Alford, Bonwell Share '14 TCCC Championship

The Bloomington-Normal Twin City Chess Club (TCCC) held their 2014 Championship May 31 - June 1. Under the coordination and kindness of Chris Morgan this event was an eight-person round robin held at the iEXCELL Education Center in Bloomington.

After reviewing previous events, this is believed to be the highest overall rating for the club championship.

Pete Karagianis came in as the odds-on favorite. He was challenged by Joe Alford, a previous two-time champion, and previous runner-ups Jon Bonwell and Surya Kopula. 

Filling out the strong field were Darren Radford, Jason Daniels, Advith Prabu, and Mihir Bafna.

As the tournament started there was a lot of excitement at this year’s new format. After the first day of the tournament it became apparent that this tournament was going to come down to the last games.

Then, with a turn of events, Karagianis had a personal issue come up on Sunday and was not able to finish the tournament. This left the event's outcome wide open for the field.

Going into the seventh and final game there was a possibility of a four-way tie with five players in contention for top honors. Alford pulled out a win over Radford who had been on fire the whole weekend. Bonwell prevailed over Kopula in a very hard-fought game.

With these two wins, Alford and Bonwell locked up the co-championship with Alford taking the trophy on tiebreaks. Daniels came in third place after a strong weekend, with Radford in fourth.

I think all of the players had a great time, enjoyed the format, and most importantly had a good time with each other.  From a spectator’s point of view, everyone appreciated the great jobs of Chris Morgan, Jeff Smith, Darren Erickson, and the Bafna family.

Crosstables can be reviewed here.