Inland Classic II (2025)
Youth was served at the second installment of the Inland Classic, the successor to the Dave Collyer Memorial. Linus Wannamaker, a ninth grader from Moscow, Idaho, topped the field with a 4.5 score.
The second edition of the Inland Classic was played once again in Rathdrum, ID on February 22-23, 2025. Like its predecessor, the Dave Collyer Memorial, the event weekend kicked off in Spokane with a Friday afternoon blitz tournament followed by a John Donaldson lecture and simul. The blitz tourney was dominated by travelers from outside Spokane. Drew Bunch (WSU) won the event, followed by Mark Havrilla in second place. Third place was shared by players from eastern Oregon, Great Falls, and Missoula. The topics of John Donaldson’s lecture this year were the recent Olympiad and some newly discovered games by young Bobby Fischer. The IM then took on 15 players in a simul, allowing but three draws on the evening.
Three young Montana players provided the three upsets in the first round. Declan Pham of Missoula pulled off a victory on board 1 against local expert Cam Leslie, Brandon Arensmeyer (Great Falls) upended expert David Arganian of Seattle on board 3, and Chase Rands of Whitefish topped class A player James Stripes on board 7. That was plenty of excitement for the first round!
The second round pairings were tightly bunched due to an influx of 8 players from the scholastic event entering with half point byes. There were a few upsets of the smaller variety, but the top boards held serve. That would change in round three.
The biggest upset of the tournament occurred on board 1 in the next to last third round game to finish. Wannamaker toppled Donaldson late in the evening after the IM tried to win a drawn Queen and Pawn endgame. Wannamaker, under a minute left on his clock, successfully fended off an attack and secured the victory with 15 seconds remaining. The last game of the night saw Ben Patterson top Pat Perry (another WSU player) in a complicated position.
Four players finished the first day’s action with perfect scores and, of course, met on the top two boards in the fourth round. Board two saw a rapidly played game between Ken Erickson and Daniel Bowers that drew deep in a game that ended comparatively early in the round. Board one saw Wannamaker in a contest with Michael Cambareri that was a repeat performance – the two had matched up in the first round of the Inland Empire Open in May in a contest that Michael won. Linus turned the tables in this event, pulling out the win late in the round. Billaux and Mark Havrilla also drew in a game that rapidly progressed to an endgame. Donaldson had a lengthy game with Tilly Backstrom, a young woman from Boise in her second year of competitive chess, who came up to help out with the associated youth tournament and stayed to play. Her game looks very solid and she should have a good future in over the board play.
Round five saw Erickson challenge the undefeated Wannamaker. The game also was played at a relatively rapid pace and reached a drawn position before the other contenders resolved their games. Bowers and Bunch fought for quite awhile before drawing on board two, while boards 3, 4, and 5 ended up being the final games of the tournament. On three, Donaldson and Ben Patterson had a very complicated game that the IM skillfully deciphered. Matt Goodale and Michael Cambareri met yet again in a tight board 5 encounter that ended just after Donaldson-Patterson with Michael showing nice endgame technique to secure a victory. Eric Billaux then turned back an upset bid from Walter van Heemstede Obelt on board 4 and the tourney was over.
Wannamaker’s 4.5 score won first place. Six players tied at 4.0 for second and third overall and also dragged in the Expert and A prizes, as well as first in class B: Donaldson, Billaux, Cambareri, Erickson, Bunch, and Bowers. There were There were numerous other prize winners. Second place in class B with 3.5 scores was shared by Eshan Reddy, Jim Skovron, and Vibi Varghese. The two class C prizes were split by 8 (!!!) players with 2.5 scores: Brandon Arensmeyer, Tilly Backstrom, Steve Brendemihl, Khai Le, Ben Legard, Pat Perry, Declan Pham, and Chase Rands. Brandon also scored the second biggest upset prize. Class D/under/unrated was won by Brock Swope (3.0), while second place was shared by newcomer Austin Ashcroft, Andrew Johnsen, and Eric Spletstoser with 2.5 scores.
From an organizer’s perspective, this was a very smooth tournament filled with old friends and talented newcomers who look to have bright chess futures (hopefully in the Northwest). The only downside was the demise of our Apple Cider pot which died in the same location that its twin companion coffee pot had died last year. I think we will try a different electrical outlet next year.
The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for INLAND CLASSIC 2- INLAND CLASSIC 2 (Event 202502237542)
Inland Classic I (2024)
A new tournament launched the final weekend of February, 2024 – the Inland Classic, Spokane’s replacement for the Dave Collyer Memorial. The new event saw a familiar format and lots of familiar faces, but many newer players emerged to challenge the traditional powers. Michael Cambareri and Brian Lee scored 4.5 to win the 67-player event.
Lee led a contingent of a half dozen players from WSU, several of whom had rediscovered tournament chess years after establishing fairly low ratings in their scholastic days. Buffed up by computers and strong club competition, they returned at this event to gobble up rating points and rack up several large upsets. The chief “upsetter” was Drew Bunch, who scored upset victories over an A player in round 1, an Expert in round 3, and two high class B players on his way to scoring 4 points and tie for third place. He raised his rating from 1258 to 1556 and grabbed the largest upset prize along the way.
