2023 Washington State Championship

2023 Washington State Championship / Premier / Invitational / Challengers

The 2023 Washington State Championship / Premier / Invitational chess tournaments were conducted as round-robins the holiday weekend of February 11-12 & 18-20, 2023, online via Chess.com, as detailed below. Rounds began as noted under "Schedule" below.

Format: Four invitation-only 10-player Round Robins by rating: Championship, Premier, Invitational, and Challengers. The field of each section will be determined by seeding and by the highest rated players to register based on the highest (of current Northwest, January 2023 US Chess Regular supplement, or current FIDE rating). All sections will be Northwest, US Chess, and FIDE tri-rated.

Time control: 40/120, SD/30; +10. Late default: 60 minutes.

Entry Fee: Championship/Premier: Free. Invitational: $175, Challengers: $150. Note: For Championship and Premier, a $450 deposit via check, cash, or Zelle before the start of round 1 is required, to be refunded upon successful completion of all 9 rounds.

Schedule: Rds. 1-8: Feb. 11, 12, 18, 19 @ 10 AM and 5 PM. Rd. 9: Feb. 20 (President’s Day) @ 5 PM. Drawing of lots: Feb. 4 @ 10 PM at the Orlov Academy in Greenlake. Attendance is optional, though encouraged.

Site: online via Chess.com.

Prize Fund: The initial prize fund for each section is guaranteed by the WCF and will be increased based on donations. Championship: $1500, Premier: $1250, Invitational: $1000, Challengers: $750. Prize distribution (each section): 1st 45%, 2nd 25%, 3rd 15%, 4th 10%, 5th 5% Best Annotated Game Prizes: $400 ($100 for best annotated game in each section) The winner of the Championship section receives the title of WA State Champion.

Byes: Since this is a prestigious round robin, there will be 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. Players who drop out of the event will be ineligible play for the next two years and will forfeit their entry fee/deposit.

Seeds: (note not all accept invitation; see below for actual player fields for each event)

Championship: WIM Megan Lee (State Champion), Ananth Gottumukkala (Open Champion), WFM Anne-Marie Velea (Championship Runner-up), FM Tian Sang (Challenger's Cup Champion), CM Nikash Vemparala (Premier Champion), Ryan Min (Junior Closed Champion), Pranav K. Anoop (WA Class Master Section qualifier).

Premier: NM Rushaan Mahajan (Championship 3rd Place), Yiding Lu (Premier Runner-up), Ted Wang (Invitational Champion), TBD (Junior Open Champion), WFM Chouchanik Airapetian (Women’s Champion), Vidip Kona (Winter Classic qualifier), Yiding Lu (WA Class Expert qualifier).

Invitational: WCM Erin Bian (Premier 3rd Place), Edward Cheng (Invitational Runner-up), Daniel Wang (Challengers Champion), FM John Readey (Senior Champion), FM Joseph Levine (President's Cup Champion), Brent Baxter (WA Class U2000 qualifier).

Challengers: Anand Gupta (Invitational 3rd Place), Haituka Anandkumar (Challengers Runner-up), Travis Olson (WA Open qualifier), Amana Demberel (Winter Classic qualifier), Shuyi Han (WCF Nominee), TBD (WA Class B Section qualifier).

Memberships: Current US Chess and WCF membership required. Memberships must be paid at time of registration.

Registration: Online via online registration. Please confirm your ability to play on the website. We typically have several high rated players decline, and many times we reach down into the 1700s. We will take the top 40 players who have met the 2-event activity requirement and confirm + pay their entry fee by the deadline of February 4th.

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