The Denver Open was held this past weekend at the Denver Tech Center Marriott.

There was a big turnout, with over 100 people.  Chess players were coming out of the wood work because of the large prizes being offered.  There were a lot of players who I had never heard of, or that had not played in years!  There were players who traveled hundreds of miles from all over, including Grand Junction, Kansas City, and New Mexico. Everyone was bringing their "A" game.

The playing conditions were kind of unusual - we were playing in a private dining room. See photo below that Paul Anderson took, and posted on his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ColoradoSpringsChessNews (several other pictures posted here as well).

Scott Lett wrote: "This year's tournament was pretty impressive, with a good turnout and
a strong open section. I struggled and finished out of the top spots, as did several of the top ranked players, but some rising stars did very well, including Kevin (Seidler), Jackson (Chen), and Gunnar (Andersen). Thanks to Buck (Buchanan) for directing and Randy (Schine) for making it happen. I'm sure everyone liked the Marriott Tech Center, but would like better lighting than the "Private Dining Room" offered for a play site."

I agree it was impressive.  It was quite dark, especially after the sun went down. It felt like players were on some kind of romantic date! 

Gunnar Andersen surpassed the 2000 mark for the first time, as did Morgan Robb.  I had predicted a month ago on facebook that Gunnar was going to pass the 2000 mark in October (see screen show below), so that was cool!

I got to meet some people in person who have subscribed to my newsletter, and read my eBooks, so that was really nice also!