Tournament of Champions Reach Halfway Mark
By Randy Hough   
August 1, 2011
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The contest for the Denker medal heats up. Photo Melinda J. Matthews
The Denker tournament of High School State Champions and its new counterpart, the Barber Tournament of K-8 State Champions completed their third round in Orlando Sunday night. Most, but no means all, results have gone according to form, leaving multiple ties in each event.
 
Top-seeded Andrew Shvartsman of New Jersey tops the perfect scores in the Denker, but not without a great deal of difficulty in the third round.
 
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Michael Vilenchuk of Ohio and Missouri's Jialin Ding also have 3-0 scores, but the big surprise has been 2188-rated David Golub. He knocked off Masters Harrison Wheeler and Vincent Huang to join the exalted 3-point group. The second-round win featured a black centrer pawn phalanx that eventually prevailed against the exchange.
 
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In the Barber, the top seed, Arthur Shen, is also from New Jersey and is also perfect thus far.
 
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Also at 3 points are favorites  Michael Brown of Southern California and Justus Williams of New York, as well as Jevan Karamsetty of Virginia, who upset second-rated Christopher Gu of Rhode Island in an exciting Round 3 encounter.
 
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Elena Andreeva of Russia is leading the US Junior Girls Open with 3/3.

Follow the results of the Denker, Barber, US Junior Girls Open, watch live games on Monroi and stay tuned to CLO for news and stories on the crowning of the champions.