10th American Open 1974
Incomplete record. This archive holds 121 games of this event; the others are missing, and the number played is not established. Played scores are missing, including the originally published Fossum–Baldwin game; the full number actually played across both sections is unestablished.
Kim Commons and Peter Biyiasas scored 7/8 to share first place in the Championship section. John Grefe, Walter Browne, Ross Stoutenborough and Dennis Waterman followed on 6½. The American Open also had a separate Amateur section, won by twelve-year-old Perry Youngworth with 7½/8.
Thanksgiving at the Miramar
The Santa Monica Bay Chess Club held the tournament over four days, with rounds at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. The advertised time control was forty moves in two hours, followed by twenty-five moves an hour. All players could enter the Championship section; the Amateur section was for ratings below 1800, with separate prizes for unrated entrants.
Organizer Carl Budd reported 168 Championship entries and 300 Amateur entries, a total of 468. The later final standings number 301 Amateur rows. The sources do not explain that difference. Class, age and women’s awards were prize categories within these two sections. No played championship playoff is established.
Championship leaders
The original December 1975 USCF yearbook prints all 168 Championship final totals and full eight-round pairing rows for these leading 25 players. Equal scores are shown as shared place ranges; the printed order does not imply a played tiebreak.
| Place by points | Player as printed | Points | |---|---|---| | 1–2 | Kim Commons | 7/8 | | 1–2 | Peter Biyiasas | 7/8 | | 3–6 | John Grefe | 6½/8 | | 3–6 | Walter Browne | 6½/8 | | 3–6 | Ross Stoutenborough | 6½/8 | | 3–6 | Dennis Waterman | 6½/8 | | 7–16 | Larry Christiansen | 6/8 | | 7–16 | Viktors Pupols | 6/8 | | 7–16 | Tibor Weinberger | 6/8 | | 7–16 | David Berry | 6/8 | | 7–16 | C. Bill Jones | 6/8 | | 7–16 | William Batchelder | 6/8 | | 7–16 | Craig Barnes | 6/8 | | 7–16 | Robert Snyder | 6/8 | | 7–16 | Ivars Dahlberg | 6/8 | | 7–16 | Takashi Kurosaki | 6/8 | | 17–25 | Bruce Foreman | 5½/8 | | 17–25 | Paul Heinrich | 5½/8 | | 17–25 | Harry Mayer | 5½/8 | | 17–25 | Dann Krystall | 5½/8 | | 17–25 | Bob Gauntt | 5½/8 | | 17–25 | Craig Madsen | 5½/8 | | 17–25 | Leo Stefurak | 5½/8 | | 17–25 | John Watson | 5½/8 | | 17–25 | Nick Defirmian | 5½/8 |
The Amateur section
Perry Youngworth entered the last round with seven wins and drew John Krol to finish on 7½/8. Six players shared second through seventh on 7: Derek Price, John Postma Jr., David Brown, John Krol, James Krol and Bart Gibbons.
The surviving collection includes games from both sections, including Dombrowsky–Aguilar from the Amateur field. The two groups have separate standings and are not combined into an artificial table.
Surviving scores and uncertain identifications
The archive preserves 121 scores. At least one played game is missing: the original February 1975 report prints Fossum–Baldwin, a win for Black ending 20...Rxh3+. A full census of actual games, defaults, byes and withdrawals across both sections is unavailable, so no historical played total is asserted.
The original pairings identify Bruce Foreman, John C. Barnard, Barney Hughes and Robert Kunz where the surviving headers give different forenames. These bounded name corrections preserve the moves and results. Waterman’s win over Spencer Lucas is placed in round seven for this event; the original game header retains round eight.
One score remains uncertain: the archived Blackstone–C. Bill Jones win for White in round one does not appear in the original C. Bill Jones pairing row. Other Jones entrants prevent a reliable replacement identification. Its names, result and moves are retained with this conflict disclosed. The original Snyder–Browne and Siff–Cotton printings also stop earlier than their legal surviving archive versions; those versions are preserved.
Result
The surviving scores span two parallel Swiss sections. Published leaders appear below; the partial game set cannot yield a complete combined table.