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.
YMCA Winter Open
29 players competed in the YMCA Winter Open in Huntington, on December 11. The Open Section was a four-way tie for first between John Roush, Lewis Sanders, Sam Timmons, and Markle Butcher. Each scored 3 points. Weston Robarts swept the U1500 section with a perfect 4/4.
Dennis Gogel 1954-2021
Dennis Gogel, 6-time Indiana State Champion, and member of the KY Chess Hall of Fame died November 21, 2021 at the age of 67.
WV Senior Championship
The 7th Annual WV Senior Championship was held on November 6, 2021 in Clarksburg. 13 players competed in the event. Jimmy Fuller repeated as Senior Champion with a score of 3.5/4. 2nd-3rd was Mike Baker and Jim Sutherland. The 70+ winner was Konnie Dolgovskij and the 60+ winner was Markle Butcher.
2022 Scholastic League
We will be holding the WV Scholastic Chess League in 2022! With Covid-19 and all the variants, it may be challenging, but we need to get back to some sort of normal.
We will be doing three rounds each on January 22 and 29 for the Scholastic Chess League team/school competitions. We will use the same format as in the past. February 19 will be the individual league championship.
The sections will be K-5, MS, and HS. Trophies will be awarded to the top 5 teams in the K-5 section, top 3 in MS, and top 3 in HS sections. Teams need to be registered by January 14, 2022. Entry fees will be $15/person. Make checks payable to WVSCA.
You can have up to 5 players on one team and the top three scores will be used. Schools can have multiple teams. Teammates will not play each other. However, teams within the same school may play each other. If your school doesn’t have a team, or you are being homeschooled, let me know and we will help find a team. Club teams could be formed where players may not be from the same school because the school doesn’t have a team or the student is being homeschooled. We will help form teams as needed. If you have six players from your school, you should create two three-player teams.
We will announce COVID protocols closer to league play.
We hope to have a successful chess season. We hope everyone is and remains safe and healthy.
YMCA Fall Open
Lewis Sanders swept the field at the YMCA Fall Open. 18 players competed. Crosstable
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
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.
Sefus Ellis 1968-2021
We are sad to announce that Sefus Ellis has passed away. He was 63 years old.