Area Event Updates
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2010 DAVE COLLYER MEMORIAL
Donaldson & Malugu Win
John Donaldson and Satyajit Malugu won the 18th installment of Spokane's premiere chess event, the Dave Collyer Memorial, held February 27 & 28, 2010, at St. Anne's Children's Center in Spokane. The top seeds met in the final round and reached a draw after entering the early middle game without advantage to either party. The result set a final round trend as five of the top seven boards drew, most after extended play. For Donaldson, the title was the ninth win in eleven years. Malugu, a recent transplant to Bellevue from New Jersey, made his first appearance in the tourney.
A group of five finished one-half point back at 4.0 to claim third place. Steve Merwin (4.0) took the expert category prize, while the other four finishers split the third prize and the two Class A prizes: Cyrus Desmarais, Mark Havrilla, Jim Skovron, and Phil Weyland.
Three tied for the Class B prizes with 3.5 scores: Stephen Buck, Dan McCourt, and Jeremy Younker. The Class C prizes were shared by five players with 3.0 scores: Ben Blue, Bill McBroom, Jerry Morton, Aaron Nicoski, and Doug Sly. There was another three-way tie in the Class D/Unrated category, where 2.5 scores were posted by Bryant Baird, Jeremy Krasin, and Murray Strong. Murray also claimed the top upset prize ($100) after a strong first day showing when he drew with a Class B player and beat an expert (708 point upset) and a Class A player. The second biggest upset belonged to Pullman sixth grader Peter Schumaker (586 point upset). The two were nicely rewarded by the USCF: Murray's rating jumped 142 points, while Peter's climbed an even 100!
A total of 63 players took part, tying last's year tally as the second largest Collyer tourney. A large number of the participants were first timers at the event and we hope to see many of them back next year. Two players traveled quite far to play this year. Wayne Hatcher drove up from New Mexico to make another appearance in this event. Meanwhile, world traveler Jerry Morton, who has come from central Asia for two of the past Collyer tourneys, topped his previous travels by coming all the way from Australia this year! Way to go, Jerry!
This year's $1600 guaranteed prize fund was again supported by the Gary Younker Foundation, which was started in memory of long-time Spokane chess stalwart Gary Younker who founded this event in honor of his old friend, David Collyer. Friends of both regularly contribute to the foundation which promotes chess in eastern Washington. In addition to the Collyer tourney, the foundation recently backed the 2009 Washington Open and the 2009 Washington Elementary Chess Championships held in Spokane.
The cross table for the tourney is posted on the Collyer Memorial page (link at left).
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The weekend's festivities kicked off with IM John Donaldson giving a lecture and playing a simul on Friday evening at Riverpark Square's Kress Gallery. The lecture covered John's experiences at the world Team Championships in Turkey in January. John captained the U.S. squad to a surprising Silver Medal finish. John then took on 23 players in a simul, and managed to win 19 of the games in just over 2 hours of work! Travis Elisara, Cameron Leslie, and Dave Rowles all managed wins, while ten-year-old Hannah Merwin offered a draw after winning a piece off of the IM! He accepted and the youngster had a great memory for her scorebook.
March 5 & 6
FERRIS HIGH SCHOOL TEAM CHAMPIONS
Ferris (2.5) edged Lewis & Clark (2.0) to win the GSL team championship on March 5. The south hill schools ended Mead's (1.5) hopes of a repeat championship. Six schools competed in the event hosted by Gonzaga Prep. Rogers, North Central, and Prep finished tied for fourth with 1.0 scores. The Ferris team consisted of seniors Khoi Thai, Daniel Parkison, and Khai Le, junior Daniel Berg, and sophomore Montana Killpack.
Mead senior Ryan Ackerman was perfect (3.0) on board one to claim the trophy for the outstanding individual performance. LC's Alex Chow (board 2) and Will Dittman (board 4) were the perfect scores on their boards. Khai Le of Ferris was perfect on board 3, and Rogers senior Klint Minnameier was perfect on board five.
Black Knights' Joust
March 6
by Dr. James Stripes
The Black Knights’ Quest ended with an exciting sudden-death blitz game between two of the area’s top players. After drawing their round four game, and both winning their other four games, Alex Chow and Ryan Ackerman finished atop the 7-12 section with 4.5 each. All three of the tie-breaks failed to resolve the equality. They drew for colors, and Ackerman got White. Thus Ackerman started with five minutes and Chow with four, but Ackerman had to win. A draw would be a victory for Chow. The tough battle for advantage ended in a race to move faster; Ackerman had six seconds left when Chow’s clock expired. Ryan Ackerman succeeded in winning his third event in three days!
Ryan won a $50 gift card, while Alex took home $25 for second. Third place in 7-12 went to Nikolay Bulakh with 4.0. Two Idaho players and one from Pullman finished next with 3.5. Kairav Joshi and Peter Schumaker took home medals for their performance, while Savanna Naccarato won a $25 gift card for best player under 1300. Second place under 1300 was David Burke, who earned a $15 gift card. Trevor Joireman scored the biggest upset and took home the last of the gift cards.
