Unit 143 has it first grand life master

CONGRATULATIONS!

	Grand Life Master Tom Kniest
Highest rank in the ACBL Grand LM Requirements One NABC Championship Win and 10,000 MPs
Tom has had TWO wins & 30 finishes in the “top ten”

Tom Kniest, two-timer winner of the Rockwell Mixed Pairs, passed 10,000
masterpoints at the 2011 Fall NABC in Seattle to become a Grand Life Master.
The rank requires the masterpoints plus at least one win in a nationally rated
championship with no upper masterpoint restrictions.

Kniest gives a lot of credit to his longtime partner, Karen Walker, of Champaign IL. Walker was Kniest’s partner in both Mixed Pairs wins. They have played together for 27 years. “I owe a lot of my success to that partnership,” he said. Kniest has 30 top-10 finishes in North American championships, including second in the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs in 1986 playing with Walker.
In Seattle, Kniest topped 10,000 masterpoints playing in the Wednesday-Thursday Knockout Teams, Bracket 1, with Tom Carmichael, Bill Arlinghaus, John Stiefel, Rich DeMartino and Jeff Roman.

Kniest recently retired after 30 years in private practice as a CPA. He and his wife, Donna, have three daughters: Rebecca, Jessica and Katrina.

Tom's achievement is also featured in the current issue of the District 8 Advocate.