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2009 Washington State Championship / Premier / Invitational

The 2009 Washington State Championship / Premier / Invitational chess tournaments were conducted as round-robins the weekends of February 7-8 and 14-15-16, 2009 in Redmond and Bellevue as detailed below. Rounds began at 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM on the weekends, and at 5:00 PM on President's Day, Monday, February 16.

There is a requirement that each player must annotate at least one game and submit it to the tournament director. Prizes will not be paid until this small obligation is completed. These notes will be used in Northwest Chess Magazine so that the Championship event while serving primarily the best players, may also be a service to the main membership.

PGN file of games!
(Includes all sections and rounds. This file has been moved to the games section for permanent archiving.)

Introduction to the Players
Photos (if available) and "How the players got started in chess"

The Field

The 2009 field was as follows, and it was a strong field this year! (Revised 2/4/2009)
Note: these player lists are in rating order. See cross tables below for pairing order.

Championship
FM Costin Cozianu 2566
FM Michael Lee 2374
WGM Katerine Rohonyan 2335
FM Ignacio Perez 2311 (seed)
FM William Schill 2246 (seed)
NM Curt Collyer 2241 (seed)
NM Harley Greninger 2236
NM Joshua Sinanan 2227
Andy May 2144 (seed)
Howard Chen 2039 (seed)

Avg rating: 2272
Prize Fund: $3,500
1st Alternate: FM David Bragg 2227

Premier
LM Viktors Pupols 2208
NM Michael MacGregor 2200
FM Paul Bartron 2131
Dereque Kelley 2121
Alex Guo 2071
Geoffrey Gale 2038 (seed)
Allen Smith 2025
Kerry Xing 1996 (seed)
Elston Cloy 1961
Nathan Lee 1855 (seed)

Avg rating: 2061
Prize Fund: $1,000

Invitational:
Chris Kalina 1945
Peter Watts 1935
Michael Wang 1932
Duane Polich 1913
Michael Hosford 1884
Nick Pazderic 1856
Dan Mathews 1839 (substitute for Casey Fleck)
Eddie Chang 1832
Sterling Kolde 1822
Greg Prentice 1800

Avg rating: 1876
Prize Fund: $500

Brilliancy Prizes: $300 ($100 for best game in each section, judged by FM David Bragg, FM Marcel Milat, and WFM Chouchanik Airapetian)

Prize distribution (each section): 1st 45%, 2nd 25%, 3rd 15%, 4th 10%, 5th 5%

Schedule and Other Information

Schedule/Location:

Rounds 1-8: Feb. 7, 8, 14, 15 at 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM.
Microsoft Building 43 Cafeteria, NE 31st St and 156th Ave NE, Redmond, WA 98052.

Round 9: Feb. 16 at 5:00 PM.
Chess4Life Center, 13555 Bel-Red Rd, Suite 200, Bellevue, WA 98005.

Updates:

  • Fred Kleist was the TD for all three sections, of which the Championship and Premier will be FIDE rated. (All sections will be USCF rated.)
  • The initial prize funds for the Championship and Premier were guaranteed by the WCF, and increased based on donations.
  • Games were unfortunately not broadcast live this year, however PGN files will be made available.

The drawing of lots took place Monday evening, February 2.

Here is the pairings schedule for the rounds in each section. This is from the Berger tables.
See the cross tables 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 has been registered and FIDE rated.
Titles: GM = Grandmaster, IM = International Master, FM = FIDE Master,
NM = National Master, LM = USCF Life Master, WGM = Woman Grandmaster.

Congratulations to FM Costin Cozianu,
our new Washington State chess champion!
Costin was the highest rated played in the event, but trailed Michael Lee by 1/2 point going into the final round. Costin pulled it out with a win over Howard Chen, while Michael lost to Katerine Rohonyan. Michael Lee and Curt Collyer (the winner of the 2008 Premier) tie for second place with 6.5.
 
