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• We are making Northwest Chess magazine back issues available on this website! Currently, you can see the Sep 2008-December 2011 magazines! Scans have also been added of the Aug 2004-Aug 2008 magazines, thanks to Mike MacGregor of the Tacoma Chess Club.

• 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.

This Weekend! Mayday Quads (concludes May 18) in Tacoma; Pierce County Open (May 19) in Tacoma; Portland CC G/60 (May 19); ICA Players Memorial (May 19-20, Open and Reserve) in Boise, ID; 37th Annual Paul Keres Memorial (May 19-21) in Richmond, BC; Seattle CC Sunday Tornado (May 20) - See calendar and TA pages for more info about upcoming chess events.

Register Now for WA Open! To receive a $10 entry fee discount for the Washington Open, scheduled for May 26-28 in SeaTac, register by May 19. Use online registration, or use print and mail entry form.

May magazine delayed! The May issue of Northwest Chess is delayed, but was uploaded on 5/14 and should be printed and mailed by Friday. Due to the ongoing delays, we're making back issues including January-April 2012 available now. See the magazine back issues page.

U.S. Championship! The 2012 U.S. Chess Championship features an elite field of 12 players and a guaranteed prize fund of $160,000. In addition, there will be a "$64K Fischer Prize" awarded to anyone that scores a perfect 11-0, in honor of Bobby Fischer's result at the 1963-64 event. Tournament runs from May 8-20 and rounds start at 11 AM PDT. Watch live commentary with Jennifer Shahade and GM Ben Finegold at http://www.uschesschamps.com/live, or replay at http://www.uschesschamps.com/video. The Portland Chess Shop will analyze the games on YouTube at www.youtube.com/PortlandChessShop.

Chess Essay! See "Young chess champion finds benefits in the game" by 14-year-old Billy Aho, as published in The Bellingham Herald on May 7.

April magazine mailed! The April issue of Northwest Chess was seriously delayed, but was uploaded to the printer on 4/18, and was mailed on Tuesday morning, April 24. It's a 32-page issue with an Oregon Championship report, Oregon Junior Closed report, Idaho chess news, Collyer Memorial report, more Washington Championship and Premier games, a Grand Prix report and event listings.

1962 Seattle World's Fair 50th Anniversary! Rusty Miller found this photo of a chess event at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, which is now celebrating its 50th anniversary, along with the Seattle Space Needle! Can you identify the following players in the photo? ... Viktors Pupols, Seglins and John Bell.

New! Spokane Chess History page (on the Spokane club's website).

Nakamura visit! U.S. Chess Champion GM Hikaru Nakamura visited Chess4Life in Bellevue, WA on the evening of March 13. See story/photos on Facebook.

March magazine mailed! The March issue of Northwest Chess was delayed, but was uploaded on 3/12 and printed and mailed the same week. it's a 24-page issue with games from the WA Championship, "Idaho Chess News" by Jeffrey Roland, other Northwest News and the usual Grand Prix update and event listings.
Cover: WA Championship crosstable by Fred Kleist.

GM Yasser Seirawan wins strong Dutch Open Blitz Championship! - See report on Susan Polgar's blog. (Check archive for March 5.) As reported by IM John Donaldson, "Yasser Seirawan has once again proven that he possesses one of the quickest minds and some of the fastest hands on the planet by repeating his 2011 win in the marathon blitz tournament at Dordrecht. This time he did it against a field of roughly 200 players including 9 GMs rated over 2600 FIDE!" Yasser was closer to home on March 17, giving a 6-hour lecture and simul at the North Shore Chess Center in Skokie, Illinois. (See www.nachess.org/events, or see report on Yasser's visit from the Skokie Review.)

Memorial - The Oregon Scholastic Chess Federation and Northwest Chess regret to report the death of Dana Hannibal, a "great soul and great Oregon scholastic chess player." Her memorial service was Sunday, March 11 in Salem at Morningstar Community Church.

IM Donaldson a "Hit" in Florida! - See report from the Miami Country Day School. (Posted March 6.)

