By Ed Addis
The second half of the season is under way for the Portland Area High School Chess League. Final team standings from the first half determined seedings for a team Swiss tournament in the second half.
You would have thought that all of the Upper Division teams would have cruised to easy victories but that was not the case at all. Like most tournaments using the Swiss Pairing System there ware upsets. Of the nine matches only three saw total domination by the upper division. Five were hotly contested and the Lower Division teams were able to grab some points. One was a complete surprise, as the Lower Division team was able to draw the match against the team that had earlier beaten their top team.
Westview, who finished last in the upper division, faced off against LaSalle #2. Westview prevailed by a score of 3.5 to 0.5 as both of the depleted teams had to forfeit the fifth board. Sherwood #1, who finished eighth in the upper division, had a very easy time against Wilson, as their coach was out of town and their players never arrived resulting in a 5-0 forfeit win. LaSalle, #1 the sixth place finisher in the upper division, gave up a draw on first board, won the next three, and both teams took a forfeit on board 5. Cleveland, the fifth place top division team, crushed Lake Oswego #2 by a score of 5 to 0. Fourth place finisher Lincoln #1 had a tough time against the middle schoolers from Access Academy, but they prevailed 3 to 2. Third placed Horizon Christian were surprised by Clackamas #2 and drew the match by winning the bottom boards and drawing on board 3. Second place finisher Lake Oswego #1 had no problem against Sherwood, winning every board. First place finisher Clackamas #1 had their hands full against Jesuit, but Alexandra Botez defeated the previously undefeated Bryce Eng on board 1 to push Clackamas to a 3 to 2 victory.
The league also honors individual players for superior performance. Currently board leaders are as follows:
Board 1 – Bryce Eng of Jesuit with 7 wins leads Alexandra Botez of Clackamas and Hair Caushik of Westview who both have 6 wins.
Board 2 – Marcus Woltring of Horizon with 7 wins (6 on Board 2 and 1 on Board 1) leads Dmitri Murphy of Jesuit who has all 7 of his wins on Board 2.
Board 3 – Tushar Sah of Jesuit is prefect with 8 wins, and Jordan Edelson of Lincoln has 6 1/2.
Board 4 – Charles Earp of Lake Oswego has 7 wins leads Christopher DiMarco of Jesuit who has 6 1/2.
Board 5 – Kevin Rhine of Clackamas is also prefect with 8 wins leads Alexander Schoen of LaSalle who has 4.