WV Junior Championship

John Boylin, our resident championship collector, has added another to his list. John went 4-0 and is now the Junior Champion as well as the Action and overall State Champion. No one has ever held all of these at the same time before! If he could simultaneously be under 21 and over 50 I imagine he’d have all 4 titles.

Landon Leach and Ishaal Patel tied for the beginner section and Markle Butcher won the Friends and Family Section.

USCF Crosstable

WV Senior Championship

21 players competed in the 2023 WV Senior Championship, held in Bridgeport on November 4. Mark Eidemiller from PA won the tournament with a perfect 4/4. Lewis Sanders and David Hines tied for second with 3 points and are the 2023 WV Senior Co-Champions. Lewis will represent WV in the Irwin Tournament of Senior Champions.


USCF Crosstable

2022-2023 Grand Prix Final Standings

Events Included: Action Championship, Chess Day, Concord Southern Open, Mountaineer Open 1/14, Mountaineer Open 4/2, YMCA Spring Open, Clarksburg Open, WV Italian Heritage Open, Thomas Bergquist Memorial

 1. Lewis F Sanders          131.17    $360
 2. John Boylin IV           114.75    $180
 3. Markle W Butcher          60.17     $90
 4. Benjamin M Good           50.50
 5. John Everett Roush        48.65
 6. Sam Timmons               47.07
 7. Hardy Gu                  45.06
 8. David Wayne Hundley       34.83
 9. James A Fuller II         26.83
10. Elijah David Schultz      24.73
11. Cortland Nesley           22.58
12. Josh A Rubino             19.16
13. Pushkal Solanki           18.75
14. Weston James Robarts      18.50
15. Christopher Leach         15.25
16. David Comer               15.09
17. Steven Aguilar            13.50
18. Charles B Adams           13.25
19. Ryan Ward                 12.50
20. Edward A Garner	      12.00
    James William Sutherland  12.00
22. Allen D Farley            11.75
23. Dustin Andrew Booker      11.50
24. John Szasz III            11.00
25. Ryan T VanBibber          10.67
26. Craig Timmons             10.50
27. Caden Neal Eldridge        8.33
28. Gary Denver Cummings       7.50
29. Tristan A Johnston         7.33
30. Max Aiden Aguilar          7.00
    Vishwadhipa Venkata Voore  7.00
32. Cameron H Collins          6.67
33. David F Hines              6.00
    Michael Felton             6.00
35. Luke Garlick               5.75
36. Kenneth Alan Ross          3.50
    Richard Keith Lilly        3.50
    Richard T Holsberry        3.50
    Robert Lawrence Rogers     3.50
40. Noah Hamilton              3.00
41. Brayden Charles Owens      2.25
42. Aditya Jain                1.00
    Meghan Elkins              1.00

Thomas Bergquist Memorial

22 players competed in the Thomas Bergquist Memorial WV State Championship, held September 9-10 in Huntington. John Boylin was guaranteed a share of the title after starting 4-0, and had mercy on the 2022 champion, Benjamin Good, with a final round draw.

John finished a point ahead of the field to win his first state title and $200. Ben Good, Sam Timmons, Lewis Sanders, and Suneil Avirneni of Oklahoma shared the 2nd, 3rd, and U1900 prize money. David Hundley won the U1600 prize. Matthew Phelps and Clay Thompson shared the U1300 prize.

The upset prize was won by Caden Eldridge (1007) for his victory over John Roush (2000).

Crosstable

Chess FundamentalZ with GM DariusZ ŚwiercZ

Eighteen middle school and high school students from WV and KY attended the Huntington YMCA Chess Club’s Second Annual Chess Camp with GM Dariusz ŚwiercZ. The camp, June 26-29, included instruction on tactical as well as positional play, a simul, many, many puzzles, friendly matches and an end-of-camp four round tournament. We hope to do it again next year!

Group photo
Back row, left to right: Mark Hathaway, Zach Haden , Matt DeGroff, Clay Thompson, Oskar Meade, Matthew Phelps, Caden Eldridge, Dimitri Moore, Alex Peterson, Micah Barnette

Front row, left to right: Joe DeGroff, John Boylin, Jackson Denning, Alex Oliashirazi, Abram Hess, GM Swiercz, Duncan Bishop, Luke McCallister, Kaden Jeffers, Natasha Bradley

Photos by Seth Rutt