This thread will serve to keep people informed of qualifying events for the 2023 Irwin Tournament of Senior State Champions, to be held in conjunction with the US Open in Grand Rapids Michigan. I will focus on senior only events; if a state awards its slot to the highest finishing senior in their state championship it probably won’t be listed on this thread.
These events already have announcements posted on the US Chess website:
Minnesota will be Oct 22-23. Registration isn’t open yet but will be soon, at which point I’ll add the link. I played in this event last year and it was very well run.
https://www.minnesotachess.com/ is the Minnesota Chess website. It now shows tournament details and a link to the registration page, though i still don’t see it on the US Chess website.
I would also caution anyone interested in playing in the Georgia Senior. The round schedule is absurdly tight, with only 4 hours between the morning and afternoon rounds and a time control of G90/ inc 30. The organizer has told me they have to finish and be out of the building by a specific time. The ad does say they provide “light food”. If I were playing, I think I’d bring my own to be sure that I could keep my blood sugar where it should be. I’d probably have used a slightly shorter time control like G/75 inc 30, but it’s hard to criticize them for wanting to use the same time control as the Irwin uses.
These states have already held Senior state championships:
MN Tim Radermacher defended his title by winning a playoff with Andres Hortillosa
NC Henry Hasman
SC Wayne Christensen won but has declined, so runner-up Mike Sailer will receive the nomination
WV James Fuller won his third straight on tiebreak over Robert Canary
GA James Altucher swept the field and will represent GA for the second straight year.
OH Thomas Britt and Michael Sheaf tied for first; I do not know who gets the Irwin slot
New Mexico (Dennis Dyer) and Wisconsin (Bryan Lilly in a playoff over Senthil Sundaram) have held state championship events for which the top finishing resident seniors earn the Irwin spot.
Of course, the person who wins the qualifying event isn’t always able to make the trip!
Upcoming Senior Qualifiers:
TX March 4-5 https://new.uschess.org/2023-texas-senior-championship Will defending Irwin Champion Doug Root compete?
OK April 15-16 https://www.ochess.org/senior I played in this event last year, at the same location. It was well run. The only downside was that the hotel restaurant was not open due to lack of staffing. Plenty of places nearby though, so it wasn’t a problem. I didn’t find this on the US Chess website, though. A friend tipped me off.
I try to keep everyone updated on Irwin qualifying events. My prime source is the US Chess website; it’s too time consuming to monitor all state websites. Nevertheless, I do look at state websites occasionally. I have Washington roots and found their event that way.
In this post I’ll update you on states which ran qualifiers last year but haven’t advertised one this year yet:
Kansas shows May 20-21 on their calendar. Their senior event is open only to state residents and is held in conjunction with another open event.
TN is on May 12-14; their website has a link but the senior event is not shown on the linked page.
ID is May 20; their website indicates details are coming soon.
IL and UT have no Irwin qualifier shown on their website. IL is of course the location of the US Senior Open, where I hope to meet many of you.
The Illinois event is held along with the other qualifying events. That typically occurs on the first weekend in May at the same site as the USATN. This year that date is not available, so it looks like it may be on the weekend before Memorial Day, but that is not official as yet. Could always be run in June.
Larry Cohen
PS: I will see the rest of you Senior Open players this July. I live 1.5 miles away from the playing site.
Below is a summary of what I (think I) know about Irwin qualifying events. Note that these are the winners; it doesn’t mean they are actually willing and able to go!
STATE NAME
Connecticut Sergey Kudrin
Georgia James Altucher
Iowa Valeriy Kosokin
Minnesota Tim Radermacher
New Mexico Dennis Dyer (from State Championship)
North Carolina Henry Hasman
Ohio Thomas Britt and Michael Sheaf (co-champions, no idea who has priority for the Irwin)
Pennsylvania Karl Dehmelt (from State championship)
South Carolina Mike Sailor (winner Wayne Christiansen declined)
Texas Chris Land
West Virginia James Fuller
Wisconsin Bryan Lilly (from State Championship)
These are the scheduled events (date shown is the first day of the event)
Alabama 4/22/2023
Calif - N 6/9/2023
Colorado 6/3/2023
Florida 5/27/2023
Idaho 5/20/2023
Kansas 5/20/2023
Michigan 4/22/2023
Nevada 4/16/2023
New Jersey 5/14/2023
Oklahoma 4/15/2023
Oregon 5/5/2023
Tennessee 5/12/2023
Utah 4/8/2023
Virginia 6/2/2023
Washington 4/14/2023
I don’t know anything about other states. Most of them historically have not run a senior only event. They may use the highest finishing Senior from the state championship. But I suspect most of them take the highest rated person willing to go or the first one who says they are willing.
If you know anything about the other states or see an error in the above, please let me know!
Illinois is May 20-23. Eagle-eyed Lawrence Cohen spotted it on the King Registration website. I don’t see it yet on US Chess or Illinois Chess Association websites.
King Registration seems to have become the primary source of tournament information (as well as registration) for players in Illinois. Organizers in several other states use King Registration also.
I am using it for the first time for a Texas Regional Scholastic I am running in May. So far, it is good. One payment bounced, so we shall see how that gets resolved. I love not having to individually process payments and registration details for every player.
South Dakota - Nels Truelson, by virtue of sharing first place in the South Dakota Championship with “underage” Josiah Jorenby.
Utah - Thomas Johansen
Oklahoma Mark Hulsey (co-champion but the other winner Bill Orton is from Arkansas
Washington - Leonid Gavrish
Nevada - Tom Brownscombe. Tom also won last year but ended up declining to take a spot on the TD staff!
This weekend Alabama and Michigan are on the docket.