2020 Washington State Championship
2020 Washington State Championship / Premier / Invitational / Challengers
The 2020 Washington State Championship / Premier / Invitational / Challengers chess tournaments were conducted as round-robins the weekends of February 8-9 and 15-17, 2020 in Kirkland as detailed below. Rounds begin at 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM on the weekends, and at 5:00 PM on President's Day, Monday, February 17.
Congratulations to all the section winners - WIM Megan Lee (Championship), WFM Chouchanik Airapetian (Premier), Advaith Vijayakumar (Invitational) and Erin Bian (Challengers).
Four Sections! Format: Four invitation-only 10-player Round Robins by rating: Championship, Premier, Invitational, and Challengers. The field of each section was determined by seeding and by the highest rated players to respond to an invitation based on the January 2020 U.S. Chess rating list. All sections are dual U.S. Chess and FIDE rated. Fred Kleist was the TD for all four sections. Note that the Challengers section was reduced to seven players due to withdraws.
2020 Washington State Championship
Time control: 40/2, SD/30; d10.
Entry Fee: Championship/Premier: Free, Invitational: $150, Challengers: $125.
Schedule: Rounds 1-8: Feb. 8, 9, 15, 16 at 10 AM and 5 PM. Round 9: Feb. 17 (President's Day) at 5 PM.
Site: Pacific Northwest Chess Center, 12020 113th Ave NE #C-200, Kirkland, WA 98034.
Prize Fund: The initial prize fund for each section is guaranteed by the WCF and may be increased based on donations. Championship: $1500, Premier: $1000, Invitational: $750, Challengers: $500. Prize distribution (each section): 1st 45%, 2nd 25%, 3rd 15%, 4th 10%, 5th 5%. Brilliancy Prizes: $400 ($100 for best game in each section). The winner of the Championship section receives the title of Washington State Champion. Plaques awarded to the winners of each section.
Drawing of lots: Feb. 1 at the Orlov Chess Academy in Greenlake. Attendance was optional, though encouraged.
Byes: Since this is a prestigious round robin, there were no byes or rescheduling of games allowed in any of the sections. All games must be played on site under TD supervision at the scheduled round times.
Seeds: (note not all accept invitation; see below for actual player fields for each event)
Championship: IM Michael Lee (State Champion), NM Kyle Haining (Open Champion), FM Anthony He (Championship Runner-up), WIM Megan Lee (Challenger's Cup Champion), NM Kyle Haining (Premier Champion), Daniel Shubin (Junior Closed Champion).
Premier: Stan Kitsis (Premier Runner-up), Wenyang Du (Invitational Champion), Teddy Roberts (President's Cup Champion), (Junior Open Champion), WIM Megan Lee (Women’s Champion).
Invitational: Daniel Shubin (Invitational Runner-up), Brandon Jiang (Challengers Champion).
Challengers: Jeffrey Yan (Challengers Runner-up), plus a WCF nominee.
Registration: Invited players were requested to register online via online registration, or reply to the email they received. The deadline to reply was Friday, Jan. 31.
Tournament flyer: https://nwchess.com/calendar/2020%20WA%20State%20Championship.pdf.
Questions? Josh Sinanan, WCF President, (206) 769-3757, joshsinanan@gmail.com.
Brilliancy prizes - See the 2020 WA State Championship Brilliancy Prizes report available after the event. (The report may be published in NWC magazine.)
Schedule and Other Information
Schedule/Location: See above.
Requests/Updates:
Please arrive at PNWCC on Saturday morning by 9:45 a.m. for a mandatory players meeting in which Fred will remind us of the FIDE rules. All players must be present by 10:00 a.m. or may risk forfeiting round 1 and being withdrawn from the tournament.
Boards, sets, scoresheets, and digital clocks will be provided. Please bring an extra set/clock for skittles and game analysis.
We kindly ask that each player send a brief chess bio with picture for publication in the March issue of Northwest Chess. Please send it to Josh Sinanan or Jeff Roland (editor@nwchess.com) by Feb 10.
The group photos for all sections (except Challengers) were taken on Sunday 2/16 at 4:30 p.m. prior to round 8. Players were requested to dress nicely.
Pairings
Pairings were released after the drawing of lots on Feb. 1 at the Orlov Chess Academy.
Here is the pairings schedule for the rounds in each section. This is from the Berger tables.
See the crosstables 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 is registered and FIDE rated. Titles: IM = International Master, FM = FIDE Master, NM = US Chess National Master, WIM = Woman International Master. Latest pre-tournament US Chess ratings shown below.
The winner of the Championship section receives the title of Washington State Champion.
Note: There was an appeal regarding the result of the Lee - Schill game, which was settled by a WCF committee. Subsequent appeals with US Chess and FIDE changed the scoring, but did not affect the prizes or positions. All prizes have been paid.
Average rating: 2227
Prize Fund: $1,500
Premier
The Premier is registered and FIDE rated.
Titles: NM = US Chess National Master, WFM = Woman FIDE Master. Latest pre-tournament US Chess ratings shown below.
The winner of the Premier section qualifies for the next state championship tournament.
Average rating: 2051
Prize Fund: $1,000
Invitational
Congratulations to Invitational champion, Wenyang Du, who was also the lowest rated in the section going into the tournament!
The Invitational is registered and FIDE rated.
Latest pre-tournament US Chess ratings shown below.
The winner of the Invitational section qualifies for the next state premier tournament.
Average rating: 1914
Prize Fund: $750
Challengers
Congratulations to Challengers champion, Brandon Jiang!
The Challengers is registered and FIDE rated.
Titles: WCM = Woman Candidate FIDE Master. Latest pre-tournament US Chess ratings shown below.
Average rating: 1696
Prize Fund: $500
Alternates: none.
Organizers: Josh Sinanan (WCF President). Thank you for your service to chess in Washington State.