2007 Morgantown May Day - May 5

The occasional scattered rain showers helped create a perfect chess-playing day on Cinco de Mayo for the 2nd annual Morgantown Chess Club May Day tournament. The number of entries was down slightly from last year’s event, but the strength of the playing field had increased considerably. Although initially scheduled to include two sections, the surprising number of Open entries forced TD Jens Madsen to combine all entries into one Open section, while preserving the overall prize fund.

David Hines avenged last year’s loss against the tournament’s co-defending champion, Tom Magar, in the 3rd round on his way to scoring the only 4/4 score of the day and winning clear first place. Three players went into the fourth and final round with perfect scores, but Hines notched the only win for the top money spot. While Hines bested Ben Good for his 4th point, Joe Busche fell to Jens Madsen, and the ensuing conclusion of games led to six players knotted for 2nd to 7th place with 3 / 4 scores.

On an interesting side note, of the 44 games contested, only one game did not have a decisive result.