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As a chess player and researcher at the University of Northern Colorado I am exploring the psychological nature of chess as well as the social benefits afforded chess enthusiasts. The results from this study will be published in a popular press chess magazine. We invite you to participate in this study to help further the intellectual pursuit of chess. The questionnaire takes approximately 12 to 15 minutes to complete and is devoted entirely to chess. Additional information is available on the 1st page of the questionnaire which can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=oH0YxNJnN_2f6wntfNHvOwDQ_3d_3d Thank you, in advance, for your help on this project. All the best in chess! James Gould, Ph.D. University of Northern Colorado |
Area Event Updates
Check out several events coming up in
the next couple of months by clicking on the Area Events link above!
MAY DAY PARTY
A nice crowd turned out May 1 for a night of Blitz and a celebration of Jim Waugh's 79th birthday (actually April 29). We had birthday cake in honor of our Mr. Coffee! Jim first started attending club meetings in 1955!!! We can all only hope to play so long.
Ten of those attendance joined in a night of round robin blitz. Pat Herbers topped the field with 8.5 (of 9). James Stripes was second with 7.0, and Alex Chow scored 6.5
Your editor is out of town the next two weeks, so this site will not be updated again until May 16. In the meantime, please turn out May 8 & 15 for the Michael Anderson memorial quads -- a double round robin G/30 event directed by Dave Griffin.
BARTON WINS IEO AGAIN!
For the second year in a row, Paul Bartron won Spokane's oldest and longest running weekend tournament, the Inland Empire Open, with a 4.5 score. He claimed $180 in first place prize money. Second place (splitting $230) was shared by Chris Kalina and Phil Weyland, who trailed Bartron by 1/2 point.
Michael Murray topped the Class A category. The Class B prizes were won by Steve Buck and John Walton. Taylor Coles was tops in Class C. The first place prize in Class D was won by Missoula's Tim Kennedy, who also bagged the biggest upset prize. Second place in Class D went to Paul Ramer.
This tourney, first played in 1954, was held at the Schoenberg Center at Gonzaga University. There were 24 players competing in this year's event. The cross table for the tourney can be found on our Inland Empire Open page (link at left).
TAXING QUADS COMPLETE
Chris Copeland defeated Alton Blue in a April 24 make-up game to win Quad A with a 2.0 score. There were 15 players at club for a night of free play prior to the Inland Empire Open. In earlier weeks:
The final week of the Taxing Quads on April 17 did not see the event come to an end. The other quads were completed. Fourth seed Ben Blue swept to a perfect score in winning Quad B. Quad C saw a three way tie (2.0 each) between Pat Kirlin, Taylor Roberts, and Jim Waugh. There was a $50 prize for each quad section. A total of 20 players dropped by club Thursday night.
Week two of the Taxing Quads on April 10 saw the lower-seeded player win five of six games! Winners included Alton Blue and Chris Copeland in Quad A, Ben Blue and Ron Weyland in Quad B, and Taylor Roberts and Jim Waugh in Quad C. Alton leads Quad A with 1.5 points; Ben and Ron have 2.0 scores in Quad B; Taylor is alone on top of Quad C with a perfect 2.0 score. In addition to the quad players, an additional ten folks turned out at club for free play action.
The April 3 meeting saw the Taxing Quads begin its three week run. Twelve players joined the event; another six were in attendance. In Quad A, law student Peter Ojala drew with Alton Blue, while Ryan Ackerman defeated Chris Copeland. Quad B saw Ben Blue defeat Tom Buckingham and Ron Weyland top Ted Baker. In Quad C, Pat Kirlin beat Jim Waugh and Taylor Roberts defeated David Blue.
Prior to the meeting, several club members took part in setting the club's schedule through the summer. An update on events through mid-September can be found on our "Club Meetings" page (link at left).
SUMMER TOURNEYS SET
Energetic tournament organizer Dave Griffin has scheduled several summer events that are now listed on our Area Events link at left. First up on May 31-June 1 is the Spokane Junior Open. That is followed four weeks later by the Qualchan Quads on June 28. The Quads will be held in conjunction with the Spokane City Championship Contenders tourney, an invitational event held June 28-29. Both tourneys will be played at the Spokane Valley Library. Finally, the 2nd Spokane Falls Open will be held at Riverpark Square July 12-13. The City Championship match will take place that same weekend between defending champion Dave Sprenkle and the winner of the Contenders tourney. Complete details are on the Area Events page.
CHESS SURVEY
A professor and chess enthusiast at the University of Northern Colorado has developed a survey that is being used to assess the strength of the enthusiasm/devotion of modern chess players. Your editor has taken the survey, which consists of about 60 questions, and can report that it very easy (and a bit repetitious). If you are interested in taking part, here is what professor Gould has to say:
COPELAND TOPS CLASS IN RENO!!
Spokane chess alum Daniel Copeland, a freshman at Reed College in Oregon, won the C Section of the Far West Open in Reno over Easter Weekend. Daniel scored 5.5 in the six round event to win the section outright and claim the $650 first prize! Proud father Chris Copeland scored 3.5 and finished 11th. As an added bonus, Chris got interviewed in this week's Voice section of the Spokesman-Review (look on page 2) and was able to trumpet Daniel's exploits. Way to go!!!
ACKERMAN WINS MARCH MADNESS
Ryan Ackerman topped the field in the March Madness game/45 tourney that was played March 20 and March 27. Ryan gave up a third round draw to Dave Griffin en route to winning the event with a 3.5 score. Griffin and Alton Blue finished second with 2.5 scores. Ben and David Blue each scored 2.0 to win the under 1400 prize.
Ten of the seventeen players who turned out March 13 took part in the Blitz tournament. John Julian won all nine of his games to claim first place, while James Stripes finished second with a 8-1 score.
