Posted by Spokane Chess Club on facebook:
HAVRILLA, CAMBARERI WIN INLAND EMPIRE OPEN
April 29-30
Top seeds Michael Cambareri and Mark Havrilla won this year’s Inland Empire Open with scores of 4.0. Mark beat Michael in round four, but was held to a final round draw while Michael scored a comeback victory in a fascinating game where his opponent had four pieces for a queen! Michael had the only perfect score after the first day’s action while Mark took a Saturday night bye to enter their showdown battle one half point behind.
A total of 29 players (and one house player) took part in this year’s installment of Spokane’s oldest weekend tournament. While Michael had the perfect score after the first day and Mark was the only returning player at 2.5, there were nine other players who finished the first day with 2.0 scores. That made for a bunch Wallaceof closely contested games on the final day — and the bunched up standings reflected the close nature of the competition. Four players finished third with scores of 3.5: Brad Bodie, Jonathan Geyman, Dan McCourt, and Karl Reutter. Jonathan, a rapidly rising provisionally-rated player, was also the top score in class C, while the other three also shared the class A prizes. The class B prizes were shared by Jason Cross and Kevin Korsmo with scores of 3.0. Second place in class C was shared by Walter van Heemstede Obelt and Ron Weyland, both of whom scored 2.5. Walter’s accomplishment was particularly impressive in that he was only able to play the first day due to work commitments.
Steve Wallace(3.0) won the class D first prize. Second in that section (at 2.5) was shared by Logan Faulkner and Rob Harder. Rob also scored a 606 point upset victory in the first round to claim the top upset prize. The tourney also featured six unrated players participating in their first USCF tourney.
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Note: Jonathan Geyman also won the open division at the small unrated Lou Domanski Chess Festival in early April, beating James Stripes in round four. The last round had two teenagers on board one. Jonathan and Benjamin Nylund, who recently moved to Idaho from New Zealand. The Lou Domanski Chess festival had been known as the Sandpoint Community Chess Festival until renamed three years ago. It was started by Lou Domanski 26 years ago. Stripes has been the event’s TD since 2009.