Kansas 2017: March 13th

14 March, 2017

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NABC Site Bulletins Results

March 13th

Hampton, Marshall are Silver Ribbon winners

David Hampton and Bill Marshall of Tulsa OK held onto their lead in the qualifying round to win the Leventritt Silver Ribbon Pairs. They were nearly two-thirds of a board ahead of the runnersup from the Portland OR area, Don Lowry and Hal Montgomery. It is the first NABC win for both, though Marshall has won several Mexican national events and played in the Bermuda Bowl for Mexico. The pair practically coasted through the event with high scores in each session: 64.12% and 66.31% in Sunday’s qualifying sessions, and 59.68% and 58.78% in Monday’s final. “We were really lucky,” Marshall said. “I did some bad things, and I thought David did, too. I didn’t think we would win.” Their partnership has been occasional, but dates back 40 years.

Dramatic opening round in Vanderbilt

Monday’s first round in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams was marked by several notable upsets and close calls for the higher-seeded teams. The biggest upset of the day: The No. 3 seed led by Marty Fleisher was ousted by the No. 62 seed, the all-India squad captained by Kirubakara Moorthy, 104-94. Next, the No. 13 seed – Barbara Sonsini and company – lost to the No. 52 seed led by Kevin Collins, 156-104. Also, Alex Kolesnik’s team, the No. 48 seed, defeated the No. 17 seed led by Mike Levine, 99-71.

Lou Ann O’Rourke’s No. 22-seeded squad exited the event when they lost by a single IMP to the Canadian team led by Nader Hanna, the 43 seed, 100-99. And Eric Leong’s team – the 41 seed — defeated Jeff Wolfson’s No. 24 seeded squad, 148-132.

Chen Zhao (who won the IMP Pairs on Saturday) captained the No. 40 seed that beat Rose Meltzer’s No. 25 seed, 95-62. In the close-call department, Paul Street (No. 15) rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Nicolas Lhuissier (No. 50) 123-114 after trailing by 32 IMPs in the third quarter. Likewise, Hemant Lall’s team (No. 21) had to overcome a 16-IMP deficit against Phyllis Fireman (No. 44), to win 111-105. Phyllis’s husband Paul Fireman (No. 14) was a bit luckier: In a low-scoring match, they won 87- 79 over Ai-Tai Lo (No. 51). Stan Tulin (No. 18) withstood a fourth-set charge by Mike Rippey and company (No. 47) to win 144-141. And James Cayne (No. 9) was down 11 IMPS in the third quarter against Monique Smith (No. 56), but took control in the last set to win 114-101.