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Master Trek - January 19, 2008

The first Master Trek of the year took place on January 19th, at ASU just a couple weekends past. Not only was the event a kick-start for all the regular Trekkers to have another great year of ACE tournaments, it was also the very first for the addition of the Grand Prix Cup to all future Master Treks!

A complete and updated list of the Grand Prix Cup Standings can be found in the Newsletter: Grand Prix Cup Update article in the ACE Newsletter Archives.

It certainly wasn’t for lack of “fighting chess” that the tournament ended with ties in every section but one. Many ACE regulars showed up to play some fun and aggressive chess, but when the final scores were totaled, only one player was the undisputed winner of his section.

Our ties and tiebreakers started when John Williams and Andy Lin both finished with perfect 4-0 scores in the top (1900 and Up) Section. Despite having to go up against several higher rated players (both of them scored wins against local master Joel Johnson), Andy and John were mature and impressive in their play.

The 1600-1899 section finished with a 4 way tie at the top, with Co-Champions including Mark Moore, Luke Curry, John Gurczak and the winner of the Blitz Playoff, Daniel Pecherski.

Michael Berg, fresh off his incredible performance at the North American Open in Las Vegas as well as having one of his games featured in ACE’s January Game of the Month, was the only player to win his Section outright with 3.5 out of 4. However, I would venture to guess that Mike won’t be allowed to play in 1300-1599 Section ever again! His rating has jumped a commanding 160+ points in just one supplement. Because of his strong performances of late, Mike has also grabbed the lead in the Grand Prix Cup standings.

Finally, the Armageddon Blitz Playoff in the 1000-1299 Section was the climax of the day with 4 players battling for 1st place honors. They finished in the order of Jeffrey Poppell, Spencer Elliot, Jonathan Booher, and PJ Smith.

We received lots of positive feedback from the Trekkers about the Lectures and Game Review, given by FM Daniel Rensch, which took place for an hour and a half during midday. We hope all parents, coaches, and of course players will continue to take advantage of this new feature to our tournaments as Danny and other top coaches from around the valley will make appearances in the Skittles room for Game Review, entertaining chess stories, and detailed chess analysis!

Please continue to stay posted on all the new features to our tournaments and web site over the next couple of months! See you February 16th!

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