Northern California beats Texas

by Alexey Root
8/6/2021 – By a score of 23–22, Northern California triumphed over Texas at the national tournaments of state chess champions held July 31–August 3. Each state could send five representatives, and each representative played six games. Individual champions were also crowned. Woman International Master Alexey Root reports from the Cherry Hill, New Jersey site, which also hosts the U.S. Open. | Photos: Alexey Root

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In Chess, Northern California beats Texas

States Contest

Ratings favourites Texas (US Chess rating average of 2285) and Northern California (2206) engaged both on Facebook and over-the-board. Northern California is a separate “state” in US Chess. FIDE Master Michael Aigner’s Facebook posts, for example here and here, showed his Northern California pride. Not to be outdone, the Texas Chess Association posted an essay in support of its representatives.

Four of the five tournaments of state champions are for young players:

The fifth tournament, for players who are 50 years old or older, is the 

The time control for the five tournaments is G90 +30: 90 minutes base time with a 30-second increment added after each move.

Each Irwin player is considered the “honorary captain” of his state’s team. In 2021, all the Irwin players were men, so “his” is appropriate.

Irwin

The individual champion for the Irwin is International Master Igor Khmelnitsky, representing Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania came in third in the state competition. Khmelnitsky is an actuary and a chess author. In the last round, Khmelnitsky won what had seemed like a drawn position against FIDE Master Doug Eckert of Missouri. By winning that game, Khmelnitsky finished clear first with 5.5 out of 6. Eckert, a certified public accountant, finished third with 4.5.

Igor Khmelnitsky (left) and US Chess Board Member Kevin Pryor

International Master Doug Root of Texas was second with 5. Root’s last round win was against International Master Alexander Matros. A professor at the University of South Carolina, Matros’s research sometimes involves chess. For example, his recent paper is The Queen’s Gambit: Explaining the Superstar Effect Using Evidence from Chess. Root’s research overlaps with that of Timothy Sage, the Irwin representative from Massachusetts. Sage and Root both develop and apply spectroscopic approaches, Sage at Northeastern University and Root at the University of North Texas.

International Master Elliott Winslow of Northern California contributed 3.5 points to his state’s total. For this article, Winslow annotated his win over International Master Ron Burnett. At different times in their careers, Winslow and Burnett held the position now called “technical editor” for US Chess. Burnett is still with US Chess, “making sure that all the moves in our magazines are correct since June 1994.” Their game was not broadcast on the DGT boards; those games, such as Khmelnitsky’s games, are available at the end of this article.

Elliott Winslow

Mike La Budde  of Wisconsin feels lucky to have played in the 2021 Irwin. In November of 2019, he won a qualifying tournament to be Wisconsin’s representative to the 2020 Irwin. Just two weeks before the 2020 Irwin, which was held online due to the pandemic, a motorcycle crashed into La Budde, who was on his bicycle. His neck was broken and required a cervical fusion. Allen Becker filled in as Wisconsin’s Irwin representative in 2020.

Mike La Budde

La Budde was off work for two months but, with the help of his family, friends, physical therapy, and some speed chess online, he continues with his recovery. Since another qualifier wasn’t held before the 2021 Irwin, the Wisconsin Chess Association picked La Budde as its Irwin representative. La Budde shared one of his games for this article.

About playing in Cherry Hill, La Budde said, “I’m incredibly grateful to be alive and to once again be playing over-the-board! That I am playing at the Irwin and U.S. Open makes it even more special. It’s good to see old friends and make new ones. I’ve been joking that, as the honorary team captain for Wisconsin, I should offer Awonder some advice!?”

Denker

Grandmaster Awonder Liang of Wisconsin is the 2021 Denker Champion. As noted in a previous article, Liang also won the Weeramantry Blitz. He defeated International Master Carissa Yip in the last round to clinch the title. Wisconsin’s five representatives had an average US Chess rating of 1866 and a team score of 18 points, the best among states with an average rating under 1900.

Awonder Liang

The Northern California representative in the Denker, Milind Maiti , contributed 4 points to his state’s total.

Milind Maiti

Barber

Northern California’s Vyom Vidyarthi, a FIDE Candidate Master, won the Barber and contributed 5.5 points to his state’s total. He also finished second in the Weeramantry Blitz.

Vyom Vidyarthi

Haring

Northern California’s Ruiyang Yan tied for first with Texan Ambica Yellamraju, after the latter won against the former in the last round. Both hold the FIDE title of Woman Candidate Master. Yan’s better tiebreaks meant that she earned the prizes associated with first place. However, Yan and Yellamraju are co-champions.

