Provided by MIKE NIETMAN, Chair
The following national tournaments are under the jurisdiction of the National State Invitationals Committee:
- GM Arnold Denker National Tournament of High School State Champions
- WIM Ruth Haring National Tournament of Girls State Champions
- Dewain Barber National Tournament of Middle School State Champions
- John D. Rockefeller III National Tournament of Elementary School State Champions
- John T. Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions
- FM Sunil Weeramantry National Blitz Tournament of State Champions
2022 RESULTS
GM Arnold Denker National Tournament of High School State Champions
IM Arthur Guo (GA) won the three-way tiebreak for first place and was the winner of the $5,000 college scholarship. His co-champions were GM Andrew Hong (CA-N) and FM Sandeep Sethuraman (AZ). For the second year in a row FM Sandeep Sethuraman (AZ) was the winner of the $500 Ursula Foster stipend for the best result under the age of 16. The crosstable may be found here: US Chess MSA - Cross Table for 38TH ANNUAL DENKER NATL TMT OF HS STATE CHAMPS (Event 202208029082).
WIM Ruth Haring National Tournament of Girls State Champions
WCM Ruiyang Yan (CA-N) won her second consecutive Haring and was awarded the $5,000 college scholarship. FM Alice Lee (MN) was the winner of the $500 Ursula Foster stipend for the best result under the age of 13. The crosstable may be found here: US Chess MSA - Cross Table for 10TH ANNUAL HARING NATL TMT OF GIRLS STATE CHAMPS (Event 202208029092).
Dewain Barber National Tournament of Middle School State Champions
CM Brewington Hardaway (NY) finished all alone in first place and was the winner of the $5,000 college scholarship. Eric Liu (TX) was the winner of the $500 stipend for the best result under the age of 13. This award is normally for under age 12 but there were none this year. The crosstable may be found here: US Chess MSA - Cross Table for 12TH ANNUAL BARBER NATL TMT OF MS STATE CHAMPS (Event 202208029102).
John D. Rockefeller III National Tournament of Elementary School State Champions
Andrew Jiang (GA), Benjamin Tang (CA-S), and Sam Luger (NY) finished tied for first place. On tiebreaks the $5,000 college scholarship went to Andrew Jiang. John Abraham (KY) was the winner of the $500 stipend for the best result under the age of 9. The crosstable may be found here: US Chess MSA - Cross Table for 3RD ANNUAL ROCKEFELLER NATL TMT OF ELEM ST CHAMPS (Event 202208029112).
John T. Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions
IM Douglas Root (TX) and GM Enrico Sevillano (CA-S) tied for first and split $4,000. The crosstable may be found here: US Chess MSA - Cross Table for 5TH ANNUAL IRWIN NATL TMT OF SENIOR STATE CHAMPS (Event 202208029062).
Team Competition
The team from New York finished in first place and won $500 in US Chess Sales vouchers. The team was composed of their Denker representative FM Nico Chasin, Haring representative WIM Ellen Wang, Barber representative CM Brewington Hardaway, Rockefeller representative Sam Luger, and Irwin representative GM John Fedorowicz.
FM Sunil Weeramantry National Blitz Tournament of State Champions
The US Open started with the FM Sunil Weeramantry National Blitz Tournament of State Champions. A free event for all invitational participants that wanted to play. The event was divided by rating into four sections. The 2200+ section was won by GM Andrew Hong (CA-N). There was a four-way tie between Vaseegaran Nandhakumar (KS), Kaustubh Kodihalli (ID), Jacob Chang (CA-N) and Alexander Wang (NJ) in the 1800-2199 section. In the 1400-1799 section Jwalanthi Ram of (GA) was the sole winner and in the Under 1400 section Elijah Cummings (VT) had the only perfect score of the day.
The committee was disheartened to see not one but two no shows in the last round of the 2022 events. Presumably the players and families thought the round started at noon like it had the two previous days but alas it was a 10 am start. Being a state champion and being part of these invitationals is a privilege and players should be aware of the conditions of play especially the round times. That being said, the committee and TD’s will try to do a better job of communicating the earlier last round start. Our goal is to make sure that every invitational player plays six games.
During the year the committee was also made aware of an issue in a state qualifying event that ended in a tie. With no playoff procedure announced, it was assumed that the tiebreak winner would be the rep. A week later, when a playoff was proposed, the tiebreak winner balked. While the committee stays out of decisions made at the state level, we do urge every state to have clearly announced tie breaking procedures in advance whether it be a playoff or the use of tiebreaks. If the latter, the tiebreak order should be clearly specified in advance publicity.
With the decision to place the 2025 US Open in Middleton, Wisconsin, US Chess is moving to a seven-day US Open. That will necessitate the committee working with the US Open Committee and the Event Manager to schedule the Invitationals which will most likely mean five round invitationals instead of six. It also may allow the expansion of the invitationals by adding the GM Maurice Ashley Tournament of State K-3 Champions and the Paul Morphy Tournament of State K-1 Champions. States should start planning qualifiers for those new events!
