Hotel Sierra, 45520 Dulles Plaza, Sterling VA 20166 www.hotel-sierra.com 20 Reserved Single Suites available by June 6 at $99. Contact hotel at 703-435-9002 or 1-800.4.SIERRA Be sure to ask for Virginia Chess rates; or book it online at http://stay.hotel-sierra.com/?id=VIR

117 players came to play in the George Washington Open, held at Hotel Sierra in Sterling. The exact same number came here last fall to play in the Northern Virginia Open. It is nice to be consistent, especially when there is only room for 121 players!

Five players tied for first with 4.5. Another round would have generated more separation, but more space would have been needed. The four titled players, GM Larry Kaufman, IM's Oliver Barbosa, Oladapo Adu and FM (IM elect) Tegshuren Enkhbat were joined by A player Darwin Li in the expanding winner's circle. Li's last round defeat of WFM Abby Marshall prevented all 5 titled players from finishing on top. Barbosa and Adu started out 4-0 and drew in the final round. Eric Most also started 4-0 but lost to Larry K in the final round. Tegshuren Enkhbat and William Marcelino played the longest and last game of the fifth round and finished in a really frustrating way for William. After everything was traded down and appeared to be a dead draw with Bishop of same color and Pawn for both sides, William hung his bishop to ET's Bishop and the tournament was history. For ego's sake, had there been anything to tiebreak, IM Oladapo Adu would have been champion on Tiebreaks.

At the Northern Virginia Open last fall, there were some behavior issues that caused the hotel to speak to me and became a part of the tournament report in the VCF Newsletter. I am happy to report this time that it was much improved, although everyone talking in the lobby really needs to improve. The door to the room had to stay open as it makes way too much noise when closing. It isn't fun feeling like a chess cop constantly sshhushing people who must talk too loud. Having better weather allowed kids to play and run around outside and the hotel provided an $8.95 lunch buffet each day. Overall, much improved and I look forward to the Northern Virginia Open here, November 7-8.

Top Experts were Eric Most, Yang Dai and Aryan Khojandi with 4 points.  Most started 4-0 and was held out of the top place positions by GM Kaufman. Khojandi started 3-0 and IM-Elect Enkhbat stopped him in Rd 3. Yang Dai started with a draw, had a 3rd Rd bye and won her other games as there are many ways to finish on top. Darwin Li took the "A" money into the top 5 places which is pretty unusual. Typically an expert takes money into the top pot if a class player does it at all, so great result from Mr. Li.

Class B was won with 4 points by Dr Saad Al-Hariri, a regular at Arlington Chess Club and Ramakrish Gundala who gave Larry Kaufman a tough game in Rd 1 and picked up over 100 points with his score. Other big rating gains were seen by Darwin Li (37), Deodato Obregon (52), Saad Al-Hariri (62), Ted Covey (77), Jeremy Knox (61), Victor Guzman (97), Thomas Board (105), Pamela Lee (70), and Raghav Ramraj (69) who won the upset prize with a 790 point difference win!.

Class C was split three ways among Ted "Welcome back to the VCF" Covey, Tyler Hengy and Jordon Beckenstein. Andrew Makris took sole possession of Class D and was the only one to win a class outright, other than Darwin Li, but his 1st-3rd place was more important. U 1200 was split by Thomas Board and Victor Guzman.

This was a fun tournament without many problems. I would recommend to all players with digital clocks - Learn how to set them, how to take 5 minutes off if necessary, how to take off 10 minutes if your cell phone goes off and learn multiple clock setting so you can be clock independent when we are back here in November for the Northern Virginia Open