International Master Bill Paschall, 40, of South Yarmouth, MA and USCF Life Master and two-time Massachusetts State High School champion Andrew Wang, 18, of Cambridge, MA tied for first place in the 73rd New England Open, held Aug. 31-Sept. 2 at the Double Tree by Hilton hotel in Leominster, MA. The duo tallied 5-1 in an Open section field of 21 players. Paschall defeated Wang in their head-to-head encounter in round 2, but both were declared New England Open co-champions as a result of finishing with the same score. Ending up as runner-up with a 4.5-1.5 result was three-time New England champion IM Igor Foygel, 65, of Brookline, MA, who drew Paschall in round 4. Farzad Abdi of Rockland, MA captured the 1st U220 prize by scoring 3.5-2.5. Tying for the 2nd U2200 prize with 3-3 tallies were Leonid Tkach of Swampscott, MA and Scott Didham of Sharon, MA.

The 28-player Under 2000 section saw a four-way tie for first place among Stephen Brudno of Brookline, MA, Valentin Levin of Lynn, MA, Peter Korzeb of Ellington, CT and Mateos Sahakian of Medford, MA. All four tallied 4.5-1.5.

John Brady of Sanford, ME finished first in the 26-player Under 1750 section with a score of 5-1. Sharing 2nd-3rd prize with 4.5-1.5 tallies were Arthur Nagel of Salem, CT and William Ravn of Ocean Park, ME.

Sandra Shur, a 10-year-old MACA member from Agawam, MA posted an impressive 5-1 score to win first place in the 19-player Under 1500 section. Taking second place with a 4.5-1.5 result was Lawrence Legros of Oxford, MA. Tying for third place with 4-2 tallies were Raymond Behenna of Quincy, MA, Stanford Talcott of Brookline, NH, Michael Stevens of Whitinsville, MA and Donald Kirouac of Sutton, MA. Both Stevens and Kirouac shared the top U1350 prize. Also scoring 4-2 and winning the top U1200 prize was Andrew Piortowski of Needham, MA.

Vadim Martirosov, 43, of Allston, MA repeated as the "5-minute champion" by winning the New England Open Blitz Championship with a score of 8-2 in a field of 18 players. Tying for second place with 7.5-2.5 tallies were FIDE master William Kelleher of Watertown, MA and life master Andrew Wang of Cambridge, MA. Sharing the top U2000 prize with 6.5-3.5 results were Anatoly Levin of Watertown, MA and Michael Isakov of Sudbury, MA. Tying for the top U1800 prize with 5.5-4.5 results were Bay State resident Andrew Boyer and William Ravn of Ocean Park, ME.

The following are the prize winners in the various scholastic tournaments that were held during the Labor Day weekend:

K-12 Under 1500 section (19 players)
1st: David McCabe of Newton, MA, 3.5
2nd: Michael Yu of Acton, MA, 3.5
3rd: David Sun of Lexington, MA, 3
Medal winners: Luke Randolph of Jamaica Plain, MA, Bernie Xu of Needham, MA, 3

K-12 Under 800 section (6 players)
1st: Nicholas Belous of Reading, MA, 4/4
2nd: Derek Zhao of Westford, MA, 3
3rd: Joy Cao of Westford, MA 2
Medal: Winston Zhao of Bolton, MA, 2

K-3 Under 1200 section (5 players)
1st: Derek Zhao of Westford, MA, 3/4
2nd: Danila Poliannikov of Belmont, MA, 3
3rd: Dustin Liang of Sharon, MA 3

K-3 Under 500 section (15 players)
1st: Sasha Kaneko of Shrewsbury, MA, 4/4
2nd: John Archibald of Arlington, MA, 3.0
3rd: Siri Vadlamudi of Sharon, MA, 3.0

K-6 Under 1400 section (12 players)
1st: Brian Yin of Natick, MA, 4/4
2nd: Luke Randolph of Jamaica Plain, MA 3
3rd: Alexander Bao of Milton, MA, 2.5
Medal: Michael Yu of Acton, MA 2.5

K-6 Under 600 section (21 players):
1st: Nicholas Belous of Reading, MA, 3.5/4
2nd: Mark Chudnovsky of Newton, MA, 3.5
3rd: Keshav Rangan of Nashua, NH, 3
Medal winners: Allan Kafig of Westborough, MA, Aaron Huang of Andover, MA, John Archibald of Arlington, MA, and Vineeth Nareddy of South Grafton, MA, all 3/4.

The 73rd New England Open, sponsored by the Massachusetts Chess Association for the third straight year in Leominster, drew 162 players in 11 sections and was directed by Bob Messenger of Nashua, NH, assisted by George Mirijanian of Fitchburg, MA. Stephen Frymer of Lexington, MA, MACA's scholastic committee chairman, supervised all six scholastic sections.