  Name Title City (WA) Rtg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
1 Michael Lee FM Bellevue 2374 x 0.5 0.5 1 0.5 1 1 1 0 1 6.5
2 Joshua Sinanan NM Brier 2227 0.5 x 0 1 0.5 1 0.5 1 1 0.5 6.0
3 Curt Collyer NM Seattle 2241 0.5 1 x 1 0 1 1 1 0.5 0.5 6.5
4 Andy May   Vancouver 2144 0 0 0 x 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 1.0
5 Costin Cozianu FM Mill Creek 2566 0.5 0.5 1 1 x 1 0 1 1 1 7.0
6 William Schill FM Kirkland 2246 0 0 0 1 0 x 0.5 0.5 0 0 2.0
7 Harley Greninger NM Hoquiam 2236 0 0.5 0 1 1 0.5 x 0.5 0 0 3.5
8 Ignacio Perez FM Seattle 2311 0 0 0 0.5 0 0.5 0.5 x 0 0 1.5
9 Katerine Rohonyan WGM Seattle? 2335 1 0 0.5 0.5 0 1 1 1 x 0 5.0
10 Howard Chen   Monroe 2039 0 0.5 0.5 1 0 1 1 1 1 x 6.0

Prizes: Costin Cozianu 1st Place $1575.00, Curt Collyer 2nd-3rd $700.00, Michael Lee 2nd-3rd $700.00, Josh Sinanan 4th-5th $262.50, Howard Chen 4th-5th $262.50.

Premier

The Premier has been registered and FIDE rated.

Congratulations to Viktors Pupols, winner of the Premier!
Vik now qualifies to play for the championship again in 2010, nearly 50 years after he first won the state championship in 1961! Amazing! See the Wikipedia article on Viktors Pupols.

  Name Title City (WA) Rtg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
1 Alex Guo   Bellevue 2071 x 0.5 0 1 1 0 0 0 0.5 1 4.0
2 Dereque Kelley   Seattle 2121 0.5 x 0 0.5 1 1 0.5 0 1 1 5.5
3 Michael MacGregor NM Tacoma 2200 1 1 x 1 0.5 1 0.5 0 0 0.5 5.5
4 Nathan Lee   Issaquah 1855 0 0.5 0 x 0.5 1 0 0.5 0 1 3.5
5 Elston Cloy   Shoreline 1961 0 0 0.5 0.5 x 0 0 0 0 0 1.0
6 Allen Smith   Tacoma 2025 1 0 0 0 1 x 0 0 0 0 2.0
7 Paul Bartron FM Tacoma 2131 1 0.5 0.5 1 1 1 x 0 0 1 6.0
8 Viktors Pupols LM Kingston 2208 1 1 1 0.5 1 1 1 x 0.5 0.5 7.5
9 Kerry Xing   Bothell 1996 0.5 0 1 1 1 1 1 0.5 x 1 7.0
10 Geoffrey Gale   Seattle 2038 0 0 0.5 0 1 1 0 0.5 0 x 3.0

Prizes: Viktors Pupols 1st Place $450.00, Kerry Xing 2nd Place $250.00, Paul Barton 3rd Place $150.00, Dereque Kelly 4th-5th $75.00, Michael MacGregor 4th-5th $75.00.

Invitational

Congratulations to Peter Watts, winner of the Invitational, with a very impressive 7.5 points
(and that was out of 8, not 9)!
Michael Hosford withdrew due to illness. Games that he played do not count in determining the winner.

  Name Title City (WA) Rtg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
1 Chris Kalina   Bellevue 1945 x 0 0 0.5 0 0.5 x 1 0.5 0 2.5
2 Duane Polich   Bellevue 1913 1 x 0 0.5 0 1 x 0 0 0 2.5
3 Sterling Kolde   Mercer Island 1822 1 1 x 0.5 0 0.5 x 0 1 0.5 4.5
4 Eddie Chang   Renton 1832 0.5 0.5 0.5 x 0.5 0.5 1 0 0 0 2.5
5 Peter Watts   Brier 1935 1 1 1 0.5 x 1 1 1 1 1 7.5
6 Nick Pazderic   Seattle 1856 0.5 0 0.5 0.5 0 x 1 1 0 1 3.5
7 Michael Hosford   Renton 1884 x x x 0 0 0 x x x 1 w/d
8 Dan Mathews   Edmonds 1839 0 1 1 1 0 0 x x 0 0 3.0
9 Greg Prentice   Snoqualmie 1800 0.5 1 0 1 0 1 x 1 x 0.5 5.0
10 Michael Wang   Kirkland 1932 1 1 0.5 1 0 0 0 1 0.5 x 5.0

Prizes: Peter Watts 1st Place $225.00, Greg Prentice 2nd-3rd $100.00, Michael Wang 2nd-3rd $100.00, Sterling Kolde 4th $50.00, Nick Pazderic 5th $25.00.

Organizers: Dan Mathews (WCF Tournament Coordinator), Duane Polich (WCF President) and Josh Sinanan (WCF Vice President). Thank you for your service to chess in Washington State.

Look for a full report in the April issue of NORTHWEST CHESS.

Previous WA chess championships: List of winners (includes links to event summary pages).