This year’s installment of the Kalamazoo Championship was satisfyingly well attended. Thirty-two players competed in the Open and Reserve sections, along with 21 scholastic players in a separate tournament with 5 quads. The Open section might better have been named the St Joseph Championship since the winners, with 2.5 points in 3 games, were Tony Palmer and Mike Semerciyan of that fair city. In defense of Kalamazoo, however, at least two of its most accomplished players, Tim McGrew and Andy Fletcher, were unable to compete because of other commitments.

With 24 players in the Reserve section no single champion was possible in just 3 rounds of play. Consequently, three players (Nishant Sawant, Bruce Roth and Milan Talreja) shared first place honors in that section with perfect scores.

Ian Durham (993) managed significant upsets of higher rated players to win all his games in the first scholastic quad. Winners of Quads 2 and 3 were Sam Stoneburner and Tom Spitzer, respectively. Quad 4 appeared the most evenly matched, with 3 players sharing first place with 2 points (David Darling, Matt Vosters and Jack Spitzer). Since there were 5 players in Quad 5, it was matched as a round robin, with Levi Durham winning all 4 of his games.

Thanks to all players attending for making this a very enjoyable and successful tournament.