The 2015 WA Open was held at the Lynnwood Convention Center over Memorial Day weekend May 23-25. A strong attendance of nearly 200 players took part mostly from Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. WCF Tournament Coordinator Dan Mathews and WCF President Josh Sinanan organized the event, which was directed by Fred Kleist with assistance from WCF Secretary Gary Dorfner. WCF Scholastic Director David Hendricks ran the scholastic tournament on Saturday, which attracted a record 112 players. The full tournament rating report can be found here. Photos from the event can be found here.
Washington’s youngest ever State Champion and newly minted FM, Roland Feng, continued his hot streak and won the Open section with 5.5/6. Half a point behind him were IM Raymond Kaufman and CM Tanraj Sohal, who drew their last round game on board 1 to tie for second with 5.0. Four players tied for third with 4.5: FM Costin Cozianu, CM Joshua Doknjas, NM Bryce Tiglon, and NM Samuel He.
Other winners include:
Trey Michaels, 1st Place Premier Section
Michael Schemm and Mary Kuhner, =2nd Premier Section
Mika Mitchell, Ishaan Puri, Neil Doknjas, Travis Olson =3rd Premier Section
Robin Tu, 1st Place Reserve Section
Dan Mathews, Jacob Mayer, Francisco Lopez, Patrick Huang, Brock Grassy, Vignesh Anand = 2nd-5th Place/1st – 2nd U1550 Reserve Section
Ethan Wu, 1st Place Booster Section
Daniel Shubin, Garrett Casey, Owen Xuan, Daniel Wilke, Holden Sweeden = 2nd – 4th Place / 1st U1100 Booster Section