The field was led by IM John Donaldson, graciously returning to Spokane once again. He gave a lecture about the FIDE candidates tournament on Friday night, and then scored 17.5 of 19 in the ensuing simul. Another veteran presence on third board was Eric Billaux, the winner of the first two Collyer Memorial tourneys while a grad student at WSU in the early 90s. He returned to Washington last year, settling in the Tri-Cities, after a quarter century in Colorado. Tacoma Expert Paul Bartron came over once again and was seeded fourth.
As is typical in a large open tournament, the chief upsets occur in the early rounds when the rating disparities between opponents are the largest. There were a half dozen upsets in round one, which saw three A players fall. The last game of the round saw Ben Shedlock (1404) – always a good bet for last game of the round in any event — upend Mark Havrilla (1953) on board 7. Facing mate in one with seconds remaining on his clock, Mark sacrificed his rook and attempted to force mate with queen and knight. Living on the five second delay, he chased Ben’s king from kingside to queenside before a safe location was obtained. No one was keeping score in the scramble, but I hope they were able to recreate the last dozen moves. It was an adrenaline rush for the spectators!
The upset trend continued in round two, with another A player falling among the several upsets. Bunch continued his winning ways, defeating Leonardo Wang (1785) in a battle of up-and-coming young players. Wang had played in the Washington Junior Invitational in December and followed that up by gaining 172 points in the North American Open in Las Vegas at the end of the year to sit on the cusp of Class A at the beginning of this event.
The top six boards won their opening two games and seemed immune from the upset fever, although that would change in round three. There were 21 evening round byes, further compacting the field for the round. The chief contest of the night occurred on board 1, with Lee playing white against Donaldson. That one ran until the end of the round, with Lee claiming victory with ten seconds left on each clock. In the time scramble, Donaldson made a mistake and lost a drawn rook and pawn endgame. The victory did not even crack the top five largest upsets. Board three also saw an upset, with newlywed Owen McDevitt, a post-doctorate student at WSU (via Vanderbilt) and recent Collyer contestant, scoring a draw against Billaux. Bunch upended Bartron on board 4 to stay atop the leader board.
Round 4 saw Cambareri and Lee collide on board 1, while Bunch, the only other perfect score, played Cam Leslie on board 2. Leslie worked hard and scored the victory to stop Bunch’s run, although the setback did not derail Bunch for long. Lee and Cambareri engaged in a long back and forth affair with a draw finally being agreed upon with a small amount of time left on each clock. Wang and Donaldson also played a lengthy contest with the IM prevailing in a bishop and pawn endgame. Billaux played an entertaining game against Jeremy Younker, who carried over his tradition of playing only in the Collyer Memorial started by his father to this event. The ending drew quite a number of spectators, with both players having mate threats and very limited time. Jeremy lost his queen to a touch move violation with less than 10 seconds to go in the time scramble, sealing the game for Eric.
There were no perfect scores entertaining the final round, with seven players sitting at 3.5 on the top four boards. One of them, Jim Skovron, had the fortune to be paired against Donaldson, and that game was the first of the round to complete. The IM quickly triumphed and the two spent much more time in the hallway conversing than they did playing! (I know I can expect some tough pairings in October at Jim’s Chinook Open in Great Falls…)
Board one saw Cambareri match up against Dave Rowles in one of numerous encounters the two have had in the past year since Dave retired and returned to weekly club activity. The opening was wild and Cambareri eventually forced resignation. On board two, Billaux and Lee mixed it up until quite late in the round before Lee came out on top. Erickson and Leslie engaged in another match of local veterans and fought to the end of the round before agreeing to a draw. Bunch got back to his “upsetting” ways by toppling high schooler Ben Patterson (1743) to make it four upsets in five rounds. The competitive nature of the event was demonstrated by the fact that the final game on board 22 featured a lengthy endgame that didn’t conclude until all the prizes had long been decided.
The winners: Cambareri and Lee were first with 4.5. Five players tied for third place with 4.0: Brad Bodie, Bunch, Donaldson, Erickson, and Leslie. The class A prizes went to Bodie and Erickson, with the B prizes (3.5) split among Curtis, Skovron, and Younker. Eshan Reddy, an eighth grade student at St. Georges School in Spokane, scored 3.5 to claim the top class C prize. Second in the class (3.0) went to Declan Pham (a Missoula eighth grader) and Odysseus Rodriguez of Wapato. Bunch claimed the first D prize, while second place in the D and under section (3.0) was shared by Eastern Oregon newcomer Arlen Calley (who obtained a 1586 provisional rating from this event) and Adam Porth. Porth took a first round bye to run the scholastic tournament held during the first round in the skittles room. Calley’s travel partner, Benji Johnson of Elgin, OR, scored the second largest upset prize (713 points).
The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for INLAND CLASSIC 2024- IC-! (Event 202402256632)