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As part of its series of special, one-day, Grand Prix, rated tournaments, the Roanoke Valley Chess Club recently held its annual WALTER MUIR MEMORIAL GRAND PRIX CHESS TOURNAMENT. This tournament was held on Saturday, April 26, 2014 at Westhampton Christian Church in Roanoke, Virginia.
The tournament was a Swiss system event, with two sections, an Open and Hexagonal.
The time control was Game in 90/d5 and played in 3 rounds.
By all standards this was a very powerful tournament with over half the players in the Open section with ratings above 1900. The most exciting and pivotal game of the tournament occurred in the second round in the game of top rated player Dominique Myers (2169) against
Ray Fletcher(1969). Fletcher was able to go up a whole piece on a blunder by Myers in the middle game and won on time after obtaining a very dominant end game position. In the Open section Fletcher won a clear first place with Myers tying with Charles , 'CT',Morgan (2036) to share second and third place.
There was plenty of excitement and drama in the Hexagonal as new comer Roger Luca (UNR) from Lynchburg went undefeated in all 3 of his games taking first Place and Roanoker, Brian Mackey (1367) taking second. The on-site Tournament Director was Ray Megginson. There were no significant problems of any kind and everyone appeared to have a really good time!
The Roanoke Valley Chess Club sincerely appreciates everyone who participated and made this Saturday Special event yet another successful one in our series.
We also express our deep appreciation to Westhampton Christian Church who have gone out of their way to make us feel especially welcome.