Once again, the CSCA directly sponsored the Colorado Closed Championship, a round-robin tournament of our strongest players. The tournament was started twelve years ago by Sean Scott, and over the years we have seen the tradition grow of excellence in chess, with hard fought games and fierce competition. This year we held the tournament on the campus of the Higher Education and Advanced Technology Center, the former Lowry Air Force Base.

Also this year we held our first Scholastic Closed Championship at the same time. This gave our strong young players the chance for serious tournament competition with the best of their peers. Unfortunately some of our best players were unable to compete, but we still had an excellent tournament. As the following games show, there was chess played on a very high level. Generous donations by Randy Canney and Mike Pennington paid all the expenses of this section.

Both tournaments had a clear winner, and those winners dominated the field, showing no mercy. Michael Ginat won the Colorado Closed Championship with an outstanding score of 6.5 out of 7, making a performance rating of 2551! We have not seen much of Michael in Colorado chess in recent years, but he has obviously not gotten rusty. Philipp Ponomarev, our state high school champion, swept through the scholastic tournament with a perfect 7-0. Play over his games; they show a talented, mature player with a great future. David Baldwin took second, and Josh Spitz, the tournament's lowest-rated player, took third place with a fine plus-one score.