Finals Round 5

Lakdawala Championship Series

Round 5 Report played on March 25, 2009

by Rick Aeria with special thanks to TD Chuck Ensey for supplying complete results

The Lakdawala Championship Series is actually a combination of different tournaments that are taking place concurrently at the San Diego Chess Club that started .

The premier event is the San Diego Chess Club Men's Finals where sixteen top qualifiers vie for the title of club champion; this year, the club also decided to run the women's championship concurrently; also very popular and interesting is the club Reserve championship which is for players rated below 1800; for club members rated above 1800 there is the Fred Borges Open and even the Fred Borges Reserve for players under 1800; and finally there is one individual match being played.

The Men's Finals

Master Todd Smith has achieved the improbable. He has beaten Master Bruce Baker from the black side of a Ruy Lopez Berlin Defence to take the sole lead with 4 1/2-1/2 points a full point ahead of his closest pursuers.

On board two Master David Hart and Expert John Funderburg played a slow and cautious Steinitz French Defence and called it a draw.

Expert Raoul Crisologo goaded Master Peter Graves into sacrificing an exchange for an attack and then beat back the attack by a timely queen exchange and won in good style.Here is the game.

Master Carl Wagner fell into a cruel and terrible opening trap set by Expert Manuel Herrera and went down fighting.

''El Formidable' Ignacio Sainz won a positional struggle against Dimitry Kishinevsky.

The Women's Finals

Maria Elena Villarreal also took sole possession of the lead at 4-1 beating a sturdy Karen Kaufman who blundered in an even position on move 27. Maria Elena also won with the black pieces. Here is the game.

Maria Elena is the eldest daughter of her famous father, International Master Felix Villarreal.

Defending women's champion, Rocio Murra had a huge advantage but was unable to put away her younger sister, Mayra Murra and the two siblings finally agreed to a draw. But this knocked Mayra out of the lead for now.

Their mom, Maria Murra was even less fortunate, succumbing to Monica Ness in a strongly played game by Monica.

The Fred Borges Open

Jeff Turner (4-1) has joined the leaders by receiving a forfeit win when his opponent Fausto Robles failed to show.

Co-leaders Joseph McDougall and Buddy Morris fought to a standstill draw which opened the door for Jeff.

The Balladeer, Ed Baluran, seems to have Fawsi Murra Jr.'s number as this is the second time he has dramatically beaten the young and talented Tijuana resident in a long and racuous time scramble.

The Reserve Finals

Favorite William Wijaya won a critical victory from what was probably a lost position against Larry Vikander. Larry who is a computer programmer said he was up since 4 am the previous morning and was so tired that he missed Wijaya's only desperdo threat.

Fred Borges Reserve

James Coulston is in full control with 4 1/2-1/2 points after he defeated Robert Samuel.

Fred Borges clings to second place with 3 1/2- 1 1/2 points