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The March Knights turned out to be survival of the fittest. By round four, more than half the field had withdrawn from the tournament, which meant all seven remaining players got rewarded with a prize. The first two out of the tourney were the Askin brothers. David Askin was the pre-tournament favorite as he had recently won back-to-back CCSCSL tourneys. With David elsewhere, the winner of the round three match between Knights regulars Dan Coryea and Rodney Vaughn would have a leg up on the competition.
With Rodney in time trouble, Dan was able to get in a checkmate. Dan was 3-0 going into the fourth and final round and got paired against the dangerous Matt Hosler. Hosler had to win as he had taken a round three bye and trailed Dan by a half point. Dan built up a nice spatial advantage in the opening, but failed to make his opponent pay. Matt was able to create a passed "a" pawn and march it to to a first-place triumph.
Matt Hosler broke into "A" Class and has gained 400 points since reemerging in the chess scene less than a year ago.
Rodney got back on the winning track in round four despite playing the black pieces vs. Dennis Hourcade to get a share of the U2000 prize. Iris Zhou entered the tourney in round three with a half point and scored an impressive 350 point upset good for a free Knights entry. Iris also won the U1300 prize. Iris has been taking lessons from Spencer Finegold and hopes to break the 1100 barrier by the June rating supplement. The April Knights will be the last Knights tourney for awhile as there will be no May Knights due to the U.S. Chess Championship.
Come on out for a month-full of fun!
March Knights Tournament Standings
| # | Name | Rtng | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Tot | Prize |
| 1 | MATTHEW C HOSLER | 1784 | W11 | W9 | H--- | W2 | 3.5 | |
| 2 | DANIEL J CORYEA | 1835 | W6 | W8 | W3 | L1 | 3.0 | |
| 3 | RODNEY VAUGHN | 1826 | W12 | W4 | L2 | W5 | 3.0 | |
| 4 | AKALPIT GADRE | 1771 | W14 | L3 | W5 | W7 | 3.0 | |
| 5 | DENNIS E HOURCADE | 1535 | H--- | W6 | L4 | L3 | 1.5 | |
| 6 | NEIL SCHECHTER | 1479 | L2 | L5 | H--- | B--- | 1.5 | |
| 7 | IRIS YI-XIAN ZHOU | 879 | H--- | U--- | W12 | L4 | 1.5 | |
| 8 | MICHAEL CHR ASKIN | 1811 | W10 | L2 | U--- | U--- | 1.0 | |
| 9 | DAVID BENJA ASKIN | 1831 | W13 | L1 | U--- | U--- | 1.0 | |
| 10 | ANDREW STEVENS | 1336 | L8 | W13 | U--- | U--- | 1.0 | |
| 11 | OWEN O BITTING | 1293 | L1 | B--- | U--- | U--- | 1.0 | |
| 12 | SHAZ IQBAL | 1352 | L3 | H--- | L7 | U--- | 0.5 | |
| 13 | MICH DE LOS REYES | 1368 | L9 | L10 | H--- | U--- | 0.5 | |
| 14 | KONSTA SEREDNIKOV | 953 | L4 | H--- | U--- | U--- | 0.5 | |
| 15 | ROBERT N BERNARD | 1380 | H--- | U--- | U--- | U--- | 0.5 |
