The St. Louis Invitational officially ended today. The winner of the event was GM Gregory Kaidanov w/ a score of 6 points. Second place, which determined who got the final invite to the US Championship in April, was fought for by GMs Robson and Ramirez today. They drew their first game, but GM Robson won the second. (Here is the deciding game.)
IM Michael Brooks ended up losing in round eight to GM Jesse Kraai in a French Advance (Mike had White.) And he got a draw in round nine with GM Khachiyan; he had the Black pieces, and it was a Sicilian. Mike ended up with 4/9 points. Here are the standings. Even though Mike didn't finish in the top two, I think he did a damn good job. He was in a very tough field of super-strong players, almost all of whom were rated higher than him. His win against GM Julio Becerra was particularly impressive. He made it look so easy! Anyway, it's back to regular life for Mike and the rest of us.
Congratulations on your impressive performance in St. Louis, Mike; and thanks for making the past five days so interesting. I, and many other Westport members, thoroughly enjoyed watching your games "live" online. See you at the club.
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