Rice Chess Club tournament, more adjourned and rescheduled games completed: Duras defeats Black, draws with Marder; Chajes tops Kupchik

Oldrich Duras yesterday scored a win and a draw from two adjourned games at the Rice Chess Club Summer Masters' Tournament to increase his point total to nine and join Roy T. Black and Abraham Kupchik in a three-way tie for second place.  The Czech Master, with two games still to complete, as opposed to one for Black and none for Kupchik, must now be reckoned the strong favorite to capture runner-up honors in the tourney.

Duras, as second player in a Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation, displayed excellent endgame shill in defeating Black in the resumption of their game begun on the 5th inst., dealing a heavy blow to the latter's hopes of claiming second prize.  Kupchik, too, suffered a serious reversal, going under to Oscar Chajes' English Opening in a game postponed from the tourney's 12th round.  With this loss Kupchik has completed his playing program and with 9 points to his credit cannot improve his score: he has no adjourned games remaining, and his 13th-round encounter, against tournament winner José R. Capablanca, was played ahead of schedule more than two weeks ago.

In other action, the adjourned 11th-round game between Duras and Albert Marder finished in a draw, as did the contest from the same round between George F. Adair and Harold M. Phillips.  Our score table below reflects these changes.

Current standings:

13 points: Capablanca (13)

9 points: Duras (11), Black (12), Kupchik (13)

8 points: Marder (12), Chajes (12)

6 1/2 points: Tenenwurzel (12)

6 points: Adair (12)
5 1/2 points: Bernstein (12)

3 1/2 points: Beynon (12), Grommer (12)

3 points: Phillips (11)

Withdrawn: Stapfer, Beihoff

The number in parentheses following a player's surname indicates the number of games he has played to date, including two forfeit victories over Stapfer and Beihoff. The adjourned game Phillips-Duras is not included in the above table.

We have two games to share with our readers, Duras' victory over Black and Chajes' defeat of Kupchik.