And a good time was had by most

There were 32 players entered into the G/45. The Stud at 2175 was top dog. The rest of the field consisted of two 20's; two 19's; no 18's; four 17's; two 16's; six 15's; two 14's; five 13's; four 12's; two 11's; and two 10's. The top four rated players finished in a tie for first place. Along with Damir, who had to win his last round game vs Reece Thompson (1413), Alan Piper (2082) who gave a 3 move draw with White to #3 Longshot Larry Johnson (2026), and #4 Daniel Gurevich (1975), who, in the most intriguing match-up of the day, had to beat #5 Paul Taylor (1926), with all kinds of parents in the House! They each won $80.
Tim Chu (1739) and Gautam Narula (1778) split first U1900 by scoring 3-1, with each taking home $31. Lewis Byrne also finished 3-1, but since his rating is only 1577, he won the $61 U1700 prize. Same for Matthew Torrance (1388), only for the U1500 prize. Mr Torrance gained the most rating points, 119, with a performance rating of 1748, almost two classes higher than his current rating. Before losing to The Stud in the last round, Reece Thompson drew with #4 Gurevich, beat #12 Carter Peatman (1595), and knocked #6 Michael Mulford (1796) out of the tournament, to turn in a PR of 1985, a whopping 572 points more than his rating entering the tournament, gaining 112 rating points in the process! Dave Ronak (1280), with his first round upset of #9 John Lewis (1737) and last round win over Bob Peatman (1268), gained 64 points with a PR of 1607. Darcy Linde (1137) gained 82 big ones with upsets over Bryan Johnson (1500) and Richard Lin (1346) in the last two rounds.
In the U1300 section, played for trophies, or House credit, only, David Mbonu (1242) swept the field, yet gained only 36 points, with a PR of 1391. He did prove, though, that he is ready for "prime-time!" Amith Punyala (674) received a full point bye in the first round, lost in the second round to Bill Zhang (1023), and then beat Hasith Sangabathula (1006) and Jake Senter (816), who loves to eat at the HONG KONG restaurant, to gain an unbelievable 129 points! His PR was 1081...His brother, Ananth Punyala (1073), Bill Zhang, Alex Hollins (976), and Amith all finished tied for second with 3 points. Mr Zhang gained 44 points, while Ananth gained 34. Alex Hollins, in his push toward quadruple digits, gained 16 and is only 8 big ones away from becoming a chess player!