Are you ready to subscribe to Northwest Chess and join your state chess federation/association (for residents of Washington, Oregon and Idaho)? - See: PayPal Subscription/Membership Form | Printable Form (PDF file).

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• Online Registration – Available for some upcoming WCF and scholastic events.

• Search the NWC website using Google™ custom search (this opens a new page).

• Northwest Chess blog - See reports on local chess events and occasional comments and discussion from NWC officers and editors.

• Northwest Chess logo store on CafePress - order shirts, coffee mugs and other merchandise.

• Now 436 issues! Northwest Chess magazine back issues - For a complete list of available issues (scanned prior to Sept. 2008, made from the print production files thereafter), please see the Northwest Chess Scanning Project page. Washington Chess Letter scans from the 1947-1964 time period are also available and included.

• As of Nov. 2017, our games viewer has been updated to the Chessbase viewer, which has many modern features. You can view games from the Washington and Oregon state championships and some other regional chess tournaments directly in your browser. See the games page.

Note: See calendar and TA pages for more info about upcoming chess events.

NEW! Important note: On Nov. 18, 2018, the NWC board decided to add "Foundation" to its corporate name, becoming the Northwest Chess Foundation. We will completely update the website once this name is officially registered with the State of Washington and the IRS. This does not affect the name of the magazine - it's still Northwest Chess!

Important note: The Northwest Chess Forum (bulletin board for chess-related discussions) has fallen into disuse for about the past three years, is difficult to properly administer (for example, due to spammers), and will be removed shortly. Please download and save any discussions, games, etc., posted in this forum if you don’t want to lose them. As an alternative, persons with interesting chess-related content to share can request an author account on our Northwest Chess blog. All requests should be made to the Business Manager, and should include a sample of the type of content you intend to share.

This Weekend - NWC Grand Prix events!

• Feb 23 Portland Game in 60, Portland, OR
• Feb 23-24 The 27th Dave Collyer Memorial, Millwood,WA
• Feb 24 Seattle CC Sunday Tornado, Seattle, WA - See February SCC ad
• Feb 24 Portland Sunday Quads, Portland, OR

This Weekend - Other (non-GP) events!

• Feb 22 Seattle CC Cabin Fever (Rd 4), Seattle, WA - See February SCC ad
• Feb 22 IM John Donaldson Simul & Lecture, Spokane, WA
• Feb 23-24 WA State Championship (Rds 6-9), Microsoft Bldg 99, Redmond, WA
  All persons and vehicles must be registered with Microsoft security.
  See the full-page ad/flyer for this event.

GP Final Results! 2018 John A. Braley Memorial Grand Prix final standings and results are available from links on the GP page. Checks will be mailed to the Washington and Oregon winners by Saturday 2/23 (Idaho is on hold), or some winners will receive NWC subscriptions if not currently members of their state chess organization. Congratulations if you're one of the winners!

Sluggers Season In Progress - Jan. 8th was the Sluggers first match of the new season, against the San Diego Surfers, and as reported by Josh Sinanan, "The Sluggers scored an amazing 9-7 victory in the opening match against the San Diego Surfers, former Pacific Division champions! Our Super GM Hikaru Nakamura and last summer's Seattle GM Camp celebrity Victor Mikhalevski led the team to victory, each scoring 3.5/4 on the top two boards!" Although the Sluggers lost their second match 6.5-9.5 against a very strong Dallas Destiny team, they won a brilliant match on Jan. 22, by a score of 9.5-6.5, against their long-time archrivals, the San Francisco Mechanics!! On Jan. 29, the Sluggers finished in 4th place (of 8 teams) in the first "Battle Royale" of the season, followed by an 8-8 tie on 2/6 against the San Jose Hackers, and a tough loss by a 10-6 score on 2/12 against the Australia Kangaroos. On 2/19, The Sluggers finished in 4th place in the second "Battle Royale" of the season. Matches have a time control of 15-minutes with a 2-second increment (4 games), and take place on chess.com. The Seattle Sluggers are in the Pacific Division of the PRO Chess League. Go Sluggers!

