Oak Tree Open - Round 1 Report

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8/19/2011

Gregg Fritchle (left) takes on Tony Grauso in round 1.

The Oak Tree Open kicked off Monday, August 15 with an excellent turnout of 54 players. The first round saw the winner of the last tournament, Michael Cooper (2037), get off to a good start with a win over Aaron Chang (1708). There were also wins for experts Greg Fritchle, David Argall, Matthew Hayes and Randy Hough.

The biggest upsets of round 1 were all draws, with three experts held by lower rated players. On top board, David King (1709) secured a draw against Ed Sanjenis (2040) after Sanjenis blundered and allowed a perpetual check. Also, Roy Schmidt (1494) had an excellent result by drawing against Dave Matson (2008) on board 6. Finally, James Marshall (1429) had a very credible draw against Dane Hinrichsen (2000) on board 8.

Arcadia Chess Club's former experts Tim Thompson (1977) and Phil Chase (1913) both got off to good starts with wins over Harry Gaul (1400) and Frank Wosczyna (1334) respectively. High class A players Alexander Xie (1944), Wendell Salveron (1937) and Richard Yang (1904) all secured first round wins too.

There weren't any upsets on the lower (but by no means less important) boards. The closest match up in terms of rating was David Rash (1583) vs Steven Niles (1527) on board 21 where Niles prevailed.

Ten players took byes in the first round, with most all being paired for round 2. Those players taking round 1 byes included high class A player Anthony Hung (1898), the always dangerous Eren Karadayi (1806), and the rapidly improving Stephanie Shao (1663). The introduction of these players in round 2 is going to increase the number of participants even further, presumably giving us a minimum of 64 players.

The Oak Tree Open will continue on Monday, August 22.