We kicked off the tournament with a bang as a record-breaking number of players, exceeding 150 in total. The Opening Ceremony was truly delightful, graced by esteemed guests: Wildwood Mayor Mr. Jim Bowlin, Chesterfield Councilmember Mr. Gary Budoor, and Board Member of the Missouri Chess Association, Bob Howe. A heartfelt thank you goes out to all Chess Cardinals volunteers who ensured the smooth running of the tournament, and also to MCA and their tournament directors, who conducted this tournament efficiently! last but not least, many thanks to Gateway to Dreams for providing us the additional space for conducting this tournament.

The Novice section was an absolute thrill to witness five players achieve perfect scores of 4.0. Congratulations to all newly crowned Novice Champions!! Winners of Novice Section shown below:

Class Champions were as follows:

Master/X Class: National Master Julian Proleiko clinched his 3rd consecutive Master/Expert Title once more with an impressive 4.0 points.

Class A: Kansas resident Oliver Ohly took the 1st place in section, but Michael Pugachev and Mark Chengxi Li, whose tie for 2nd made them the highest finishing Missouri players in the section. Mark Li with the stronger tiebreaks, won the Class A State Champion Plaque!

Class B: Nischal Ada was the only single player in the tournament who won his class with sweeping 5 out of 5 games and took home the Class B champion title.

Class C: Vedant Maiti won the sole first position and Class championship with 4 wins.

Class D: A total of 11 players played in this class. With 4 wins, Ethan Li took home the Class D Championship plaque.

Class E/U1200: With total 17 players, Soham Gadi cruised through the section, winning 4 games and taking home the Class E title.