Detective Cookie's Urban Youth Chess Club (which we reported on last year) could use some funding. See the story on KOMO news, or donations can be made to Detective Cookie's Urban Youth Chess Club at the Seattle Neighborhood Group Inc., 1810 East Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98122. The phone number is (206) 323-9666, and the website is www.sngi.org.

Congratulations to the Champions! (moved to "Completed Tournament" section below)

Washington in Top 100! Washington has four players on the USCF Feb. 2012 list of the top 100 U.S. chess players. They are GM Yasser Seirawan (#7 with a 2705 rating); IM Georgi Orlov (#40 rated 2542); NM Michael Lee (#85 rated 2443); and WA champion NM Howard Jed Chen (#98 rated 2422). Seirawan is also one of 12 GMs competing for the U.S. Chess Championship this year, May 7-20 in St. Louis. Note: ratings and rankings have changed slightly since Rusty Miller originally supplied this information.

Fischer/Carlsen on 60 Minutes! The original April 1972 60 Minutes story on Bobby Fischer is now available on the CBS News website. The Sunday, February 19 60 Minutes program featured a story about Norway's Magnus Carlsen, currently the world's number one rated player. Even more Fischer stuff - One of our forum users pointed out that you can see Bobby Fischer's chess column in Boys Life Magazine. These archives and start with Feb. 1967 and every other month a column is there for the viewing!

February magazine mailed! The February issue of Northwest Chess was delayed, but has now been printed and mailed, as of 2/15. It's a 24-page issue including games from the 2011 WA Class, "Idaho Chess News" by Jeffrey Roland, "Book Notes" by IM John Donaldson and the usual future event listings. Cover: Chess set collector Kermit Olson. Photo credit: Sally Ho, The Oregonian. (Also see below about display at the Tigard, Oregon library.)

Grand Prix! Final results in the 2011 Robert Karch Memorial Northwest Chess Grand Prix have been posted (GP home page), and the winners' checks have been mailed.

All-American! The 2012 All-America Chess Team announced by USCF has one Washington player on the Age 10 team, Roland Feng of Seattle. See the story on the USCF website for details.

Happy 75th! See "Boris Spassky: a chess legend turns seventy-five" on the ChessBase website.

Search Events! The USCF "Events Rated" tool will show events by state and month, similar to the list that used to appear in the printed rating supplements, according to Rusty Miller.

Discounts!! - Three-year subscription discounts are still available to Northwest Chess!! (These include full OCF or WCF memberships as applicable to residents of Oregon and Washington.) Pay only $60 for three years (adult), $40 (junior) or $12 (additional family member w/o subscription). These favorable rates have been extended, but won't last forever! So act now even if your subscription hasn't expired.
New rates are available on the PayPal subscription page and on the PDF (mail-in) subscription form. Washington residents: please add the applicable sales tax.

New Logo! The new Northwest Chess logo including the state of Idaho is now in official use! Many thanks to Philip Peterson for the design of this logo!

See old news previously appearing on this page.

Thanks to Rusty Miller for providing most of the tournament reports.

Also see Gary Dorfner's report on the Tacoma Chess Club page of a number of open and scholastic events.

Scholastics (May)! The annual WA vs BC International Scholastic Invitational (K-12) match was held on May 5 in Richmond, BC. For the first time in the history of this event, the result was a tie ... both sides were equal with 26 points! See report on the BC Junior Chess website.

Complete (May)! Seattle CC Saturday Quads (May 12); Portland CC Saturday Quads (May 12); Seattle CC Adult Swiss (May 5-6); Oregon Class Championships (May 5-6) in Portland - Fine turnout of 49 players total to about fill the space at the Portland Chess Club. The master/expert section was won with 5-0 by Daniel Gay and he now has a USCF master rating. 8 players in that section. Class A had two with top score of 3.5-1.5, Jacob Reid and Micah Smith in a 9-player section. In Class B, another perfect 5-0 score was reached by Yogi Saputa in a 10-player section. The Class C top scorer at 4.5-.5 was Takuma Sato-Duncan in an 11-player section. The Class D and Under was another tie at 4-1, Pranav Shmrand and Scott Svetal, in an 11-player section. The event was sponsored by the Oregon Chess Federation and directed by Dale Wentz of Salem. USCF Crosstable link.

