Dan Brashaw is perfect at Moline Open

Luis Peralta of the Western Illinois University Q-C Campus Chess Club and the Illowa Bi-State Chess Club presents Dan Brashaw his $300 purse for winning the Nov. 3 Moline Open. Peralta by the way, shared 2nd and 3rd place at the event with Joseph Wan. Photo by Tony Britton.

Pizza, not the World Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, was on the lips of chess players at the Nov. 3rd Moline Open. That's because the pizza was FREE. The freebie is quickly becoming a new and well-received tradition on the Quad-City Chess scene. After all, how many chess tournaments provides a pizza freebie? Twenty-four chess players and a handful of beginners competed in this year's Moline Open on the Western Illinois University's Quad-City Campus in Moline. Dan Brashaw took top honors with a perfect 4-0 score in the open division - an Iowa mini-qualifier - which earned him points for the state championship. Joseph Wan and Luis Peralta shared 2nd and 3rd with 3-1 marks, while James Neal and Artur Mueller shared 4th place. In the under 1400 division, Athena Wu took first with a 4-0 mark, followed by Fidel Vallejo and Gabriel Formas, each with 3 points. Many thanks to Western Illinois-Q-C campus for providing an exceptional venue along side of the famous Mississippi River. The Western Illinois Q-C campus and Illowa Bi-State chess clubs sponsored the event. Circle your chess calendars for May 4, 2019. That's when the Western Illinois and Illowa chess clubs will again host the Cinco de Mayo Chess Tournament at Western Illinois. Look for details on the Iowa State Chess Association website and in future editions of En Passant. Or follow the Illowa Club on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1840975642828944/