by Chris Y Kim

Day 2 of the 2019 Maryland Sweet 16 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Country (UMBC) exhibited some excitement at the top in addition to the snowy weather. In Round 3, co-leaders Jason Daniels and Bijan Tahmassebi (the top 2 rated players) met on the top board. Daniels prevailed in a tight game with the black pieces. This set up a round 4 matchup with the other co-leader Jeffery Du, who had won his 3rd round match with Ryan He. Both Daniels (White) and Du (Black) fought in a tense match that ended in an agreed draw - leaving both players tied for first at 3.5 points.  

An Armagggedon quick game playoff followed with White having 15 mintues (increment 5) and Black having 10 minutes (increment 5). Daniels (leader on tiebreaks) chose to be Black. With an audience of around 20 watching, Du started with an English opening, and 20 minutes later Daniels emerged as the victor and the recepient of a tuition scholarship to UMBC.  

In tiebreak order, here are the final standings with the USCF ratings:

3.5: Jason Daniels (2187), Jeffrey Du (2043)

3.0: Bijan Tahmassebi (2107)

2.5: Douglas Malcolm (2014), Chen-Chen Ye (1927)

2.0: Andrew Diep (1964), Ryan He (1937), Bradley Guo (1841), Max Mathura (1834), Ariel Joshi (1686)

1.5: Sean Power (1950), Joseph Tarantin (1874), Anthony Granruth (1778)

1,0: Ritz Ballares (1871), Satvik Lolla (1888)

0.5: Emerson Holcomb (1746)