Black or White

As Michael Jackson once said in his 1991 hit single "Black or White", "It don't matter if you're black or white". Ask any grandmaster if he thinks it matters whether you are Black or White in a chess game at the amateur level and he'll tell you it don't matter either. Well, the 32 players in round 1 of Tuesday Night Action 33 proved it to be true as one draw was all there was to separate the success level between Black and White, with Black scoring the extra victory. In the top section, White victories were scored by Dominique Myers(2115) over Sulia Mason(2000), Vishnu Vanapalli(1894) over David Blackwelder(1695), Adharsh Rajagopal(1782) via the upset over Pradhy Kothapalli(1849), and William Clayton(1725) also via the upset over Aditya Shivapooja(1834). Meanwhile, black victories were scored by Daniel Cremisi(2289) over Michael Uwakwe(2053) via the latter player inadvertently touching his King first, forcing him to move it which lead to an instant resignation by white. Other black victories in the top section include Luke Harris(1768) taking down Ali Shirzad(1679) and Mark Biernacki took down Patrick McCartney(2063) after the latter decided to play an unsound pawn and exchange sacrifice at move 15 when a slower approach with something like a3, which would not lose the b-pawn due to loose Bishop on a6 at the time, would have kept a slight edge for White. The game between McCartney and Biernacki can be viewed below.



Meanwhile, in the lower section, white victories were scored by Phillip Miller(1555) over Hassan Hashemloo(1379), Rithvik Prakki(1155) over Akshay Rajagopal(1026), and Devon Jackson(Unr) over Steven Freinstein(Unr). Black victories were scored by David Richards(1607) over Corey Frazier(1405), Sampath Kumar(1506) via the upset over Kiru Mendez(1621), Debs Pedigo(1309) over Richard Trela(1005), Aarush Chugh(1188) over Brian Ruff(1058), and Mahesh Padhi(1133) over John Peters(1064). All victors in both sections currently stand tied for the lead after one round. Finally, the lone draw of the night belongs to Noraldo Santos(1549) and Donald Johnson(1330).

The cross table can be viewed here.