66th Annual Iowa Open

Congratulations to GM Timur Gareyev for winning his second Iowa Open. He went 5-0 with a perfect score, and in this event he did something I have never seen before.... He showed up to the board before his opponent!

Mr. Paul Casiano won the Reserve Section with a perfect 5-0 score. His new US Chess Rating catapulted him to a provisional rating of over 1900. Now he will be playing with the Big Boys and Girls in the Open section. I can't wait to see him in action on Sept 24th when the Hawkeye Chess Club sponsers a five round g15;d2 swiss at the Iowa Memorial Union.

And in the Rated Beginners Open the Lord Jon Snow commander of the Nights Watch continues his rise to chess power. He swept the U1200 section with a perfect 5-0 score. Which makes a sweep of all the sections with undefeated players. Tied for 2nd place with 4-1 scores are (From R to L) Justin Hettlage, Elise Bickford and Caleb Deng.

Also in the RBO section we had a large amount of first time chess players. We award players at the Iowa Open with the First time rated chess player medal. Over half of the participants in this years Rated Beginners Open were unrated. Amazing, my favorite scene was a small girl who just advanced a pawn to the end of the board didn't know how to get a queen, as she had been playing online for the last year and a half and the computer always did it for her!

And last but not least, Riaz Khan and friends made some butter around my kitchen table Saturday night. Riaz is one of my favorite chess tourists and we made scones with the butter the next morning before Sunday's rounds.