by Ed Addis

The Portland Area League got right back to business after the Christmas Holiday School break, with the first round of the second half Round Robin on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012. Teams have been split into three different divisions largely based on their finish in the first half six round Swiss tournament. Exceptions to a divison placement included: any school that had three teams would have one team in each of the divisions, a school’s first team would be placed in a higher division than their second team, and no school would have more than one team in a given division. The coaches/advisors, known for their innovations, decided to named the three divisions A, B, and C.

In the A Division, Clackamas, with their unblemished match record, took on the always tough Lake Oswego. In the 5th round of the Swiss, the Cavaliers won the top two boards and split the remaining three for a 3 1/2 to 1 1/2 victory. This time around the Lakers of Lake Oswego turned the tables and won on the top two boards. Clackamas took the bottom two with the third board deciding the outcome of the match. Of course it was the last game to finish with both players in time trouble and only the kings and one pawn remaining. A draw was agreed to — so the match ended the same. The Wildcats of Westview only loss in the first half of the season was to the Jesuit Crusaders by a score of 3 to 2 when the lost the top three boards. Once again it was a very hard fought match this time ending in a draw. The Trojans of Wilson were whipped by the youngsters of Sylvan Middle School by a score of 4 to 1 winning only on board 3. LaSalle College Prep was loaded for bear after the Christmas holiday taking every game from Access Academy. With this sweep LaSalle lays claim to an early lead in the top division. The Falcons of LaSalle meet the Trojans of Wilson next week with high hopes of continuing to sweep away the competition.

In Division B LaSalle #2 had to face the Bowmen of Sherwood for the second time and must have felt very confident as they had just won from them in the last round of the Swiss by a score of 3 1/2 to 1 1/2. However, this time the Bowmen picked up a half point on board 1 and 5 from the previous encounter, leaving this match as a Draw. The Cleveland Warriors put a hurt on Lake Oswego #2, winning on every board. The Lincoln Cardinals won of the first three boards to down the Wilsonville Wildcats by a score of 3 to 2. Clackamas #2 was short one player but managed to take the match from Access Academy #2 by a score of 3 to 2. Cleveland will face Wilsonville next week in an attempt to stay on top of this division.

In Division C Sherwood #2 blew away Wilson #2 by a score of 5 to 0 winning on the first two boards and taking the other three by forfeit. Cleveland #2 was idle this week as the Loggers of Scio HS decided to withdraw from the League due to scheduling and transportation issues (this team had a 140 mile round trip to play in the League). LaSalle #3 beat Access Academy #3 by a score of 3 1/2 to 1 1/2. The middle school wiz kids form Sylvan #2 faced the high school students of Jusuit #2 and took them down by the score of 3 1/2 to 1 1/2. Division leading Sherwood #2 will see their current lead in this division slip away as they will be idle next week. Unfortunately with an odd number of teams — someone will be without a match.

The League awards individual performance. Current leaders by board are:

Board 1 – Clemen Deng of Sylvan with a prefect 7 wins, Bryce Eng of Jesuit with 6 wins, and Dillion Murray playing for Wilson with 5.5 game points.
Board 2 – Charlie Summers of LaSalle College Prep, Leo Deng of Sylvan, and Nathan Jewell of Robert Gray Middle School (Robert Gray is the feeder school for Wilson HIgh School) all with 6 game points.
Board 3 – Varun Sah of Jesuit with a prefect 7 wins, Cameron Fish of Cleveland with 5, and Home Schooled Peter Kleier playing for Cleveland with 5 wins.
Board 4 – Lamson Vu of Westview with a prefect 7 wins, Kian Patel of Access Academy with 6, and Price Tucker of LaSalle with 5.
Board 5 – Curtis Bush of Sherwood with 5.5 game points, Will Holloran of LaSalle and Bryan Lucero of Clackamas with 5 game points.

League matches begin at 4 PM on each Wednesday until February 15th. We have an open section that can be entered by anyone in grades 6 to 12 and the cost is free. You must enter by 4 PM with the games starting shortly after that. All of the games are played using USCF rules with a time control of game in an hour with a 5 second delay. It is also still possible to join with an existing team by contacting Ed Addis at chessalot@aol.com.