The 2020 U.S. Class Championships: An OTB National Event!?
Kudos to International Arbiter/International Organizer Anand Dommalapati and Capital Area Chess for holding the 2020 U.S. Class Championships over-the-board from October 30 through November 1 in Dulles, Virginia. 130 players participated!
In case you didn’t know, the U.S. Class is a 5-round Swiss system tournament with seven sections, one for each USCF class: Master, Expert, Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, and Class E. The top two sections are FIDE-rated.
It’s held over one weekend: one game is played Friday evening, and two games each on Saturday and Sunday. The time control is Game in 120 minutes with a 10-second delay. There’s also a 2-day option, where players contest two faster games on Saturday morning, and then merge with the 3-day players on Saturday evening.
The winner of each class becomes the National Champion for their class. I won the Expert Class in 2009 (in Boca Raton, FL).
This year, GM-elect Hans Niemann won the Master Class on tiebreak with 4 points out of 5. FM Eugene Yanayt tied with him. You can view some of the Master Section games here.
Guy Cardwell won the Expert Class with a perfect 5-0 score.
Andrew Bledsoe claimed first place in the Class A section with 4½ points.
Samuel He swept the Class B section 5-0.
Anantha Kumar and Siddharth Kurup tied for first in Class C at 4-1.
Cole Frankenhoff (unrated) posted the third perfect score of the event, 5-0 in Class D.
The Class E section was a 2-day, 6-round event. Ethan Shaffer and Daks Dudipala, Jr. tied for first place with 5 points out of 6.
Hopefully I will have the chance to play in a future U.S. Class Championships, or be a Tournament Director or Arbiter for one! Contact me, Organizers…