Southern California Chess Federation

Southern California Chess Federation

State Champions

Southern California Open Southern California Championship

Before California split into two chess "states" in 1977, the traditional state championship was scheduled every Labor Day weekend. The failure of the state-wide organization to conduct championships for several years in the mid-1970s provided one of the reasons for the formation of the SCCF.

At an early SCCF meeting, the officers voted to award the first SCCF state championship title to the winner of a futurity at The Chess Set, Lina Grumette's legendary Hollywood club. Two years later, another Chess Set futurity awarded the second title.

The SCCF began organizing its own Labor Day tournament in 1979. The first event was small and not billed as a state championship. However, the SCCF gained exclusive use of the Labor Day weekend in succeeding years. The highest-scoring Southern California resident in the Open section earns the title of Southern California Open champion.

Since 1989, the SCCF has conducted an invitational championship, the Southern California Championship, every July. The SCCF invites eight of the best local players, choosing the previous year's champions, qualifiers from the SCCF Candidates tournament, and sometimes others by rating. The prize fund comes from donations, the Chess Lotto program and the SCCF treasury.

In 2003, the SCCF expanded the tournament to 10 players in the hope of making it an international title tournament, eligible to award IM norms. The tournament reverted to eight players the next year.

Southern California Open

1979	West Covina	35	Jeff Long	5½-½
1980	Los Angeles	200+	Doug Root, Perry Youngworth	5½-½
1981	Los Angeles	189	Kamran Shirazi	6-0
1982	Anaheim	281	Doug Root, James Tarjan	5½-½
1983	Los Angeles	168	Kamran Shirazi	5½-½
1984	Los Angeles	185	Kamran Shirazi	6-0
1985	Pasadena	248	Kamran Shirazi	5½-½
1986	San Diego	258	Dan Durham, Larry Remlinger	5½-½
1987	Commerce	241	Victor Frias (New York) (but title to Doug Root, 5-1, on tiebreak over Brian Allen, Jimmy Lakdawala, Jack Peters, Kamran Shirazi and Jeremy Silman)	5½-½
1988	Long Beach	201	Walter Browne, Kamran Shirazi (Browne ineligible for title)	5½-½
1989	Commerce	193	Jack Peters	6-0
1990	Commerce	261	Igor Ivanov (on tiebreak over Jack Peters and Doug Root)	5½-½
1991	San Diego	159	Jack Peters	5½-½
1992	La Mirada	134	Wageeh Boctor	5½-½
1993	Long Beach	190	Jack Peters, Cris Ramayrat	5½-½
1994	Buena Park	192	Jack Peters, Larry Remlinger	5½-½
1995	Buena Park	157	Cyrus Lakdawala, Jack Peters	5½-½
1996	Commerce	105	Jack Peters	5½-½
1997	San Marcos	94	Mladen Vucic	5-1
1998	Los Angeles	145	Jayson Gonzalez (Philippines) (title to Armen Ambartsoumian, 5-1)	5½-½
1999	Los Angeles	251	Jaan Ehlvest, Alexander Shabalov, Aleks Wojtkiewicz (all ineligible) (co-champion titles to Levon Altounian, Armen Ambartsoumian at 5-2)	5½-1½
2000	Los Angeles	128	Levon Altounian (Norik Kalantaryan, Nick Schoonmaker also 5-1, both ineligible)	5-1
2001	San Diego	191	Levon Altounian	5-1
2002	Los Angeles	192	Andranik Matikozyan (on tiebreak over Tatev Abrahamyan, Pieta Garrett, Roger Norman, Jesse Kraai and Jack Peters)	5-1
2003	San Diego	123	Enrico Sevillano (Nevada) (title to Melikset Khachiyan on tiebreak over Cyrus Lakdawala, Eduardo Ortiz and Daniel Rensch, all 4½-1½)	5-1
2004	Burbank	152	Melikset Khachiyan (on tiebreak over Amir Bagheri, Jack Peters)	5-1
2005	Los Angeles	145	Enrico Sevillano	5½-½
2006	Temecula	131	Valentin Iotov (Bulgaria) (title to Varuzhan Akobian on tiebreak over Enrico Sevillano, Melikset Khachiyan and Joel Banawa, all 4½-1½)	5-1
2007	Los Angeles	133	Tim Taylor (on tiebreak over Enrico Sevillano and John Daniel Bryant	5-1
2008	Pasadena	147	Enrico Sevillano (on tiebreak over Melikset Khachiyan, Andranik Matikozyan, and Tatev Abrahamyan)	5-1

Southern California Championship

January 15 to March 19, 1977	Hollywood	Jack Peters	11½-3½
January to May, 1979	Hollywood	Julius Loftsson, Vince McCambridge	11½-3½
July 22-30, 1989	Upland, Commerce	Jack Peters	5½-1½
July 21-29, 1990	El Toro, Los Angeles	Jack Peters	4½-2½
July 13-21, 1991	Los Angeles	Doug Root (on tiebreak over Jack Peters, Jonathan Schroer)	4½-2½
July 11-19, 1992	Long Beach, Buena Park	David Strauss	6-1
July 10-18, 1993	Buena Park	Thomas Wolski	6-1
July 23-31, 1994	Buena Park	Cyrus Lakdawala	6½-½
July 22-30, 1995	Buena Park	Jack Peters	5½-1½
July 13-21, 1996	Irvine	Marc Leski	5½-1½
July 12-20, 1997	Irvine	Cyrus Lakdawala	5½-1½
July 11-19, 1998	Irvine	Levon Altounian, Cyrus Lakdawala, Jack Peters (co-champions)	5-2
July 10-18, 1999	Los Angeles	Jack Peters, Charles Van Buskirk	5-2
July 8-16, 2000	Hollywood	Cyrus Lakdawala, Jack Peters	5½-1½
July 14-22, 2001	Century City	Levon Altounian	5-2
July 13-21, 2002	Costa Mesa	Melikset Khachiyan	5½-1½
July 18-27, 2003	Costa Mesa	Levon Altounian, Andranik Matikozyan (co-champions)	7-2
July 10-25, 2004	Century City	Kongliang Deng	6-1
July 9-17, 2005	Century City	Andranik Matikozyan (TB), Melikset Khachiyan, Cyrus Lakdawala (co-champions)	5-2
July 8-16, 2006	Century City	Enrico Sevillano (TB), Andranik Matikozyan, (co-champions)	4½-1½
July 7-15, 2007	Century City	Enrico Sevillano	6½-½
August 16-24. 2008	Century City	Enrico Sevillano, Alexandre Kretchetov	5-2

Southern California Open Southern California Championship