Are you ready to subscribe to Northwest Chess and join your state chess federation (for residents of Washington/Oregon)? - See: PayPal Subscription/Membership Form | Printable Form (PDF file). Residents of other states may subscribe without a state membership.

• Northwest Chess Facebook page | NWC Facebook "app" page for mobile device screen.

• Online Registration – Available for some upcoming open 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 460 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.

January - NWC Grand Prix events!

• All local over-the-board chess events have been cancelled. Please contact the event organizer for more information and current status of scheduled events. Some events have been moved online. See calendar and TA pages for more info about upcoming chess events.
• Seattle Chess Club - The club has suspended advertising of in-person events until the club is able to safely reopen.
• Please note: We did not have a separate Oregon section of the NWC Grand Prix in 2020, however, a small GP prize fund for non-WA players was announced.

• Jan 30-31 Seattle City Championship, online via Chess.com

January - Other (non-GP) events!

• See PNWCC website for online chess classes/camps and other events.
• Chess4Life is also offering live virtual chess classes/camps.

January - Scholastic Events

• Jan 22-23 WA State High School Individual Championship, online via Chess.com
• Jan 30 WA Junior Closed Chess Championship, online via Chess.com

Bellingham club featured! See "Bellingham Knights Chess Club Captures Enthusiasm From All Ages and Skill Levels," published 1/21 by local newspaper Whatcom Talk.

February magazine! The February 2021 issue of Northwest Chess is in production, and should be mailed next week. It's a 32-page issue with "Rusty ...like the father of Northwest Chess..." by Duane Polich, "Russell “Rusty” Miller (1942-2020)" by John Donaldson, Murlin Varner, Ralph Dubisch, Mike Mulford, Jude Acers, Philip Peterson; "2020 Washington Scholastic Mini Teams Championship" by Siva Sankrithi and Josh Sinanan, "2020 Northwest Chess Winter Open," "2020 SCC Extravaganza," "2020 Washington Class Championships" and "Washington Winter Classic" by Josh Sinanan; and a back-cover photo of "Kathy Miller and Russell Miller" by Jeffrey Roland. Cover: Russell “Rusty” Miller by Philip Peterson. See the teaser edition (selected pages with color).

In Memoriam - Rusty Miller, 1942-2020. We regret to announce that Rusty Miller passed away unexpectedly on Dec. 29, 2020, at the age of 78, at his home in Vancouver, as reported by daughter Ielleen Miller. Rusty was born in 1942 in Hood River Oregon, and most recently lived in Vancouver, Washington. He was the editor of Northwest Chess, and for several years he and his wife Kathryn (Kathy) Eddy (sister of editor Buz Eddy) printed the magazine on a press in their home in Seattle. Rusty also served as NWC Business Manager, until current Business Manager Eric Holcomb took over the job in 2003. We'll miss you, Rusty! More information will be posted when available, and there will be a memorial in the February 2021 edition of Northwest Chess.

January magazine! The January 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 12/31. It's a 40-page issue with "The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)" by Karen Schmidt, "Portland Chess Club Championship" by Wilson Gibbins, "Team Washington Wins Inaugural States Chess Cup" by Josh Sinanan, "Washington Scholastic Mini Teams Championship" by Siva Sankrithi and Josh Sinanan, "Chess960 (Fischer-Random)" by Valentin Razmov, "WA Chess960 Pilot Tournament" by Josh Sinanan, "Oregon Class Championships" by Wilson Gibbins,"Chess Shorts: Cheerleaders And Chess" by Breck Haining, "Recap For ICA Online Events" by Jeffrey Roland, "PCC Winter Open" by Mike Morris and a back-cover photo of "Faded Warrior" by Philip Peterson. Cover: Fairy Chess by Philip Peterson. See the teaser edition (selected pages with color).

December magazine! The December issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 12/1. It's a 32-page issue with "OCF Rejoins NWC" by Eric Holcomb, "Cousin Ken" by Karen Schmidt, "Readers’ Showcase" by Derin Goktepe and Jim Tarjan, "15th SPFNO," "2020 Washington Blitz Championship," "2020 Washington Game/60 Championship" and "Seattle Fall Open" by Josh Sinanan, "Washington Challenger’s Cup" and "Washington Women’s Championship" by Rekha Sagar, "Challenger’s Cup Scholastic" by Jacob Mayer, and a back-cover photo of "Bug-Eyed Knight" by Ralph Dubisch. Christmas cover art by Brian Berger, based on previous 2017 cover. See the full edition (all pages with color).

See "The Queen's Gambit: Meet the real life women chess stars" on BBC News. Also, a review of the wildly popular Netflix series The Queen's Gambit by local chess player and author Karen Schmidt is scheduled to appear in The Seattle Times - first online on Monday 11/30, and then in print in the Weekend Plus section on Friday 12/4. See the online article. Karen also reports that an interesting review ran in The Guardian - an excellent British publication.

Team WA on King5 - Be sure to check out the championship coverage of Team WA on King5 News, which aired on 11/20. - Captains Jacob, Josh, and Eddie.

November magazine! The November issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 10/29. It's a 48-page issue again with "Teaching Others To Play Chess" by Karen Schmidt, "Recap For ICA Online Events" by Jeffrey Roland, "Seattle Chess Classic" by Josh Sinanan, "Seattle Classic Blitz Championship (Olympiad Fundraiser)" by Jacob Mayer, "Readers’ Showcase" by Jeffrey Roland, Book Review by Breck Haining, "Oregon Open" by Josh Sinanan, and a back-cover photo of "Ice White Queen" by Philip Peterson. Cover: Ice White Knight by Philip Peterson. See the full edition (all pages with color).

States Cup Update! Reported by WCF President Josh Sinanan: Last Saturday 11/7 Team WA scored a nail-biting victory over Iowa to win the semifinal match and advance to the States Cup Championship! Our team of Georgi, Derek, Rushaan, and Ananth picked up the pace in the 2nd round after a slow start and managed to trade blows with a very tough Iowa team leading into the final round, when it was all tied up. It was a thrill to watch this back and forth match, with many time pressure scrambles and double-edged positions along the way! Thanks to some clutch wins by Georgi and Rushaan, we edged out a narrow 8.5-7.5 victory, and now heading to the finals against Michigan. (Update: Team WA won the championship!)

Previous Updates:

• On 10/31 Team WA scored a clutch victory over CA-N to win the Western Division Title and advance to the semifinals!
• On 10/19 Team WA rode the wave to victory against an underrated Hawaiian team, thanks to a 3rd round 4-0 wipeout! We finished the regular season 5.5-1.5 and tied for first place in the Western Division with CA-N!
• On 10/12, Team WA won a clutch match against the division-leading Oregon team by a score of 9.5-6.5, led by strong performances from our junior squad: Kyle Haining, Derek Zhang, Rushaan Mahajan, and Advaith Vijayakumar! Following this match, the team was 4.5-1.5 on the season and tied for first place in the Western Division! Live commentary of the WA-OR match was available on Nathan Wonder’s Twitch stream with guest commentator Carl Haessler. Or use these links to follow the games of Joshua Grabinsky, Matt Zavortink, Roshen Nair, and Zoey Tang on lichess.org.

See old news previously appearing on this page.

Some local tournament reports were previously 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. However, blogging activity has stopped. If you are interesting in blogging for your club's events, please let us know.