Spokane Chess Club report from Facebook!
The 21st installment of our premiere event, the Dave Collyer Memorial, once again saw IM John Donaldson top the field with a perfect score of 5.0. He turned back Jeremy Krasin, who had the only other perfect score, in their fifth round encounter. Krasin tied for second with Mark Havrilla and Jon Middaugh. The threesome collected the prizes for second, third, and first in class A.
A score of 3.5 was the magic number for most of the other prize winners: the expert prize shared by John Julian and Steve Merwin; second place in class A, which was shared by Nikolay Bulakh, Dave Rowles, and James Stripes; and the first and second prizes in class B which were shared by Adam Attwood and Steve Fabian. That tally also was good enough for first place in the E/unrated category, where the award went to another newcomer, Xiaoman Chu, an exchange student at St. Georges school in Spokane.
The class C winners were Bill McBroom and Ron Weyland with scores of 2.5. Newcomer Jacob Beverly of Enterprise, Oregon, was a big winner. His 3.0 score won him the $100 first prize in class D, and his final round upset (412 points) scored the $100 prize for largest upset. Second place in D went to Jim Burney with an even 2.5 score. Savanna Naccarato scored 2.5 to take second place in the E/unrated category. Arlene Hiatt took the second upset prize with a second round draw against a player 749 points above her! Look for Arlene’s rating to continue to climb.
There was a field of 53 players this year (plus a house player), which was once again played at St. Anne’s Children’s Center’s conference room. A late Friday afternoon/evening storm caused problems in the mountains to the east, which prevented one player from making it over and cost another player his first round game when slow travel prevented a timely arrival. But aside from those travel problems, the tourney was once again an enjoyable reunion of old and new chess friends. The field saw a large number of first time entrants, including both those new to the game and old-timers returning after decades of absence. A total of $1800 in prizes was awarded, although several players returned their winnings to the club or the Gary Younker Foundation. Once again, the participants showed the good sportsmanship and love of the game that is a hallmark of the Collyer tourney.
Area favorite IM John Donaldson once again gave a Friday night lecture and simultaneous exhibition at Riverpark Square on Friday, February 22. He needed just two hours to sweep the 17 player field!
Russell Miller adds the headline plus:
Kevin Korsmo was the tournament director. Look for a report and games in the April issue of NORTHWEST CHESS. NWC Editor Jeff Roland was at the tournament with his photo equipment.