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).

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

• 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.

• Northwest Chess Forum (bulletin board for chess-related discussions)
  New registrations require advance approval; use the response form at the bottom of this page to inquire.

• 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 1947-1952 and 1955-1964 time period are also available.

• We've added MyChessViewer 2.2 from MyChess.com, which allows you to view games from some local chess tournaments directly in your browser. See the games page.

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

This Week/Weekend - NWC Grand Prix events!

• Jun 23-25 Emerald City Open, Seattle, WA - See June SCC ad
• Jun 24 Portland CC G/60, Portland, OR

This Week/Weekend - Other (non-GP) events!

• Jun 20 Portland Tuesday Night Quads (Rd 3), Portland, OR
• Jun 23 Tacoma City Championship (Rd 4), Tacoma, WA

ACM discount still available! American Chess Magazine, in cooperation with Northwest Chess, is pleased to offer a $5 discount using the code published in the ACM ad in the May edition of NWC. (See the teaser version for the ACM ad page, and a review by NWC games editor Ralph Dubisch.)

Progress towards Norms! Two Northwest chess players made progress towards international title norms at the Chicago Open, held Memorial Day weekend - IM Luke Harmon-Vellotti (originally from Idaho) is now 2/3 of the way to GM with a second norm; and Aaron Grabinsky of Oregon achieved a second IM norm, finishing with a score of 5.5 of 9, beating two GMs in the process! See link under "Completed Tournament / Match News" for the crosstables.

June magazine! The June issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 5/23. A limited number of copies were available at the WA Open. It's a 32-page issue with "2017 Idaho Open" by Jeffrey Roland, "11th Annual Clark Harmon Memorial" by Brian Berger, "2017 Grand Pacific Open" by Mike Murray, "Congrats to NM Derek Zhang!" by Josh Sinanan, "BCC #13" by Jeffrey Roland, "MVCC Championship" by Adam Porth, "District 91 Scholastic Chess Tournament" by Jay Simonson, "April 2017 PCC Quad 45" and  "April 2017 PCC Game 60" by Brian Berger, "12th Annual OSCF State Championship" by Owen McCoy, "2017 Girls State Scholastic Championship" and "2017 Wood River Elementary Chess Championship" by Adam Porth, and a back-cover photo of "Corey Longhurst at Boise Chess Club" by Jim Berezow. Cover: Alex Machin at 2017 Idaho Open by Jeffrey Roland. See the teaser (selected pages with color).

Revisiting the 2012 U.S. Open in Vancouver, WA! - See the high-quality set of photos taken by Philip Peterson, the NWC back issues during the Aug-Oct 2012 time period, and the Northwest Chess blog.

Interesting Article! See "The Fischer King: Recalling four days in 1964 when Bobby Fischer brought his game to Louisiana" (and was hosted by local chess star Jude Acers) from a 2015 edition of The New Orleans Advocate.

Set for Sale! The very intricate hand-made wooden chess/checker set pictured here is for sale for $300. It sits 2' x 2' and 6.5" tall. Contact: Kelly Humeston in Idaho Falls, ID, email kellyinidaho@hotmail.com, phone 208-483-2400.

Another New Young Master! Congratulations to Derek Zhang of Bellevue, Washington, who achieved a 2200 U.S. Chess rating as a result of scoring 5 of 7 points in the U2200 section at the 11th Annual Philadelphia Open, Philadelphia, Pa., April 12-16. See the crosstable, and see the blog post by WCF president Josh Sinanan.

... And a Young Google Engineer! See "IM Luke Harmon-Vellotti Joins Google" on the US Chess website. Vellotti, now 18, was a former Idaho and national scholastic chess star.

May magazine! The May issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 4/25. It's a 32-page issue with "Nikolay Minev (1931-2017)" by John Donaldson, "Honors at Scholastic 9-12 Championship" by Jeffrey Roland, "Idaho Scholastic Chess" by Adam Porth and Alise Pemsler, "Ethan Bashkansky Earns National Master Title" by Guy Bashkansky, "Chess Bio - Advaith Vijayakumar," "Washington State Girls Championship" by David Hendricks,  "1st Annual Neil Dale Memorial" by Brian Berger, "American Chess Magazine #1 Review" by Ralph Dubisch, "Oregon High School Team State Championships" by Nancy Keller, "March 2017 PCC Quad 45" and "March 2017 PCC Game 60" by Brian Berger, "82nd Montana Open" by Seth Talyansky, "The Kids’ Texas Vacation" by Ralph Dubisch, "Anthony He Earns FIDE Master Title" by Xuhao He, and a back-cover photo of Ralph Dubisch, Duane Polich, and Philip Peterson, by Philip Peterson. Cover: Seth Talyansky at Glacier National Park, by Roza Kotlyar. See the teaser (selected pages with color).

In Memoriam - GM Arthur Bisguier, a largely self-taught U.S. chess grandmaster from the Bronx, New York. See the obituary in The New York Times; also John Henderson's blog.

U.S. Championships! The 2017 U.S. Chess Championship took place March 27 - April 10 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, in a 12-Player Round Robin format with a prize fund of $194,000. See the overview page for more information and links, and congratulations to new U.S. chess champion GM Wesley So, who won a Monday playoff for the 2017 U.S. championship. He beat 2006 U.S. champion GM Alex Onischuk. The U.S. Women's Champion is WGM Sabina Foisor, originally from Romania, on her ninth attempt.

