The first four rounds of the Pacific Coast Open were played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with the approximately 200 competitors choosing from three different schedules. GM Sergey Erenburg (upper left photo) and IM Enrico Sevillano lead the Open section at 3.5 each while GM Melik Khachiyan (upper right photo) and IM Mladen Vucic are merely half a point behind. The other International Master in the field, Andranik Matikozyan, has struggled, needing a miracle to draw with aging Life Master Jerry Hanken.
Two Northern California juniors have played exceptionally well so far. Steven Zierk (lower left photo) started out with a bang, beating both FM Joel Banawa and FM Eugene Yanayt before yielding a draw to GM Melik Khachiyan. Despite a round 4 defeat to highly rated NM John Bryant, Steven's rating remains slightly above 2200. Will he earn the National Master title? In the U2100 section, 11 year old Yian Liou (lower right photo) shook off a first round loss to 2007 National High School Champion Michael Zhong with three straight wins against experts. If Yian can hold this result, then he will break 2000.
Northern California scores after round 4
Open: Sam 2.5, Steven 2.5, Fpawn 2.0, Rohan 2.0
U2100: Michael 3.0, Yian 3.0
U1900
: Arthur 2.5, Samyukta 1.5
1 comment:
Major congrats to steven for becoming NM!
sam
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