Are you ready to subscribe to Northwest Chess and join your state chess federation (for residents of Washington)? - 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 448 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.

This Weekend - NWC Grand Prix events! (Oregon GP may rejoin NWC GP in 2020; otherwise administered separately)

• Jan 26 Seattle CC Sunday Tornado, Seattle, WA - See January SCC ad

This Weekend - Other (non-GP) events!

• Jan 24 PNWCC G45 Duel, Rapids and Blitz, Kirkland, WA - See January PNWCC ad
• Jan 25 PNWCC G60, Kirkland, WA - See January PNWCC ad
• Jan 26 PNWCC Transformer G45, Kirkland, WA - See January PNWCC ad

This Weekend - Major scholastic events!

• Jan 24-25 Washington State High School Individual Chess Championship, Seattle, WA

February magazine! The February issue of Northwest Chess is in production, and should be mailed this coming week. It's a 32-page issue with Letter To The Editor by Owen McCoy, "Oregon Chess News (with a wide variety of coverage)" by Frank Niro including also the "Neil Dale Memorial" by Mike Morris, "Open Letter To The WCF" by Cleveland Johnson, "Kings vs. Princes VII Match" by Josh Sinanan, "Junior Closed And Invitational" by Jacob Mayer, "Extravaganza" by Carol and Fred Kleist, "Western Idaho Open" by Jeffrey Roland, and a back-cover photo of "Lincoln Whitney at Western Idaho Open" by Jeffrey Roland. Cover: IM Aaron Grabinsky of Webster University. See the teaser (selected pages with color).

January magazine! The January issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 12/30. It's a 32-page issue with "Toasting The Host (Chess Poem)" by Glen O'Harra, "Samuel Clemons Tournament Game" by Alex Machin, "Chess Vignette - Abdul's Story" by Karen Schmidt, "Oregon Chess News (with a wide variety of coverage)" by Frank Niro, "Washington Class Championship," "Thanksgiving Scholastic," "Chess Workshop For Women And Girls" and "Washington Class Blitz" by Josh Sinanan, "Washington Class Games" (various), "Girls And Women's Workshop" by Angela Agaian, and a back-cover photo of Stephanie Velea, Monica Olaru and Andrei Botez by Paul Truong. Cover: Megan Lee and Ignacio Perez by Josh Sinanan. See the teaser (selected pages with color).

Ratings! How to check US Chess ratings and "Top 100" lists - From the US Chess homepage (https://new.uschess.org/home/), select "Players/Ratings Look-Up" under "Ratings." That will take you to the page https://new.uschess.org/players/search/. Once you're there, you'll see a "Click here" link to search for individual player ratings, and a "VIEW THE TOP 100 LISTS" button. Many of the top 100 lists are already linked, or you can choose "Top Players By State" to create a list for a particular state. Doing this for Washington for all players with recent activity, you should see one GM, several IMs, a WIM and quite a few FMs. There are eight players rated 2400+, and 16 rated 2300+.

December magazine! The December issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 12/2. It's a 32-page issue with "Free Chess Lectures Weekly" and "Norman Friedman Memorial" by Jeffrey Roland, "Washington Blitz Championship," "Washington Game/60" and "Washington Challenger’s Cup" by Josh Sinanan, "Corporate/Collegiate Tournament" by Florian Helff, "Northern Idaho Open" by Adam Porth, "Arliss Dietz" by Brian Berger, "Chess Peace Cartoons" by Tony Sullivan, "Oregon Chess News" by Frank Niro, "Turkey Open" by Mike Murray,  "Chess Vignette (Yuri)" by Karen Schmidt, "Sridhar Seshadri in Iceland at Fischer Grave (photo)" by Sridhar Seshadri, and a back-cover photo of Corey Longhurst by Jeffrey Roland. Cover: Joshua Price at the Norman Friedman Memorial. Photo credit: Jeffrey Roland. See the full edition (all pages with color).

1947 WA vs. BC Match! Another "blast from the past!" Old issues of Chess Life are now available online, and Rusty Miller discovered that the April 1947 edition page 1 reports on the third international match between Washington and British Columbia. The first two matches were held in 1946. Go have a look to see the outcome of the first three matches! Update: A recent edition of the BCCF Bulletin has an interesting article about BC vs. WA matches in the 1940's. Contact WCF President Josh Sinanan for more information.

