Rice Chess Club tournament, Final round: Duras takes 2nd place with draw vs. Phillips; Black 3rd; Kupchik, Chajes tie for 4th

Oldrich Duras of Prague secured second place at the Rice Chess Club Summer Masters' Tournament by drawing his adjourned game vs. Harold M. Phillips, a contest finished during the tourney's 13th and final round.  Peace was agreed at the 55th move.  With this half-point added to his score Duras finishes with a record of 10 1/2 - 2 1/2, well behind the 13-0 mark posted by tournament winner José R. Capablanca, but half a point clear of third prize winner Roy T. Black, who defeated George Adair in the final round to raise his total to 10 points.  Fourth and fifth places were shared by Abraham Kupchik and Oscar Chajes, the former idle during the final round, his scheduled game vs. Capablanca having been played  weeks ago, and the latter an easy winner over Jacques Grommer.  In the day's only other contest, Jacob Bernstein played to a draw vs. sixth-place finisher Albert Marder.  Edward Tenenwurzel was idle as a result of being paired with the withdrawn player J.H. Stapfer, while Duras, too, had no regular 13th round opponent, the Czech having been slated to face the departed George Beihoff.

There remains one game to be played in this event, viz., Beynon vs. Phillips, a contest originally set for the 13th round but postponed until tomorrow so that the adjourned Duras-Phillips encounter, which bore directly on the allocation of prizes, might be concluded sooner.  Messrs. Beynon and Phillips are to be commended for their graciousness in agreeing to the change, as well as for their devotion to the ideal of sportsmanship, as the two gentlemen in question stand near the bottom of the score table, being presently tied with Grommer for the tourney's 10th-12th places with 3 1/2 points each, so that honor alone impels them to finish the course.  Their conduct, especially in view of the spate of withdrawals seen in recent events, deserves our warm approbation.

Current standings:

13 points: Capablanca 

10 1/2 points: Duras
10 points: Black
9 points: Kupchik, Chajes

8 1/2 points: Marder

6 1/2 points: Tenenwurzel 

6 points: Adair, Bernstein
3 1/2 points: Beynon*, Phillips*, Grommer 

Withdrawn: Stapfer, Beihoff

*Beynon and Phillips will play their game from the 13th round tomorrow. Our summary of the Rice Chess Club tournament will appear shorty thereafter.

We have three games to present in our current entry. First, the adjourned Phillips-Duras clash, by which the Prague Master claimed runner-up honors.

  

Adair's 26.Rd4? cost him a pawn and, later, the game.  Black's third place finish, behind only the international stars Capablanca and Duras, is worthy of high praise.

  

Chajes, playing Black in a Falkbeer Counter-Gambit, easily defeated Grommer to raise his record to 9-4.