Ten players turned out at club March 6, and eight of them competed in a G/20 quick tourney. Pat Herbers and Kevin Korsmo won the event with 3.5-.5 scores. They shared the first ($20) and second place ($15) prizes. Four players shared the U/1500 prize: newcomer Tom Bingham, Chris Copeland, Taylor Roberts, and Jim Waugh. Each scored 2 points. James Stripes directed the event. A cross table will be posted on our Recent Results page later this weekend.
GRAND PRIX UPDATED THROUGH WINTER
The club Grand Prix standings have been updated through games of March 20. Defending Grand Prix champion John Julian retains his lead, holding off the challenge of Dave Meliti. Complete standings and category by category breakdown can be seen on our Grand Prix page (link at left).
FINAL SCHOLASTIC
WEEKEND
The last two local scholastic events of the season were played March 7 & 8. The GSL Team Championship played at Gonzaga Prep on March 7 was won by St. Georges. The Dragons made their first appearance in the event a memorable one by winning all three matches. Mead and Gonzaga Prep's second team finished second with 2-1 match records, but Mead easily won the second place trophy on tie-break.
March 8 saw the annual Dragonslayer played at St. Georges. A complete story by tournament organizer Chris Copeland and the cross tables, supplied by Dr. John Cambareri, can be seen on our Scholastic Events link at left.
DONALDSON & HAESSLER SHARE CROWN
RECORD SETTING COLLYER MEMORIAL
Donaldson sweeps simul
The 16th installment of Spokane's biggest weekend tournament -- the Dave Collyer Memorial -- drew a record 67 players February 23-24, 2008. John Donaldson and Carl Haessler shared the crown with a score of 4.5. The two met in the final round and reached a quick draw to share the title. Third place was a four-way tie involving David Bragg, Josh Sinanan, Chris Kalina, and Michael Wang. Each scored 4.0 and received $100 as their share of the combined third place, expert prize, and the two Class A prizes. Wang won an additional $100 donated by the Gary Younker Foundation for the highest score by a player aged 18 or under. The Kirkland youngster played like a seasoned veteran and won his share of third place by winning the very last game of the tourney, a tight queen vs. rook endgame with little time left on the respective clocks.
The other winners included Alex Chow, Cyrus Desmarais, and Casey Fleck in Class B. Their 3.5 scores shared the $175 in class prize money in the largest section in the tournament. The Class C prizes were shared by Ryan Ackerman and Dave Griffin, each of whom scored 3.0. The Class D and under prize was won by Cameron Leslie, making his first tournament appearance in the region and his first rated event in five, with a score of 3.5. The second place prize in the section went to Missoula's Brett Thomas-Dejongh with a 2.5 score. Brett played excellent chess the entire tournament and drew an exciting game with Michael Wang Saturday night.
As typical, there were many upsets in this always strong tournament. The top upset went to Helena's Bill Spencer with his last round victory over a player rated 688 points above him! The second upset was nearly as large. Robbin Arnett of Yakima bagged a player 651 points higher!! Each won $100 for his upset efforts.
Despite the upsets, the tournament went pretty much to form the first day. The top four seeds had the only perfect 3.0 scores after the first day's action: John Donaldson, David Bragg, Carl Haessler, and Josh Sinanan. The four squared off on the top two boards in round four action Sunday morning. Donaldson defeated Sinanan while Haessler topped Bragg. That set the stage for the final round match up. In their previous meeting in the 2000 Collyer Memorial, Haessler had defeated Donaldson. This time there was not a protracted battle despite the fact that the Gary Younker Foundation had offered a $200 bonus to any player achieving a perfect 5.0 score.
The Collyer Memorial is jointly sponsored by the Spokane Chess Club and the Gary Younker Foundation in honor of past Spokane Chess Club presidents Dave Collyer and Gary Younker. Gary started the tournament in 1993 in honor of Dave. After Gary died of cancer in 2001, several of his friends formed the Gary Younker Foundation to promote chess in eastern Washington, with a special emphasis on youth chess. The Foundation has backed each of the subsequent Collyer Memorial tournaments, as well as other regional events. Several players made donations to the foundation, including Bill Spencer who donated his $100 upset prize!
The weekend kicked off with Donaldson presenting a lecture February 22 at the Liberty Cafe on the first floor of Auntie's Bookstore, on the pending Gata Kamsky semi-final championship match. The lecture was followed by a 18 board simul. Donaldson was perfect for the second year in a row, putting away the competition in about 2 1/2 hours.
The tournament was played at the St. Anne's Children's Center, W. 25 Fifth Avenue South, Spokane. The site drew plenty of fine reviews from the players and will be used again for next year's Collyer Memorial.
Second round action, with top boards in foreground, compliments
of Adam Attwood.
MORE FROM MOSCOW
Our Russian correspondent, Jerry Morton, has recently forwarded some photos from the 2007 Tal Memorial in Moscow. You can see some of the new shots on our "Moscow Man" page (link at left). Jerry, a Spokane chess club member currently working in Moscow, likes to take in the Russian chess scene and share his photos from the events. Check back regularly to see what he has sent us.
Jerry recently sent word that he will be unable to attend this year's Dave Collyer Memorial after traveling half-way around the world to take part in the past several. As consolation, he will instead be playing in the Moscow Open. Jerry reports that he is the lowest rated player by about 500 rating points! We will have to see how that turns out!!!
2009 STATE ELEMENTARY CHAMPIONSHIP
Spokane will host the 2009 Washington State Elementary Championships at the Spokane Convention Center April 24-25, 2009. James Stripes spearheaded the efforts to land the event. Further details on this event will be shared on this site as they become available.
Spokane
Chess Newsletter
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