Hoyos earns title, Bryant tentatively earns seed into next US Closed

Note: This is a partial republication of my blog post for Northwest Chess concerning the 2012 U.S. Open Chess Championship. The original can be found here.

GM Yasser Seirawan (white pieces) faces off against GM Manuel Leon Hoyos in Round 9 of the 2012 U.S. Open in Vancouver, Washington, August 12, 2012.
Photo credit: jbdadams@hotmail.com

GM Manuel Leon Hoyos won an Armageddon playoff with the white pieces to earn the title of 2012 United States Open Chess Champion. Hoyos finished with an 8-1 record, the same as GM Dmitry Gurevich and FM John Bryant of California. The top two players on tiebreak (Hoyos and Bryant) were seeded into the playoff for an extra $200 in prize money and the championship trophy. An Armageddon style playoff is a one game blitz match of 5 minutes vs. 3 minutes (in this case with 5 second delay), black having draw odds. Hoyos is the reigning Mexican Champion currently attending Webster University in St. Louis. Bryant, as the first American finisher on tiebreaks, will be seeded into the next U.S. Closed Championship, assuming that the current qualifying rules remain unchanged for 2013.

The final crosstable is located here.

People who played in Seattle 1966 and Vancovuer 2012:

Rusty Miller
Mike Murray
Joe Brandenburg
Anthony Saidy
Ronald Gross
Sam Sloan
Viktors Pupols
David Rupel

Historic photo reenacted (Pupols & Seirawan) click here. From the Idaho Chess Association web site.

Webster University makes a clean sweep. (From Susan Polgar Chess Daily News & Information)

Top Northwest & BC finishers (6 or more points out of 9):

GM Seirawan, Yasser WA 2674 7.5
Breckenridge, Steven OR 2349 7.0
FM Raptis, Nick OR 2330 7.0
Sohal, Tanraj S BC 2199 7.0
FM Roper, David WA 2288 6.5
Lee, Nathan Y WA 2123 6.5
May, Andy P WA 2121 6.5
Erichsen, Dan BC 2104 6.5
Lee, Megan WA 2101 6.5
Esler, Brian John OR 2060 6.5
Zavortink, Matt WA 2051 6.5
Tobin, Sean OR 2025 6.5
Saputra, Yogi OR 1990 6.5
Sinanan, Joshua WA 2259 6.0
Gay, Daniel OR 2212 6.0
Pupols, Viktors WA 2200 6.0
Greninger, Harley G WA 2197 6.0
Lessler, Peter WA 2177 6.0
Patterson, Roger BC 2165 6.0
Edwards, Derek WA 2163 6.0
Yu, Corbin OR 2150 6.0
Wang, Michael WA 2148 6.0
Sellers, Matthew B OR 2128 6.0
Rupel, David WA 2109 6.0
Dixon, Dakota WA 2108 6.0
Kleist, Frederick K WA 2098 6.0
FM Bartron, Paul R WA 2096 6.0
Herrera, Robert OR 2044 6.0
He, Daniel Ming WA 2030 6.0
Arganian, David G WA 2002 6.0
Rowles, David WA 1939 6.0
Robinson, Marcus OR 1898 6.0
Warrier, Krishnan V WA 1885 6.0
Kiiru, Joseph K WA 1833 6.0

For USCF online coverage by Al Lawrence, click here.

Viktors Pupols and Yasser Seirawan, reenacting a photo shot by Larry Parr in 1974. This will likely be the cover photo for the September 2012 Northwest Chess magazine. Photo credit: Jeffrey Roland

Hoyos still in front; 14 others within a point of the lead

Kathy & Rusty Miller were among those honored at the 2012 US Open Awards luncheon on Saturday, August 11.
Photo credit: Jeffrey Roland

See related story here.

Standings after Round 8 of 9 in the 2012 U.S. Open Chess Championship:

1 GM Hoyos, Manuel Leon MEX 2679 7.5
2 GM Seirawan, Yasser WA 2674 7.0
3 Norowitz, Yaacov NJ 2569 7.0
4 GM Gurevich, Dmitry IL 2539 7.0
5 IM Sarkar, Justin NY 2483 7.0
6 IM Bercys, Salvijus NY 2479 7.0
7 IM Mulyar, Michael A CO 2456 7.0
8 FM Bryant, John Daniel CA 2455 7.0
9 GM Ramirez, Alejandro TX 2643 6.5
10 GM Shabalov, Alexander PA 2619 6.5
11 GM Diamant, Andre BRA 2573 6.5
12 Shetty, Atulya Arya MI 2400 6.5
13 Aaron, Deepak NY 2353 6.5(1)
14 Shvartsman, Andrew Nathaniel NJ 2343 6.5
15 Zavortink, Matt WA 2051 6.5
(1) includes half point bye in round 9

Complete cross table can be found here (517 players)

Blitz results are here (129 players) - won by GM Andre Diamont (12.2) of GM Anatoly Bykhovsky (11.5-2.5)

Blitz report on Susan Polgar Daily News and Information.

Note: This was a partial republication of my blog today for Northwest Chess.
Links to the earlier posts on the 2012 U.S. Open Chess Championship:
Schedules Merge at 2012 U.S. Open (8/11/12)
Four players tied at 5.5-0.5 (8/10/12)
Breckenridge draws with GM D. Gurevich; Results through Rd. 5 (8/9/12)
Denker, Barber complete. Six day schedule begins in the main event. (8/8/12)
11 perfect scores after 3 rounds in the US Open Traditional Schedule (8/7/12)
Round 2 Traditional Schedule Results for leading Northwest Players (8/6/12)
Northwest well represented in the Denker and Barber tournaments (8/6/12)
First Side Event Completed at 2012 U.S. Open (8/6/12)

First Side Event Completed at 2012 U.S. Open

Josh Sinanan of Washington, pictured above, finished tied for 5th place with 3.5/5 after losing to co-winner Nick Raptis in the final round. Photo credit: Russell Miller

The U.S. Open Weekend Swiss, the first side event of this year’s tournament held August 4-5, was won by Nick Raptis of Oregon and Francisco Guadalupe II of Texas who tied for first with 4.5 points in five rounds. Yogi Saputra and Takuma Sato-Duncan, both of Oregon, tied for 3rd-4th with 4-1. Josh Sinanan of Washington, Carl Haessler of Oregon and Michael Goffe of Oregon were the Northwest players in the group tied for 5th through 9th with 3.5 points.

41 Players entered the event including 16 players from Oregon and 13 from Washington. The complete crosstable can be viewed here.

View continuous updates on the NW Chess blog.