Cummings Wins the U.S. Blind Print E-mail
By Brennan Price   
June 15, 2009
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Dennis Cummings, the 2009 U.S. Blind Champion
Expert Dennis Cummings of Arkansas won the 26th United States Blind Championship (Weirton, West Virginia, June 12-13) with 4/4, taking a bye in the last round.

Here is one of Cummings' victories, a creative win over the Alekhine:

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Unfortunately, Cummings' closest competitor, Expert Stephen DeJoseph of New York withdrew after two rounds at 2/2. Stephen felt he had an unfair advantage over the other players as he was only barely legally blind and the others were close to or actually totally blind.

Read more about the 2009 U.S. Blind Championship, and the tournament rules in the pre-tournament press release.


Also see the MSA for the tournament, with new ratings.  You can download a zipped pgn file with all the games from the event here.


U.S. Blind Standings

1st           Dennis Cummings, AR, 4/4. $400

2nd          Patrick Walsh, NY, 2/4, $250

3rd           Henry Olynik, NY, 2/4, $250

U1400/U1200     Joe Wassermann, PA, and Virginia Alverson, MA, $125 each

Clayton Walker Memorial Trophy (Upset Prize)  Virginia Alverson, MA, $50

NM Bruce Leverett was on hand to analyze games for the players.  Rick Varchetto organized the tournament in Northern West Virginia for the fifth year in a row.  NTD Tim Just directed with the assistance of Brennan Price.
 
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