Congratulations to Brad Thomas for being the 2009 Delaware Series Champion!! After finishing in third place last year, Brad came back with a vengeance and won by a full point and a half over second place finisher Quentin Guy. Quentin also moved up from last years fifth place finish. Yury Markushin rounded out the top division in third place with 8.5 points.
The 1000-1499 division went to Jeremy Penna and the under 1000 division was won by Ann Marie Fitch. Congratulations Jeremy and Ann Marie!
Full results, and trophy ceremony pictures, can be found at the 2009 Delaware Series Challenge Standings page.
Igor Khmelnitsky donated 2 signed copies of his “Chess Exam” books as special prizes. The winners of the books were Lanre Banjoko (player with the lowest score who won his last game) and Dean D’Souza ( winner of the very last game to finish in the event). In the under 1000 section, the girls outnumbered the boys at 3 to 2!! I was delighted to see several girls at both of the Bear series events.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2009 series and made Delaware chess very enjoyable.
Special thanks goes out to all the tournament organizers for doing a great job with our Series Challenge.