7/01 – South Carolina’s busiest week of chess ended with the SC Open having a big increase in attendance over 2007 with 90 players competing! This made it possible for the Greenville Chess Club to RAISE the prize fund to 145% of the advertised!! Ten Cola Chess Members competed. Top club performers in the Open Section were Kevin Kane (1906) who scored 3.5 points and raised his rating 83 points! Paul Farb (1914) scored 3 points increasing his rating 24 points! In the U1800 section Daniel Dodds (1621) and Bob Halliday (1589) both scored 4 points to finish in a tie for second place!

The crosstable is HERE.

Ashland III concluded on Thursday, June 26 with 18 players contesting the final round. This was our largest weekly tournament to date with a total of 30 players competing! David Williams (1904) was held to a draw by Ralph Buske (1287) but that was enough to secure first place for the tournament. Mason Wiest (1618) outlasted Russell Thurmond (1601) in the evening’s longest game to claim the second place prize. Bob Halliday (1601) and Lendel Robinson (1327) came to a peaceful conclusion in their battle and Paul Farb (1880) picked up the final point over Pani Wickramasinghe (1407).

In the Lower Section Birney Blind (1158) finished with a perfect 5-0 score by defeating Jared Ott (975). Richard Watts (1058) took second place with his final round win over Mark Acklie (UNR). Chris Labrecque (UNR) was able to secure the full point over Marty Anderson (656) and David Gongre (927) defeated Mike Jumper (417). In the final game of the Lower Section Krista Williams (682) and Erik Anderson (422) split the point.

The final crosstable is HERE.

On Tuesday GM Lubomir Ftacnik took on 22 challengers and James MacDougall was able to defeat him! Paul Farb and Phillip Lamby were both able to score draws with the GM. Thanks to SCCA President David Grimaud, Precision Tune Auto Care and Dutch Square Mall for making this simul possible again. Also thanks to Game Stop in Dutch Square for providing prizes.