February magazine! The February issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 1/29. It's a 32-page issue with "PCC December 2018 Game 60" and "Neil Dale Memorial" by Brian Berger, "2018 Western Idaho Open" by Jeffrey Roland, "Le Parc d’Echecs" by Carmen Pemsler, "Winter Solstice In The North" by Adam Porth, "Successful Year For Central Oregon Chess" by Eric Holcomb, "Washington Winter Classic" by Josh Sinanan, "Northwest Chess Open" by Duane Polich, "A Hidden Story That Went Unnoticed (Full-Page Ad)" by Sridhar Seshadri, "Eclipse Photo" by Philip Peterson, and a back-cover photo of "Andrew Kitterman at 2018 Western Idaho Open" by Alex Machin. Cover: Alex Machin at 2018 Western Idaho Open by Jeffrey Roland. See the teaser (selected pages with color).

January magazine! The January issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on Christmas Eve, 12/24! It's a 32-page issue with "From The Publisher’s Desk" by Duane Polich, "Jason Marr On Chess And Life" by Amanda Warren, "2018 Oregon Class Championship" and "PCC November 2018 Game 60" by Brian Berger, "2018 November Third Weekend" by Jameson Tang, "2018 Southern Idaho Open" by Barry Eacker, "2018 Northern Idaho Open" by Adam Porth,  "Western States Open Success" by Joshua Grabinsky, "2018 Washington Class Championships" by Josh Sinanan,  "Washington Class Blitz Event" and "A Thanksgiving Scholastic To Be Thankful For" by Jacob Mayer, "North American Youth Chess Championships" by Mei Xu and Chen Zhou, "Grandmaster Submission!" by James Tarjan, "The Isle Of Mayer" by Jacob Mayer, and a back-cover photo of Drew Machin and Alex Machin by Jeffrey Roland. Cover: John Glenn at the 2018 Southern Idaho Open by Adam Porth. See the teaser (selected pages with color).

December magazine! The December issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 11/28. It's a 32-page issue with "2018 PCC Club Championship," "Portland Fall Open" and "October 2018 PCC Game 60" by Brian Berger, "Norman Friedman Memorial" by Jeffrey Roland, "Three Washington Players at 2018 WYCC" by Igor Shubin, "2018 Washington Challenger’s Cup" by Josh Sinanan, "GM James Tarjan Simultaneous Exhibition" by Russell (Rusty) Miller, and a back-cover photo of "Chess Set at Pawns and Pints Meetup" by Jeffrey Roland. Cover: Josep Companyo at Norman Friedman Memorial by Adam Porth. See the teaser (selected pages with color).

Neff on King 5! NM Elliott Neff, CEO of Chess4Life and author of the new book, A Pawn's Journey, was recently interviewed on King 5 TV - see "This CEO is helping kids one checkmate at a time."

World Championship - Carlsen Wins!! The match was tied 6-6 (all draws) after the 12 long time-control games, but Carlsen dominated in the rapid chess tiebreak, winning 3-0. Defending champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway played challenger Fabiano Caruana of the U.S.A., for the FIDE world chess championship. The match began 11/9 in London, and ended on 11/28. See the official match website. Also see "Championship Countdown" by John Henderson, follow John's blog throughout the match, and follow the US Chess coverage. | See The Next "Next Bobby Fischer" on Slate (slate.com).

Scholastic Chess Story! See "Chess for Success helps kids focus, connect and enjoy 'new ideas': Season of Sharing 2018" on the Oregon Live (The Oregonian) website.

WCF hats! WCF President John Sinanan reports, "Our friends at Embroiderrific made some more WCF hats and beanies for the WA Class. The cost for either WCF-branded embroidered hat (beanie or baseball cap) is $16.95 + tax." If you are still interested, please let Josh know in case any are still available. (contact: Josh Sinanan, joshsinanan@gmail.com)

IM Minev named to FIDE Trainers Hall of Fame! As reported by IM John Donaldson, "IM Nikolay Minev (1931-2017; see 2017 news page) lived most of his life in his native Bulgaria and Seattle and contributed greatly to the chess life in both places, but his greatest impact was in Greece. Before his arrival in the late 1970s the country had no Grandmasters and only a handful of International Masters. When he left the situation had completely turned around. His most famous pupils were Grandmasters Grivas and Skembris but he had an impact on the careers of close to a dozen titled players. His legacy lives on with them."

