We (3M Chess Club members) finished up in the approximate order you would expect, based on our ratings, but it seems we took very different routes to get there. The final scores were (out of a possible 9 points):

*Bill is a 3M retiree living in Tennessee, and a former Chess Club member.

Other scores that may be of interest:

*Top score by a Minnesotan. He drew his game with Yermolinsky (the tournament winner), which drew a round of applause from the spectators.

Six other Minnesotans finished with 6.5

There were over 500 players entered. The full table of results is posted at http://www.usopenchess.com/main_schedule.htm.

I lost one game to a player ranked 300 points below me, and another to a player ranked 600 points below, so no, I don't think I have any games to share. However, I know Larry was very proud of one of his wins (I think it was Round 7), so maybe he could be convinced to annotate it for the newsletter.

It was nice to see some of our club members there as spectators. I know I saw Clint Waller a couple of nights. (He came down to see his cousin, who it turns out is a Master from California. I think Clint's been holding out on us.) Jimmie Baran and his wife came to watch one night. And Matt Jelinek was there one night, and was scheduled to come back the next afternoon to play in a simul against GM Pavel Blatny (rated 2600). I didn't hear the results, but I'm sure Matt taught him a thing or two about chess. By the way, the previous week Matt played in a simul against Victor Adler, so he's now probably played against more chess masters than anyone else in the club.

There may have been other club members there as well, who I either didn't see, or didn't remember in the heat of battle.

This was my first major tournament, and my overall opinion is that it's kind of an ordeal, and gets to be a long week, but it's a unique experience and I'm glad I did it.