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MISO 2012 Commentary: Round 2

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Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, After the Tournament.

First result in: Mihai Pantis (ROM) 489 Esther Perrins (AUS) 312. Division B: Mario Saliba (MLT) 379 Pawlu Frendo (MLT) 347.

Mikki Nicholson (Eng) loses a second close game, 404–409 to Omri Rosenkrantz (ISR), and the top seed is now an astonishing 0–2 -11. The players at the bottom of the Swiss pairings that begin in Round 4 will not be happy.

I learn that I have been mispronouncing Alfred Xuereb's (MLT) name for the last few years: it's close to "shoe-EE-reb".

Sam Kantimathi (USA) was playing Jim Lyes (Eng) and drew a nickel (5-point challenge penalty) for GEFILTE. He says he didn't fish for it.

There was a slightly bigger 235-point upset in the B division this round, Maria Scicluna (MLT) over Moira Fenech (MLT). Division B also saw its first two 500+ scores: Josephine Mayo (MLT) 508–292 over Karen Adler (ISR) and Andy Gray (Eng) 503–311 over Pauline Cilia (MLT).

Division A has had ten 500+ scores so far, including two from Femi Awowade (Eng), who is in the lead at 2–0 +442, ahead of Theresa Brousson (MLT) +317, Evan Cohen (ISR) +286, Siu Hean Cheah (SGP) +277 and Sam Kantimathi (USA) +255. The first three rounds are paired in quads, randomly selected from each quartile, and are used to seed players for the Swiss pairings that begin in Round 4. For a player in the top ten, that means demonstrating how thoroughly they can crush players from the weaker three quartiles. For a player in the bottom ten, that means showing how much they've studied since their last tournament, and how they can take on and upset higher-rated opponents.

In the lead in Division B is Andy Gray (Eng) at +313, followed by Josephine Mayo (MLT) +267, Eileen Meghen (IRL) +246, Ovidiu Tamas (ROM) +240 and Daniel Milton (USA) +195.