More than 800 chess players came to the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV to participate in the National Open Chess Championship. The event was a six round Swiss system tournament with nine separate sections held June 13-15. Grandmasters (GMs) Alek Wojtkiewicz of Balitmore, MD; Sergey Kudrin of Stamford, CT; Petr Kiriakov of Russia; Gregory Serper of Bellvue, WA; Hikaru Nakamura of White Plains, NY; Alexander Shabalov of Pittsburgh, PA; Ildar Ibragimov of West Haven, CT; and Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia tied for first place in the Open section with 5 out of a possible 6 points. Wojtkiewicz received the Edmondson cup for a first place finish based upon his superior tie breaks. None of these eight players had declared themselves eligible to qualify for the 2004 U.S. Championship, so GM Joel Benjamin of New York, NY and FIDE Master Mike Casella of Irvine, CA qualified for the 2004 U.S. Championship by scoring 4 � points each

Gary Huang of Piedmont, CA scored 5 � points to win the Under 2200 section. Gregory Kasparov of Tuscon, AZ scored a perfect 6-0 to win the Under 2000 section. Roger Rodriguez of Miami, FL scored 5 � points to win the Under 1800 section. Limuel Coloma of Las Vegas, NV and Khanh Duong of Houston, TX both scored a perfect 6-0 to tie for first place in the Under 1600 section. Samuel Stolpe of UT scored a perfect 6-0 to win the Under 1400 section. Stuart Graham of Sandy, UT and Armen Mendelyan of Los Angeles, CA both scored 5 � points to tie for first place in the Under 1200 section. Andrei Tarasov of Glendale, CO scored 10 � out of a possible 12 points to win the scholastic section. Abraham Chavira of Mexico and Paulo Rene Dimaano of Las Vegas, NV tied for first place the Unrated section by scoring 11 out of a possible 12 points. The National Open blitz championship was held on Thursday, June 12. Hikaru Nakamura won the Open blitz tournament with 12 out of a possible 14 points, and Dean Mitrovich of Los Angeles, CA won the Amateur section of the blitz tournament with a score of 12 out of a possible14 points.

This brilliant final round game featuring attacks on opposite sides of the board enabled 15 year old GM Hikaru Nakamura to join the tie for first place in the Open section.

W: GM Darmen Sadvakasov (2595) B: GM Hikaru Nakamura (2648) National Open June 15, 2003

1. e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 b5 8. g4 Nfd7 9. Qd2 Nb6 10. O-O-O Bb7 11. Bd3 N8d7 12. Qf2 Rc8 13. Nce2 Be7 14. Kb1 Na4 15. h4 Ndc5 16. g5 O-O 17. Qg3 Qc7 18. Rc1 b4 19. h5 Nxd3 20. cxd3 Qd7 21. Rcg1 f5 22. gxf6 Bxf6 23. h6 g6 24. Nf4 Be5 25. Ndxe6 Qb5 26. Qf2 b3 27. Bd4 Rc2 28. Nxg6 hxg6 29. Bxe5 Rxf2 30. h7+ Kf7 0-1

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