Phony Benoni's signature project here at chessgames was the US Open:

Game Collection: US Open Tournament Index

Despite his massive efforts, he was unable to fully build out the full set of collections, partially due to lack of available information but also due to lack of available time. In memory of PB, I have tried to add what I could to one of his smaller collections:

Game Collection: US Open 1982, St. Paul

The 83rd US Open was held in St. Paul, MN, 8-20 Aug 1982 at the Radisson Plaza. There were 12 rounds of one game per evening with a rest day between Rounds 6 and 7. The time control was 50 moves in 150 minutes. There were 440 players and a prize fund of $10,000 USD.

Andrew Soltis and William Martz shared first.

A computer had previously played in a US Open in Columbus 1977, but this year the Open saw four computers compete: Belle (Computer) (rated 2160) from Bell Labs, Chaos (Computer) (rated 1820) from the University of Michigan, and two dedicated chess computers from Fidelity Electronics, a popular maker of chess computers at the time. Being early days, the four computers managed a only slight lead over human opponents (23.5-20.5). The machines only played one game against each other, with CHAOS beating Fidelity CC-9 and all finished at or near even scores (BELLE 7/12, CHAOS 6/12, Prestige 6/12, Fidelity CC-9 5.5/12). BELLE forfeited several unplayed games and CHAOS had chronic problems with losses on time. A modest start compared to the modern day when computers are not only barred from competing in human tournaments, but are so strong that they killed the adjourned game and are the cause of various anti-cheating policies.

Odd things happen at large tournaments. In Round 8, bats got into one of the playing rooms through a ventilation shaft. Seeing the last-round pairings, a Class C player in contention for the class prize objected to being paired with a stronger opponent than his rivals. When the tournament director was unsympathetic to his pleas, the player grabbed the pairing cards and fled the room. Confronted, he attempted to start a fistfight, whereupon he was ejected from the tournament.

The real race for the top spots at the US Open usually begins around midway through the event. Top players get progressively stronger opponents as long as they continue to win and key games usually begin to occur in the second half. Marfia quotes long-time Open participant Arthur Bisguier to the effect of "second half points count more than first-half points." After four rounds, there were about a dozen perfect scores, but going into Round 6, there were only four perfect scores. The top four all drew: Martz versus Soltis, and Weaver versus Bisguier. Experts Levine and Moscatelli won their games to join the leaders at 5.5.

Although there were no perfect scores after six rounds, plenty of players were within a half point of the lead. Things began to sort out soon; Weaver lost to Bradford and Moscatelli lost to Meyer. Soltis won while Bisguier and Martz drew, so after Round 7 Soltis and Meyer were in the lead at 6.5. Meyer had beaten Soltis in the previous year's US Open (J Meyer vs A Soltis, 1981) in an important late-round game that enabled Meyer to tie for 1st-5th. Soltis got his revenge in Round 8, and had the sole lead at 7.5. The group a half point back included Bisgiuer, Bradford, Baczynskyj, and Martz. In Round 9, Soltis beat Bradford, Bisguier beat Baczynskyj, and Meyer beat Martz. Soltis was a half point ahead of Bisguier, who was a half point ahead of Meyer, Unger, Gogel, and Katrein. In Round 10, Soltis and Bisguier drew. This allowed a number of players to catch up with Bisguier and get within a half point of Soltis: Unger, Martz, Watson, Bradford, Baczynskyj, Shapiro, and Rose. In Round 11, Soltis drew with Unger, Watson beat Bisguier, Rose won against Meyer, and Bradford beat Shapiro. Soltis was still in the lead, but Bradford, Rose, Watson, and Unger were all just a half point behind. In the last round, Soltis drew easily with Watson and Martz beat Rose. Bradford and Unger drew, so that left Soltis and Martz tied for 1st-2nd. Tied for 3rd-6th were Bradford, Watson, Bisguier, and Unger, an unknown 2200 player from Minnesota.

event coverage
 <Chess Life> Dec 1982, p. 16-21
Marfia, J. and Watson, J. (1982) <The Annotated Open: St. Paul 1982>

1-2 Andrew Soltis, William Martz $1650 USD each

3-6 John Watson, Arthur Bisguier, Joe Bradford, Tom Unger $566.66 USD each

7-14th Boris Baczynskyj, Curt Brasket, Dan Shapiro, David Glueck, Ed Zelkind, Matthew Katrein, John Rose, John Greene $96.87 USD each

Candidate Master (2000-2199) $66.66 USD each

S. Myreng, D. Levine, E. McCormick, P. Johnson, M. Plum, B. Fortado, A. Martin, M. Merado, L. Quigley

Category I (1800-1999) $66.66 USD each

A. Metrick, Michael Tornes, M. Zvilus, C. Fenner, W. Sternberg, Mike Brown, S. Towbin, K. McHugh, Jim Chappell

Category II (1600-1799) $150 USD each

S. Basson, A. Buckbee, I. Abramovich, B. Chapman

Category III (1400-1599) $200 USD each

D. Hanson, D. Larson, J. Gray

Category IV (1200-1399) $150 USD each

T. Ho, P. Hanke, R. Paulson, D. Larson, S. Welch

Category V (1000-1199) $133.33 USD each

D. Altrowitz, J. Bayard, E. Olson

Unrated $91.66 USD each

J. David, D. Deeth, R. Vogel