Roanoke Valley Chess Club Game/30 Championship
The Roanoke Valley Chess Club Game/30 Championship was held July 13, 2013 at the club headquarters in the Roanoke Natural Food Co-Op at 1319 Grandin Road. Six players showed up including three new particioants: Jeff Robertson from Buena Vista, Wally Lewis and his talented eleven year old son, Josh Lewis.
Jeff is from Utah and is a Certified Tournament Director and directed the Utah Open among other prestigious events in the West.
Wally and Josh recently moved to Roanoke from Pennsylvania. Josh played in the National Scholastic Championship last May and finished 7-1. All of you old guys better watch out!
A round-robin format was selected and the tournament started off shortly after 1:00 PM. Our distinquished president, Mike Huff, started off with a bang with 2 wins and was the early tourney leader. Mike requested that the event end after two rounds but he had to be turned down!
( Just kidding, Mike.)
The big game was in Round 2 when Eric Diaz and Gary Myers got into a terrific time scramble with both of them giving/losing pawns rapidly until Gary got into the corner in front of Eric's sole "h" Pawn resulting in a draw. After this temporary interruption, Eric mowed down the field and won the tournament with 4 1/2 - 1/2 . Congrats to Eric ! We are all sorry to see him leave for Va. Tech at Blacksburg, but we do wish him the very best.
Gary did well during the rest of the event except for his single loss to Josh in the third round. He finished second at 3 1/2 - 1 1/2 .
The rank of the others were:
3. Mike Huff 3 - 2
4. & 5. Josh Lewis & Jeff Robertson 2 - 3
6. Wally Lewis
Thanks to all of you for coming and we hope to see you again, soon !
Respectfully submitted,
Charlie Morgan,
Tournament Director.