 

Ruiyang Yan

Ambica Yellamraju

Rockefeller

As in the Haring, the last-round battle was between chess players from Northern California and Texas. Their draw gave Henry Deng of Northern California the Rockefeller Champion title with co-champions Austin Tang, Oregon and Sepehr Golsefidy, Southern California. Texan Ryo Chen finished in fourth place.

Henry Deng

Ryo Chen

Other States

Rounding out the states contest were Illinois (average rating of 2090), which won for best state team with an average rating under 2100, and Louisiana (1586), which won the under 1600. A previous article listed $400 in bookstore gift certificates for the contest among states, based on that prize amount being listed on an official website. That amount was out-of-date, on the low end. As awarded on August 3rd, prize-winning states in the overall and ratings categories shared $2,000 in bookstore gift certificates.

U.S. Open

Although the tournaments of state champions have ended, the U.S. Open, plus committee and delegates meetings, are happening at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The tournament floor is now open for spectators. Masks are required for all activities.

Games from Tournaments of State Champions

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,165,57054%2421---
1.d4946,47455%2434---
1.Nf3281,31256%2441---
1.c4181,93756%2442---
1.g319,68856%2427---
1.b314,23654%2427---
1.f45,88648%2377---
1.Nc33,79651%2384---
1.b41,75348%2380---
1.a31,19754%2403---
1.e31,06848%2408---
1.d394850%2378---
1.g466246%2361---
1.h444653%2374---
1.c342651%2425---
1.h327956%2416---
1.a410860%2468---
1.f39147%2431---
1.Nh38966%2508---
1.Na34262%2482---
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 c5 7.d5 e6 8.Bd3 exd5 9.cxd5 a6 10.a4 Nbd7 11.Nge2 Ne5 12.0-0 Rb8 13.h3 Ne8 14.f4 Nxd3 15.Qxd3 b5 16.axb5 axb5 17.Nxb5 Bd7 18.Nxd6 Nxd6 19.Bxc5 Bb5 20.Qf3 Re8 21.e5 Nf5 22.Rfd1 Bf8 23.Bf2 Bxe2 24.Qxe2 h5 25.Kh2 f6 26.g4 hxg4 27.Qxg4 Rxb2 28.Qxg6+ Bg7 29.Kg1 Ne7 30.Qe4 fxe5 31.fxe5 Nc8 32.Qg4 Rxe5 33.Bh4 Ne7 34.d6 Qb6+ 35.Kh1 Qc6+ 36.Kg1 Ree2 37.Ra8+ Qxa8 38.Qc4+ Kh8 39.dxe7 Qg2# 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Cotreau,K-Root,D24650–12021E814th Annual John T. Irwin National1
Finegold,B2462Sage,T20101–02021E394th Annual John T. Irwin National1
Moussa,A1969Khmelnitsky,I24690–12021A314th Annual John T. Irwin National1
Panda,A1806Liang,A25870–12021B5337th Annual GM Arnold Denker National1
Ryo Wenyu Chen2358Shawn Choi-½–½2021C422nd Annual John D. Rockefeller III Nati1
Wu,R1528Chasin,N22970–12021A8411th Annual Dewain Barber National1
Yan,R2158Brown,M-1–02021B769th Annual WIM Ruth Haring National1
Yip,C2404Nguyen,T-1–02021A0537th Annual GM Arnold Denker National1
Chasin,N2297Ye,C19601–02021E7311th Annual Dewain Barber National2
Deng,H1777Restelli,E-1–02021C062nd Annual John D. Rockefeller III Nati2
Eckert,D2172Finegold,B24621–02021A564th Annual John T. Irwin National2
Gupta,A1505Park,E2247½–½2021A8011th Annual Dewain Barber National2
Khmelnitsky,I2469Perez,I20631–02021A404th Annual John T. Irwin National2
Liang,A2587Ladan,N21491–02021C6037th Annual GM Arnold Denker National2
Liu,K1628Yan,R21580–12021B949th Annual WIM Ruth Haring National2
Root,D2465Szpisjak,S20621–02021C444th Annual John T. Irwin National2
Shlyakhtenko,R2351Sethuraman,S21591–02021A2837th Annual GM Arnold Denker National2
Tahmassebi,B2181Yip,C2404½–½2021C5537th Annual GM Arnold Denker National2
Vittal,S1920Tien,S16960–12021C249th Annual WIM Ruth Haring National2
Zhuang,K1592Su,J-0–12021B232nd Annual John D. Rockefeller III Nati2
Alvarez Ferreiro,R2279Ginsburg,M2315½–½2021B214th Annual John T. Irwin National3
