by Ed Addis

The Portland Area League held the 5th round of their first half Swiss System Pairing Team Tournament on December 7th. Clackamas faced off against Lake Oswego on the top boards. Clackamas narrowly escaped with a 3 1/2 to 1 1/2 victory, All five of the boards were contested hotly as these two teams have certainly become rivals over the last few years. Lake Oswego took an early advantage on board one after Clackamas’ Hai Dao misplayed the opening allowing Lake Oswego’s Joel Porter to win a pawn. Joel not content with only a pawn decided to sacrifice a stranded Knight for another two pawns. Hai was able to turn the tables and with both Kings still in the middle of a wide open board found a checkmate. On board two Clackamas’ Gavin Megson doubled up Lake Oswego’s Gabe Petegorski’s queenside pawns and found a neat little pin that allowed for the win of a pawn. Gavin then converted his advantages into a Queen and Pawn endgame to bring home the win. On board three Clackamas’ Kevin Rhine luanched an attack on Lake Oswego’s Pranav Sharan’s Kingside completely overlooking Pranav’s Queenside attack that turned into a deadly discovered check that brought an aburpt finish to all of Kevin’s resistance. On board four Lake Oswego’s Patrick Butenhoff held off the much higher rated Kevin Phuong of Clackamas ending in a 45 move draw. On board five Clackamas’ Brian Lucero took control early to defeat Yuriy Kamsha of Lake Oswego. Cleveland lost another close one by 3 to 2 against Westview. Jesuit fresh off their win over Lake Oswego was surprised by middle school kids from Sylvan by a score of 3 1/2 to 1 1/2. Wilson took the top four boards from Sherwood thereby winning by a score of 4 to 1. LaSalle had an easy time against Sherwood’s depleated second team winning on the top two boards and getting the rest on forfeit.

Team standings after 5 rounds:
1. Clackamas 5/5
T2. Wilson 4/5
T2. Westview 5/5
T2. Sylvan 3/5
T5. LaSalle 3/5
T5. Cleveland 3/5
T5. Access Academy 3/5
T5. Jesuit 3/5
T5. Lake Oswego 3/5
T5. Wilsonville 3/5
T5. LaSalle #2 3/5
T12. Sherwood 2.5/5
T12. Sherwood #2 2.5/5
T14. Lincoln 2.5/5
T14. Access Academy 2.5/5
T14. Lake Oswego #2 2.5/5
T14. Cleveland #2 2.5/5
T14. Sylvan #2 2.5/5
T14. Clackamas #2 2.5/5
T14. Jesuit #2 2.5/5
21. Access Academy #3 1.5/5
T22. Scio 1/5
T22. Wilson #2 1/5

After 5 rounds the following players have won 5 games:
Clemen Deng of Sylvan
Dillon Murray and Nathan Jewell of Wilson
Varun Sah of Jesuit
Kian Patel of Access Academy
Lamson Vu of Westview.

December 14th the final round of the first half Swiss will be played. The following matches will help determine the top places: Sylvan against Clackamas and Westview against Wilson.

If your in grades 6 to 12 and want to join in on the Wednesday night fun send Ed Addis a message at chessalot@aol.com.