TOUGH AT THE TOP OF THE BMAB LEADER-BOARD
There has been a surge of activity amongst the Grandmasters recently following exciting tournaments in San Jose (a BMAB-Partnered event) and Madison, both in the USA, and from Sapporo in Japan). The attached table below shows the current status of the Leader-board.
Steve Sax had a brilliantly sustained performance of PR 3.05 at San Jose, also breaking the 1000 Experience Points (EP) barrier. This performance improved his 300 EP Rolling Average PR to 3.81. Dorn Bishop also achieved an initial grading of Master (Class 1) culminating from his performances at San Jose.
Victor Ashkenazi continued his astonishing level of performance with a PR score of 2.46, at Madison, significantly improving his 300 EP Rolling Average PR to 2.83 only .07 away from Mochy's score of 2.76 which currently tops the leader-board! John O'Hagan also had an excellent performance at Madison with a PR score of 3.27, just a little shy of his previous overall average PR of 3.19. In consequence his aggregate PR increases ever so slightly to 3.21.
Michi had fantastic back-to-back tournaments wins in Portugal and then in Sapporo. At Sapporo his average PR score was 3.38, excellent for almost any player in the World, but outside the astonishingly high standard of play he normally accomplishes (PR 3.0 typically). Consequently, his 300 EP Rolling Average is raised to 3.12. Yoshiyuki Nakamura also played at an excellent level at Sapporo, with a PR score of 3.45 and reaching the 200 EP threshold required for Grandmaster (Class 1). As this score was higher than his previous astonishing aggregate PR score of 3.04, his new aggregate score increases to PR 3.20.
Elsewhere, Ray Fogurland, Rich Munitz and Takayuki Hino all achieved Master (Class 2) awards. Stay tuned for further new exciting developments: Several Grandmasters and Master level players are fighting it out as I write in Charlotte, USA. Moreover, Mochy has and will have some streamed matches from London, UK, and from Šibenik, Croatia, currently being played. I hasten to add that his 51-point match against the Croatian Team will not be rated, because the match equities beyond 25-point match scores are unreliable. I think XG uses the Janowski Formula together with some merged-overlapping: simply not good enough for PR analysis purposes!
Will Victor seize the top ranked position in the heat and humidity in Charlotte, or will Mochy manage to fend off the challenge and maintain the top position he has held since BMAB started almost two years ago?