David Lucky is now 18-0 while playing in the Idaho Closed State Chess Championship, an Idaho Chess Association record. Meanwhile, his classical tournament games winning streak stays alive at 42. Please see a story about this consecutive games record in the January 2017 Northwest Chess magazine, pg 6-7. Interestingly, Lucky's winning streak combining classical and blitz consecutive USCF rated tournament games now sits at an amazing 72-0!
Lucky, of Eagle, Idaho, buzzed through the event held on February 18-20 at the Shilo Inn in Twin Falls with a perfect 6.0/6 score for the third consecutive time, an ICA record. His three consecutive championship wins tie him with Joe Kennedy(1990-1992, Eagle) and Dick Vandenburg(1963-1965, Boise). The record for most consecutive appearances on the championship plaque is a staggering seven, achieved by 17-time Idaho Chess Champion Larry Parsons of Boise from 1996-2002. Idaho chess legend Glen Buckendorf of Buhl is a ten-time championship winner. Lucky is already in elite company and looking to set more Idaho chess records in the coming years.
Finishing Second Overall with the tournament of his young life was BSU student Desmond Porth of Boise with 5.0/6 and an incredible 2003 TPR, 616 points above his 1387 rating. US Chess alerted me to address this anomaly so we could get the event rated! I told his dad, ICA President Adam Porth, that he probably wouldn't be defeating Dez again in a tournament any time soon........
Third Place Overall went to James Inman of Nampa, who tallied a 4.0/6 score. He gained the distinction of being the player who had the best game against David Lucky, playing to an endgame against the champion in round six, with many players seated and standing around the board to witness the exemplary technique by Lucky, bringing home the full point.
Other prize winners included:
Cody Gorman, Boise, 1st Class A
Dewayne Derrybery , Pocatello, 1st Class B
Jacob Nathan, Idaho Falls, Top Junior
Bill Arnold, Boise, Top Senior
Jeffrey Roland, Boise, 2nd Class B
Wesley Nyblade, Heyburn, 1st Class C
Jeffrey B Hall, Buhl, 2nd Class C
Adam Porth, Bellevue, 1st Class D
Dylan Porth, Bellevue, Top Woman
Kevin Patterson, Boise, 2nd Class D
Levi Catangcatang, Bellevue, 1st Class E
River Shepard, Bellevue, 2nd Class E
For the last few years, since the passing of Glen Buckendorf, a special award has been handed out at the Idaho Closed and several other ICA tournaments known as “The Buckendorf Award”. In the twilight of his career, Glen selected two or three books from his personal library to be handed out to the players who finished just “out of the money”, if you will, in order to help encourage them to keep trying to excel at the royal game. In keeping with this great tradition, players who received books from Glen's personal library in this year's event were Kevin Xu, Alex Machin and Tom Booth.
33 players from 10 cities attended the tournament. Special thanks to Darlene Kulhanek with the Shilo Inn in Twin Falls who made everything with the site happen. Also many thanks to Assistant TD Adam Porth and the staff of TD's who helped me navigate the rule book; Jay Simonson, George Lundy, Jeff Roland, Cody Gorman and Alise Pemsler. Please find the complete results of this and other Idaho Chess events at the links below.