The purpose of this thread is to list Senior Open tournaments, specifically those which are qualifiers for the 2022 Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions. I am planning to post about any Senior-only events. For states that select their qualifier a different way, such as top scoring senior in the state championship, I am not planning on posting those although of course the chapter is free to do so. My objective is simply to encourage seniors to play in senior only events, for those who like those. I will likely not post closed events (for instance last year South Carolina had a round robin open only to their top six seniors), since the reader wouldn’t be able to play anyway.
The presumption is that players from all states are welcome to compete in these tournaments unless specified otherwise in the advertising (this is not common). Everyone should be aware that the Irwin qualifying spots are only open to residents of that state.
The first two events meeting this criteria are:
Minnesota Oct 23-24 https://www.chesscastle.com/home is a link to the site of the event; it is many events listed so you’ll have to scroll down to this date. I am hoping to travel to this event myself.
Wisconsin Nov 6-7 https://new.uschess.org/wca-veterans-tournament Don’t be misled by the term “veterans” in the event name. It is open to anyone over 18 (there is a concurrent junior event) and the top scoring senior qualifies for the Irwin. This doesn’t really fit my criteria for this thread, but I had already posted before I got this clarification. It’s sort of halfway in between a senior event and my criteria; you won’t play any kids.
If you’re within driving range and a senior, please consider playing in these events. I’d like to see every senior event add another player or two they might not have gotten otherwise.
I am posting as the Vice-Chair of the US Chess Senior Committee and welcome feedback. Ideally PM me, as I’d like to keep this thread clean for just tournament notifications. I know, dream on…
The Oregon Senior Open, which will determine Oregon’s representative to the 2022 National Tournament of Senior State Champions, should take place sometime next spring. For reference, here are the results of the 2021 Oregon Senior Open uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202106137132
Thanks for posting Mike! The ‘Veterans’ refers not to military veterans (even though it is held in November) but the “Veterans of the Wisconsin Chess Wars” which are typically our adult players.
If you’re able to get to Minnesota, you should be able to get to Wisconsin two weeks later.
I couldn’t even get to Missouri’s qualifier, and I live here! Missouri held its state championship last weekend, and NM Ron Luther finished in a four-way tie for first place overall. He is not only state co-champion, he is also the Missouri Senior Champion. Luther created the tie by defeating the sole leader in the last round. His only loss was to the player who won the title on tie-break. The other two winners from from NY and KS, respectively.
Congratulations, Ron! You’ll have a tough act to follow to match last year’s Missouri representative FM Doug Eckert, who finished third in the Irwin, losing only in the last round and facing 2 GMs and 3 IMs.
Updated list of current senior state champions, who have first option to represent their state in the 2022 Irwin:
Missouri Ron Luther (highest finishing senior in State Championship (as well as co-champion)
South Dakota Nels Truelson (highest finishing senior at State Championship, which he also won for the 13th time)
Minnesota Tim Radermacher (clear first last weekend, defeated defending champion in round three).
I did make the trip to Minnesota (so did Truelson) and lost to the winner in round one. 13 players participated in this well-run event.
As noted above, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Massachusetts have events on the horizon.
Mike, am I reading this crosstable right? http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202111072882.1 62 players for the WI Senior! Wow!!! Most of the US Senior Opens haven’t drawn that well. It looks like the winner is from Utah, and thus the Irwin spot would go to Josiah Stein at 4.5 out of 5. Fantastic turnout.
Updated list of current senior state champions, who have first option to represent their state in the 2022 Irwin:
Missouri Ron Luther (highest finishing senior in State Championship (as well as co-champion)
South Dakota Nels Truelson (highest finishing senior at State Championship, which he also won for the 13th time)
Minnesota Tim Radermacher (clear first last weekend, defeated defending champion in round three).
South Carolinas Alexander Matros (who also is their reigning state champion)
Wisconsin Up in the air, as their event was for people over 18 and the top finishing senior declined.
Massachusetts Alexander Ivanov (tied for first with Mike Carey of Rhode Island)
I don’t know how often Mike reads the forums, but I was the chief TD for the tournament, so I can attempt to answer these questions. It was indeed a great turnout, but keep in mind that this is not strictly a “Senior Open”. The only qualification to play in it is that you need to be at least 18 years old (it’s held in conjunction with a Junior Open with an upper age limit of 21). We do use it to select our entry for the Irwin, the principle of selection being the best score among Wisconsin residents over 50 years old (I’m pretty sure that “Wisconsin residents over 50” narrows the candidates to less than half of the field of 62). We haven’t absolutely verified this yet, but we’re pretty sure that Josiah Stein is less than 50 years old. There is a bit of a logjam below him, and we have yet to determine our representative for next year’s Irwin. We have to sort out (a) who’s a Wisconsin resident; (b) who’s over 50; and (c) who’s willing and able to attend the Irwin – and if there’s a tie, we may need to have a playoff. This is where Mike might know more than I do, but I don’t believe the dust has settled on that question yet.
Mike PMd me with essentially the same information. He did say that the highest scoring WI senior (Doug Younkle) declined, so it is still up in the air. On this thread I’m reporting who won the spot. It doesn’t mean they’ll accept, but they deserve their 15 seconds of fame.