New FIDE Master! Anthony He became Washington State’s youngest ever FIDE Master on Feb. 20 by scoring 5.5/9 at the WA State Chess Championship in Redmond. See the blog post, and congratulations, Anthony!

IMPORTANT - PRINTING ERROR ALERT!! The Seattle Chess Club full-page ad in the April issue of Northwest Chess is in error - the 2016 ad was reprinted by mistake instead of the 2017 ad. Please disregard the printed version, and see this version of the SCC ad instead. The error has also been corrected in the teaser version (selected pages with color).

April magazine! The April issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 3/29. It's a 48-page special issue with "Nikolay Minev (1931-2017) Initial Report," "Oregon State Championship" by Grisha Alpernas, "Washington State Championship" by Josh Sinanan, "Washington Closed Player Bios," "Idaho Closed State Championship" by Barry Eacker, "Changes In The ICA Point To A Bright Future" by Adam Porth, "Become A Prison Chess Volunteer" by Tom Booth, "February 2017 PCC Quad 45" by Brian Berger, "2017 Washington President’s Cup" by Duane Polich, "Bethel February Quads" by Owen McCoy, "John Donaldson Lecture" by Brian Berger, "February 2017 PCC Game 60" by Brian Berger, "25th Dave Collyer Memorial" by Kevin Korsmo, "5th Annual Presidents Weekend Tournament" by Owen McCoy, a "Miscellaneous Game," "Passing Of The Torch for Olympic Chess Club" by William Bodnar, "Bobby Fischer’s Resting Place" by Tom Booth, "Chess Princesses" by Mary McCoy, and a back-cover photo of "T-Shirt of Jeffrey Bret Hall at Idaho Closed" by Jeffrey Roland. Cover: 2017 State Champions (photos by Alpernas, Porth and Sinanan). See the teaser (selected pages with color).

New National Master! Congratulations to Ethan Bashkansky, who reached a U.S. Chess National Master rating of 2200 at the Super Bowl Tornado on 2/5 in Seattle. Also see the Facebook post, and the family's Chess Travel blog post. Photo at left courtesy of the Bashkansky family.

GP Final Results! 2016 Richard Gutman Memorial Grand Prix final standings and results are available from links on the GP page. Checks have been mailed to all the winners (or some Idaho winners received only NWC subscriptions) - Congratulations if you're one of them!

In Memoriam - IM Nikolay Minev (1931-2017) - Hanon Russell reports on Facebook (Russell Enterprises, Inc.) that Minev passed away on the evening of March 10. He was born in Bulgaria in 1931, and was champion of his native country in 1953, 1965 and 1966. In the 1980s he emigrated to the United States and settled in the Seattle area. He was a regular contributor to Yasser Seirawan's fine magazine, Inside Chess. He was the author or co-author of over two dozen chess books. Among his best-known works were Mastering Tactical ideas and the outstanding two-volume biographical work on Akiva Rubinstein which he co-authored with John Donaldson. RIP Nikolay... See John Henderson's blog post about Minev, and see Donaldson's article in the May edition of Northwest Chess.

See old news previously appearing on this page.

Beginning in 2013, 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. 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.

Photo: Washington team at the Intermatch. Photo by Victoria Doknjas.

Scholastic Events (May-June): Orlov Chess Academy Tournament of Champions (Jun 10) in Seattle ChessKid Online National Invitational Championship (CONIC) (Jun 2-4) - See the story about the national champions Washington Open Scholastic (May 27) in Lynnwood, WA Idaho Scholastic Champion of Champions tournament (May 27) in Boise Naomi Bashkansky event (May 20) at the Vashon Library, sponsored by the Vashon PTSA and Chautauqua Chess Club Supernationals VI (May 12-14) in Nashville, TN Susan Polgar National Open (May 6-7) in Livermore, CA - The Velea sisters did well again: 1st girls under 14; 1st girls under 12; and tied for 2nd in girls under 10. WA vs. BC Intermatch (May 6) in Seattle, WA Chesssport.com GM Supernationals Prep (Apr 22-May 6) in Bellevue, WA OSCF Championship (May 5-6) in Seaside, OR

Photo: Girls U9 awards at WSCC in Romania. Photo by Velea family.

Scholastic Events (March-April): World School Chess Championship (Apr 21-30) in Iasi, Romania - Local player Sophie Velea won a silver medal in the girls under 9 division. WA State Elementary Chess Championships (Apr 29) in Tacoma, WA WA State Middle School Chess Championships (Apr 29) in Tacoma, WA Oregon State Girls Championship (Apr 22) in Portland American Chess Institute tournament (Apr 15) in Vancouver, WA Catlin Gabel Spring Chess Festival & OSCF State Qualifier (Apr 15) in Salem, OR Intermat Candidates Tournament (Apr 8) in Seattle Spring Fling! (Apr 8) in Eugene, OR St. Anne Celtic Challenge - Spring 2017 (Apr 2) in Seattle WA State Barber Qualifier (Mar 11-12) in Bellevue and Seattle Bishop Battlestar (K-6) (Mar 11) in Pasco, WA Chess For Success 50th Anniversary Tournaments (Mar 10-11) Also see "Chess for Success: Students love strategy" published Mar. 11 in the Portland Tribune. WA State Girls Championship (Mar 4-5) in Carnation, WA OHSCTA Team Tournament (Mar 4) in Hillsboro, OR