This in from Jim O'Kelley:

Defending champion Mike French of St. Louis rallied in the third round to capture the 2008 CODCon Open title, 276 points to 274. Mike was in a four-way tie for third going into the final round with Matt Sundstrom, Andrew Bartlein, Thom Comstock and Matt Sundstrom.

Matt, playing France on the first board, finished his game first, topping his board by 10 centers to grab the lead from tournament leader Christian Kline. But Mike grabbed a board-topping 11 centers in his game, which ended in a five-way draw to Matt's six-way. The 2-point differential between five-ways and six-ways proved to be the
difference.

Christian Kline fell to third place, with 252 points. Eric Brown, who didn't play on Sunday and was in second going into the final round, finished fourth, with 234.

Andrew Bartlein of the Milwaukee Mafia, who last year finished second, was fifth with 204 points, and Thom Comstock grabbed sixth with 182. Kevin O'Kelly rounded out the top board with 174, just 2 points ahead of eighth-place finisher Thomas Haver of Columbus. Again, draw size was the difference.

The Best Country awards were:

Austria: Andrew Bartlein
England: Mike French
France: Christian Kline
Germany: Mike French
Italy: Thom Comstock
Russia: Thomas Have
Turkey: Matt Sundstrom

Here are the final standings for the 19-player, six-board tournament:

Place Player Total
1 Mike French 276
2 Matt Sundstrom 274
3 Christian Kline 252
4 Eric Brown 234
5 Andrew Bartlein 204
6 Thom Comstock 182
7 Kevin O`Kelly 174
8 Thomas Haver 172
9 Grant Smith 142
10 Dan Burgess 119
11 Paul Pignotti 107
12 Alex Wyler 94
13 Craig Reges 42
14 Rob Rossi 20
15 Karunesh Singh 7
16 James Barr 6
16 Greg Duenow 6
16 Jason Raynovich 6
19 Rob Chase 5

Thanks to all the players and especially tournament committee members Greg Duenow, Kevin O'Kelly and Thom Comstock for a great event.

Jim O'Kelley
2008 CODCon Open Tournament Director