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 447 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 now administered separately)

• Dec 14 Seattle CC Saturday Quads, Seattle, WA - See December SCC ad
• Dec 14 Western Idaho Open, Boise, ID
• Dec 14-15 Portland Winter Open Chess Tournament, Portland, OR - Ad/Flyer

This Weekend - Other (non-GP) events!

• Dec 13 Elimination G/10, Tacoma, WA
• Dec 13 PNWCC Friday Night Rapids, Kirkland, WA - See November PNWCC ad
• Dec 13 PNWCC G45 Duel, Kirkland, WA - See November PNWCC ad
• Dec 14 Bellingham Knights Chess Club December Open, Bellingham, WA
• Dec 14-15 Seattle Kings vs. Princes Match VII, Seattle, WA
• Dec 14-15 PNWCC USCF Open, Kirkland, WA - Flyer | November PNWCC ad

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 teaser (selected 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 teaser (selected 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.)

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).

Volunteers wanted for chess activity at a youth detention center in Washington. See the coaches/volunteers wanted page. (Posted 9/22/2019)

October magazine! The October issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 9/25. Note that the magazine page size is now slightly smaller at 8 x 10 inches. It's a 32-page issue with "Baumanns Inducted Into The ICA Hall Of Fame" by Jef Leifeste, "ICA Hall Of Fame" by Jeffrey Roland, "Letter To The Editor" by John P. Christy, "69th Annual Oregon Open" by Owen McCoy, "Meet Chad Lykins: A Champion Of Scholastic Chess" by Sarah McCoy, "Josh Sinanan Interview" by Carol Kleist, "Seattle Seafair" by Carol and Fred Kleist, "Mahajan Tops Third Seattle Classic" by Josh Sinanan, "A Chess Camp Just For Girls" by Sarah McCoy, "Engineering Consultants, Inc." and "Trader Joe’s Of Boise" by Alise Pemsler, and a back-cover photo of "Cake at ICA Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony" by Jeffrey Roland. Cover: Ellen and David Baumann Inducted Into ICA Hall Of Fame by Jeffrey Roland. See the full edition (all pages with color).

NWC Wins CJA Award! Northwest Chess is pleased to once again be the recipient of the Chess Journalist Award for Best State Magazine / Newsletter, one of "The Top Four" awards, awarded by the Chess Journalists of America (CJA). The 2019 award certificate, shown here, names Editor Jeffrey Roland. Congratulations to Jeff and all of our NWC magazine contributors. This is six years in a row for Jeff!

New master! Congratulations to Eric Zhang of Bellevue, Wash., who achieved a U.S. Chess rating of 2200 as a result of scoring 4 out of 5 points at the 2019 Vancouver Open, held at the Vancouver Hampton Inn & Suites, Aug. 10-11. Along the way, Eric scored wins against Yu-Chen Liang (1792), David Murray (1872), and Zoey Tang (2017). Way to go, Eric!! See the U.S. Chess crosstable. Photo: Eric (right) and WCF President Josh Sinanan.

September magazine! The September issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 9/4, after a short delay. It's a 32-page issue with Editorial by Jeffrey Roland and Ralph Dubisch, a Letter To The Editor by Jerry Richards, "First North Idaho Championship" by Adam Porth, "ICA Summer Classic" by Jeffrey Roland, "PNWCC And Jim Tarjan" by Jim Tarjan, "2019 Best Magazine/Newsletter and award certificate" from Chess Journalists of America, "Emerald City Open" by Carol and Fred Kleist, "Bob Ferguson Fundraising Simul" by Duane Polich, and back-cover art of Bob Ferguson drawn during play at Fundraiser Simul by Eli Lara. Cover: Michael Cambareri playing at North Idaho Championship by Adam Porth. See the full edition (all pages with color).

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.

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