November magazine! The November issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 10/23. It's a special 48-page issue with "Ora Annette Buckendorf (1928-2018)" from the Times News, "68th Annual Oregon Open" and "September 2018 PCC Game 60" by Brian Berger, "CJA Award For Best State Magazine," "Oregon Closed State Championship" by Sarah McCoy, "Washington Women’s Championship" by Mary Kuhner, More Washington Women’s Championship" by Anne-Marie Velea, "Even More Washington Women’s Championship" by Stephanie Velea, and a back-cover photo of "Students Learn To Play In Rathdrum, Idaho" by Adam Porth. Cover: Matt Zavortink and Owen McCoy by Josh McCoy. See the full issue (all pages with color).

Chess Olympiad! As reported by IM John Donaldson, "The Chess Olympiad starts in Batumi, Georgia, on Sept. 24. The United States, defending champions, enters the 180 country event as the top seed with an average rating for its first four boards (Caruana, So, Nakamura and Shankland) of 2772. Right behind it are Russia (Kramnik, Nepomniachtchi, Karjakin and Jakovenko) at 2764 and China (Ding, Yu, Yi and Hao) at 2755." Also see "Flying Start" on the John Henderson blog. Updates (10/5): As reported by John Henderson, "In the Open section, China edged out the United States and Russia to clinch the gold medal and the Hamilton-Russell Cup, while in the Women’s section, China likewise squeezed out Ukraine to take gold and the Nona Gaprindashvili Cup." Both involved tiebreaks; see the article for details. Also see "Olympiad Wrap-Up: Amazing Result!!" on Elliott Neff's blog.

See old news previously appearing on this page.

Some local tournament reports are posted to the Northwest Chess (NWC) blog, found at http://www.nwchess.com/blog/. Links are to NWC blog post or other report, usually US Chess or scholastic rating report. Thanks to Rusty Miller for writing most of the tournament reports from 2013 until April 2014. Rusty stepped down, but started blogging again occasionally as of Nov. 2014. If you are interesting in blogging for your club's events, please let us know. Click on photos to enlarge, or see photos in some of the blog posts.

Washington vs. British Columbia match group photo.

Open or Invitational Events (January-February): Feb 16-18 Idaho Closed State Chess Championship, Twin Falls, ID Feb 16-18 Oregon State Championship and Invitational (Rds 5-9), Portland, OR See the standings/results | US Chess crosstables. For some photos, please see Portland Chess Club Facebook page. Feb 17 Bethel Monthly Sunday Chess Quads, Eugene, OR (flyer) Feb 16-17 Washington President's Cup, SCC, Seattle, WA (flyer) Feb 16 PNWCC G60 Medal and Master’s Qualifier, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Feb 3 SWOCC Winter Fun, Coos Bay, OR Feb 2-3 PNWCC 1st RAR Chess Cup, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Feb 2 Seattle CC Saturday Quads, Seattle, WA Feb 2 Portland CC Unrated Rapid, Portland, OR Feb 2 Groundhog's Day Open, Bend, OR (flyer) Feb 1 Free Game Review and Analysis Class at Portland CC, Portland, OR Jan 8-29 Portland Tuesday Quads, Portland, OR Jan 27 PNWCC G60 Medal and Master's Qualifier, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Jan 26 Portland Game in 60, Portland, OR Jan 26 Portland Chess Club Annual Membership Meeting, Portland, OR Jan 25 PNWCC Friday Night Rapid and Quads, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Jan 4-25 Seattle CC January Thaw, Seattle, WA Jan 18-21 PNWCC FIDE Open - Olympiad Gold, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Jan 18-20 Washington vs. British Columbia Challenge Match, Victoria, BC (flyer) Jan 20 Seattle CC Sunday Tornado, Seattle, WA Jan 20 Portland Sunday Quads, Portland, OR Jan 19 Southern Oregon Open, Medford, OR Jan 19 ICA MLK Blitz Championship, Boise, ID Jan 17 IM John Donaldson and GM Bu Xiangzhi - Lecture and Simul at Microsoft, Redmond, WA (flyer) Jan 16 Super GM Lecture and Blitz at PNWCC, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Jan 13 Bethel Monthly Sunday Chess Quads, Eugene, OR (flyer) Jan 12-13 PNWCC USCF Open - Masters Qualifier, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Jan 11-13 Seattle City Championship, Seattle, WA Jan 12 Portland CC Unrated Rapid, Portland, OR Jan 11 Seattle CC January Thaw (Rd 2), Seattle, WA Jan 11 PNWCC Friday Night Rapid and Quads, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Jan 6 Seattle CC Novice (crosstable bundled with Jan 5 quads), Seattle, WA Jan 5-6 3rd Annual Neil Dale Memorial Open, Portland, OR Jan 5 Seattle CC Saturday Quads (and other events), Seattle, WA

Photo: Some action and a greeting from the Winter Chess Classic. Credit: Josh Sinanan/WCF.

