New York State Championship 2013

135th New York State Championship
August 30-September 2, 2013

The 135th Annual New York State Championship was held from August 30-September 2, 2013, in Albany, New York at the Albany Marriott, 189 Wolf Road, Albany.

GM Alexander Ivanov of Massachusetts scored four wins and two draws to win the $1,500 1st Prize in the 135th edition of America’s longest-running tournament. Five players tied for 2nd-6th (in order of tiebreaks): New Jersey GMs Alexander Stripunsky and Joel Benjamin, Nicolas De T Checa, Stanislav Busygin of Pennsylvania and FM Igor Nikolayev. They each won $440, while Nicolas De T Checa and Igor Nikolayev also share the $100 Bonus Prize for the top-scoring New York State resident. On tiebreaks, 11-year-old Nicolas, the 2013 New York State Junior High Champion, also wins the title of 2013 New York State Chess Champion. I believe Nicolas is the youngest New York State Champion in the 135-year history of this tournament!

Rifeng Xia was the only player in the Under 2100 Section to score 5½, giving her the $1,000 1st prize. Arthur Tang and David C Miller scored 5-1 to win $400 each.

Sarah Ascherman’s 5 points was enough to win the $1,000 1st Prize in the Under 1800 Section, with a five-player logjam for 2nd-6th: Darius Jafary, S Warren Lohr, Ernest Wang, Xiaoyu Xu and Brandon Wang each won $190.

Thomas E Clark won the $800 1st Prize for scoring 5½ points in the Under 1500 Section. Ansgarius Aylward took 2nd with 5 points, and Larry Fredette and Sandeep Alampalli tied for 3rd with 4½.

Rohghai Gong’s 5½ points clinched the $500 1st Prize in the Under 1200 Section. Elisha Danzig and Daniel Louzonis finished with 5-1, but Daniel was limited to $150 as an unrated, and the balance of the prize for the two-way tie went to Elisha, who receives $250. Philip Thibault and Nathan Saint Ours both scored 4-2. Philip won the special plaque for Top Under 1000 on tiebreaks over Nathan, who wins the Top Under 800 plaque. Hani Ahmed won the Top Unrated plaque, and Madison Ford-McKnight won Top Under 600.

I believe that this is also the first time in the tournament’s history that a woman has won the clear 1st Place prize in two sections of the NY State Championship: Under 2100 and Under 1800. Not too surprisingly, these two winners were also on the two winning Mixed Doubles teams as well! Xia’s victory in Under 2100, coupled with Igor Nikolayev’s tie for 2nd-6th in the Open Section, powered the duo to win the $500 1st Place Mixed Doubles Team prize with a combined 10 points. Sarah Ascherman and GM Alexander Stripunsky combined forces to score 9.5 points, as did the team of Xiaoy Xu (in the Under 1800 Section) and Arthur Tang (Under 2100). Those two teams each won $250.

The final standings and prizes for all sections are now posted.

Please use the following links to obtain more information regarding the 2013 New York State Championship: