It took 28 years, but Dave Rowles is once again club champion, winning the Fall Championship with a perfect 5.0 score. His most recent club championship was the 1995 Winter Championship! Work and family obligations kept Dave away from regular club night events for most of that time period, but retirement is allowing the club stalwart to actively participate in our weekly competitions once again.
Dave defeated Nikolay Bulakh (3.5) on board one in the last game of the night October 19. Makeup games kept most of the prize categories up in the air through October 26th, but North Central student Benjamin Legard (2.5) won the D/unrated section on the 19th. He fought through a tough position to ultimately force Dave Griffin to play for repetition in a game that ended just before board one reached its conclusion.
After the makeup games were played, the other prize winners fell into place. Griffin Herr (4.0) won the class A prize, while Nikolay Bulakh won the class B prize. The top two class C prizes were shared by David Peoples and Vibi Varghese with scores of 3.5. There was a five-way tie for the third class prize among the following 3.0 scores: Steve Brendemihl, Jeremy Burnett, Matthew Goodale, Dave Griffin, and Jack Johnson. The second class D/unrated prize went to Pat Kirlin (2.0).
Congratulations to all of the winners!! The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for FALL CHAMPIONSHIP 2023- FC1 (Event 202310266792)