McGuire Open Round 5 - Fritchle Fights Into Lead

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6/26/2012

Gregg Fritchle (left) in his victory over Michael Cooper.

The penultimate round of the McGuire Open took place June 25 with Henry Castro (2078) and Gregg Fritchle (2064) emerging as the two leaders going into the final round next week.

On board 1, Craig Faber (2211) had to settle for his second draw in as many weeks as Castro nullified his London System. This excellent result for Castro means he plays Fritchle in a "winner takes all" match next week to decide the tournament.

Gregg Fritchle had the black pieces against Michael Cooper (2040). Although Cooper had prepared for Fritchle's usual Sicilian Najdorf, he went awry and dropped a piece. This was more than enough for black to win the game and catch up to Castro on 4.5/5.

On board 3, Randy Hough (2005) squared off against Phil Chase (1937) and pulled out the win with the white pieces. Despite the loss, Chase has still had a good tournament and will no doubt be gaining rating points by the end.

David Huang (2052) had the black pieces on board 4 against Edward Wu (1621), who looks set to gain a bunch of rating points after arguably his best ever tournament. However, Huang proved to be just too strong and kept himself in contention for a prize by moving to 4/5.

There were four big upset results this week, with one in particular catching the eye. Eduardo Linsangan (1818) had an excellent draw against expert Dave Matson (2010), a result replicated by Ray Sollars (1762) who drew against Gordon Brooks (1900) and Jeff Schwartz (1449) who drew with Melvin Bond (1794). The evening's biggest upset was pulled off by Hector Valdez (1368), who overcame a massive 632 point rating gap to defeat Dane Hinrichsen (2000). This is the one of the biggest ever upsets in the club's history, at least since online records began in 1991.

The McGuire Open will conclude Monday, July 2.