The twenty-one player 7-12 section included two sixth graders, a second grader, and one kindergarten player. These young players averaged nearly three points each against the older kids.
Mead was the top high school, and Lincoln of Pullman the top middle school.
In the K-6 section, Lake Spokane prevailed over Arcadia. The top two schools finished with 15.5 each, but Lake Spokane had stronger tie-breaks so took home the first place trophy. Saint George’s settled for third for the first time this year (they usually win first).
Cyril Berndt was the only perfect 5.0 in the entire tournament, and was the Grand Champion for 4-6. One point behind him were Shay Hutyler, Jacob Gifford, and Drew Lindh, all winning trophies. Leading the pack of 3.0 finishers was the top fourth grader, Katie Thew. Also with 3.0 were Ali Hartley, Zeph Johnson, Jehan Ravasia, and Alexandra Elkins. Matt Nelson showed that he is becoming a stronger player by scoring the biggest upset. The 4-6 section had only a single draw among the forty-five games played.
In K-3, first grader Dawson Jury was the Grand Champion with 4.5. Close behind were Alex Herron and Nikhil Chaudhry with 4.0, taking the top two trophies for third grade. Shawn Lewis was the next in third grade with 3.5, and scored the biggest upset. Also finishing with 3.5 was Koh Micek. Sixth place overall with 3.0 in order of tie-breaks were Joshua Joireman, Augustus Beeler, and Daniel Arthurs. The top kindergarten player was Tariq Ravasia. There were quite a few draws in this section, many due to the young players not yet skilled in delivering checkmate
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Coming up on March 20 is the Dragonslayer -- St. Georges' final event. The flyer is posted on our Scholastic Events page.
Currently at Club
Quick Tournament on Tap Next
The club's March 11 & 18 meetings will feature a four-round G/29 tournament played over the two weeks. Contact Dave Griffin for information about playing.
There was a night of Blitz chess played March 4. Twelve of the sixteen players at club that evening took part in the round robin event. Ryan Ackerman was perfect, scoring 11 wins. Pat Herbers (10) and James Stripes (9) finished second and third.
WEYLAND IDAHO CHAMPION!
Our own Phil Weyland of Post Falls, currently a student at Boise State University, shared the Idaho Closed Championship title with a 5-1 score. The 42-player event was played February 13-15 in Boise. Proud papa Ron Weyland also played in the event and finished with a 3.0 score.
WINTER CHAMPIONSHIP:
Julian Wins Again
A familiar heading tells it all: John Julian is again the club champion. John won his final game in convincing fashion to finish with 4.5 points and claim the title again. James Stripes, who nicked John for a fourth round draw, finished clear second at 4.0 and won the over 1700 section prize. Third place at 3.5 was shared by Steve Brendemihl, Dave Griffin, and Doug Trainor. Steve and Dave split the 1500-1700 section prize, while Doug (whose provisional rating jumed 125 points) won the 1300 section prize. Ron Weyland (3.0) won the 1400 section prize. The under 1200 section prize was won by Jimmy DeRocher with a score of 2.0.
The cross table for the event is posted on our Club Championship page (link at left).
Previously this tourney:
There are no perfect scores after round four of the Winter Championship. James Stripes held tourney leader John Julian to a draw to eliminate the last perfect score in the event. John (3.5) maintains a half-point lead over James, Ryan Ackerman, Dave Griffin, and Kevin Korsmo. Ryan will play John and James will play Kevin in the final round action, which Dave is skipping to watch a WSU basketball contest. Stay tuned to see who wins!
The third round of the Winter Championship narrowed the leader board to one name: top seed John Julian has the only 3.0 score. Close behind in striking distance at 2.5 are Steve Brendemihl and James Stripes. Five others have 2.0. There were 26 at club this week, with 18 taking part in the tourney.
The second night of the club's Winter Championship was held January 28 with two draws and a bye knocking the list of perfect scores down from 8 to 2: top seed John Julian and eighth seed Loyd Willaford were the only players with 2.0 scores. Julian dispatched Kevin Korsmo, while Loyd topped Nikolay Bulakh to move to the top of the heap. Six players are close behind at 1.5.
The first round action on January 21 saw only two boards where the higher rated player did not win: a provisional player (Doug Trainor) scored a draw on board 5 and unrated Jesse Gamboa claimed a win on board 9.
Liberty Lake Chess Club
There is a new chess club meeting at the Liberty Lake Library on the first and third Wednesdays (6-8 p.m.) and Saturdays (10:30 a.m. --1:30 p.m.). Phil Lechtenberg is hosting the club and has purchased sets for people to use. There will be a special emphasis on lessons for young players. Stay tuned here for more details, or email Phil at: plechten@msn.com
2009: Spokane's Biggest Chess Year
All of the special chess events that made 2009 a unprecedented year for chess are now remembered on their own page! Check out Remembering 2009 on the link at left.