Open or Invitational Events (November-December): Dec 26-30 Washington Winter Chess Classic, Seattle, WA (flyer) Dec 26-30 28th Annual North American Open, Las Vegas, NV Dec 29 North American Open Blitz, Las Vegas, NV Dec 29 Portland Game in 60, Portland, OR Dec 28 PNWCC USCF Quick Quads G25 D3 (flyer) Dec 28 Seattle CC Patzers’ Challenge, Seattle, WA Dec 7-28 Tacoma Chess Club Class & Club Championship, Tacoma, WA Dec 22 Winter Solstice in the North, Rathdrum, ID Dec 21 The US Team at the 2018 Chess Olympiad-discussion by John Donaldson, Portland, OR Dec 21 PNWCC USCF Quick Quads G25 D3 (flyer) Dec 7-21 Seattle CC Package Express, Seattle, WA Dec 4-18 Portland Tuesday Quads, Portland, OR Dec 16 Portland Sunday Quads, Portland, OR Dec 16 Bethel Monthly Sunday Chess Quads, Eugene, OR (flyer) Dec 15-16 Northwest Chess Open, Seattle, WA (flyer) Dec 14-16 PNWCC FIDE Open, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Dec 7-14 2018 Panamerican Seniors & Veterans Chess Championships, St. Croix, USVI (flyer) Dec 13 PNWCC GM Lecture and Timed Simul Dec 9 Washington Blitz Chess Championship, Seattle, WA (flyer) Dec 9 Washington Game/20 Championship, Seattle, WA (flyer) Note: The Blitz and G/20 events were incorrectly flagged as GP events in the December magazine. Events faster than G/30 are not eligible for the GP. Dec 9 Mark Haggerty Memorial, Port Angeles, WA Dec 8-9 Portland Winter Open, Portland, OR Dec 8 Western Idaho Open, Boise, ID (flyer) Dec 8 Southern Oregon Open, Medford, OR Dec 8 Seattle CC Saturday Quads, Seattle, WA Dec 8 PNWCC G60-Medal-Masters Qualifier Dec 7 PNWCC USCF Quick Quads G25 D3 Dec 1 Portland CC Unrated Rapid, Portland, OR Nov 23-25 Washington Class Championships, Lynnwood, WA (flyer) Nov 24 Portland Game in 60, Portland, OR Nov 24 North Idaho Open, Rathdrum, ID Nov 6-20 Portland Tuesday Night Quads, Portland, OR Nov 18 Seattle CC Sunday Tornado, Seattle, WA Nov 18 Portland Sunday Quads, Portland, OR Nov 18 Bethel Monthly Sunday Chess Quads, Eugene, OR (flyer) Nov 17-18 Washington vs. Idaho Chess Match, Boise, ID (flyer) Note: Also called "November Third Weekend" on the rating report. Nov 17 Seattle CC Saturday Quads, Seattle, WA Nov 1-15 Turkey Quads, Spokane, WA Nov 12 PNWCC GM Blitz, Kirkland, WA Nov 9-12 PNWCC Masters Tournament, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Nov 9-11 11th Seattle CC Extravaganza, Seattle, WA Nov 10 Southern Idaho Open & Veteran's Day Tournament, Twin Falls, ID Nov 10 Portland CC Unrated Rapid, Portland, OR Nov 10 Redmond Fall Open, Redmond, OR (flyer) Nov 9 PNWCC Free Friday Night Rapid/Dual, Kirkland, WA Nov 3-4 Oregon Class Championships, Portland, OR Nov 3-4 PNWCC USCF Open, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Nov 3-4 Turkey 2018, Missoula, MT Nov 3 Southern Oregon Open, Medford, OR Nov 3 2nd Washington Corporate and Collegiate Team Chess Tournament, Amazon Houdini North, Seattle, WA (flyer) Sep 7-Nov 2 Seattle CC Club Championship, Seattle, WA

Photo: Playing hall at the World Youth Chess Championships. Credit: Igor Shubin.

