Jay's View
REPORT ON PLAY FROM WEDNESDAY, August 20, 2025
It was only three years ago that our club wisely switched from the old, outdated Swiss format to our current single elimination format. It is because of the kindness and support of Tim Mabee at the Pub Club that we have the tools for running our weekly tournament, including offering two optional side pools. But every week we see that entering the pools— our Kiddie pool and our Deep End— are not for everyone. Some people go into one pool, both, or neither. To illustrate, here’s an illustration passed along to me by our Tournament Director Extraordinaire, David Hanold.
It was only three years ago that our club wisely switched from the old, outdated Swiss format to our current single elimination format. It is because of the kindness and support of Tim Mabee at the Pub Club that we have the tools for running our weekly tournament, including offering two optional side pools. But every week we see that entering the pools— our Kiddie pool and our Deep End— are not for everyone. Some people go into one pool, both, or neither. To illustrate, here’s an illustration passed along to me by our Tournament Director Extraordinaire, David Hanold.
But the Kiddie and Deep End pools, while they add a fun element to the tournament, are just a sidebar to the real fun of playing across the board from your opponent. And there was fun aplenty at the club last night with some close, back-and-forth matches and a few where the winner made an incredible comeback in order to win a match. At the end of play, Albert Simonovich out dueled Neil Banoff to win the final match of the Main bracket. His win jumped Albert up in the club standings from fourth to second place, passing Neil in the process.
In the Consolation bracket, newcomer Jill Murphy shook off her first round loss to make it to the final match where she faced David Hanold. Jill had a solid lead in their match but things suddenly clicked for David who made a great comeback to win their match.
That leaves us with one more week of play in the month of August and for a few players at our club it will serve as a warm up before playing in the Viking Classic in Minneapolis over the Labor Day weekend. To whoever from our club will be playing in that tournament, we will be cheering you on from afar. We hope to hear tales of victory. Until then good luck to those that play and a great weekend to all in our club!
But the Kiddie and Deep End pools, while they add a fun element to the tournament, are just a sidebar to the real fun of playing across the board from your opponent. And there was fun aplenty at the club last night with some close, back-and-forth matches and a few where the winner made an incredible comeback in order to win a match. At the end of play, Albert Simonovich out dueled Neil Banoff to win the final match of the Main bracket. His win jumped Albert up in the club standings from fourth to second place, passing Neil in the process.
In the Consolation bracket, newcomer Jill Murphy shook off her first round loss to make it to the final match where she faced David Hanold. Jill had a solid lead in their match but things suddenly clicked for David who made a great comeback to win their match.
That leaves us with one more week of play in the month of August and for a few players at our club it will serve as a warm up before playing in the Viking Classic in Minneapolis over the Labor Day weekend. To whoever from our club will be playing in that tournament, we will be cheering you on from afar. We hope to hear tales of victory. Until then good luck to those that play and a great weekend to all in our club!
Jay
