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2021 Washington State Championship Tournaments

The 2021 Washington State Championship / Premier / Invitational chess tournaments were conducted as round-robins the holiday weekend of February 13-15, 2021, online via Chess.com, as detailed below. Rounds began as noted under "Schedule" below.

Three Sections! Format: Four 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 2020 U.S. Chess rating list. All sections are U.S. Chess online rated. Jacob Mayer was the TD for all sections.

Flyer | Results and Standings (on Google) | Games (on Chessbase) | FB Photo Album

PGN file of games (Includes all sections and rounds) | US Chess crosstables link.

Time control: G/60;+10. Late default: 10 minutes.

Entry Fee: Championship/Premier: Free, Invitational: $75.

Schedule: Rounds 1-8: Feb. 13 & 14 at 10 AM, 1 PM, 4 PM, 7 PM. Round 9: Feb. 15 (President's Day) at 6 PM. Drawing of lots: Feb. 1 at 10 PM via Zoom. Attendance was optional, though encouraged.

Site: online via Chess.com.

Prize Fund: The initial prize fund for each section was guaranteed by the WCF and may be increased based on donations. Championship: $1500, Premier: $1000, 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). The winner of the Championship section receives the title of Washington State Champion. Plaques awarded to the winners of each section.

Drawing of lots: Feb. 1 via Zoom (see notes below).

Byes: Since this is a prestigious round robin, there were no byes or rescheduling of games allowed in any of the sections. All games were required to be played online under TD supervision at the scheduled round times.

Seeds: (note not all accept invitation; see below for actual player fields for each event)

Championship: WIM Megan Lee (State Champion), IM Georgi Orlov (Open Champion), NM Rushaan Mahajan (Championship Runnerup), Advaith Vijayakumar (Challenger's Cup Champion), WFM Chouchanik Airapetian (Premier Champion), TBD (Junior Closed Champion).

Premier: FM Tian Sang (Championship 3rd Place), Yevgeniy Rozenfeld (Premier Runner-up), Advaith Vijayakumar (Invitational Champion), Valentin Razmov (President's Cup Champion), TBD (Junior Open Champion), WFM Chouchanik Airapetian (Women’s Champion).

Invitational: Brandon Jiang (Premier 3rd Place), Alan Bishop (Invitational Runner-up), Erin Bian (Challengers Champion), WCM Mary Kuhner (Senior Champion).

Memberships: Current US Chess and WCF membership required. Memberships must be paid at time of registration. A Chess.com and Zoom account are required.

Registration: Please register online via online registration. Please confirm your ability to play on the website. We typically have several high rated players decline, and many times we reach down into the 1800s. We will take the top 30 rated players who confirm by the deadline of Jan. 31.

Procedure: Games will be started automatically by the TD in the Live Chess area. Players must be on Zoom with webcam on for the duration of each game.

Questions? Josh Sinanan, WCF President, (206) 769-3757, joshsinanan@gmail.com.

Brilliancy prizes - See the 2021 WA State Championship Brilliancy Prizes report available after the event. (The report may be published in NWC magazine.)

Schedule and Other Information

Schedule/Location: See above.

News/updates:

  • Pairing numbers were added to the shared spreadsheet after the drawing of lots, scheduled to take place on Mon. Feb. 1 at 10 p.m. via Zoom. A number of players were there to witness the event and everyone was welcome!
  • The prize fund of each section was guaranteed by the WCF and could be increased based on donations. Please let Josh know if you wish to make a donation!
  • All three sections were US Chess Online Rated, but not FIDE Rated this year.
  • There were no half-points byes or rescheduling of games allowed in any of the sections. All games must be played via Zoom under TD supervision at the scheduled round times. If you have a conflict and need to withdraw, please let us know asap.
  • Tournament roster: https://nwchess.com/OnlineRegistration/roster.php?tournamentid=609.
  • We kindly ask that each player send a brief chess bio with a current picture for publication in the March issue of Northwest Chess magazine. Please send it to Josh or Jeff Roland (editor@nwchess.com) by Feb. 10.
  • A follow-up email with specific instructions, procedures, Zoom info, fair play policies, etc. was sent out before the start of the tournament by our WA State Championship TD Jacob Mayer. Please make sure you have signed the WCF Fair Play Agreement.

Pairings:

Pairings were released after the drawing of lots on Feb. 1.

Here is the pairings schedule for the rounds in each section. This is from the Berger tables.
See the crosstables 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, FM Anthony He!

Titles: FM = FIDE Master, NM = US Chess National Master, WIM = Woman International Master, WFM = Woman FIDE Master.

Latest pre-tournament US Chess regular ratings shown below.

