Bowling 'em over

In the context of chess, when we say "sack," we're usually referring to a sacrifice play. In football, it means to catch a player off-guard and knock him down. The latter is what Eric Paniagua, third-seeded in the Super Bowl quad in the eponymous tournament at UNAM, did to his opponents on Feb. 2.

Paniagua (1807) scored an upset victory over Expert Honorius Constantin (2045) and drew Bill Smythe (1873), finishing with a final score of 2.5/3.

For his final trick, Paniagua exploited a badly timed castling to tear open Paul Garner's position and score his second win of the day.

Vito Vitkauskas swept the Rose Bowl quad, 3.0/3. The Fish Bowl was won by Armando Rodriguez, a new USCF member whose only recent tournament activity was the unrated Chicago Latino Championship in November. Rodriguez finished with 2.5/3, pulling ahead of Armel Peel and Michael Monsen with a last-round win (Peel lost in round 3, and Monsen drew).

Complete crosstables here.

Field report: TJWO rounds 1 & 2

My very solid opponent came closer to winning than I did.  He withdrew from the Open after this round and entered the Booster Section, finishing second.

Now to Round 2.  After my blunder on move 24, I took Lady Gaga's advice and maintained my poker face. Then I lashed out emotionally on move 34 (the will to win is healthy, but maybe I'm crazy, just like Cee Lo).  Steven Napoli sees through the cheap shots and neutralizes the "attack" quickly.  He's much stronger now than he was a few years ago!