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 1981, Palo Alto

The 82nd US Open was held in Palo Alto, CA, 2-14 Aug 1981 at the Hyatt Palo Alto. It was the traditional 12-round schedule with one game per evening and a rest day between Rounds 6 and 7. The time control was 50 moves in 150 minutes. There were 704 players and the prize fund was $16,500 USD.

Florin Gheorghiu, Larry Christiansen, Nick de Firmian, John Meyer, and Jeremy Silman shared 1st-5th.

Palo Alto saw six GMs, 4 IMs, one FM, and two WIMs. There were 67 players rated over 2200. In these large opens, top players usually need to win against the weaker opponents they face in early rounds if they are to maintain their chances for a top prize. In Round 3, Christiansen gave up a draw to Tomey (2150) and Gheorghiu gave up a draw to Orfalea (2153), so both had to chase the leaders. In Round 4, more titled players gave up draws to lower.-rated opponents: Tarjan to Snyder (2256), Kudrin to Radke (2261), and Bisguier to Hudson (2200). This left 17 players with perfect scores. Round 5 saw the first loss by a titled player with de Firmian losing to Gogel. The lead group was now down to five players: Biyiasas, Shirazi, Soltis, and Gogel. In Round 6, Biyiasas and Soltis drew and Shirazi beat Gogel. Gheorghiu drew against Rowley, putting him a full point off the lead.

In Round 7, Christiansen beat Shirazi and Gurevich beat Biyiasas. The lead group now consisted of Christiansen, Soltis, Gurevich, and Grefe. In Round 8, Christiansen won against Gurevich and Grefe beat Soltis. Gheorghiu, Silman, Meyer, Wada, and de Firmian all won to stay a half point behind the leaders. Round 9 saw Christiansen and Grefe draw, while Gheorghiu beat Silman. Wada lost to Tarjan while de Firmian drew with Meyer, All of this left Christiansen, Grefe, and Gheorghiu in the lead group with Tarjan, Meyer, Kudrin, Soltis, Burger, de Firmian, and Thinnsen a half point back. In Round 10, Gheorghiu and Grefe drew, while Christiansen won against Tarjan. Meyer beat Kudrin, Soltis won against Burger, and de Firmian beat Thinnsen. This left Christiansen in the lead with Gheorghiu, Grefe, Meyer, de Firmian, and Soltis a half point back.

One of the more costly errors happened in Round 11 in the game between Silman and Winslow. Winslow had a perpetual check and thought he had just made the time control. He then saw Silman's scoresheet, which indicated Winslow still had one move to make. Winslow began comparing the scoresheets and only discovered he had written a move twice after his flag fell. Silman went on to finish tied for 1-5 and Winslow finished out of the money altogether. Christiansen and Gheorghiu drew, while Meyer beat Soltis and deFirmian won against Grefe.

Going into the last round, Christiansen, deFirmian, and Meyer were tied for the lead. Five players were a half point behind: Gheorghiu, Silman, Biyiasas, Gurevich, and Gogel. Christiansen drew with deFirmian and Meyer drew with Biyiasas. Gheorghiu and Silman won their games, against Gurevich and Gogel, respectively, closing the half-point gap with the leaders, resulting in the five-way tie with Christiansen, deFirmian, Meyer, Gheorghiu, and Silman at 10-2.

event coverage
<Chess Life> Dec 1980, p. 24-31
Marfia, J. (1981) <The Annotated Open: 1981 US Open Palo Alta, California>

1-5 Florin Gheorghiu, Larry Christiansen, Nick de Firmian, John Meyer, Jeremy Silman $1850 USD each

6-13 James Tarjan, Sergey Kudrin, Peter Biyiasis, Andrew Soltis, Douglas Root, Michael Brooks, Robert Rowley, Doug McClintock $256.25 USD each

Candidate Master 2000-2199

1 Richard Dost $550 USD

2-8 David Weldon, Bill Chesney, Paul Zeigler, Robert Anderson, Edward Syrett, Arthur Wang, Peter Hess $64.29 USD each

Category I 1800-1999

1 Robert Bryan $500 USD each

2-3 Duffy Hepner, Boris Popov $187.50 USD each

Category II 1600-1799

1-2 Matthew Ng, David Cheyney $375 USD each

3-6 Mark Shulman, William Greer, Tyler Johnson, Donald Gordon $31.25 USD each

Category III 1400-1599

1 Earl Higgins $500 USD

2-3 Martin Bradshaw, Todd Rumpf $187.50 USD each

Category IV 1200-1399

1 Hilda Acevedo $500 USD

2 John Howard $250 USD

3-8 Steve Nelson, K.C. Holmes, Robert Cooper, Robert Peterson, Mark Ryan, John Katronis $20.84 USD each

Category V 1000-1199

1 Stella Monday $500 USD

2 Ken Webb $150 USD

3-5 Denise Mowrey, Anthony Hiran, Matthew Haws $25 USD each

Unrated

1-2 Edward Gastelu, Geofrey Strayer $75 USD each