2014 Virginia State Open Checker 3-Move Tournament
"The  97th Annual Old Dominion Checker Association Virginia State Open Tournament" 
Friday & Saturday - September 19^th & 20^th 2014
at Super 8, Bedford, Virginia 24523 (map)

Congratulations, Alex! (1st place) wins VA State Open

Congratulations, Ryan! 2014 VA State Champion

Congratulations, John! 3rd Place

Congratulations, Teal! 4th Place

Congratulations, Mike Ross! 5th Place

Congratulations, Travis! 6th Place

(Official Crosstable Results)
Masters Division 3-Move / Eight 2 game rounds (Swiss w/only 1 repair) of 1 hours per game or 2 hours per round - playing 4 rounds Friday, 3 rounds Saturday - Score by game.

• Congratulations to GM Alex Moiseyev, who won the VA Open, practically steam rolling the competition. Impressive!! The only person to score a point (one draw) on him was Ryan Pronk and that was due to a called draw by referee/scorekeeper, Buck Smith. Their 1st game lasting 2 hours, and 20 minutes of overtime with Alex winning the strong side of opening "The Virginia" 10-14, 23-19, 11-15. Their second game was a declared or agreed draw so the tournament could stay on schedule.
• Mr. Buck Smith opened our pre-tournament business meeting with prayer. We had a moment of silence for our recently deceased players: Raleigh Johnson from Murfreesboro, NC died 8/19/2014; Roger Sample from Midlothian, VA died 11/8/2013; and Bill McClintock from Greensboro, NC died 10/6/2012. Buck welcomed all the VA & NC players to the 97th Annual Old Dominion Checker Association's Virginia State Open, and mentioned their appreciation for the NC support and players participation. We especially appreciate World Champion Alex Moiseyev for attending the VA tournament which gives it prestige and elevates the talent to GrandMaster status.
• Players were welcomed to Super 8 Hotel by a nice office desktop display announcing "The  97th Annual Old Dominion Checker Association Virginia State Open Tournament"  and Flyer & Tournament schedule.

• Bill Salot gave out his sheets with eight checker problems - "Guest Beginners' page #8 by Ed Atkinson - The Pitch". These are tactics that will appear in our next ACFB #371 and the 13th position problem will be posted on next week ACF website.  Bill volunteered to defend the thirteenth position problem for those who thought they solved it, committing it had plenty of fore-play before the exchange. Mr. Salot has been entertaining the Virginia Tournament Players since 2009 when he started this surprise treat, which now we are eager to see what he has brought us each tournament year! Most of the players expressed our appreciation for his continued effort to remain as our ACF Checker Problemist both locally and Nationally.

• Alex Moiseyev from Dublin, OH drove the farthest distance of 400 miles / 6.5 hours to play in this tournament.  Alex received a big Super 8 welcome from management and some picture taking with staff.
• Total prize fund was from the $20 entry fees and $10 from Buck Smith, totaling $250.00 plus a hard back edition of “The Sixth” presented to the tournament director by Alex Moiseyev to be awarded to the top B division player.
• We played a single class of Swiss but used a rating bracket of 1700 and below to establish the B Class group.  Buck Smith won “The Sixth” book as being the top Class B group player in the tournament.
• Ryan Pronk arranged for The News and Advance to do an article on The Virginia Open that ran Saturday Morning and also in both Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Roanoke Times.  Richmond Times-Dispatch is the largest newspaper in the state.
• Buck Smith, President of ODCA, recognized Ryan Pronk as the 2014 Virginia State Champion to be entered into the Virginia State Champion Winners Roster. This is Ryan's 4th VA State Championship in a row.
• Ratings from ACF, Before and After Ratings are the results of a player's rating before this tournament and after it was recalculated from this score-sheet by ACF rating processor, Joe Moore.
• We had several wives who attended the tournament, Grover Minor's wife Carolyn and John Webster's wife Mickie.
• "T" separates player's opponent from player's round game points: Draw is 1, Win is 2 points, Bye is 3, and Forfeit is 4.
• Virginia tournament rules allow only one repair if necessary and the bye is awarded to the lowest point player as 3 points and multiples as 2 points.  Grover Minor had 8 points at the end of round 6 and Glenn Fuquay had 9 points which meant Minor would get his second bye as 2 points so he ask to play and tournament director give Fuquay the bye, which allowed Pronk & Webster as repairs, and Stanley & Salot as repairs in the final round.    
• We appreciate Buck Smith for directing this tournament and Ryan Pronk for getting our VA State Checker Tournament in The News & Advance and Travis Weddle for the recorder sheets, creating the Virginia Checkers website, and building an ACF membership database, which will facilitate tournament registration, scorekeeping, games recording, player ratings, and patches into ChessArbiter.
• Happy Birthday to Bill Salot! He is 85 years young today, Saturday, September 20th, 2014 and our oldest player at the tournament, and the youngest player would be Ryan Pronk who turn 28 February 10th.
• Congratulations! Buck and Barbara will celebrate their 58th Anniversary on Tuesday, September 23rd.
• This tournament is always a pleasure to attend, its a beautiful place, nice restaurants, lots of shops for the wives in historical downtown Bedford, and top quality checker players. Most everyone enjoyed a nice dinner and fellowship Friday evening at Liberty Station on Bedford Avenue. The restaurant is in the old Bedford Norfolk & Western Railroad Station Depot, they are known for their ribs and cheese cake.  A group of us ate there last year and again this year, it again proved probably the best place to eat between Lynchburg & Roanoke.  The food, service, wonderful atmosphere & setting, and the great company of checker players, made it a most pleasant evening.