The 47^th Western Open seemed snakebit. Almost no publicity attempts paid off for the event, ads were lost, regional magazine publication deadlines were missed, almost nothing worked out. As a result, the turnout was the lowest in recent memory.

In the middle of all this came a late email from IM Stanislav Smetankin: would the tournament allow him to play? With an IM (almost a GM, as Smetankin holds a FIDE rating of 2485 with 2 GM norms and is looking for a third) coming, the email campaign began, and the Open section was at least not empty, with 32 players — second highest attendence since the tournament was split into two sections.

Smetankin took first place with 4.5/5, giving a quick draw to State Junior champ Ashish Vaja in the last round to clinch clear first. Vaja, who was playing very well this week, ended up tied for 2-3 with local Expert Tom Mertins. This cleared the way for Brian Lilly, Oshkosh, to win the Expert prize while locals Jeremy Lynch and Paul Fricano tied with Madison's Joe Richards to win the under 2000 prizes.

This year the Reserve section was won by Siarhei Biareishyk, a student at Madison West High School with 4.5 points, the only mar on his perfect score being a draw given to teammate Fan Wu. The draw enabled Wu to tie with Patrick McElwee, Milwaukee, and Ben Roberts, Green Bay, for second place with 4 points.

Class C in the Reserve section was the most cosmopolitan, with Iceland's Arnar Sigurdsson tieing with Costa Rican Greivin Torrentes and Milwaukee's James Smith, all at 3 points. Class D was won by Steve Clipson, Madison, while Brookfield's Vignesh Somasundaram tied with Derek Jones (Bettendorf, Iowa) for second. Rhinelander's Matt Peacock won class E, a half-point ahead of second-place John Brandt.

The tournament was once again held in the Director's Rooms of the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Milwaukee Wisconsin.