able to defeat Ethan Peake, rated more than 400 points above him. 3352 As of the end of the third round, five players are tied for first, Stopa, Zivanic, and Bercys from UTD, Gergely Antal from Texas Tech University and Gracia from UTB, who continues to impress; following up on his draw against Fernandez, he defeated a slightly higher rated player in round three. These players will be forced to go against each other in the upcoming rounds, so we can all look forward to some exciting chess. I had the pleasure of receiving a free lesson from Bercys in the second round and was holding my own after some move order trickery in a gambit line of the Samisch King’s Indian. 3351 Then, after some sloppy calculation on my part, I went in for 22. … Bxb2? instead of Bxc4, Qxc4, Bxb2 when Black can probably hold. I completely missed 24.Qf6! and Bercys finished the game very nicely, taking advantage of the weak dark squares around my king. I would like to note how gracious Bercys was in offering to go over the game with me afterwards. It means a lot to lower rated players when IMs and the like take their time to discuss the game afterwards. Stay tuned for more updates from Patchell as the WCL Tournament of College Champions concludes. Also see standings and live games on Monroi. |