As some have pointed out, it is a long time since I have attended an Oklahoma state championship, so I was curious as to how the state champion was determined. In New Hampshire it is all of the New Hampshire residents that have the highest score in the Championship section, so it is possible to have more than one state champion. I believe that it is the same way in Maine, except that the Maine state championship tournament is closed to Maine residents.
The reason I ask is because I notice that Big Chuck Unruh and Little Chuck Unruh, that is CD and CM Unruh, were tied for first this year, and I was wondering if they were co-champions or if one of them won on tiebreaks?
Ky holds a closed round robin to determine its state champion. The players qualify for the closed based on the top state residents placing in the Ky Open, as well as winners of other events in the year.
Iowa has a series of qualifier events where high-finishing players earn qualifying points for the next state championship. Five players plus the defending champion then play a round robin. In the case of a tied state championship there is no automatic qualifier the following championship and the top 6 players qualify.
Dear Alex, We do use tiebreaks for the trophy. Jr won his first title, and is now thisclose to passing his dad in ratings. Hope all is well up there on the East coast.
Nebraska has an invitational tournament with (the last time I checked) 6 participants, who qualify in various ways.
If there are co-winners, they are declared co-champions, but tiebreaks may be used to decide which of them automatically qualifies for the next year’s state closed. (We used to have a mandatory playoff for the qualification slot, I’m not sure if that is still in the state Bylaws.)
Pennsylvania is pretty straightforward. The highest finishing PA resident in the top section of the PA state championship is the state champion. In the event of a tie, co-champions are declared. The complete list of PA state champions is here.
This is great archival information! Has any other state allowed a computer to hold the title of state champion? And the idea of co-champions avoids lots of acrimony. Pennsylvania has a federation worthy of emulation.
I was more impressed that Pennsylvania has had only 3 presidents in the 75 year history of the state federation. Have known and worked with all three during their terms in office. The work by William Byland on behalf of not only Pennsylvania but also for the USCF in implementing the Swiss System to tournaments and getting the rating system adopted is not well known. Ira Riddle was tireless in directing hundreds of tournaments on all levels. Tom Martinak’s work on behalf of the Pittsburgh Chess League, western Pa. chess, and scholastic chess for the PSCF is well known among players interested in the well-being of chess in the state of Pennsylvania. We have been lucky to have such hard working presidents.