Statistics on State Championships

I got to thinking about Siegried Werthammer’s 13 titles and wondered what are some other interesting facts about the state champions.

Most titles:
Siegfried Werthammer – 13
Donald Griffith – 12
John Roush – 11
Mark Hathaway – 7
Joe Barker – 5
Six players have 4 titles. 30 people in total have multiple titles, and 24 are one-time winners.

Consecutive titles:
Siegfried Werthammer – 6, 1948-1953. He had 12 titles between 1943 and 1958!
Donald Griffith, Donald Burdick, and Mark Hathaway have had runs of 4.

Longest time between titles:
Ed Garner – 1986-2014. Joe Barker used to brag that his 1st and 2nd was the longest gap for some reason, but that’s not even close at 13 years between them. My own 10 year gap felt like an eternity.

Longest time between first and latest title:
John Roush – 1978-2017! Next closest are Donald Griffith, 1975 to 2006; and Ed Garner, 1984 to 2014.

Youngest champions:
Alex Chang – 12, 1989
Alexandr Dementiev – 13, 2003

Most Co-Champions:
5 – 1955 and 1998

2019-2021 Grand Prix Final Standings

Robert Canary has won the 2019-2021 Grand Prix. The 2019-2020 Grand Prix was extended to end at the 2021 State Championship as there was no state tournament in 2020.

Final Standings
Events Included: 20th Mountaineer Open, 3rd Concord Southern Open, 2020 Winter Open, 2020 Clarksburg Open, 2021 Clarksburg Open, 2021 State Championship

 1. Robert Canary         70.40  $240
 2. Lewis Sanders         54.83  $120
 3. Sam Timmons           50.23   $60
 4. Joseph Michael Baker  38.50
 5. Markle Butcher        34.42
 6. Benjamin Good         27.00
 7. James Fuller          23.00
 8. David Hines           19.75
 9. John Boylin           19.25
10. James Reszler         19.00
11. Brian Lucas           16.25
12. Elijah Schultz        15.67
13. Edward Garner         13.83
14. David Bruner          11.75
15. David Hundley          9.00
16. Jimmy Farmer           8.25
17. David Iorio            7.25
    John Sefton            7.25
19. Michael Felton         6.50
20. Rodney Adkins          6.00
21. Pushkal Solani         5.50
22. John Roush             5.00
23. Richard Keith Lilly    4.75
24. Byron Funkhouser       4.00
    James Daniel Preece    4.00
    Allen Farley           4.00
27. Aidan Rogers           3.50
    Vincent Price          3.50
29. Gagana Sadineni        1.00
    Lawrence Iorio         1.00

WVCA Junior Championship

7 players competed in the WV Junior Championship, which was held Saturday, September 11, 2021 in Clarksburg. The event was won by Noah Stafford with a perfect 3-0 score, who earned an excellent provisional rating of 1459. One of the contestants, Pushkal Solanki, joined the open championship on Sunday and took the upset prize with a last-round win over James Reszler.

82nd WV State Championship

21 players competed in the 82nd WV State Championship, held in Clarksburg, WV. Benjamin Good and Lewis Sanders were the co-champions, who each had four wins apart from their last round draw.

A trio of youngsters from Pennsylvania kept the old timers on their toes, including Lydia Tang, who tied for 3rd with Robert Canary. Lydia had wins over former champions Sam Timmons and Ed Garner, before losing to Good in the third round. She bounced back with a win over Byron Funkhouser and a draw with John Roush. Well done!

In association business, Craig Timmons swapped places with Bob Greer, and is now the president while Greer is the scholastic coordinator. Elijah Schultz of Hurricane was elected Vice President. The 2022 Action and State titles will be held in Huntington. We also thank Markle Butcher who has announced he will be leaving a sizable donation to the association in his will, which we hope will not be executed for quite some time yet.

I will add some photos and games to the site throughout the coming week. For now, you can see the crosstable here: Crosstable

Summer Open

23 players attended the Summer Open in Saint Albans on August 14.

John Boylin won the open section with a perfect 3-0 score, including wins over David Hines and Lewis Sanders. John was the lowest rated player in the open section! Probably won’t be that way for long…

Carl Hudson won the U1600 with a 3-0 score.

USCF Crosstable

Clarksburg Open

Jimmy Fuller won the 2021 Clarksburg Open with a 4/4 score. He will represent WV in the 4th Annual John T. Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions.

Ed Garner, Sam Timmons, and Lewis Sanders were tied for 2nd at 3/4. USCF Crosstable.