He hadn’t played a rated tournament since August 18, 2007, and chances are there wasn’t any snow on the ground when he played back then, but on a snowy Saturday at Augustana College, Louis Horton returned to the Sioux Falls Winter Open like a blizzard with his undefeated run in the Open section, including an upset of top-rated National Master Nels Truelson.  With his victory in the Open section, Horton took home the $160 top prize, and a new rating of 1848.

On a day when it appropriately snowed all day long for the Winter Open, 99 chess players registered to play in the one-day Winter Open, complete with three sections (Open, U1200, and U800) of play.  The number of players was easily one of the largest chess turnouts in South Dakota in recent years, and is clearly indicative of the re-emerging chess scene in the Rushmore State.  The U800 section was by far the largest to attract players with a whopping 72 players signed up to do battle across the 64-square battlefield.

With such a large turnout in the five-round U800 section, the competition to come out on top was intense, but in the end it was Garretson Middle School 8th grader, Thomas John Boland, who was the only player to go undefeated, as he defeated Discovery Elementary School 5th grader Malavika Nair in the final round. 

In the much smaller U1200 section, the home team was well represented as Augustana College Chess Club member Dillon Karras became one of only three players in the entire tournament to end the day undefeated with his 1st place finish.