Monday nights at 6:00pm
405 S. Santa Anita Ave, Arcadia, CA, 91006
405 S. Santa Anita Ave, Arcadia, CA, 91006
Round 2 of the Thurlo Mishler Memorial took place last with the two brothers, Teddie and Tommy Wen, both scoring important wins. They will battle each other in round 3 next week. Teddie Wen defeated Marius Lucan with white and Tommy Wen took down Tim Deng with black after overcoming an early scare on the queenside. John Hale looked to have a big edge over Frank Fan on board 3 after a neat tactic won a pawn but Fan fought back and the resulting endgame, with even material, was easily held. On board 4, Nathan Gan missed excellent drawing chances against Matthew Hayes and was ultimately defeated after Hayes' king infiltrated and started mopping up pawns. Alex Gojich beat David Argall with the black pieces on board 5 in a game where both sides had "bad" bishops but black had more pressure on the queenside which prompted white to badly misplace his knight to try to hold it all together. There was a terrific win for Tadeh Mirzakhanian on board 6 who beat out Randy Hough and, in an equally impressive result, Raphael Manahan overcame a more than 250 rating difference to draw Bernard Bednarz. One of the biggest shocks came on board 8 where Alidar Kuchukov (1703) took down Brandon Xie (2102) with the black pieces in a highly impressive display where white's king was too exposed. Daniel Manahan won against David Munoz thanks to two knights hitting the sensitive f7 square and a bishop on a3 attacking black's only defender of f7. There was also a forfeit win for James Sharp after his opponent didn't show.
In the Under 1800 section, there are now just two players with perfect scores. Russell Balcom beat David King with the white pieces and Benjamin Teng beat Ernesto Soto. In hot pursuit are Oscar Suguitan and Richard Luchetta who each have 1.5/2. The biggest upset in the U1800's was from Sophie Manahan, who bettered her brother's excellent draw in the Open, as she took down Gerald Thomas despite a nearly 300 point rating difference.
Just two players have a perfect score in the Under 1400 section too. Frank Wosczyna is rolling back the years and this time he took out Sam Vanis with the black pieces. Johnny Tran didn't let the 290 point rating defecit to his opponent affect him as he beat out Yuanyong Chen. Following closely behind on 1.5/2 are Jorge Melara Sr., Jorge Melara Jr., Ryan Patterson and Martin Zhao. Zhao grabbed a terrific draw in round 2 against the senior Melara, despite being rated more than 400 points lower than this opponent.
Round 3 of the Thurlo Mishler Memorial is Monday, August 26.