It has begun! The 2010 Copper State International, presented by Abstrax Inc is officially underway. It has been a whirlwind 48 hours — between player arrivals, the opening ceremony on Thursday night, and the first two rounds — there is a lot to report on…

The opening ceremony was a wonderful experience for all who attended. As players from the A-Group “drew kings” to decide their pairing # destinies, spectators from the B-Group waited eagerly for their own first round pairings to post.

IM Jacek Stopa leads the way...

IM Irina Krush draws her king and her pairing # for the A-Group...

Dean Ippolito Draws his King, and with it his pairing # and A-Group fate...

Owner of our presenting sponsor company, John Lalonde, flips a coin to determine the "color fates" of our top seeds in round 1...

Notable from the first round of play was a huge upset between two local Arizona chess stars, when young David Adelberg beat IM and reigning Arizona State Champion, Levon Altounian. NM Kayden Troff also managed a draw against Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky.

In round 2, the A-Group was treated to a dose of the “Killer Opening” when local favorite IM Nikolay Andrianov smashed IM Jacek Stopa in 23 moves of a Reti Attack. Upon reviewing the game with IM Daniel Rensch for Chess.com/TV’s live broadcast, Nikolay dedicated the game to the late — former world chess champion — Vassily Smyslov, who was a good friend and former colleague of Andrianov.  Nikolay is off to a great start with 1.5 points out of 2.

So much more to come, and we encourage everyone to come down to Abstrax tomorrow (Saturday) for GM Alejandro Ramirez’s lecture and/or Timur Gareev’s Simultaneous Exhibition — both starting at 1pm!