Congratulations to Washington State chess champion Ignacio Perez!

The 2013 Washington State Championship / Premier / Invitational chess tournaments were conducted as round-robins the weekends of February 9-10 and 16-18, 2013 in Seattle 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 18.
Photo: Curt Collyer (left) vs. Ignacio Perez (right) in the foreground game.
Standing and watching are Paul Barton (left) and Viktor Pupols (right).

Simul! Costin Cozianu (2508 USCF), our highest rated player and former state champion, graciously agreed to give a simultaneous exhibition at the Seattle Chess Club at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16 between rounds 5 and 6 of the state championship. It was free and open to the public, with a maximum of 20 players. Photo: Cozianu in 2009 with the Washington state chess championship trophy.

New Master! Igor Ummel, a college student at the University of Washington, became the Northwest's newest master on Monday, Feb. 18. He scored 4.5/9 at the 2013 WA State Championship in Seattle and gained 19 points to boost his rating to 2206! He beat Nathan Lee (2155), FM Curt Collyer (2311), and drew with NM Tian Sang (2312) along the way. Congratulations Igor!

Format: Three invitation-only 10-player Round Robins by rating: Championship, Premier, and Invitational. The field of each section was determined by seeding and by the highest rated players to respond to an invitation based on the January 2013 USCF rating list. All sections were USCF rated; the Championship and Premier were also FIDE rated. Fred Kleist was the TD for all three sections. Time control: 40/2, SD/1 with a 5-second delay. Boards and sets were provided at the tournament, but not clocks. Entry Fee: Free! Schedule: Rounds 1-8: Feb. 9, 10, 16, 17 at 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Round 9: Feb. 18 (President's Day) at 5:00 PM. The drawing of lots took place Feb. 2 at 12:00 noon at Northgate Mall. Site: Seattle Chess Club, 2150 N 107 St. Seattle, WA 98133. Prize Fund: The initial prize fund for each section is guaranteed by the WCF, and could be increased based on donations. Championship: $1,500, Premier: $1,000, Invitational: $500. Prize distribution (each section): 1st 45%, 2nd 25%, 3rd 15%, 4th 10%, 5th 5%. Brilliancy Prizes: $300 ($100 for best game in each section).

PGN file of games! (Includes all sections and rounds.) | USCF crosstables link.

Brilliancy prizes - NM Nat Koons judged the brilliancy prizes ($100) for all three sections. Results: WA Championship: Winner: Lee vs. Feng, Runners-up: Cozianu vs. Sinanan, Sang vs. Peres, Sang vs. Golub, Cozianu vs. Feng; WA Premier: Winner: Rupel vs. MacGregor, Runners-up: Lee vs. Haining, MacGregor vs. Szabo, Aerapetian vs. Pupols, He vs. Aerapetian; WA Invitational: Winner: Smith vs. Tiglon, Runners-up: He vs. van Dyke, Warrior vs. Bishop, van Dyke vs. Bishop, Lampman vs. Kiiru. See the May magazine for details.

Here are the fields of the Championship, Premier, and Invitational sections.
(See below for results and crosstables.)

Championship

The winner of the Championship section receives the title of Washington State Champion. Championship section group photo. (Click on photo to enlarge.) Back (left to right): Tian Sang, Igor Ummel, Costin Cozianu, Curt Collyer, Josh Sinanan; Front (left to right): Samir Sen, Roland Feng, Nathan Lee, David Golub, Ignacio Perez. Photo credit: Philip Peterson. See more of his photos on Flickr.

FM Costin Cozianu 2508 FM Curt Collyer 2311 NM Tian Sang 2288 (seed - Challenger's Cup Champion) NM Josh Sinanan 2254 FM Ignacio Perez 2235 NM Roland Feng 2218 (seed - Premier Champion) NM David Golub 2213 NM Samir Sen 2211 Igor Ummel 2187 (seed - Championship Runner-up) Nathan Lee 2131 (seed - Junior Closed Champion) Average rating: 2256 Prize Fund: $1,500

Premier

The winner of the Premier section qualifies for the next state championship tournament. Premier section group photo. (Click on photo to enlarge.) Left to right: Daniel He, Marcel Szabo, Chouchan Airapetian, Dave Rupel, Kyle Haining, Mike MacGregor, Megan Lee (not pictured: Vik Pupols, Michael Omori, Paul Bartron). Photo credit: Philip Peterson. See more of his photos on Flickr.

NM Michael MacGregor 2211 (seed - Premier Runner-up) LM Viktors Pupols 2200 Michael Omori 2153 FM Paul Bartron 2149 WFM Chouchanik Airapetian 2131 (Women's Champion) Megan Lee 2112 David Rupel 2096 Marcel Szabo 2052 (seed) Daniel He 2040 (seed - Invitational Champion) Kyle Haining 1939 (seed - Junior Open Champion) Average rating: 2108 Prize Fund: $1,000

Invitational

The winner of the Invitational section qualifies for the next premier tournament. Invitational section group photo. (Click on photo to enlarge.) Left to right: Samuel He, Noah Fields, Patrick Van Dyke, Mark Smith, Sarah May, Joe Kiiru, Bryce Tiglon, Vishnu Warrier (not pictured: Becca Lampman). Photo credit: Philip Peterson. See more of his photos on Flickr.

Patrick Van Dyke 2057 Bryce Tiglon 2044 Samuel He 2033 Alan Bishop 2020 David Arganian 2000 Becca Lampman 1973 (seed - Girl's Champion) Krishnan Warrier 1925 Sarah May 1888 Noah Fields 1887 Joseph Kiiru 1881 1st Alternate: Nicolo Gelb 1869 2nd Alternate: Mark Smith 1869 3rd Alternate: Lane Van Weerdhuizen 1869 4th Alternate: David Eva 1866 5th Alternate: Ethan Bashkansky 1839 6th Alternate: Neal Bonrud 1807 Average rating (not including alternates): 1971 Prize Fund: $500

Schedule and Other Information

Schedule/Location:
Rounds 1-8: Feb. 9, 10, 16, 17 at 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Round 9: Feb. 18 (President's Day) at 5:00 PM.
Site: Seattle Chess Club, 2150 N 107 St., Seattle, WA 98133.

Requests/Updates:

• We are accepting donations for all three sections.
• We ask that prize winners please annotate at least one game for Northwest Chess magazine.

Pairings:

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

Congratulations to Washington State chess champion Ignacio Perez!

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, WFM = Woman FIDE Master.

Average rating: 2256
Prize Fund: $1,500 (1st $675, 2nd-4th $250 each, 5th $75 - goes to Lee because Ummel was forced to withdraw).

Premier

Congratulations to both Daniel He and Michael Omori on winning the Premier! (Cash prizes are split.) Michael Omori had the higher tie-breaks and was seeded into the Championship next year.

The Premier has been registered and FIDE rated.

Average rating: 2108
Prize Fund: $1,000 (1st-2nd $350 each, 3rd-4th $125 each, 5th $50).

Invitational

Note: Due to the withdraw of Alan Bishop, the Invitational became a 9 player RR, with a different player receiving a bye in each round. For those who already played against Bishop, the games were rated, but do not count for the tournament (and have been removed from the crosstable). TD Fred Kleist made the following color changes to maintain color balance: (W-B) Lampman-Kiiru in round 7; Kiiru-May in round 8; Warrier-He in round 8; VanDyke-Fields in round 9. (See above for the usual Berger table pairings.)

Average rating: 1958
Prize Fund: $500 (1st $225, 2nd $125, 3rd $75, 4th $50, 5th $25).

Organizers: Josh Sinanan (WCF 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).