The 4th annual Kewadin Open was held August 16-17 at the Kewadin Casino in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Kenn Filkins organized and directed the event. Chess writers often do not give enough credit to the people who are responsible for such fine tournaments, so I’d like to give some additional information about the TD and organizer.

Kenn Filkins is the editor of the daily newspaper for the Eastern Upper Peninsula. He is the president of the Sault Chess League, and organizes the scholastic chess program with around 120 players (3rd through 12th grades) at Sault Ste. Marie Schools. He runs several scholastic chess tournaments each school year. He has been the TD for the last four U.P. (it was called Kewadin for two of those years) Open Championships. He brought GM Greg Serper to Sault Ste. Marie for the first U.P. Open in the Sault in 2000 A.D. He is the author of six books, his latest book on fly fishing.

Some other interesting notes: The Kewadin Casino donated the tournament room and $1,000 to the prize fund! (usually chess organizers have to pay for the tournament site). As one of the participants I would like to thank the management at the Kewadin Casino for their generous donation, as well as their pampering of the chess players. This is always a fun event for couples to attend because while one is playing his/her game, the other is having fun in the casino (I know of two men who told me their wives won more money on the slots than they did in the tournament)!

As expected, International Chess Master Ben Finegold, of Ann Arbor won all five of his chess games to repeat as the Kewadin Open Chess Champion. Finegold, the highest rated chess player ever from Michigan, took home the top $500 prize with seemingly little real threat to his defense of the Kewadin title.

Lucas Hoy, of Neguanee, scored 4-1 for the five-round tournament to win the 2003 U.P. Chess Championship. Hoy finished a half-point ahead of two time, U.P. Champion Jim Sawaski, of Newberry, who scored 3.5 points. Sawaski chess student, Wayne Brown, also of Newberry, won his first U.P. Junior Championship by capturing 2.5 points in this first rated tournament.

But there was another story that took place during the tournament. In the 1st round, a 12-yr-old named Jonathan Budzenski (1392) from Spring Lake, Michigan was paired against an ‘A’ player, nearly 400 points higher rated. Jon won! Now anyone can drop a game to a lower-rated player, but one would expect Budzenski to lose as he kept getting paired up against higher-rated opponents. He didn’t! Jon continued to outplay his opponents and caused quite a stir amongst the players class ‘A’ and below… “Yes,” one ‘A’ player told me, “we were all afraid we might get paired against him!” ?

Pre-tournament rating at 1392. His score was. 3.5 -- two wins and three draws.

Rd 1 - Win over Ray Garrison 1870
Rd 2 - Draw w/ Thomas Manion 1792
Rd 3 - Win over Marvin Mattson 1730
Rd 4 - Draw w/ Daniel Lindquist 1849
Rd 5 - Draw w/ Jim Sawaski 1807

Swiss-Sys calculated his performance rating at 2010. He tied for 5th place. Here’s one of Jonathan’s games:

Marvin Mattson (1730)
Jonathan Budzenski (1392)
Round 3
Réti: King's Indian, A08

1.Nf3 d5 2.d3 Nf6 3.g3 c5 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.O-O e6 6.a4 Bd6 7.c3 O-O 8.Na3 a6 9.Re1 e5 10.Qc2 d4 11.Nc4 Be6 12.Nxd6 Qxd6 13.e4 h6 14.Bd2 Rad8 15.c4 a5 16.Nh4 Nb4 17.Bxb4 axb4 18.h3 Qd7 19.Kh2 b6 20.b3 Rfe8 21.Qd2 g5 22.Nf3 Kh7 23.Rf1 Qc7 24.Ng1 Rg8 25.Ne2 g4 26.h4 Rg6 27.f4 gxf3 28.Bxf3 Bg4 29.Rf2 Bxf3 30.Rxf3 Ng4+ 31.Kh1 Ne3 32.Rg1 Qd7 33.Kh2 Rdg8 34.Qe1 R8g7 35.Qd2 Qg4 36.Rf2 Qh5 37.Qe1 Kh8 38.Kh3 Qg4+ 39.Kh2 Qe6 40.Rf3 Rf6 41.Rxf6 Qxf6 42.Kh3 Qf3 43.Kh2 Rg4 44.Kh3 Rxh4+ 0-1

2003 KEWADIN OPEN & U.P. CHAMPIONSHIP

Sault Ste. Marie, August 16-17, 2003

Director: Kenn Filkins