Nevada Chess, Inc.

bullet

Home

bullet

News

bullet

Membership

bullet

Contact Us

Compete

bullet

State Championship

bullet

State Scholastic Team & Individual Championships

bullet

Other Tournaments

bullet

Results

Clubs/Activities

bullet

Northern Nevada

bullet

Southern Nevada

Other Links

bullet

US Chess Federation

bullet

Chess Supplies

Southern Nevada Open, January 13-14, 2001

(Directed and reported by Norm Harvey)

Open Section

Eleven players entered the list for this section which included two X, seven A, and one lone C player, Dan Fortney. In the first round, Francisco Vela (1841) was happy with a draw with Tom Thrush, and John Trivett (1827) outplayed and won the exchange in an old line of the Dragon Sicilian versus Alan Amici (1919), but then blundered the exchange right back in zeitnot and drew. In round two, the first real upset occurred when Frank Gray (1990) defeated top ranked Peter Walsh (2152) in the Moscow line of the Sicilian in 59 moves. Meanwhile, on the next board Dan Fortney (1556) beat off a raging attack up the king rook file to draw with Thrush.

In round three, Frank Gray lost a piece to a tactical shot, and soon lost more to Jim Burden (1922), who was then in the lead all by himself. Dan Fortney continued to impress by winning a couple of pieces from Vela. Burden and Fortney met in round four, and Dan survived the pressure to draw. Both Trivett and Amici lost their third game in a row: Alan snatched a poisoned pawn in a King's Indian and succumbed to the pressure of the two bishops, and Trivett had clock problems.

In the last round, Burden took a bye, Walsh won the exchange and the game versus Rick Shepard (1819), Richard Wade first buried then sacrificed his bishop to beat Thrush in a QGD. Chad Badgett (1802) beat Amici, and Trivett overcame clock problems to finally win in a Benko Gambit and avoid last place against Vela in the last game to finish. In the prize distribution, Peter Walsh, Jack Burden, Richard Wade, Chad Badgett and Dan Fortney (!) took all of the prize money by sharing first place. Burden and Wade shared the U1950 prize, and Badgett and Fortney shared the U1900 title.

U1800 Section

Twelve players entered this section, including five B, one C, four D, and two E players. In the first round, all the higher rated players won. In round two, the action began to heat up. The only player to win playing up was Ed Silakowski (1727) over Chris Peterson (1779). No draws after two rounds!

The only two perfect scores, James Davis (1784) and Ed, drew on board one to stay ½ point ahead of Chris, Libby Sanchez (1720), and Sam Cutter (1177). In round four, James won over Chris to move ½ point ahead of Ed, who drew with Libby. In the end, however, Ed and James tied for first after James drew with Libby and Ed won over Charles Hatherill (1528).