Yang Demolishes Field to Win Club Championship
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4/9/2013
FeiYue Yang (left), 2013 Club Champion.
FeiYue Yang (2162) has become the 2013 Club Champion after a near perfect 5.5/6 performance. Yang, who also won the Winter Open last month, was in top form all tournament and the only reason he "dropped" a
half point was because he took a bye in the first round.
Yang was paired against Bill Richards (2192) in the final round. Richards, who had black, looked to have some promising play after an interesting exchange sacrifice gave him a dominating square for one of
his knights. However, white was eventually able to consolidate and, once his queen and rook started menacing black's exposed king, it was all over and Richards resigned. Congratulations to FeiYue and we
now crown a new Club Champion!
On board 2, Melandro Singson (2142) had white against David Argall (2000). Argall was making his comeback this tournament after being absent for several months due to ill health. Indeed, Argall's early form
was sensational, as he held the outright lead after round 4 having won all of his games. He suffered back to back losses in rounds 5 and 6 but still gained 11 rating points. In his game against Singson,
Argall employed his trademark French Defense. However, white played energetically and black had big problems with the dark squares, plus the customary bad light squared bishop in the French. Singson brought
home the full point to finish just off the lead on 5/6.
Also finishing on 5/6 were Gregg Fritchle (2017) and Danny Machuca (1895). This capped a fine tournament for Machuca, whose rating rose to a new high of 1946.
The final round failed to produce any big upsets but we did see a number of large rating gains this tournament. The biggest two by far belonged to Ryan Chen (1581 to 1705) and Abinanda Mukundan (1044 to 1225).
Congratulations to both.
A new tournament - the Spring Open - starts Monday, April 15. Please be there earlier than 7pm to allow time to register.
Finally, we are saddened by the loss, March 11, of long time tournament director and associate Mel Clark, after a bout with cancer. His 35-plus (no one can recollect exactly) years of service together with
Fred Brock made the Arcadia Chess Club successful with their selfless effort. His modest spirit exemplified comradeship and competition. The Club Championship will be renamed the Mel Clark Club Championship
in his honor.
