The “Out-of-Towners” score big wins at the Drake Chess Festival

Joe Knapp of Omaha, NE won the Open Section and Matt Jacobs of Cameron, MO won the Reserve Section while Frank Li of Ames, IA won the Under 1200 Section. Matt’s bother Joseph scored 4 points out of 5 in the Under 1200 Section. The Jacobs brothers scored 8 points out of nine! The event was sponsored by the Drake Mind Sports Organization and was held at the Olmsted Center on the campus of Drake University. The Drake Chess Festival was the largest non-scholastic chess tournament held in the state of Iowa since the 53rd Iowa Open held in September of 2007 in terms of the number of participants. Knapp scored 3.5 points out of 4 including back-to-back wins over Robert Keating (2110) and Dan Vasto (2060) before finishing with a draw against Matt Anzis (2040). Anzis, Vasto, Jeremy Madison, Keating, and Eric Vander Linden each had 3 points to tie for 2nd place in this section. Vander Linden won the Under 1900 prize. Seventeen players participated in the Open Section with an average rating of 1852. Matt Jacobs was the only player out of 62 participants to go undefeated and untied for the day with a 4-0 score in the Reserve Section. Jaleb Jay won the Under 1400 prize with a score of 3-1. Sixteen players participated in the Reserve Section with an average rating of 1371. Frank Li scored 4.5 point out of 5 to capture 1st place in the U1200 Section. Four players, Sin Jei Goh, Joseph Jacobs, Daniel Carson, and Nicholas Leung tied for second place. Twenty-nine players participated in this Section with an average rating of 641. Six Drake student s played in their 1st USCF tournament. Seven Drake University students and one Drake University employee participated in this tournament. See pictures: http://www.chess.com/photos/view_album/WJB2200/drake-chess-festival