National Master Carl Boor is the new Ohio Chess Champion and winner of the 63rd Ohio Chess Congress along with National Master Mark Heimann from Pittsburgh, PA.  They both finished with 5 points ? four wins and two draws ? in their six games, drawing each other. 

Both also played Mark?s twin brother, National Master Alex Heimann, who finished 3rd with 4.5 points.  Alex lost to his brother Mark, drew against Carl Boor, and defeated all other comers including National Expert Jonathan Hilton who defeated him in last year?s congress in the last round.

NM Jonathan Hilton finished 4th all by himself to take the top prize for players rated U2200.  The second prize for U2200 was shared by six National Experts: Kasun Waidyaratne, Garrett Smith, Michael Joelson, Alan Casdan, Jason Mueller, and Erik Patchell ? all finishing with 3.5 points.

 The last game to finish in this section was between NM William Wright and NE Alan Casden. It was finally drawn about 9:00 p.m.

 U2000 Section

Drew Hollinberger took clear first with 5 points drawing with fifth place finishers Sikar Varadaraj and Nathaniel Criss and in the 6th round defeating second place finisher Les Whorton.

Along with Craig Walrath and Akash Umakantha, Les Whorton tied for second with 4.5 points ? all losing one game and drawing another.

 Craig Walrath defeated Sikar Varadaraj in round 6 giving Drew Hollinberger first place all alone as it was only Sikar who had a chance to catch Drew.  Amador Santo Delamerced lost in round 5 to Les Whorton in an incredibly hard fought game he should have won.

 The last game to finish in this section at 9:30 p.m. was between Anthony Bayless and David Guehl as both players fought to win ? Anthony Bayless won. Then they analyzed for over 30 minutes. Some people really love this game!

 U1700 Section

James Lake and Alan Du tied for first in this section with 4.5 points.  Both drew their games in the last round to hold onto first place against Rebecca Leko and Daniel Schey respectively who wanted to win to finish first or tied for first.  Instead Rebecca and Daniel tied Greg Van Scoy and David McGrath for third place with 4.0 points. 

James Lake lost to Alan Du in round 1 and fought back winning his next four rounds including his round 5 win against Daniel Schey and his last round draw against Rebecca.  Alan Du after winning his first round against Lake lost round 2 to Rebecca Leko, then won his next 3 games before drawing Daniel Schey in the last round. 

Rebecca started out strong winning her first 3 games before losing to Daniel Schey in round 4 then drawing Greg Van Scoy in round 5 and James Lake in round 6.  Daniel Schey had 3 wins and 1 draw before losing to Lake in round 5 and then drawing Du in round 6.  Greg Van Scoy only won 2 games, but lost none on his way to tie for third place.  David McGrath only scored 1/2 point in the first two rounds before winning both games on Saturday, then holding a draw against the young Brian Hu in round 5 and defeating Tom Rampley in round 6.

U1400 Section

Daniel Jones took clear first without a loss and only one draw ? against second place finisher Wei Huang.  Daniel had 5.5 points.  Wei had 5.0 points winning 4 games and drawing 2 ? his second draw was a hard fought game against Richard Schmidt in round 5.

Tied for third and taking the <1100/unrated prize were Kevin Huang (no relation to Wei) and Brandon Mason.  Brandon was rated below 1000 and is now rated 1157!    Kevin lost to Richard Schmidt in round 1, then won his next four games before losing to Daniel Jones in the last round.  Brandon Mason lost his second round game to veteran Fred Schwan and his fourth round game to Kevin Huang before winning his next two games ? including a last round win against none other than Richard Schmidt.