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2024 Southwest Open: Worth the drive to Houston?
Oh, yeah. You bet it was! Check it out:
Our state champion, FM Ryan Amburgy, tied for fourth in the GM-studded International section at the Southwest Class In Houston this weekend. Elizabeth Braddy tied for fourth in the U2300. In the U2000, Arya Roy Choudhury tied for third. And Anurag Roy Choudhury ended the weekend with a FIRST-place tie in the U1500.
View the cross tables here:
Quality matters: Oklahoma players at the Kansas Open
This year's contingent to the Kansas Open was smaller than in 2022, when the event was last held in Wichita. Just eleven players represented us this year; last time we had 27. But this year’s team proved it’s about quality, not quantity—suffice it to say our reputation in Kansas remains intact.
Our players this year were William Lin, Garrett Hunt, Chuck Johnson, Jeff Carter, Liam Applegate, Ryan Samadder, Roshan Valentine, Carlos Garcia, Ish Kissinger, Edwin Earl Chase, and Matthew Huber.
Our top player in the Open finished just a half point off the overall winner. William Lin of Stillwater scored 4.0 points, landing in a second-place tie (with top seed Sky Moerlien). This earned him the Open section’s Top Scholastic award and a 54-point rating jump. He’s now at 1936. We predict it won’t be long before a new entry appears on the list of OSCO Hall of Famers (for scholastic players 2000+).
PHOTO: CJ Armenta presents William Lin with the Open section's Top Scholastic Player award.
Also in the Open, Garrett Hunt scored 3.0 and earned twelve rating points. He’s now at 1837. His three wins included a third-round upset with the black pieces; he was a 105-point underdog in that game.
Top scholastic player in the Reserve was Oklahoma’s Liam Applegate, who tied with Jeff Carter for top Oklahoma player in that section. They both scored 3.5. A half point behind them was Ryan Samadder, whose decision to play up paid off with an astonishing 111-point rating jump.
Three Oklahomans scored a respectable 2.5 points: Carlos Garcia, Roshan Valentine, and Ish Kissinger, who scored a big upset as a 161-point rating underdog in round four.
Unrated Oklahoma player Edwin Earl Chase III chose to play up to the Reserve, where a third-round draw with a 1348 earned him an initial rating of 1123.
CJ Armenta directed the event. Our congratulations to John Drippe, the tournament's overall winner and the new state champion for Kansas. You can view the crosstables here.
Oklahoma players at the 2024 Universal Open
Congratulations to Oklahoma state champion FM Ryan Amburgy, who won top U2300 at the inaugural Universal Open in Dallas.
A bong-tastic result for Bufford at the National Open
Despite playing what's been called "the worst opening in chess" and "a bad opening that violates nearly all principles," Oklahoma player Adley Bufford scored a solid 4.5/7 in the U1900 division at last week's National Open in Las Vegas. He played played the "Bong Cloud" (f3 kf2 or f6 kf7) in every game.
"I'm positive he could have won his section if he'd played something normal," said Max Barnes, who also played in the event. Barnes scored 5.5 out of 7 in the U2100.
Wishing he could castle? Photo courtesy of Las Vegas International Chess Festival
The June 2024 issue of Oklahoma Chess Magazine is out! Read it here
RYAN AMBURGY IS TWO-TIME STATE CHAMP
FM Ryan Amburgy is Oklahoma's state chess champion for 2024-25. He tied for first with GM Viktor Matviishen, who he drew in round four. This is Amburgy's second time to earn the state champion's title; he also won it in 2022.
Four players finished with 3.5 points in the Championship section: David Phillips, Lafayette Chen, Kelvin Xie, and Arkansas player Havish Kunchanapalli.
The 78th Jerry Spann Memorial Oklahoma State Championship was held June 1 and 2 in Edmond. A record-setting 125 players participated in this year's event. Josie Braddy was organizer and chief TD.
Liam Applegate won the Reserve with a stunning 5 out of 5-game sweep. He had been the 24th seed in the 31-player section. Maxwell Xie, Sean Harvey, and Ben Roberts tied with 4.0 points each.
Anthony Tuttle won the Amateur with a perfect 5.0 score. Konner Rugg took second place with 4.5. David Brown, Paarth Jain, and Frank Chen split the Top U1000 prize, and Tyler Ellis was the top unrated player.
Results of the tournament are here.
Our thanks to Mike Tubbs and Debasish Roy Choudhury for contributing photos. You can see the rest of them here.
Another tie with Texas at the 22nd RRSO
Wayne Hatcher 2-0'd his Texas opponent. So did Aayush Praveen and Lafayette Chen.
Round one of this year's RRSO ended with Texas ahead by two points. By the middle of round two, Oklahoma had surged ahead. But when the dust settled, so did the score: Oklahoma 15, Texas 15.
The 22nd Red River Shootout was held May 11, 2024 at the Lake Murray Lodge in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The event is a team match held annually between Oklahoma and Texas. Players are paired with an opponent near their own rating for two games. Thirty players participated in this year's RRSO, which was organized by Tom Crane, the Texas captain and one of the event's founders, and by Oklahoma's team captain, Rebecca Rutledge.
Another of the tournament's founders, Jim Hollingsworth (TX), also participated this year, as did Oklahoma's Bruce Wells, who has been a part of this event every year since the first RRSO in 2003.
The organizers wish to thank everybody who came out and made this year's RRSO such a great day for all of us. We're already looking forward to the next one. Crosstable is here: RRSO XXII