The 18th Annual Pacific Coast Open was held from July 18-21, 2013, at the Sheraton Agoura Hills Hotel, 30100 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills, California.
The tourney kicked in with several dynamic 45-minute games. I picked the alternative two-day schedule. I got to play rapid chess in first three rounds, after which our group merged with the rest of the tourney. After a couple stimulating games vs. >2200 players I got to face a co-leader of the event GM Vadim Milov. US open tourneys are famous for their peculiarities. Multiple games a day, looking for a chess set, late parings, and late start. My opponent was 30 min late for the round and was surprised he was deducted 15 minutes off his clock. After a bit of an argument we began my first decisive battle of the tourney.
As the tournaments merged I was a facing GM Enrico Sevillano in a classical time control round. This game presented a positional challenge which I believe I executed quite masterfully.
Having 4.0/4 I played the last two games for a win but was wise to accept draws in challenging positions. John Bryant executed a nice comeback, beating Milov in the last round. We shared first place. Here are the top final standings of the Open Section:
| # | Name | Rtng | St | Tot | TB1 | Prize |
| 1 | GM Timur Gareev | 2768 | CA | 5.0 | 19.5 | $2115.00 |
| 2 | FM John D Bryant | 2527 | CA | 5.0 | 16 | $2025.00 |
| 3 | Jonathan Homidan | 2146 | CA | 4.5 | 21.5 | $1260.00 |
| 4 | IM Andrannik Matikozyan | 2553 | CA | 4.5 | 19.5 | $330.00 |
| 5 | GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami | 2604 | IRI | 4.5 | 17 | $330.00 |
| 6 | FM Luis Carlos De Arco | 2308 | CA | 4.5 | 14.5 | $330.00 |
| 7 | GM Enrico Sevillano | 2558 | CA | 4.0 | 19.5 | |
| 8 | GM Vadim Milov | 2715 | SUI | 4.0 | 19 | |
| 9 | Kyron W Griffith | 2401 | CA | 4.0 | 16.5 | |
| 10 | FM Konstantin Kavutskiy | 2363 | MO | 3.5 | 19 | |
| 11 | Zachary Allan Bekkedahl | 2158 | CO | 3.5 | 18.5 | $105.00 |
| 12 | IM Roman Yankovsky | 2542 | CA | 3.5 | 17.5 | |
| 13 | FM Jonathan Chiang | 2285 | TX | 3.5 | 17.5 | $105.00 |
| 14 | Kesav Viswanadha | 2253 | CA | 3.5 | 17.5 | $105.00 |
| 15 | Yusheng Xia | 2256 | CA | 3.5 | 17 | $105.00 |
| 16 | Tony Yim | 2135 | AZ | 3.5 | 15.5 | $105.00 |
| 17 | Nathan Lee | 2155 | WA | 3.5 | 15 | $105.00 |
As the tourney concluded, I continued the journey through Southern California to San Francisco, Cali National Parks and Las Vegas.
Lake Elsinore – photo Wikipedia – scroll right for full panorama
Flying over Grand Canyon
Sunset at Grand Canyon
Hearst Castle is a National and California Historical Landmark mansion, designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. In 1957 the Hearst Corporation donated the property to the state of California. Since that time it has been maintained as a state historic park where the estate, and its considerable collection of art and antiques, is open for public tours. The site attracts about one million visitors per year.
The Neptune Pool is an outdoor swimming ensemble at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. It includes fountains, ornamental pools, sculptures, marble pavilions, alabaster lanterns, dressing rooms, and an ancient temple facade. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan in 1924, but was built and rebuilt three times, each version increasing the size. It was finally deemed completed by William Randolph Hearst in 1936.
El Capitan (the mountain in the background, not the GM in front of it) is a granite monolith in Yosemite National Park, about 3,000 feet (900 m) from base to summit, is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers.
You cannot see rock climbers on the face of El Capitan with the naked eye...
... but high resolution digital photography allows you to capture them. You simply take dozens of pictures of the rock surface and then, at home, scan them for the climbers on a large computer monitor.
This is the original resolution of a Panasonic Lumix TS7 at 12x optical zoom, hand held. You can see the socks and shoes of the climber on the right. The pictures were taken (by Frederic Friedel) a few years ago. With today's 32x optics you can probably capture the beads of sweat on the climbers' brows.
Climbers on the ground, after a safe descent
With a guitar on the road in California – GM Timur Gareev
