Blitz Chess Tournaments in Utah

Two chess tournaments were held on Saturday, February 27, 2016, in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah, both of them with some form of Blitz time control.

Utah State High School Chess Championship (in Sandy)
Utah Speed Championship (University of Utah)

For High School and Junior H.S. Students

This Blitz-chess tournament was held after the completion of the standard-time-control tournament. Apparently both events were held in Sandy, Utah (although the USCF gives the location as “Salt Lake City”). It was divided into two separate sections: for senior and junior high school students. Players in each section were scheduled for ten games, in a double-round Swiss system tournament, meaning each paired opponent was played twice (alternating piece colors). All games had a time control of five minutes per game for each player.

High School Section (30 players)

Eric Hon: 9-1
Samuel Mason: 8-2
Jesse Johnson: 8-2
Luis Goodrich: 8-2
Gabriel Zhao: 6½-3½
Clancey Black: 6½-3½
Matthew Fontaine: 6½-3½
Lili Clark: 6-4
Devin Dustman: 6-4
Devon Bunn: 6-4
George Charlier: 6-4
Jayden Paulus: 6-4
Joseph Garcia: 5½-4½
Wesly Harston: 5½-4½
Bryan Guo: 5-5
John Blazzard: 4½-5½
Parker Steenblik: 4-6
Jackson Pyrah: 4-6
Bryan Christiansen: 4-6
Connor Smith: 4-6
Benjamin Wiscombe: 4-6
Ethan Low: 4-6
Tyson Hadlock: 4-6
John York: 4-6
Jackson Dean: 3-7
William Casper: 3-7
Alex Jarrett: 3-7
Timothy Worthen: 2-8
Sage Georgie: 2-8
Paul Sorenson: 2-8

Junior High Section (18 players)

Gatlin Black: 8½-1½
Andrew Roach: 8-2
Jacinda Lee: 7-3
Jonathan Williams: 6-4
Anna Lee: 6-4
Caleb Elliott: 6-4
Sraavya Pinjala: 6-4
Justin Dong: 6-4
Alexander Qi: 5½-4½
Evan LaForge: 5-5
Vrishank Jannu: 4-6
Ilha Hwang: 4-6
Anoushka Kharkar: 4-6
Sarah Day: 4-6
Joseph Stay: 4-6
Spencer Brown: 3-7
John Baird: 3-7
Solon Grover (two games played)

Utah Speed Championship

This Blitz chess tournament, held at the University of Utah, had a different time control: 4-minute games (per player) with a 2-second increment. This meant that many games could take over ten minutes to complete. This tournament was divided into two sections: Open Section and Reserve Section.

First place in the open section went to Kayden Troff, who had a perfect score of 14-0. Second place went to Bryan Leaño, who had a score of 10-4. This division of the tournament had much higher rated players than the reserve section.

First place in the reserve section went to Vahan Karzhyan, who scored 8-2. A tie-breaker gave the second-place trophy to Matthew C. Larson, who scored 6-4 in regular game-points.

Grandmaster Kayden Troff enjoys an unofficial Blitz game, after winning the open division of the speed tournament at the University of Utah

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2016 Utah Speed Championship

In USCF Blitz ratings, no other chess player in Utah is within 400 points of Kayden [who had a perfect score to win the open section of the tournament], who stands at 2536.

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