Let There be Light 18
I enjoyed the 18th rendition of the LTBL monthly chess tournament. This time we made it FIDE rated. I plan to do more, the next two are planned to be FIDE Rated and in December LTBL will be a Mini Qualifier. Ryan Mitchell won the Afternoon Session with a perfect 5-0 score and in the evening Kyan Preslar who drove from the Quad Cities was rewarded with an upset over Ryan Mitchell and won the evening session with a perfect 3-0 score.
71st Iowa Open
I was pleasantly surprized with the Iowa Open this year. We knew GM Nakamura was not coming, I didn't hire a chess celebrity to come and yet still we increased participation by 20 players to 133. I had to get the hotel staff to get more tables!!!! I am planning next year to have the Iowa Open at the Graduate Hotel again, and plan for more players. Who knows if we can top this years totals? We had an amazing staff, Senior TD Mark Capron who has ran at least 10 or more Iow
