State 2000 Final Round - Mount Vernon vs Ferndale?!

This game comes from the 2000 Washington State High School Team Championships, held on February 25-26 at Issaquah High School. It's the final round of the two-day tournament, and though the tournament directors try to avoid pairing two schools from the same league in the earlier rounds, they must strictly adhere to Swiss pairing rules as the conclusion approaches. And it turns out that, after the semi-finals, Ferndale has 12.5 and Mount Vernon has 11.5. Face-off!

In the Northwest League Ferndale finished 2nd and Mount Vernon 3rd, so each team knew it would be a close match. Mount Vernon claimed the first point quickly, winning on Board 4. But slowly the other games concluded and Ferndale prevailed.

The game between top boards Zac Holyoke (Mount Vernon) and Derek Schwede (Ferndale) is shown below. Derek discovered after his victory that Ethan Neff of Lynden had drawn, thus he earned the State Board One All-Star medal by being the only top board to go undefeated for the tournament.

Notes by Randy Kaech.
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