Morin Memorial 2024 Tournament Report

    The Morin Memorial took place on November 23rd, 2024, and was held for the 4th straight year at the University of Maine Orono.  This tournament was established to honor the memory of Roger Morin and as a fund-raising tournament to raise money for the Roger Morin Scholarship which was established by Roger's late wife Lois in 2019 after Roger passed away.  The scholarship is awarded each year to a young player in Maine, more information on it is available here: 

https://www.chessmaine.org/community/morin-scholarship   

    Twenty-eight players competed in 2 sections, an Open consisting of 8 players, and an U1500 which had 20 players.  In the Open, William Ravn emerged victorious with 3.5/4 after defeating the 2023 Maine Senior Champion Ray Haines in round 3, followed by the mountain known as Aaron Spencer in round 4, but not before escaping a losing position against the highly underrated Mark Norris in round 1, followed by a wild dogfight of a draw against the assassin, Wyatt Hendrix, in round 2.  In 2nd, with 2.5/4, was the aforementioned Ray Haines, followed by a 5-way tie for 3rd on 2/4 between Wyatt Hendrix, Aaron Spencer, Isaiah Fallon, Roger Hardison, and Tobias Coffey.  In the U1500 section, Jacob Klein scored a perfect 4/4 to grab clear 1st, followed by a 4-way tie for 2nd on 3/4 between Antony Freudig, Arkan Das, Grant Caron, and Zafir Bashir.  

    A big thanks to all who made this event possible, including Wyatt Hendrix for organizing and helping to run the event, William Ravn for TDing in addition to playing, Aaron Spencer for providing guidance, answering questions, and generally helping a lot as William directed his first event, to the University of Maine Orono for hosting the event, and of course to all the players, without whom none of this would be possible!