On December 8, 2018 at Boise State University, Student Union Building, Jordan Ballroom, in Boise, Idaho, 38 players played in the Western Idaho Open (WIO) chess tournament. Since the first WIO held at the Boise YMCA on December 5, 1964, it has been a favorite with players of Western Idaho for generations now. Usually the tournament is held in December, in Boise, and it usually happens every year. There are however, exceptions to this.
Thanks to the new structure of the ICA that came about as a result of the leadership of ICA President Adam Porth moving to Northern Idaho (Rathdrum) this past summer and the need to spread things out across the state even more than ever before, the WIO will be one of two events in Western Idaho that will be required each and every year going forward.
On the financial side of things, this year’s tournament actually made money. When all was said and done, everything counted and reported, 100% of the prizes paid out, the 2018 WIO had a modest (yet definite) profit of $248.15. As organizer of the event in my new role as West Region Trustee that, this pleases me.
Moving to this year’s event, it was a single section four-round Swiss with a time control game/60;d5. The event was dual-rated by US Chess (affecting both quick and regular ratings.) Jeffrey Roland was Chief Tournament Director. Jameson Tang of the Chess Club at BSU was Assistant Tournament Director. And while not official part of the tournament staff, Alise Pemsler was present for much of the tournament helping with registrations, accounting, and many little things that come up with regard to the online payment system. Also, this is something that should be counted as newsworthy for an ICA tournament, the printer worked perfectly as soon as it was plugged in! No problems whatsoever with the printer!!
Alex Machin (1844-1866—4.0/4) had the only perfect score in the tournament and won first overall and $100.00.
Caleb Kircher (1882-1880—3.5/4) and Andrew Kitterman (1591-1616—3.5/4) tied for second- third overall and split $62.50 each.
Due to the way the flyer was worded, there weren’t actually class prizes, but U1800, U1600, U1400, etc. and thus it’s probably best to list the players and the prizes they won.
Seven players tied for U1800/U1600/U1400: Seth Machakos (1535-1532—3.0/4), Michael Presutti (1645-1634—3.0/4), Brian Lange (1395-1404—3.0/4), Matthew Dominik (1368- 1368—3.0/4), Gaby Dagher (1694-1694—3.0/4), Bryce Leifeste (1299-1297—3.0/4), and Bryan Li (1375-1381—3.0/4), each player taking home $21.43. Two players tied for U1200/U1000: William Wang (1133-1147—2.5/4) and Joetta Faulkner (894-962—2.5/4), each winning $50.00. Leonardo Wang (Unr.—633P—2.0/4) won the top unrated prize of $50.00. One of the aspects of this tournament that seemed a bit unique was the large number of families that took part. There were six “family acts” in the tournament. Three of these included fathers and sons, while others were siblings: Hollist (four players), Belew (two players), Dagher/Daghir (three players), Leifeste (two players), Remington (two players), and Wang (two players). Players of all ages, young and old, were clearly having a great time at this event.