U.S. Class Set for Houston, Sept 30-Oct.2
By Franc Guadalupe   
September 14, 2011
floreslead.jpgThe 2011 U.S. Class Chess Championships are scheduled to be held at the Hilton Hobby Airport Hotel in Houston, 30 September to 2 October.  National Champion titles will be up for grabs in eight different classes.  The Master Division promises to be one of the strongest ever.  Trying to defend his title will be GM Mauricio Flores (left), a student at University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB).  Mauricio will be joined by the top seed, so far, and teammate GM Axel Bachmann and UTD student and Southwest Open Champion, GM Julio Sadorra.  Other titled players include IM Salvijus Bercys (UTD), IM Milos Pavlovic (UTD), IM Puchen Wang (UTD), IM Max Cornejo (UTB), IM Alfoso Almeida (UTB), WGM Katerina Nemcova (UTB), WGM Nadya Ortiz (UTB), WIM Luciana Morales (UTB) and FM Conrad Holt (UTD).  Trying to spoil the fun for the students of these two college powerhouses will be 10-year old chess phenom, FM Jeffery Xiong.  Players will have the option of entering the 3-Day or 2-Day Schedule.  All eight divisions, including the Unrated Division, will be USCF rated.  The Master Division will also be FIDE rated.

Last year’s event, at the same venue, drew an attendance of 234 players.  Last year’s Class Champions were:

Master – GM Mauricio Flores
Expert – Mark Dejmek
Class A – Frank Brack
Class B – Don Burrus and Donald Briggs
Class C – Josh Pruett
Class D – Ted Ingram and Malik Coleman
Class E – John Warren
Unrated – Mario Acero

In addition to the main event, there will be a five-round scholastic tournament on Saturday, 1 October.  For those who cannot get enough chess, the always fun Blitz event will take place very late Saturday evening, after Round 3.

The top games will be transmitted live on Monroi.com.  For more information and online registration, please visit  http://www.active.com/.