Volume 40, Number 1
2012 Colorado
Labor Day Weekend
Chess Festival
by Jerry Maier, Chief TD
The 2012 Colorado Labor Day Chess
Festival was held in Englewood, CO, at
the newly renovated Sheraton in the Denver Tech Center. It was a huge success.
Comprised of three tournaments and a
couple of side events, the festivities began Friday, August 31, with GM Alex
Yermolinsky (a.k.a. “Yermo”) giving a
26-player Simul.
Three of Colorado’s Scholastic players
drew GM Yermolinsky: Justin Alter, Jason Loving and Rhett Langseth.
Phillip Ponomarev went a perfect 6.0 to
take the title of Colorado Quick Chess
Champion. The Colorado Open was won
by GM Yermolinsky with a score of 4.5.
However, since the title of Colorado State
Champion goes only to a Colorado resident, the title went to National Master
Michael Ginat, who scored 4/5 and won
the title on tie-breaks over Brian Wall and
James McCarty.
There were three side events on Sunday:
a Chess devotional with CSCA President
Paul Covington who led a small group in
reflection on spiritual matters and how it
related to their chess activities, Yermo
gave a lecture regarding stalemate and
then fielded questions from the audience,
and there was the annual Colorado State
Chess Association membership meeting.
It was a full weekend and the highlight
was our guest of honor, Yermo. Players
and staff were impressed by Yermo’s
graciousness, humbleness, approachability and fun-loving spi