GM Manuel Leon Hoyos of Mexico, FM John Bryant of California, and GM Dmitry Gurevich of Illinois topped the crosstable with 8/9 each at the U.S. Open Championship in Vancouver, Washington, besting one of the largest fields, 517 players, in the 113-year history of the event. 

Bryant and Gurevich won their last-round games to catch Hoyos, who drew with local favorite GM Yasser Seirawan on board one.

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The three finished with eight points and each won $4,667.

 

Hoyos and Bryant, by virtue of tie-breaks, played an Armageddon game for the U.S. Open trophy and an extra $200. Hoyos chose the White pieces, accepting a time disadvantage of three minutes to Bryant’s five, with a five-second delay before each player’s move. 

The game eventually simplified to a won pawn ending for White, and Bryant, who as top U.S. finisher will be seeded into the 2013 U.S. Championship, resigned.

 

Seirawan, GMs Alexander Shabalov of Pennsylvania and Andre Diamant of Brazil, as well as IMs  Justin Sarkar and Salvijus Bercys, both of New York, finished with 7.5 points. A complete prize list can be viewed here and complete results are available here.

 

The 2012 U.S. Open Chess Championship, co-organized by the U.S. Chess Federation and Northwest Chess, was held from August 4-12 at the Vancouver Washington Hilton. Bill Snead of Texas served as Chief Director.

Al Lawrence is the new director for the Texas Tech University chess program.