| # | Name | FIDE | USCF | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakdawala, Cyrus | 2385 FM | 2546 | |
= | = | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 1 | 5= | I |
| 2 | Altounian, Levon | 2425 FM | 2551 | = | |
1 | = | 1 | = | 1 | = | 5 | II |
| 3 | Krasnov, Andrey | 2307 | = | 0 | |
0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | = | 3 | 6 | |
| 4 | Jones, Stephen L | 2275 | 2350 | 0 | = | 1 | |
= | 0 | = | 1 | 3= | 4-5 |
| 5 | Sterin, Ilya | 2260 | 2332 | 0 | 0 | 0 | = | |
0 | = | = | 1= | 7-8 |
| 6 | Peters, Jack | 2465 IM | 2549 | = | = | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
= | 1 | 4= | III |
| 7 | Saulespurens, Valdis | 2320 | 2310 | 0 | 0 | 1 | = | = | = | |
1 | 3= | 4-5 |
| 8 | Van Buskirk, Charles | 2260 | 2350 | 0 | = | = | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | |
1= | 7-8 |
Cyrus Lakdawala of San Diego scored an undefeated 5.5-1.5 to win
the
1997 Southern California Championship, the invitational state
championship for the chess state of Southern California. This is
the
third state championship title for Lakdawala. He tied for first
in the
1995 Southern California Open, and he achieved the best result in
the
nine-year history of the Southern California Championship when he
scored
6.5-1.5 in the 1994 event.
Levon Altounian also went undefeated, but yielded four draws.
Jack
Peters needed a last-round victory to catch Lakdawala, but lost
an
exciting game against Andrey Krasnov. Both Krasnov and Valdis
Saulespurens played very strongly against some of the
prizewinners, and
they lack only consistency to contend for first place.
Longtime master Stephen Jones had a fair performance, but he
probably
hoped for more after his 2-0 start. On the second weekend, he
played
three long, difficult endgames.
Neither Ilya Sterin nor Charles Van Buskirk got many breaks.
Sterin
should have notched his first win in the final round against
Jones, but
erred in the sudden death time control. Van Buskirk had Peters in
serious trouble, and even rejected a drawing variation, but
overlooked
counterplay that turned the game around.
Mike Carr did an excellent job of running the tournament for the
Southern California Chess Federation.
Andrew Krasnov, Jack Peters
Congratulations to Cyrus Lakdawala for winning the title!