The 19th Annual Western Class Championships were held from March 9-11, 2012, at the Sheraton Agoura Hills Hotel (formerly Renaissance), 30100 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills, California.
The Master Section was won by Californian International Master, Enrico Sevillano, who finished in clear first with 4½/5. Sevillano gave up a draw in round 1 but then went on to win all his remaining games to claim the $1870 1st prize plus the clear first bonus of $93 for a grand total of $1963 for his weekend’s work.
Sevillano was recently winner in the 15th Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational and runner-up in the 3rd Annual Golden State Open.
IM’s Roman Yankovsky and Zhanibek Amanov finished in 2nd/3rd with 4/5 while GM Melik Khachiyan, IM David Pruess and FM Gregg Small were a further half point behind. Small’s finish netted him the top U2300 prize.
Master section final standings:
1. IM Enrico Sevillano – 4.5 ($1963.00)
2-3. IM Roman Yankovsky and IM Zhanibek Amanov – 4.0 ($701.00 each)
4-6. GM Melikset Khachiyan, IM David Pruess ($140.00 each) and FM Gregg H Small ($748.00) – 3.5
7-15. IM Salvijus Bercys, FM John D Bryant, FM Eugene Yanayt, Samuel Sevian, Michael W Brown, Brandon Ashe, Edward Perepelitsky , Varun Krishnan and Vadim Kudryavtsev – 3.0 etc
The event had 7 sections: Master, Expert, Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D and Class E. All sections were 5-round Swiss tournaments having 3-day and 2-day schedules to play in. Standings on the official website.
The projected prize fund was $20,000 with $16,000 guaranteed.
Agoura Hills is a city in Los Angeles County, California, with the population of 20,330. It is located in the eastern Conejo Valley between the Simi Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains.
