Wan, Brashaw win mucho in Cinco tourney at Western
MOLINE, Ill. -- National masters Joseph Wan and Dan Brashaw drew their game against each in the final round to split top prize at the Cinco de Mayo Chess Tournament. They had 3.5 out of 4 scores.
The event was held May 5 at the Western Illinois University's Quad-City Campus in Moline. The Iowa mini-qualifier and Illinois Tour Event was sponsored by the Western Illinois Leatherneck Chess Club with assistance from the Illowa Chess Club of the Quad-Cities. Third place prize money was split between David Sye of Arlington Heights, Ill. and Pedro Gudino of East Moline. Both had 3-1 scores. Splitting the under 1400 prize with 2 points apiece were Rahul Bammidi of Bloomington, Ill., Jacob Vigil and Eric Vigil, both of Iowa City. Twenty players competed in the event. Representation was split evenly between Iowa and Illinois. Luis Peralta did the heavy lifting in organizing the event. Rick Rector directed it. An unrated section for beginners was also held with 27 players in that event. Cody Noble and Christian Dawson went undefeated to share the top prize. Tony Britton directed that event.
The playing facility was fabulous -- a nice campus setting, with spacious quiet, rooms and a nice-sized skittles area for parents and players to relax between games. And when they weren't using the skittles area, young players and parents could be seen on the campus lawn sunning themselves or playing catch with a softball. The hit of the day? Free pizza, which was quickly scarfed up by chess players, came compliments of Western Illinois. Special thanks goes out to Helena Lira and Curtis Williams from Western Illinois for their assistance in arranging the use of the facility and arranging for the free pizza. Also a big shout out to those players and parents who braved the I-74 bridge construction detours.
