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.

• 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!

• Oct 28 Portland CC G/60, Portland, OR
• Oct 28-29 Washington Challenger's Cup, Seattle, WA - See ad/flyer

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

• Oct 24 Portland Chess Club Championship (Rd 5), Portland, OR
• Oct 27 Seattle CC Autumn Leaves (Rd 4), Seattle, WA - See September SCC ad
• Oct 27 Seattle CC Championship (Rd 6), Seattle, WA - See September SCC ad
• Oct 27 Tacoma City & Pierce County Championship (Rd 1), Tacoma, WA

In Memoriam - GM William Lombardy, 1937-2017, who although best known as Bobby Fischer's second during the 1972 world championship match against Spassky, had the talent to become one of the world’s top players, had he not decided to become a priest instead. See article #1 and article #2 on John Henderson's blog.

In Memoriam - 35 year old Staff Sgt. Bryan Black of Puyallup was one of three Green Berets killed when they came under fire in Niger on Oct. 4. He served as a Special Forces Medical Sergeant. Bryan was an active chess player in Washington State in the 1990s and 2000s. His last US Chess rating was 1975. He was Tacoma Chess Club champion in 1999 and graduated from Puyallup High School in 2000. Our thoughts are with his family. See story on The News Tribune website. | See the Tacoma Chess Club history page for club champions.

November magazine! The November issue of Northwest Chess is in production, and should be mailed on 10/25. Information and "teaser" edition will be posted on Monday 10/23.

October magazine! The October issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 9/27. It's a 32-page issue with "Vancouver Open" by Sarah McCoy, "July 2017 PCC Game 60," "2017 Oregon Senior Open" and "August 2017 PCC Game 60" by Brian Berger, "East Idaho Senior Games" by Jay Simonson, "Portland Rapid and Blitz Championships" by Micah Smith, "Spotlight On Roshen Nair" by Brian Berger, "BCC #14" by Jeffrey Roland, "2017 Inaugural Hall of Fame" by Adam Porth, and a back-cover photo of "Roshen Nair holding U.S. Junior Open trophy" by Sanjay Nair. Cover: WCF President Josh Sinanan (L) and FM Steven Breckenridge, winner of the 2017 Vancouver Open. Photo Credit: Jacob Mayer. See the teaser (selected pages with color).

September magazine! The September issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 8/24. It's a 32-page issue with "Remembering James Shroeder (1927-2017)" by John Donaldson, "2017 ICA Summer Classic" by Jeffrey Roland, "Rose City Sectionals" by Brian Berger, "N.W. Represented Well at National Scholastic" by Owen McCoy, "July 2017 PCC Quad 45" by Brian Berger, "CJA Award for 2017 Best State Magazine," "A Little Chess Nostalgia from 1979" by Philip Peterson, "2017 Washington State Championship Brilliancy Prizes (Part 2 of 2)" by Michael Hosford and Eric Tohni, and a back-cover photo of James Schroeder at 2012 US Open in Vancouver by Jeffrey Roland. Cover: James Schroeder circa late 1950s/early 1960s, by James Schroeder. See the teaser (selected pages with color).

Advertising Omission! Northwest Chess regrets that the business card for Master's Academy in Boise, Idaho, was omitted from the September issue of NWC by mistake. Please see the calendar page for the Academy's business card and list of upcoming scholastic tournaments.

US Chess names new Executive Director (Aug. 29) - The United States Chess Federation (US Chess) is pleased to announce the selection of Carol Meyer as its new Executive Director. The selection of Ms. Meyer was made after a nationwide search that attracted more than 100 applicants. "US Chess is very pleased to announce Ms. Meyer's appointment," says Mike Hoffpauir, President of the US Chess Board of Directors. Mike notes, "Carol's deep expertise and years of leadership experience of 501(c)(3) organizations will greatly aid our efforts to fund an array of educational and social chess initiatives in keeping with our recent conversion to a 501(c)(3) educational organization." See uschess.org for more information.

NWC Wins CJA Award! Northwest Chess is pleased to once again be the recipient of the chess journalist award for Best State Magazine, awarded by the Chess Journalists of America (CJA). The 2017 award certificate, shown here, names Editor Jeffrey Roland. Congratulations to Jeff and all of our NWC magazine contributors.

Chess companion wanted - Mr. John Epley (photo at left), age 87, is no longer able to travel to his chess club in Vancouver, Wash. due to a disability, and would like someone to visit and play chess. According to daughter Cathy, "He is still cognitively sharp and a delightful man but plays slowly because of his stroke and age. I would be willing to pay someone to spend time with my father playing chess a couple times a week. It would mean a lot to me to find someone to play with him. I guarantee you that they would have a good time with my dad as he is a very interesting man." Contact: Cathy Epley, 503-516-7173, email cepley@mac.com.

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.)

August magazine! The August issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 7/26. It's a 32-page issue with "Letter to Editor" by David Lucky, "GM Timur Gareyev Comes to Iowa...I Mean Idaho!" by Adam Porth, "2017 PCC Summer Open," "June 2017 PCC Quad 45" and "June 2017 PCC Game 60" by Brian Berger, "Helping Chess in Equatorial Guinea" by Avi Gupta and Seth Talyansky, "The Xu Open" by Jeffrey Roland, "Northwest Players at the 2017 Women’s Open" by Mary Kuhner, "2017 Washington State Championship Brilliancy Prizes (Part 1 of 2)" by Michael Lee and Curt Collyer, and a back-cover photo of Fred Kleist by Jim Berezow. Cover: GM Timur Gareyev by Adam Porth. See the teaser (selected pages with color).

Visit to Fischer's Grave - The son of Oregon chess player Russ Winge recently visited Iceland, including the site of Bobby Fischer's grave, as shown in the photo, at a humble location ... the graveyard of an inconspicuous country church. And, yes, there's construction in progress in the background. For a story of Fischer's life, including the final years in Iceland, consider reading Endgame - Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall ..., by Frank Brady.

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 - Roland Feng won the K-12 championship that included a dozen 2400+ players. See a report on the US Chess website. 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