2009 Washington State Championship

The 2009 Washington State Championship / Premier / Invitational chess tournaments were conducted as round-robins the weekends of February 7-8 and 14-15-16, 2009 in Redmond and Bellevue as detailed below. Rounds began at 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM on the weekends, and at 5:00 PM on President's Day, Monday, February 16.

There is a requirement that each player must annotate at least one game and submit it to the tournament director. Prizes will not be paid until this small obligation is completed. These notes will be used in Northwest Chess Magazine so that the Championship event while serving primarily the best players, may also be a service to the main membership.

2009 Washington State Championship

Introduction to the Players
Photos (if available) and "How the players got started in chess"

Schedule and Other Information

Schedule/Location:

Rounds 1-8: Feb. 7, 8, 14, 15 at 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM.
Microsoft Building 43 Cafeteria, NE 31st St and 156th Ave NE, Redmond, WA 98052.

Round 9: Feb. 16 at 5:00 PM.
Chess4Life Center, 13555 Bel-Red Rd, Suite 200, Bellevue, WA 98005.

Updates:

  • Fred Kleist was the TD for all three sections, of which the Championship and Premier will be FIDE rated. (All sections will be USCF rated.)

  • The initial prize funds for the Championship and Premier were guaranteed by the WCF, and increased based on donations.

  • Games were unfortunately not broadcast live this year, however PGN files will be made available.

Pairings

The drawing of lots took place Monday evening, February 2.

Here is the pairings schedule for the rounds in each section. This is from the Berger tables.
See the cross tables below for the players corresponding to each pairing number.
Rd 1 - 1:10 2:9 3:8 4:7 5:6
Rd 2 - 10:6 7:5 8:4 9:3 1:2
Rd 3 - 2:10 3:1 4:9 5:8 6:7
Rd 4 - 10:7 8:6 9:5 1:4 2:3
Rd 5 - 3:10 4:2 5:1 6:9 7:8
Rd 6 - 10:8 9:7 1:6 2:5 3:4
Rd 7 - 4:10 5:3 6:2 7:1 8:9
Rd 8 - 10:9 1:8 2:7 3:6 4:5
Rd 9 - 5:10 6:4 7:3 8:2 9:1

Championship

The Championship has been registered and FIDE rated.
Titles: GM = Grandmaster, IM = International Master, FM = FIDE Master,
NM = National Master, LM = USCF Life Master, WGM = Woman Grandmaster.

Championship
FM Costin Cozianu 2566
FM Michael Lee 2374
WGM Katerine Rohonyan 2335
FM Ignacio Perez 2311 (seed)
FM William Schill 2246 (seed)
NM Curt Collyer 2241 (seed)
NM Harley Greninger 2236
NM Joshua Sinanan 2227
Andy May 2144 (seed)
Howard Chen 2039 (seed)

Avg rating: 2272
Prize Fund: $3,500
1st Alternate: FM David Bragg 2227

Congratulations to FM Costin Cozianu,
our new Washington State chess champion!
Costin was the highest rated played in the event, but trailed Michael Lee by 1/2 point going into the final round. Costin pulled it out with a win over Howard Chen, while Michael lost to Katerine Rohonyan. Michael Lee and Curt Collyer (the winner of the 2008 Premier) tie for second place with 6.5.

Premier

The Premier has been registered and FIDE rated.

Congratulations to Viktors Pupols, winner of the Premier!
Vik now qualifies to play for the championship again in 2010, nearly 50 years after he first won the state championship in 1961! Amazing! See the Wikipedia article on Viktors Pupols.

LM Viktors Pupols 2208
NM Michael MacGregor 2200
FM Paul Bartron 2131
Dereque Kelley 2121
Alex Guo 2071
Geoffrey Gale 2038 (seed)
Allen Smith 2025
Kerry Xing 1996 (seed)
Elston Cloy 1961
Nathan Lee 1855 (seed)

Avg rating: 2061
Prize Fund: $1,000

1st Alternate: Alan Bishop 2072
Withdrew due to schedule conflict - Michael Wang 2097

Average rating: 2108
Prize Fund: $1,000

The Premier has been registered and FIDE rated.

 

Invitational

Chris Kalina 1945
Peter Watts 1935
Michael Wang 1932
Duane Polich 1913
Michael Hosford 1884
Nick Pazderic 1856
Dan Mathews 1839 (substitute for Casey Fleck)
Eddie Chang 1832
Sterling Kolde 1822
Greg Prentice 1800

Avg rating: 1876
Prize Fund: $500

Brilliancy Prizes: $300 ($100 for best game in each section, judged by FM David Bragg, FM Marcel Milat, and WFM Chouchanik Airapetian)

Prize distribution (each section): 1st 45%, 2nd 25%, 3rd 15%, 4th 10%, 5th 5%

 

Organizers: Dan Mathews (WCF Tournament Coordinator), Duane Polich (WCF President) and Josh Sinanan (WCF Vice President). Thank you for your service to chess in Washington State.

Look for a full report in the April issue of NORTHWEST CHESS.

Previous WA chess championships: List of winners (includes links to event summary pages).