Spingold 2009

Day 2 of the 2009 Spingold brings us the start of the online vugraph. Thanks to everybody who has arranged this - no more waiting until the finals to see the best players in the world.

Even though the Spingold wasn't online yesterday, we still lost one of the top teams to electronics - from today's bulletin:

A cell phone was the downfall of the No. 22 seed (Brian Glubok, James Rosenbloom, Bill Eisenberg, Connie Goldberg, John Sutherlin and Dan Gerstman). They incurred a 12-IMP penalty for having the phone in the playing area, and those IMPs were the deciding factor in their close loss.

I don't like this one bit but I don't make the rules or the penalties.

It's hard to pick a winner in this event as there is a lot of talent spread amongst many teams. If we don't consider the top 10 seeds, I like these three "underdogs":

11. John Diamond, Boca Raton FL; Brian Platnick, Evanston IL; Fred Gitelman - Geoff Hampson, Las Vegas NV; Brad Moss, San Anselmo CA; Eric Greco, Philadelphia

15. Jan Jansma, Malden Netherlands; Louk Verhees, 2215 SH Voorhou Netherlands; Ricco Van Prooijen, Nieuw Vennep Netherlands; Ron Rubin, Miami FL; Russell Ekeblad, Providence RI; Matt Granovetter, Cincinnati OH

19. Andrew Rosenthal - Aaron Silverstein, New York NY; Michael Rosenberg, New Rochelle NY; Mark Feldman, Hoboken NJ; David Gold, Reading R Great Britain; Tom Townsend, London W9 1sd England

That's some of the best world class talent but they can't get a top seed in this event. I look forward to a great week of watching the Vugraph on various electronic devices, and since I'm not at the event it doesn't cost me any IMPs at all.