Hoyos earns title, Bryant wins seed into next US Closed

Hoyos earns title, Bryant wins seed into next US Closed
by Frank Niro

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.

517 players total with 19 from Clark County. Three players tied for 1st place with 8 points out of 9: Grandmaster Manuel Hoyes of Mexico, Grandmaster Dmitry Gurevich of Illinois and FIDE Master John Bryant of California

The United States Chess Federation hopes to return to the Pacific Northwest in the next 6-10 years. The 114th US Open will be in Madison WI. and 115th in St. Louis MO.

The event is held once a year and moves around the country. It was last held in this area in Portland Oregon in 1987 with 532 players and 1966 in Seattle Washington with 201 players. 8 players who played in Seattle also played in Vancouver.

US Open Blitz Championship

There were 129 players participating in this event. The winners were: 1st Andre Diamant from Brazil (Webster University) 12.0 $490.00, 2nd Anatoly Bykhovsky from Israel (Webster University) 11.5 $245.00, 3rd tie U2400 Shetty Atulya from MI, Steve Breckenridge from OR & Nick Raptis from OR 11.0 $184.00 each, 1st U2200 Bryce Tiglon from WA 11.0 $245.00, 2nd U2200 Tanraj Sohal from BC, Michael Wang from WA, Andy May from WA, Li Zhaozh from IL 10.0 $30.00 each. 1st U2000/1800 Yifei Han from BC & Takum Duncan from OR 9.0, $233.00 each, 2nd U2000/U1800 Charles Unruh from OK, Tony Kukavica from CA. Josiah Stearman from CA. & Ethan Neff from WA. 8.5 $58.00 each, 1st U1600 Jack Gabriel from OR 8.0 $170.00, 2nd U1600 Diallo Wilson from WA 7.0 $85.00, 1st-2nd U1400 Marc Huang from WA. & Nathan Jewell from OR. 7.0 $90.00 each, 1st U1200 Brian Chen From WA $$85.00, 2nd U1200 Nicholas Wong from HI & Ethan Wu from OR 5.0 $$23.00 each, 1st-2nd UNR. David Jensen from WA, Stephen Vance from WA & Ian Vaughn from WA 5.0 $33.00 each. There were 15 states represented in this tournament.

US Open Game 15 Championship report

38 players took part in this event. The winners were:

1st-2nd Andre Diamant from MO (Webster University) & Vitaly Neimer from MO (Webster University).

4.5 $342.00 each, U2100 Nikolay Bulakh from Wa., Yifei Han from BC, Michael Goffe from Or. & Zhaozhi Li from IL. 3.0 $37.00 each.

U1800 Kristen Dietsch from Wa. 3.0 $152.00,

U1500/Unr. David Griffin from Wa. , Dillon Murray from OR. & Jeremy Harlin from Wa. 2.0 $41.00 each.

Under 1200 Kannan Nagarajan from FL. & Nicholas Wong From Hi. 1.0 $38.00 each.

Source: http://www.nwchess.com/blog/