2012 World Open, Philadelphia, PA --- Sheraton City Center Hotel, July 2 thru the 8th

For some time it has been my dream to play in the World Open Chess Tournament. This is the premier amateur tournament in the world. So in 2012 we came to Philadelphia and I spent a week playing 8 chess games. Most of these lasted 4 to 6 hours. In this tournament there are 13 sections with a prize fund of $250,000.  The sections are arranged by your US Chess Federation rating. Each player only plays others within their section. The rating is a statistical measure of your performance in previous tournaments and will go up or down based on your recent performance.  The basis of the rating is that a person rated 100 point above you should win 2 out of 3 games. The average rating of tournament players in the United States is about 1350. Going into this tournament I was 1606. I played in the U1800 section, as one of the lowest rated players. Some  people sandbag (intentionally keep their rating low) to win class prizes in larger tournaments. Click here to see  My Pictures.  The sections were as follows:

Open -       Open to anyone, there were many Grand Masters and International Masters in this section. First prize $20k
U2400 -     Open to all players with a rating under 2400   1st $13k
U2200 -     Open to all players with a rating under 2200   1st $13k
U2000 -     Open to all players with a rating under 2000   1st $13k
U1800 -      Open to all players with a rating under 1800   1st $13k
U1600 -      Open to all players with a rating under 1600   1st $11k
U1400 -      Open to all players with a rating under 1400   1st $10k
U1200 -      Open to all players with a rating under 1200   1st $5k
U900  -      Open to all players with a rating under 900     1st $1k

All in all I played better than my record of 1 win 2 draws and 5 losses would suggest. I was only down a piece once and I drew that game. All games except the 4th were very exciting and hard fought! Here is a link to my games.

 

 

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