Scholastics (April)! Congratulations to Becca Lampman for winning the WA State Girls Championship (Mar 31-Apr 1) with a 3.5/4 score. Group photo (7 of 9 participants) at left. Becca will receive a stipend from WCF to attend next year's All Girls Nationals. USCF crosstable link. | See Meridian School Chess Tournament report and photos (Apr 7) on the Seattle Times website. | Wood River Elementary School Championship (Apr 14, Hailey, ID) - link to report on ICA website. | Washington State Elementary Chess Championships (Apr 21) in Pasco, WA - 850 players in various sections took part in the "Duel in the Desert" Washington Elementary Chess Tournament in Pasco, Washington under the direction of TD Loren Schmidt. For the results check the Chess Ratings Northwest website. See story Bear Creek's chess team wins first place ... (3rd grade) from the Redmond Reporter. See story Ridgecrest Wins State Chess Championship for Grades 4 to 6 from the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Patch. | See "Chess: It's not just for your grandfather any more," from the Seaside Signal, about the OSCF state championships (Apr 25-26). | Congratulations to Northwest Christian, the first Spokane-area school to take a team to Nationals (San Diego, Apr 28-29) in several years. The team claimed a trophy in the K-8 Under 1000 category on the strength of four finishers. Torrey Casper scored 4.5 (from 7) to lead the team, which was hampered by two of their stronger player having to play in higher sections. Congratulations also to coaches John Dill and Kelly King, as well as the supportive parents of this group, for their efforts to put Spokane back on the national chess scene. (Reported on Spokane Chess Club Facebook page.)

Complete (April)! Portland CC G/60 (Apr 28) - The April G/60 at the Portland Chess Club was won by Nick Raptis with 3.5-.5. There were 12 players, directed by Neil Dale. USCF crosstable link; The Portland Chess Club April Quads had 16 players under the direction of Gregori Alpernas. USCF Crosstable link; Tacoma CC Mini-Swiss (Apr 28); 77th Montana Open (Apr 28-29) in Missoula - The 77th Montana Open title was won by two out-of-state players. Cameron Leslie of Idaho and Jeremy Krasin of Spokane scored 4.5-.5. There were two players from Idaho and five from Washington on the USCF crosstable. The TD was Daniel McCourt; Seattle CC Sunday Tornado (Apr 29) - Roland Feng of Seattle won the April Tornado under the direction of Fred Kleist. His score was 4-0 and there were 14 players. The time control was G/60 with 5 second delay, and the event was dual rated. Roland's USCF quick rating went up 177 points to 1660, compared to his regular rating of 2179. USCF crosstable link; April Showers, Downpour Section tournament was held at the Seattle Chess Club (Apr 6-27). The 25-player event was won by Michael Darby 3.5-.5. Fred Kleist was the TD. USCF crosstable link; Inland Empire Open (Apr 21-22) in Spokane, WA - 30 players took part in this event sponsored by the Spokane Chess Club. John Julian of Spokane Valley and Cameron Leslie of Idaho topped the chart with their 4.5-.5 scores. They did not play each other. Winners in the lower classes included Mark Havrilla and Michael Cambarreri (Class A), Kevin Korsmo and Jim McAleer (Class B), Tim Kennedy (Class C) and Jim Burney (Class D). Kevin Korsmo handled the TD tasks. USCF crosstable link; Idaho Open (Apr 21-22) in Pocatello, ID - includes a link to a nice 27-minute video posted on YouTube; 6th Annual Clark Harmon Memorial (Apr 13-15 or 14-15) in Seattle - Two fellows from Seattle won both sections and they had the same score, 4.5-0.5. Peter Lessler won the 13-player Open Section and Alan Walk won the 17-player Reserve. Fred Kleist handled the TD tasks of the event held at the Seattle Chess Club and organized by the Washington Chess Federation. The 2011 event had 53 players and was held at the Portland CC while the 2010 edition of the event held in Olympia had 18 players. USCF crosstable link; Portland Saturday Quads (Apr 14); Larry Evans Memorial Open (formerly Reno Farwest Open) (Apr 6-8) in Reno, NV - USCF crosstable link; 6th Annual Grand Pacific Open (Apr 6-9) in Victoria, BC; Tacoma CC Novice #1 (Apr 7); Seattle CC Sunday Tornado (Apr 1) - There were 15 players for the "April Fools" Tornado. Viktors Pupols of Kingston and Macello Szabo of Seattle drew with each other and won their other three games and so topped the results table. Fred Kleist of Seattle was the tournament director. USCF crosstable link; Spring G/30 (Rapid Chess Tournament, Apr 1), Portal Games in Portland.

