While the West does for the moment have a clear leader, Week 5 in some sense made the division even tighter as the two teams with the bottom records both won, leaving everyone with a very real playoff chance at the midpoint of the regular season. See which games made the cut for Week 5!
The Week 5 Finalists are:
NM Ilya Krasik (BOS) vs NM Brandon Jacobson (NJ) 1-0
IM Andrew Tang (MIN) vs FM Elliott Liu (LV) 0-1
IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR) vs IM Raja Panjwani (NY) 0-1
FM Ruifeng Li (DAL) vs IM David Pruess (SF) 1/2-1/2
IGM Rogelio Barcenilla (ARZ) vs GM Andrey Stukopin (RIO) 0-1
As always, vote in the poll to let us know what you think should win!
Have to feel bad for Barcenilla, the exchange “win” by Stukopin left black totally lost. Starting from move 31, white missed at least 10 (!) distinct crushing wins. I presume he was in time trouble. One of the easiest wins was 31. Qg4! Rxd3 32. Bc1! (nice retreat). Another easy win was 33. Ra1! and black immediately collapses. This might have been a case of too many wins confusing white and running him low on time.