Scholastic Events (September-October): Oct 19-31 World Youth Chess Championships (ages 12-18), Halkidiki, Greece Oct 20 BYC Quad Tournament, Bellingham, WA Oct 20 Open Window School Fall Tornado, Bellevue, WA Oct 13 Dueling Knights State Qualifying Tournament, Bellingham, WA Oct 13 PNWCC October Scholastic, Kirkland, WA

Photo: Washington Women's Co-Champions WCM Minda Chen and WFM Anne-Marie Velea. Credit: WCF.

Open or Invitational Events (September-October): Oct 31 PNWCC Wednesday Quads, Kirkland, WA Oct 2-30 Portland Chess Club Championship, Portland, OR Oct 27-28 Washington Challenger’s Cup, Seattle, WA (flyer) Oct 28 PNWCC Sunday G90 Quads, Kirkland, WA Oct 27 Portland Game in 60, Portland, OR Oct 27 Cottonwood G/45, Mountain, ID Oct 27 PNWCC Saturday G60 Tournament, Kirkland, WA Oct 26 PNWCC Friday Rapid Tournament, Kirkland, WA Oct 5-26 Seattle CC Autumn Leaves, Seattle, WA Sep 20-Oct 25 Fall 2018 Tournament, Spokane, WA Oct 24 PNWCC Wednesday Quads, Kirkland, WA Oct 21 Portland Sunday Quads, Portland, OR Oct 21 Bethel Monthly Sunday Chess Quads, Eugene, OR (flyer) Oct 20-21 Chandra Alexis Chess Club US Chess/FIDE Invitational Tournament, Boise, ID Oct 19-21 Western States Open, Reno, NV - (flyer) Oct 19 PNWCC Friday Rapid Tournament, Kirkland, WA Oct 17 PNWCC Wednesday Quads, Kirkland, WA Oct 14 PNWCC October Novice, Kirkland, WA Oct 13-14 National Chess Day-Portland Fall Open, Portland, OR Oct 13-14 Washington Game/60 Championship, Seattle, WA - (flyer) Oct 12-14 Norman Friedman Memorial & National Chess Day Tournament & Blitz Tournament, Boise, ID Oct 13 National Chess Day James Tarjan Simultaneous Exhibition, Vancouver Mall, Vancouver, WA - See ad/flyer | Vancouver Mall website event listing | Rusty Miller photos of the event Oct 12 PNWCC Friday Rapid Tournament, Kirkland, WA Oct 10 PNWCC Wednesday Quads, Kirkland, WA Oct 6-8 New West Open, New Westminster, BC, Canada Oct 7 Seattle CC Novice, Seattle, WA Oct 5-7 PNWCC Masters Tournament, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Oct 5-7 Varennes International Chess Championship, Varennes (QC), Canada (flyer) Oct 6 Seattle CC Saturday Quads, Seattle, WA Oct 6 Portland CC Unrated Rapid, Portland, OR Oct 6 Bend Fall Quads, Bend, OR (flyer) Oct 4 PNWCC GM Blitz Tournament, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Oct 3 GM Jianchao Zhou Simul Exhibition and PNWCC Fund Raiser, Kirkland, WA Oct 1 PNWCC Grand Opening Bughouse Tournament, Kirkland, WA Sep 29-30 Eastern Washington Open, Spokane, WA Sep 29 Seattle CC Saturday Quads, Seattle, WA Sep 29 Portland Game in 60, Portland, OR Sep 11-25 Portland Tuesday Night Quads, Portland, OR Sep 23 Bethel Monthly Sunday Chess Quads, Eugene, OR (flyer) Sep 21-23 Seattle Fall Open, Seattle, WA Congratulations to co-champions Matt Zavortink and Owen McCoy! Sep 14-16 and 22-23 Oregon State Championship and Invitational (rescheduled), Portland, OR Sep 15 Eastern Idaho Open, Pocatello, ID Sep 14-16 WA Women’s Championship, Seattle, WA (flyer) Sep 9-13 Headless King Tournament, Spokane, WA Sep 9 Portland Sunday Quads, Portland, OR Sep 9 Seattle CC Sunday Tornado, Seattle, WA Sep 8 Portland CC Unrated Rapid, Portland, OR Sep 1-3 68th Annual Oregon Open, Portland, OR (flyer) Sep 2 Oregon Open Blitz, Portland, OR