Scholastics (March)! See Seattle Times photos from Queen's Quest All-Girls Chess Tournament (Mar 24) at Medina Elementary. | See Rusty's photos from Cornerstone "Last Chance" event (Mar 24) in Vancouver, WA - This was a 72-player event, and 10 players qualified for the elementary state championships. | See Scio chess club wins state 2A title from the Albany Democrat-Herald (OR). | See report/photos on OregonLive.com about the Chess for Success state tournament in Portland (Mar 3). | Clackamas High School students take state chess title (Oregon High School Chess Team Association) on Oregon City News online. | See story Talmadge rank & file tackle chess from the Statesman Journal, about the Henry Hill Elementary and Talmadge Middle School's trip to the state Chess for Success tournament in Portland (Mar 3). | Congratulations to Roland Feng for winning the 2012 Washington State Middle School Chess Championships (Mar 3-4) with a perfect 5.0 score, and to Mayhul Arora for his second place finish with a score of 4.5. The tournament was held on Saturday at Alderwood Middle School and on Sunday at the Orlov Academy. For their accomplishments Roland will represent Washington in the Barber Tournament of Middle School Champions (to be held in conjunction with the U.S. Open in Vancouver, WA) and Mayhul will be Washington's alternate. (Reported by Breck Haining.)

Complete (March)! Portland CC G/60 (Mar 31) - Two way tie at 4-0 between Micah Smith of Vancouver WA and Nick Raptis of Portland for the top place at the monthly G/60 event. 26 players including one unrated took part under the direction of Neil Dale of Portland. USCF crosstable link; Daffodil Open (Mar 31) - The Tacoma Chess Club held their annual Daffodil Open, and only eight players took part in the event won with a 3.5-5 score by Joseph Kiiru of Tacoma. Appears he once played a lot in Iowa. Gary J. Dorfner handled the TD tasks. USCF crosstable link; Portland Chess Shop G/15 (Mar 25) - Russell Miller tried his chess skills at a G/15 quick chess event at The Portland Chess Shop in downtown Portland, OR. His skills at the time control are not so hot as he scored 1-3. About 26 players took part. No score keeping needed, touch move were the rules. This is a game store with website www.portalgamespdx.com. Becca Lampman of Vancouver, WA won the 10-player USCF-rated section 4-1. Galen Pyle handled the TD duties. See Rusty Miller's photos. USCF crosstable link; Seattle Spring Open (Mar 23-25) - This event, held at the Seattle Chess Club, was a two section event with 16 players in the Open Section and 35 in the Reserve. Megan Lee of Bellevue scored 3.5-.5 for 1st place in the Open. Igor Ummel of Arlington was 2nd, the only player with 3-1. Alan Walk of Seattle scored 5-0 for 1st in the Reserve Section. Fred Kleist directed the event, and all the players were from Washington. USCF crosstable link; Seattle Saturday Quads (Mar 17); The Green Coquille All Ages Chess Tournament (Mar 17) in Coquille, OR; Portland Spring Open (Mar 17-18) - Good turnout at the Portland Chess Club for their Spring Open, 20 players in the Open Section and 27 in the Reserve. There were 39 players total in the 2011 event. As usual when he plays, Nick Raptis of Portland won the Open Section and this time with a perfect 5-0 score, the same as his win in 2010 of this event. Clemen Deng of Portland scored 4.5-.5 to top the Reserve Section. Gregori Alpernas of Lake Oswego handled the task of tournament director. USCF crosstable link; Seattle Chess Club Novice (Mar 18); Tacoma-Seattle Match (Mar 3 in Seattle) - Photos of the match by Roja Chalasani are available as a Picasa web album; Seattle CC Sunday Tornado (Mar 4); Portland Chess Shop Rapid Tournament (Mar 4) - New Grand Prix event!!

