July 8th 2009
June 09 League Summary
In June we had again a high participation of 36 players. I am very happy to see that almost every single match was played. This is the way it should be.
The big news from box A is that Kartik Gopal was able to get back onto the "champion throne", but a good battle between him and Adam Rafalovich is developing. Adam's improved ranking position clearly shows his strength. Within just a few months he climbed to 4th position. Kartik on the other hand moved one step closer to a perfect score of 1000. Competition is definitely increasing in this box. Everyone must be feeling it. Once again solid performances by Ravi Lal and Callum McCowan. The big surprise match was between Sandeep Dube and Kartik Gopal which ended 3-2 in favor for Sandeep. Unfortunately he did not complete all his games and we can only speculate "what if" right now. I am sure the coming month will bring an answer to this open question.
Box B had a clear leader, with loosing just a single game against Brian Daellenbach, Joe Zhang set the bar for whom to beat to advance to box A. Due to his consistent game Brian finished easily second. The true battle of box B was between Raymund Mui, Santokh Khalsa, and Rupesh Shelar for the "safe spot". Literally only decided during the last hours of the month, Santokh Kalsa in the end claimed it. Notable was also Raymund Mui's result against Brian Daellenbach. He was the only player in the triplet who won two games against Brian. Unfortunately once again I had to concede all my games due to an on-going injury. I am hoping to be back in August or September.
The race in box C was extremely exciting. In the end the top four players were just separated by two points: two ties at 21 and 19. Talk about close. Winning out were Andres Ariza and Miles Kingston. The second batch was Shane Oren and Peter VanDerVoorn. Something tells me that we will see more interesting games here. Unfortunately Sada Srinivasan wasn't able to finish all his games, but potentially he could have reached 18 points. The only box I have ever seen such close scores is box A. I am looking forward to more.
This brings me to box D. Ken Kawaiwaiaea and Chris Evans were able to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. Falling in 3rd was Kevin Knoell. He fought as hard as he could against the top two, but won everything else. In the race for the "safe spot" were Dale Walker and Ivan Castellanos. Tied at 15 each, only the direct comparison gave Dale the lead.
In box E unfortunately only four out of the six players were able to play their games. In the end Denis Langlais positioned himself at the top of the box with an almost perfect score. Bob Anderson finished second. The mid-field was taken by Jeff Sommers and Jason Giddings.
The story in box F is simply "Chuck Scott's story". The famous Caesar quote says it all "Veni, Vidi, Vici". The 2nd spot is almost equally interesting. Bruce Hergert, Steven Bory, and Greg Kautz shared it with each 11. I lost of few hairs figuring who to advance next month. The random dice saved the day.
Overall a very eventful month and I hope the great competition will continue in the month to come.
See you at the courts!
Milan
