IM Larry Kaufman, analyzing his round four game with Ilya Solonkovich.
Photo Teresa Schultz
Photo Teresa Schultz
With just one round to go, IMs Lawrence Kaufman and Igor Foygel lead the Senior Open (Boca Raton, April 28-May 3) , with 4/4, half a point ahead of the field. They face off tonight at 7 PM EST. The winner will earn the final spot into the Frank Berry U.S. Championship. In the event of a draw, a playoff match will take place on Saturday at 1:45 PM. If multiple players tie for first, the two with the highest tiebreaks will advance to the playoff.
Check out the complete final round pairings and watch the top boards live on Monroi.com.
There are three players tied for 3rd-5th with 3.5/4, including the sole GM in the event, Dmitry Gurevich. After being nicked for a draw in round two , Gurevich has climbed back to 3.5/4. In round four, he checkmated NM Henry Terrie's queen in just 21 moves.
1911
Also with 3.5/4 are 2006 Senior Open Champ Joseph Bradford and IM Albert Kapengut. Check out Kapengut's thrilling sacrificial Benoni victory against Constantine Zanthos, from round three:
1913
Senior Open
Standings after four rounds
1-2. IM Lawrence Kaufman and IM Igor Foygel-4
3-5. IM Jospeh Bradford, GM Dmitry Gurevich and IM Albert Kapengut-3.5
6-17. Bill Kramer, Ilya Solonkovich, Jerry Hanken, FM Fabio La Rota, Gary Cote, FM Allan Savage, FM Roman Pelts, Leonid Balmazi, FM John Curdo, Stephen Andrews, Boris Veksler and Denis Strenzwilk-3
Click here for complete standings
Look for Jerry Hanken's in-depth Senior Open report in Chess Life Magazine; Thanks to Jon Haskel for helping with coverage for both Monroi and CLO.