Congratulations to the Champions!

Washington State Championship (concluded Feb 20) in Seattle, WA - the Washington State chess champion is Howard Chen, for the third consecutive year, with a 7 of 9 score - games are now available on the WA games page.
Photo: Washington championship section group photo. Photo credit: Dan Mathews. More photos are available on the linked page.

Oregon State Championship (concluded Feb 20) in Portland, OR - National Master Steve Breckenridge is the Oregon chess champion with 7.5 of 9 points (he tied with three others last year). Group photo available on the linked page.

Idaho Closed Championship (concluded Feb 20) in Boise, ID - The Idaho chess co-champions are Blake Furlow and Larry Parsons! Photo: Some comical action at the Idaho championship: Tom Booth (Black) vs. Dan Looney (White), as Jim Stark (Black on next board) and Nathan Jiang (White on next board) watch. The organizers stepped in and made them use the proper equipment, which includes a chess board! Photo by Jeff Roland.

Scholastics (February)! The top four finishers in the Washington State High School Chess Team Championships were Lakeside (22), Interlake (18.5), Newport (16.5) and Garfield (16.5) (Lakeside B). Randy Kaech reports (on Facebook). | Alexandra Botez, a 16 year old from Happy Valley, OR, did very well in the 3rd Jerry Hanken FIDE Open in Stillwater, OK (Feb 18-20). Her 6-2 score placed her 2nd to winner Eric Hansen's 8-0 score. USCF Crosstable link. | Congratulations to Kyle Haining for winning the 2012 WA Junior Open (scheduled for the MLK Monday holiday (Jan 16) and rescheduled for Saturday, February 4 due to weather conditions)!; He tied for 1st with 4/4 along with Toshihiro Nagase and Ankush Puri. For his victory, Kyle is seeded into the 2013 WA Junior Closed and the 2013 Premier. The playoff games were played at the following time control: white starts with 10 minutes (no delay), black starts with 8 minutes and receives draw odds. By virtue of having superior tiebreaks, Toshihiro was awarded a bye and got to face the winner of Kyle and Ankush. Kyle picked white from a random draw and won on time against Ankush. Kyle and Toshihiro then played for the championship. Toshihiro selected black from a random draw. Kyle was too tough with the white pieces and forced resignation on move 38 threatening mate in one. | See photos from The Bellingham Herald of the 15th International Chess Jam, held by Northwest Washington Scholastic Chess on Feb. 4, 2012 in Ferndale, WA. | Maria N., a fourth-grader from Moses Lake, WA, won the Waypoint Foundation 2012 Chess Tournament, outlasting a field of 92 students grades K through 12 throughout the Columbia Basin. She took home a cash prize of $500!

Complete (February)! 20th Dave Collyer Memorial (Feb 25-26) in Spokane, WA - Players from WA, MT, OR, ID, CA totaling 64 (up a few from 2011 event but about the same as 2009 and 2010 events) took part in the 20th Annual David Collyer Memorial. Taking the top prize was IM John Donaldson of Berkeley, CA with a perfect 5-0 score. Same pairing in the 5th round this year as last which ended in a draw and tie for first with Paul Bartron of Tacoma, WA. This time John won the 5th round game and the $200 Stephen Christopher Memorial Perfect Score prize. James Stripes of Spokane placed 2nd with 4.5-.5. Check on Facebook for his comments on the event. Tournament director duties were handled by Kevin Korsmo of Spokane. USCF crosstable link. Photo: Donaldson giving the traditional Friday evening simultaneous exhibition before the Collyer main event (photo by James Stripes); Seattle Saturday Quads (Feb 25); Portland G/60 (Feb 25) - There was a tie for 1st place - Nick Raptis of Portland and Becca Lampman of Vancouver, WA won their first three games and then drew in round 4. 22 players took part under the direction of Neil Dale of Portland. USCF Crosstable link; Tacoma CC Mini Swiss (Feb 4); Seattle CC Sunday Tornado (Feb 5).

See old tournament news previously appearing on this page.

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