Tournament Report

The Huntsville Chess Club hosted its first major event of the millenium; its annual Space City Open tournament. The large prize fund attracted stiff competition from several states in both the Open and Reserve sections.

Mr. Stephen Muhammed and Mr. Todd Andrews tied for first in the Open section with a score of 4.5 out of 5 possible. Mr. Walter Jordan was top Expert with a score of 3.5. The under 2000 prize was split three ways by Mr. Tim Bond, our local men Mr. Gregory Funaro, and Mr. Mike Begala with 2 points each. Mike put in a fantastic performance considering his rating going into the first round was only 1423. He bested 1934 and 1918 rated players with alert chess. The Brilliancy Prize software award went to Goldsby's sharp attack against a resourceful defender.

The top seed Mr. Rhodes Peele dominated the Reserve section with a score of 4.5. Second place and top C class was split two ways by Mr. Lee Miller and Mr. Steve Nowlin with 4 points each. Mr. James Brown took the top D class prize with 3 solid wins. The E and under class prize went to our local unrated and young Taito Eguchi.

The Eguchi family received much deserved praise for providing free donuts and coffee throughout the weekend. Many thanks. My wife Chris helped register new players. Many thanks to her also.

I, David Hayes, directed the tournament using Swiss Perfect software. The software paired and created reports for most of the tournament. However, a second round pairing error caused some delay in the start of the Open section for that round. I thank Mr. Gerald Wheeler (HCC's President) for his outstanding organization and help. He sacrificed the most for the least reward.

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