Bian,E1525Deng,H17770–12021C952nd Annual John D. Rockefeller III Nati3
Cavanah,T2006Chasin,N2297½–½2021B0011th Annual Dewain Barber National3
Chen,J2275Shlyakhtenko,R2351½–½2021D2637th Annual GM Arnold Denker National3
Enkhbat,T2264Root,D24651–02021E604th Annual John T. Irwin National3
Peng,S2281Liang,A2587½–½2021B1937th Annual GM Arnold Denker National3
Winslow,E2158Khmelnitsky,I24690–12021B014th Annual John T. Irwin National3
Yan,R2158Hoesley,A19491–02021B069th Annual WIM Ruth Haring National3
Chasin,N2297Luo,T2124½–½2021E7311th Annual Dewain Barber National4
Deng,H1777Su,J-1–02021B622nd Annual John D. Rockefeller III Nati4
Dommalapati,A1713Prasanna,G1897½–½2021C459th Annual WIM Ruth Haring National4
Eckert,D2172Alvarez Ferreiro,R22791–02021A614th Annual John T. Irwin National4
Ehsani,Y1923Yan,R21580–12021E209th Annual WIM Ruth Haring National4
Ginsburg,M2315Koganov,M2119½–½2021D024th Annual John T. Irwin National4
Khmelnitsky,I2469Enkhbat,T2264½–½2021D004th Annual John T. Irwin National4
Liang,A2587Venkat,R21481–02021C1537th Annual GM Arnold Denker National4
Mahajan,R2152Park,E2247½–½2021E0611th Annual Dewain Barber National4
Mike La Budde2037James A. Fuller16851–02021A43Irwin Invitational4
Shlyakhtenko,R2351Amburgy,R20300–12021A0637th Annual GM Arnold Denker National4
Tang,A1679Sethuraman,R12921–02021C862nd Annual John D. Rockefeller III Nati4
Vivekananthan,A2321Yip,C2404½–½2021A4837th Annual GM Arnold Denker National4
Burnett,R2397Winslow,E22780–12021B55Irwin Senior Tnmt of Champions4.86
Amburgy,R2030Peng,S22810–12021A0937th Annual GM Arnold Denker National5
Chen,J2275Liang,A25870–12021E7137th Annual GM Arnold Denker National5
Enkhbat,T2264Eckert,D21720–12021E044th Annual John T. Irwin National5
Szpisjak,S2062Khmelnitsky,I24690–12021B024th Annual John T. Irwin National5
Tang,A1679Deng,H1777½–½2021C862nd Annual John D. Rockefeller III Nati5
Tang,Z2021Vidyarthi,V23040–12021A4511th Annual Dewain Barber National5
Winslow,E2158Root,D24650–12021C064th Annual John T. Irwin National5
Yan,R2158Dommalapati,A17131–02021B339th Annual WIM Ruth Haring National5
Chasin,N2297Park,E22470–12021D3011th Annual Dewain Barber National6
Deng,H1777Chen,R2358½–½2021B622nd Annual John D. Rockefeller III Nati6
Ehsani,Y1923Kumar,A1804½–½2021E819th Annual WIM Ruth Haring National6
Khmelnitsky,I2469Eckert,D21721–02021C694th Annual John T. Irwin National6
Koganov,M2119Fedorowicz,J2424½–½2021A464th Annual John T. Irwin National6
Liang,A2587Yip,C24041–02021C7837th Annual GM Arnold Denker National6
Maiti,M2384Shen,C2346½–½2021E1137th Annual GM Arnold Denker National6
Peng,S2281Shlyakhtenko,R2351½–½2021C0337th Annual GM Arnold Denker National6
Root,D2465Matros,A23651–02021E944th Annual John T. Irwin National6
Su,J-Tang,A1679½–½2021B602nd Annual John D. Rockefeller III Nati6
Vidyarthi,V2304Luo,T21241–02021D0111th Annual Dewain Barber National6
Yellamraju,A1798Yan,R21581–02021E069th Annual WIM Ruth Haring National6

This article includes La Budde–Fuller and Burnett–Winslow provided by those games’ winners and the games played on the DGT boards in each round.

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Alexey was the 1989 U.S. Women's Chess Champion and is a Woman International Master. She earned her bachelor’s degree in History at the University of Puget Sound and her doctoral degree in Education at The University of California, Los Angeles. She has been a Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Studies at UT Dallas since 1999 and is a prolific author.

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mullising mullising 8/6/2021 09:26
Congratulations to California and Texas for a great fight!
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