November magazine! The November issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 10/31. It's a 32-page issue with "Megan Lee Wins WA Women’s Championship" by Josh Sinanan, Chess Vignette “Karen Schmidt’s Chess Story” by Karen Schmidt, "Eastern Idaho Open" by Jay Simonson, "Keplinger’s Revenge" by David Zaklan, "Chess At The Washington State Fair" by Bill Rogers, "Tacoma Report" by Gary Dorfner, "Seattle Fall Open" by Carol Kleist, "Vancouver Open" by Josh Sinanan, a Miscellaneous Game, "Donaldson Wins FIDE’s Botvinnik Award" by Rusty Miller/John Donaldson, and a back-cover photo of Jacob Mayer at Applebee’s by Josh Sinanan. Cover: Megan Lee, 2019 Washington Women’s Champion, by Josh Sinanan. See the full edition (all pages with color).

Scholarship Available! A "One Move Ahead Chess Scholarship" in the amount of $1,000, funded by the Liebenthal family, is open for applications until March 23, 2020. The scholarship is open to any students high school and above. See the linked page to apply.

Attention PNWCC Players - Pacific Northwest Chess Center in Kirkland no longer uses the NWC online registration system, as of October. Players should instead visit the PNWCC Schedule & Registration page for information. For a complete list of chess events advertised with NWC, please see the NWC calendar page.

Donaldson Award! As reported by FIDE (the International Chess Federation), "Chess trainers are often behind the scenes but they are the driving force of a team or individual success! The FIDE Trainers’ Commission (TRG) announced the Trainer Awards results for the best achievements in 2018. The Mikhail Botvinnik Award, for best trainer of men or a team in an open event, goes to William John Donaldson." (As most of you know, IM Donaldson is from the Northwest, and has been actively involved in chess at all levels for many years. See the November magazine for more information.) New! - Also see Mechanics' Institute Chess Room Newsletter #902 (Jan. 2020) for an article about Donaldson receiving the award trophy.

Ruse de Guerre! A "blast from the past!" - With the help of Russell Miller and Esther Schrader, we're pleased to present an extensive tournament booklet with many games from the Ruse de Guerre Chess Club in Camas, Wash., back in 1964. See: RdG 1964 tournament booklet chapters 1-3 (27 MB) and RdG 1964 tournament booklet chapters 4-6 (23 MB). More club publications (newsletters): Jan 1964 (16 MB) | Jan 1965 (9 MB) | Apr to Sep 1965 (combined, 9 MB).

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.

WA Junior Closed group photo. Credit: Josh Sinanan and Jacob Mayer.

Scholastic Events (January-February): Jan 20 WA Junior Open and Reserve, Bellevue, WA Jan 12 Bethel Monthly Sunday Chess Quads (OSCF Qualifier), Eugene, OR (flyer) Jan 10-12 WA Junior Closed and Invitational, Seattle, WA Congratulations to Daniel Shubin - his 5/5 performance earns him a spot in the Championship section of the upcoming 2020 WA State Championship! Jan 5 Seattle Prep Classic Chess Tournament, Seattle, WA Jan 4 Assumption Winter Classic (K-8), Bellingham, WA

Washington vs. BC match team photo. Credit: Rachna Soneji.

Open or Invitational Events (January-February): Jan 17-20 PNWCC FIDE Open - MLK, Kirkland, WA (flyer) Jan 17-19 Washington vs. British Columbia Challenge Match, Victoria, BC (flyer) Jan 17-19 Seattle City Championship, Seattle, WA Jan 18 MLK Blitz, Boise, ID Jan 17 PNWCC Friday Night Rapids, Kirkland, WA Jan 11-12 PNWCC USCF Open (G90), Kirkland, WA Jan 10 PNWCC Friday Night Rapids, Kirkland, WA Jan 5 Seattle CC Novice, Seattle, WA Jan 4-5 4th Annual Neil Dale Memorial Open, Portland, OR (flyer) Jan 1-5 PNWCC FIDE GM Norm Invitational, Kirkland, WA Dec 27-Jan 5 Seattle CC Turn of the Year, Seattle, WA Jan 4 Seattle CC Saturday Quads, Seattle, WA

Photo: OWS Fall Tornado playing room. Credit: Sha Sha Metzmaker.

Scholastic Events (September-October): Oct 20 Bethel Monthly Sunday Chess Quads (OSCF Qualifier), Eugene, OR Oct 19 Jefferson J'adoube, Richland, WA Oct 12 Open Window School Fall Tornado, Bellevue, WA Oct 11 OSCF All Stars, Salem, OR Sep 22 Bethel Monthly Sunday Chess Quads (OSCF Qualifier), Eugene, OR Sep 8 PNWCC 2nd Girls vs Boys Match featuring special guest GM Irina Krush, Kirkland, WA