Irwin and Haring Champions

On February 6th Iowa Held its qualifiying tournaments in Ames Iowa for the Irwin and Haring tournaments of State Champions. The Irwin is for players over the age of 50 and the Haring is for all female scholastic players grades K-12. Thank you to the Iowa State Chess Club for helping host this event in conjunction with their Winter ISU Chess Club Open.

Valeriy Kosokin my second favorite Uzbekistanian went 3.5 of 4 games to secure his right to represent Iowa in the national tournament of champions.

The Haring qualification tournament ended in a wild 4 way tie, which was settled by a Blitz Playoff. Irene Fei, Anjali Lodh, Awen Li and Minnou Emmad finished the tournament each with 3 points. The last round with a dramatic upset by Awen Li over Irene Fei. Which set the stage for the 4 way tie. In the Blitz playoff each contestant played both white and black in a round robin G5;d2 format. Anjali Lodh prevailed squeeking by Awen Li 4.5 points to 4.0 points. Anjali will be given the Honor of representing Iowa in Rancho Mirage California.

Luke Schaekenbach former president of the ISU chess club did his school proud and went 4 out of 4 and won the collegiate open section, with none other than our own National Tournament Director William Broich coming in second with 3.5 points. Again thanks to the ISU Chess Club for its assistance in running this event.