Rochester Winter Open Recap

The 2015 Rochester Winter (2nd day of Spring) Open was held on March 21st this year, approximately 6 weeks after our usual date.  Many of the players came from outside of Rochester and appreciated the warmer weather.  The tournament is split into 4 sections and we had 76 total players!  Here's a short summary of the tournament results.

Premier (Open)
The Premier section is open to all players and offers a free entry fee for masters.  This year was out strongest field ever with seven masters attending.  Top players included GM Mauricio Flores, NM Frank Johnson, NM Jason Drake, NM Jackson Wahl, NM Scott Riester, NM Andrew Titus and NM Craig Heirigs.  
After 4 rounds GM Flores was in clear first with a perfect score and drew the last round against NM Drake to win the event.  NM Wahl tied with local prodigy Maor Leker Locker for 2nd-3rd place.  GM Flores has published a book "Chess Structures - A Grandmaster Guide" -- I highly recommend it!

Amateur (U1600)
The Amateur section had 16 players this year.  Several 1500+ players were in the section: Jeff Peck (1578), Paul Keyworth (1571), Ben Young (1535), Sidney Carlson White (1531) and Paul Kinion (1512).  Ian Stone won his first four rounds and drew the last round to win clear first.  Ben Young and James Moldenhauer each had 4/5 to tie for 2nd.  Local youngster Michael Kern was 4th place and gained over 300 rating points.

Reserve and Bantam
The Reserve section had 11 players and was won by Blake Harris.  Blake gained 100 rating points in the tournament!   The Bantam section featured many new players, and was won by Gavin Falk.  Gavin also gained about 100 points in the tournament!

The next Rochester Open will be held on October 3rd.  If you'd like to follow the Rochester Chess Club you can subscribe to our email list at http://rochesterchess.com.

USCF Results