The WVU Chess Club has resumed in person meetings on Tuesdays at 7pm at the Mountainlair. They are playing in the Side Pocket room, on the bottom floor behind the bowling alley.

John Boylin, Gagana Sadineni, and James Fuller represented WV in the 2022 Barber (Middle School Champions), Rockefeller (Elementary Champions), and Irwin (Senior Champions). Facing very stiff competition from across the US, each represented us well. John finished with 3/6 in the Barber tournament, while Gagana and James each had 2/6 in their events.

14 students, ages 12-17, from WV and the tri-state area participated in the first ever chess camp in WV. Organized by the Huntington YMCA Chess Club, and sponsored by HIMG, Camden Park, Delta Hotels, Paris Signs, and Dan O’Hanlon, Chess Fundamentals was taught by St. Louis and CA-based GM Dariusz Swiercz.

Three days of intense instruction, games, puzzles, simuls, a mini tournament, lots of snacks and a pizza party left the participants tired, happy, and full of new chess skills and strategies. As one camper stated, “I did not think it would be this much fun!”

GM Swiercz loved Huntington and enjoyed working with the students. The Huntington YMCA Chess club hopes this will be an annual event.

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Article by the Herald-Dispatch

Chess Camp with GM Dariusz Świercz

The Huntington-YMCA Chess Club announces Chess Fundamentals with GM Dariusz Świercz

This is a 3-day chess camp with study of strategy, calculations, endgames, and more! June 27, 28, and 29th at the Phil Cline YMCA, 917 Ninth St., Huntington, WV 25701 for the first 20 young people age 12-18. Fee: $100 per student, non-refundable

Registration and Payment or Inquiries: HuntingtonChess@gmail.com

GM Dariusz Świercz (FIDE 2664) is a Polish-American chess Grandmaster. In 2011, Świercz won the World Junior Chess Championship. In 2016 he won the 3rd Millionaire Chess tournament. In 2019 he represented the United States in World Team Championships. He also earned a wildcard spot in the prestigious 2021 Sinquefield Cup.

The Charleston Chess Club will resume weekly meetings on Wednesdays from 6 pm to 9 pm starting March 2, 2022 at the Dunbar City Hall at 210 12th Street, Dunbar, WV 25064. Hope to see you there!

The second day of team play for the WV Scholastic League has been changed from January 29 to February 19. The individual event will be rescheduled and should be held before the WV Scholastic Championship on April 2.

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

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.

Crosstable

The Elkins Chess Club is no longer meeting at the library. They are currently looking for a new site.

Starting August 19, the Beckley Club will return meeting again at Erma Byrd Center, Room 35, University Drive, Beaver WV from 4:00pm to 8pm.