2015 Washington State Championship

The 2015 Washington State Championship / Premier / Invitational chess tournaments were conducted as round-robins the weekends of February 7-8 and 14-16, 2015 in Seattle 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.

Congratulations to Washington State chess champion Roland Feng!
Roland Feng recently became Washington's youngest ever State Chess Champion (14 years, 16 weeks, 2 days) on Monday, February 16. He scored 6.5/9 to take clear first in the 10-player round-robin held during the first two weekends in February at the Seattle Chess Club. As a result of this strong performance, Roland's FIDE rating has climbed to 2322, for which he is now a "FM (FIDE Master) elect," and should be awarded the official FM title soon! Over the course of nine rounds, Roland was undefeated and scored victories against FM David Bragg (2200), LM Viktors Pupols (2200), NM Samuel He (2227), and FM Curt Collyer (2313). Congratulations Roland! - Reported by WCF President Josh Sinanan. Photo: Roland poses with the championship trophy and award plaque.

Format: Three invitation-only 10-player Round Robins by rating: Championship, Premier, and Invitational. The field of each section was determined by seeding and by the highest rated players to respond to an invitation based on the January 2015 USCF rating list. All sections were dual USCF and FIDE rated. Fred Kleist was the TD for all three sections.

Time control: 40/2, SD/1 with a 5-second delay. Boards and sets are provided at the tournament, but not clocks.

Entry Fee: Free!

Schedule: Rounds 1-8: Feb. 7, 8, 14, 15 at 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Round 9: Feb. 16 (President's Day) at 5:00 PM.

Site: Seattle Chess Club, 2150 N 107 St. Seattle, WA 98133.

Prize Fund: The initial prize fund for each section is guaranteed by the WCF, and will be increased based on donations. Championship: $1,500 (increased to $3,200), Premier: $1,000, Invitational: $500. Prize distribution (each section): 1st 45%, 2nd 25%, 3rd 15%, 4th 10%, 5th 5%. Brilliancy Prizes: $300 ($100 for best game in each section). The winner of the Championship section receives the title of Washington State Champion.

Drawing of lots: Feb. 1st at 12 noon at Northgate Mall food court. Attendance was optional, though encouraged.

Byes: Since this is a prestigious round robin, there will be no half-points byes or rescheduling of games allowed in any of the sections. All games must be played at SCC at the scheduled round times.

Seeds:
Championship: NM Nat Koons (State Champion), NM Roland Feng (Open Champion), FM Curt Collyer (Challenger's Cup Champion), FM Bill Schill (Premier Champion), NM Daniel He (Championship Runner-up and Junior Closed Champion).
Premier: NM Michael MacGregor (Premier Runner-up), Anath Gottumukkala (Junior Open Champion).
Invitational: LM Viktors Pupols (Senior Champion) - qualified for championship section instead based on rating.

Registration: Invited players please register online via online registration, or reply to the email you received.
Note: registration is now complete and the fields are set!

Questions? Josh Sinanan, WCF President, (206) 769-3757, joshsinanan@gmail.com.

Brilliancy prizes - Championship: Roland Feng $100 and Costin Cozianu $100 are co-winners for their wins against Collyer and D. He, respectively. Premier: Kevin Gafni $100 for his win over James Colasurdo. Invitational: Alan Bishop $100 for his win over Ryan Ackerman. Details will be published in the magazine.

Here are the fields of the Championship, Premier and Invitational sections.
(See below for results and crosstables.)

Update (2/6): Unfortunately the defending State Champion Nat Koons had to withdraw from the Championship section at the last minute due to a scheduling conflict. Please note that Bragg has replaced Koons in the Championship, Colasurdo has replaced Bragg in the Premier, and Olson has replaced Colasurdo in the Invitationa

Schedule and Other Information

Schedule/Location:
See above.

Requests/Updates:

• We kindly ask that each player in the Championship/Premier send a brief bio with picture for publication in the March issue of Northwest Chess.

• Please arrive by 9:45 a.m. on Saturday morning (2/7) before the first round.

• The group photos for both sections will be taken on Sunday 2/15 at 4:30 p.m. prior to round 8. Please dress nicely!

• We ask that prize winners please annotate at least one game for Northwest Chess magazine.

Invitational

Congratulations to Invitational champion Chouchanik Airapetian!

The Invitational has been registered and will be FIDE rated.
Latest pre-tournament USCF ratings shown below.

Badamkhand Norovsambuu 2056
Chouchanik Airapetian 2017
Alan Bishop 2000
David Arganian 2000
Anthony He 1974 - replaced by Ryan Ackerman
Michael Hosford 1954
Neo Olin 1910
Joseph Kiiru 1891
Vikram Ramasamy 1880
Travis Olson 1860
Average rating: 1954
Prize Fund: $500

Alternates:
1st: David Dussome 1861
2nd: Mark Smith 1860
3rd: Frederick Davis 1850
4th: Ryan Ackerman 1842
5th: Mary Kuhner 1816

Average rating: 1914
Prize Fund: $750

Organizers: Josh Sinanan (WCF President). Thank you for your service to chess in Washington State.

Look for a full report in the April issue of NORTHWEST CHESS, which should be in subscriber's hands by early April. For subscription information, please see our magazine info page.