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Nineteen players braved the Saint Louis heat to compete in the July Knights. The odds on favorite were the two Chess Club employees named Alex.
Expert-in-Residence Alex Marler got off to a hot start by winning his first game, then promptly withdrew. Conversely, Alex Vergilesov took a half-point bye for round 1, won his next game, then withdrew.
That left the field wide open and a chance for a lower-rated player to take the tourney. Paul Goddard and Bill Thompson stepped up their games to compete for the title. Bill got the better of the de facto No. 1 seed Rodney Vaughn in round 2 and squared off against the 2-0 Goddard. After a long struggle, the two finally agreed to a draw. Paul was paired up in the final round against Vaughn, and Thompson was paired down against Boswinkel. Meanwhile, "C" player and rising star Matt Hosler was trying to crash the party with a 4th round victory over "A" player Dan Coryea leaving Matt with 3 points. Matt's championship hopes were dashed when Paul defeated Rodney, but Matt did claim the "C" prize.
Bill Thompson, knowing he needed a victory to get a share for first, decided to go for a perpetual check instead of being worse off in a rook vs. knight endgame. Paul took 1st place and a spot in the Knights Championship. Rodney's two points were good enough to win the "A" prize. Bill settled for the "B" prize. Michael Boone from South Carolina defeated the other Class "D" player in the final round to win the "D" prize. In the "E" class, Haozhe Wang, leading his opposition by a half point, played for a draw by trading all the pieces off to achieve a drawn endgame. In the battle for the U1000 prize, Iris Zhou collected her first of many paydays. Congrats!
To see the final crosstable, click here: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201107270671-14310931
