Saturday, September 16, 2006

#3 KST Wrap-Up - part 2

Java-replays for the deciding games & a zipped PGN file with 33 games (21 annotated) are up. Here’s a symbol key, if you need it.

For the event overview, let’s examine the top performances:

- Greg Tomkovich struggled in rounds 1-5, losing twice & nearly dropping 2 other games. But he went undefeated (7-0-2) the rest of the way, upsetting NM Kernighan in week 7 to grab a share of the lead and beating me in last round, to claim clear first. Greg followed his KST triumph with a 3.5-1.5 score at the NJ Open.

- Mark Kernighan The 2005 KST champ, got off to 5-0 start but hit a big bump in weeks 6-11, where he failed to win a single game (0-1-3). Mark skipped rounds 9 & 11 to play 5-minute games against non-competing players and, in the end, this affected his final standing.

- Devin Camenares dropped 2 of his first 3 games but lost just once in the last 10 rounds (7-1-2) and proved to be an under-rated unrated!

- Ari Minkov had a excellent event despite an extended vacation (7 weeks!). He suffered but 1 defeat in 9 games (4-1-4) and nicked Kernighan for a pair of draws.

- Joe Demetrick continued his run of successful Kenilworth results by finishing with a +2 mark.

- Richard Lewis didn’t join until round 6 and was under the radar for most of the tourney but he won 3 late games and vaulted to 5.5-0.5.

- Ed Selling was undefeated thru the first 10 weeks (4-0-2) and had a good showing overall (+2). However, losses to the co-runner-ups nudged him out of the top 5.

- Anna Matlin finished at 1.5-3.5 but impressed everyone. She could have been +1 if not for time pressure stumbles against Goeller & Camenares. Anna gathered additional notice by drawing NM Peter Radomskyj at the 8/20 Westfield Swiss.

- I played poorly & deserved a lower placing. Only my event-high 17 games kept me in the mix.

P.S. - For more on the 2006 KST, visit The Kenilworthian archives.

No comments: