Iowans Flock to Texas

The number of chess players with Iowa ties was a real highlight of this year's activities at the US Open and related events hosted by the USCF in Dallas.

Dan Brashaw started things off with a bang by drawing top-rated Daniel Yeager of Pennsylvania in the opening round of the Denker Tournament of State High School Champions.

At the same time Experts Andy Applebaum and Corbin Yu of Grinnell College both made it to the pay window in the first run of the Tournament of College Champions.

Applebaum, Brashaw, and Yu were joined in the US Open by Jim Ellis, Roger Gotschall, Jim Hodina, Tyler Hodina, and John Mogler. Hopefully, En Passant readers will be able to read about the Ellis-Mogler ninth round encounter.

In the governance arena both Randy Bauer (USCF VP-Finance)and Roger Gotschall (Iowa Delegate) were quite active in the workshops and the Annual Meeting of the federation.

For those of you looking ahead, next year's US Open will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana. We hope to see you there.