The winner of the Championship section receives the title of Washington State Champion.

  Name/Title City (WA) Rtg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Pos
1 WIM Megan Lee Bellevue 2316 x 0.5 1 0.5 1 1F 0.5 1 0 0 5.5 4th
2 FM Tian Sang Bellevue 2344 0.5 x 1 1 1 1F 0 1 1 0.5 7.0 2nd
3 NM Rushaan Mahajan Redmond 2209 0 0 x 1 0 1F 0 1 0 0.5 3.5  
4 NM Joseph Levine Clyde Hill 2179 0.5 0 0 x 0 1F 0.5 1 0 1 4.0  
5 WFM Chouchanik Airapetian Mercer Island 2104 0 0 1 1 x 0 0 0 0 0 2.0  
6 NM Nat Koons Shoreline 2290 0F 0F 0F 0F 1 x 0.5 0 0 0.5 2.0  
7 FM Ryan Porter Bellevue 2308 0.5 1 1 0.5 1 0.5 x 1 0 0.5 6.0 3rd
8 Advaith Vijayakumar Bothell 2026 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 x 0 0.5 2.5  
9 FM Anthony He Sammamish 2439 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 x 0.5 7.5 1st
10 FM John Readey Seattle 2289 1 0.5 0.5 0 1 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 x 5.0 5th

Average rating: 2250 (online ratings may differ)
Prize Fund: $1,500.

Premier

Congratulations to Washington State Premier champion, NM Kyle Haining!

Titles: FM = FIDE Master, NM = US Chess National Master.

Latest pre-tournament US Chess regular ratings shown below.

The winner of the Premier section qualifies for the next state championship tournament.

  Name/Title City (WA) Rtg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Pos
1 Charles Novitski Bainbridge Island 2073 x 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.5 0.5  
2 FM Ignacio Perez Capitol Hill 2224 1 x 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 7.0 2nd
3 Vignesh Anand Redmond 2080 1 1 x 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 6.0 4th
4 NM Satyajit Malugu Sammamish 2156 1 0 0 x 0 0 0.5 0 1 0 2.5  
5 Thanh Nguyen Redmond 2027 1 1 1 1 x 1 1 0.5 0 0.5 7.0 2nd
6 Valentin Razmov Seattle 1986 1 0 0 1 0 x 0 0 0 0 2.0  
7 Eddie Chang Clyde Hill 1887 1 0 0 0.5 0 1 x 0 0.5 0.5 3.5  
8 NM Kyle Haining Lake Forest Park 2288 1 0 1 1 0.5 1 1 x 1 1 7.5 1st
9 Tim Moroney Mountlake Terrace 2048 1 0 1 0 1 1 0.5 0 x 0 4.5 5th
10 Nicholas Whale Mountake Terrace 2065 0.5 0 0 1 0.5 1 0.5 0 1 x 4.5 5th

Average rating: 2083 (online ratings may differ)
Prize Fund: $1,000.

Invitational

Congratulations to Washington State Invitational champion, Pranav K. Anoop!

Titles: none.

Latest pre-tournament US Chess regular ratings shown below.

The winner of the Invitational section qualifies for the next state premier tournament.

  Name City (WA) Rtg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Pos
1 Cameron Leslie Seattle 2030 x 0 0 1 0 1F 0 1 1 0 4.0  
2 Harry Bell West Richland 2000 1 x 0.5 0 1 1F 1 0 1 0 5.5 3rd
3 Dan Mathews Edmonds 1702 1 0.5 x 0 0 1F 1 0 1 0.5 5.0 5th
4 Ryan Ackerman Seattle 1922 0 1 1 x 0 0F 0 1 0 0 3.0  
5 Pranav K. Anoop Bellevue 1951 1 0 1 1 x 1F 0.5 0.5 1 1 7.0 1st
6 Victor Zhang Mukilteo 1554 0F 0F 0F 0F 0F x 0F 0F 0F 0F 0.0  
7 Lane Van Weerdhuizen Issaquah 1869 1 0 0 1 0.5 1F x 0 1 0.5 5.0 5th
8 Teddy Roberts Medina 1934 0 1 1 0 0.5 1F 1 x 0.5 0.5 5.5 3rd
9 Dominic Colombo Gig Harbor 1960 0 0 0 1 0 1F 0 0.5 x 0 2.5  
10 Erin Bian Sammamish 1765 1 1 0.5 1 0 1F 0.5 0.5 1 x 6.5 2nd

Average rating: 1869 (online ratings may differ)
Prize Fund: $500.

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, which should be in subscriber's hands by early April. For subscription information, please see our magazine info page.

Other recent WA chess championships:
2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 |
2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004.

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