Oak Tree Open Round 5 - The Eve of the War
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9/20/2011
Bob Head (left) and Dane Hinrichsen in their round 5 draw.
The penultimate round of the Oak Tree Open took place yesterday and saw the expected war between Randy Hough (2000) and Gregg Fritchle (2034) on board 1. The game ended in a draw but was
hard fought by both players and went on late into the evening. Thus, this game was more like the "eve of the war", with the tournament victor to be decided in next week's final round.
Alexander Xie's (1944) excellent tournament continued as he beat Eren Karadyi (1806) on second board. Mike Carlson (2100) pulled a win in the endgame against Michael Cooper (2040) in a game
where Cooper looked to have a crushing position early on. Alvin Huang (1838) upset Ed Sanjenis (2040) on board 5 by winning a piece and forcing Sanjenis' resignation. Other results on the top
boards included Matthew Hayes' (2017) win against Melvin Bond (1723), Jessie Victoria (2082) beating Tim Thompson (1977), and Dave Matson (2008) beating Stephanie Shao (1663).
Bob Head (1586) is having a good tournament and it improved further as he drew against expert Dane Hinrichsen (2000). Timothy Jao (1636) also had a very good draw against Anthony Hung (1898) and, in another
upset, Edward Wu (1336) beat Jeffrey Schwartz (1582). Perhaps the biggest shocks of the evening came courtesy of the Wu brothers. Fresh off a terrific draw last week against a higher rated opponent,
Titus Wu (841) beat Roy Schmidt (1494) and Timothy Wu (292) beat Dan Vanda (724). Excellent results!
The final round of the Oak Tree Open will see some tough matches on the top boards. Randy Hough will take on Alexander Xie, Mike Clarson squares off against Alvin Huang, and
Gregg Fritchle will have to grapple with Jesse Victoria. Who will be out for the count and who will emerge victorious?
