Congratulations to Andrew Flores (shared 1st),
Douglas Thigpen (shared 1st), and Julian Trujillo for each winning their
respective sections, I would also like to congratulate Munir Hammad and Mark
Smith for winning the class prizes in each of their sections. I think we should all give a standing ovation
to Joel Pagan, who managed an Impressive 1.5/4.0 in his first tournament in a
tough reserve section. A heck of start to what looks like a promising new
tournament player.
I want to thank everyone who participated, the event ran
smoothly without any major hiccups. I
also want to send out my deepest gratitude to Robert Hampton, who only competed
as a house player this weekend even though he was registered to play, because
we had someone who showed up Saturday morning wanting to play even though we were
not accepting late entries. So he very
unselfishly gave up his seat at the table so that we would have an even number. Seriously, what a cool dude!
I was very impressed with all of the games I had the fortune
of observing. Even though there were a
number of draws during the tournament, most were played to a dead drawn
position. It’s always refreshing to see
such fighting chess. The tournament had
a fitting end, while the last game to finish was a tense struggle between Peter
Lattimore and Greg Stricklin. It was so entertaining that a large portion of
players stayed to watch it hours after their games had concluded. It was a real treat. Thank
you all again.
