Are you ready to subscribe to Northwest Chess and join your state chess federation (for residents of Washington/Oregon)? - 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 468 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.

• 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 in your browser. See the games page.

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

December - NWC Grand Prix events!

• See calendar and TA pages for more info about upcoming chess events, including the reopening of venues for over-the-board chess.
• See Seattle CC November ad for more details on these and other SCC events.
• As in 2020, the NWC Grand Prix is being conducted in two sections - Washington and all others. See the standings intended for publication in the December magazine. The 2021 GP is named in honor of Russell ("Rusty") Miller.

• All WCF online events are US Chess Online Rated if eligible.
• Dec 11 SCC Saturday Quads, Seattle, WA
• Dec 11 Northwest Chess Winter Open, online via Chess.com
• Dec 11-12 We Play Chess Weakly, Boise, ID
• Dec 18-19 Some Live and Some Die, Boise, ID
• Dec 26-27 Washington Winter Classic, online via Chess.com

December - Other (non-GP) events!

• All WCF online events are US Chess Online Rated if eligible.
• Dec 11 Western Idaho Open, Nampa, ID
• Dec 19 (Sundays as announced on website) Bellingham Chess Club Sunday Chess (may include in-house Tournament), Bellingham, WA

December - Scholastic Events

• See PNWCC website for chess classes/camps and other events.
• Chess4Life is also offering live virtual chess classes/camps.
• Dec 12 St. Anne Celtic Challenge Fall 2021, Online via Chess.com
• Dec 18 2021 Year-End Scholastic Cup, Seattle, WA

World Championship! It's that time again. Magnus Carlsen’s latest title defence against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi is taking place. The opening ceremony of the $2m World Championship Match was on 11/24 in Dubai, and the opening game of the scheduled 14-game match got underway two days later on 11/26. As of 12/5, Carlsen leads 5-3 after a decisive and record-breaking 136-move marathon in game 6, followed by another win in game 8. NBC Sports is providing limited (but interesting) TV coverage on its NBCSN sports channel, with commentator Maurice Ashley - check your local listings.

A more local commentary on the world championship was provided in conjunction with the Portland Winter Open by Matt Zavortink on Friday, December 3 at the Portland Chess Club at Lloyd Center.

Other world championship coverage: chess24.com | ChessBase | John Henderson blog.

Detective Cookie Chess Park! - Local Seattle news outlet KIRO 7 recently released a news story about SPD detective "Cookie" about her amazing work using chess to help teach kids life lessons. Watch the full video on the KIRO 7 website, or watch a shorter YouTube version of the video. (Nov. 12)

Congratulations to Jeff Roland, now the most prolific Northwest Chess editor of all time with 109 issues, as of December 2021! See the historical editor's list, and Jeff''s write-up in the teaser edition of the December magazine.

December magazine! The December 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 11/23. It's a 32-page issue with "Charles And His Furrowed Brow," "Norman Friedman Memorial" and "My First 109 Issues" by Jeffrey Roland, "Merely A Game?" by Glen O’Harra, "Susan Polgar Foundation National Open" by SPFNO Organizers, "What Did I Get Myselt Into This Time?" by Karen Schmidt, "2021 Washington G/60 Championship," "2021 Washington G/15 Championship," "2021 Washington Blitz Championship," "2021 Washington Challenger’s Cup" and  "2021 Challenger’s Cup Scholastic" by Josh Sinanan, "Why Does Losing Sting So Much?" by Nobel Ang, "Interview With The Sinquefields" by Karen Schmidt, and a back-cover photo of "Ralph Anthony and James Wei" by Adam Porth. Cover: Eric Vigil, Alex Machin, and Kaustubh Kodihalli by Desmond Porth. See the teaser edition (selected pages with color).

November magazine! The November 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 10/27. It's a 32-page issue with "71st Oregon Open" by Wilson Gibbins, "Coaching Corner" by Ralph Dubisch, "Washington Chess960 Fall Open" and "Washington State Women’s Chess Championship" by Josh Sinanan, "Shunkai Peng (Pan American Youth Champion)" by Chad Lykins, and a back-cover photo of Pranav Anoop by Lilly Tang. Cover: Deborah Petzal-Pupols and Viktors Pupols-Petzal at 2021 Oregon Open. Photo credit: Lilly Tang. See the teaser edition (selected pages with color).

Lee competing in U.S. Women's Championship! Good luck to WIM Megan Lee, the 2020 WA State Champion, as she competes in her first U.S. Women's Championship! Megan was chosen as the wildcard entry and faced the top seed, GM Irina Krush, in the first round on Tuesday October 6. (Reported by Josh Sinanan.) Update (10/20) - IM Carissa Yip won the Women's Championship, while GM Wesley So won the U.S. Chess Championship. Congratulations to the winners and all the participants.

Shubin now NM! (Reported by Josh Sinanan) Congratulations to Daniel Shubin of Redmond, Washington (on right in photo), who recently became Washington State's newest National Master! Daniel achieved a US Chess rating of 2209 as a result of scoring 4.5 out of 6 points at the 2021 Susan Polgar Foundation National Open for Girls & Boys, held at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue, October 2-3. Along the way, Daniel scored wins against Oscar Petrov (1843), Vignesh Anand (2080), and Advaith Vijayakumar (1972) and drew with Shunkai Peng (2378). Way to go Daniel!! See the US Chess crosstable.

October magazine! The October 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 9/28. It's a 40-page issue with Letters to the Editor by Murlin Varner and John Donaldson, "75th Annual Idaho Closed State Championship" by Jeffrey Roland, "Recollections Of A Champion" by Larry Parsons, "Washington Shines At U.S. Open Invitationals" and "2021 Seattle Classic Scholastic" by Josh Sinanan, an "Ignacio Perez Game," "The King’s Gambit" by Kaushik Attuluri, "GM Mikhalevski at the SCC" by Fred Kleist, "Tactics vs. Patience: The Power Of Time" by Siva and Sarang Sankrithi, "Detective Cookie Pop-Up Chess Park" and "Fifth Annual Seattle Chess Classic" by Josh Sinanan, "A Day In The Life Of Chess" by Karen Schmidt, "Chandra Alexis New Venue In Boise" by Michael Presutti, and a back-cover photo by Philip Peterson. Cover: Larry Parsons by Jeffrey Roland. See the teaser edition (selected pages with color).

Note: A few moves were accidentally omitted from the "Ignacio Perez Game" in the October print edition. This has been corrected in the teaser edition, and you can also download the published games.

News Video! King 5 News ran a story on Sept. 30 about the recent Team WA States Cup repeat Championship win (see below), the upcoming SPFNO (Polgar) Tournament in Bellevue, and the surge of chess in the Pacific Northwest! See the video on the King 5 website.

Team WA Wins National Championship! As reported on Sept. 20 by Breck Haining for the Shoreline Area News, "Team WA successfully defended their title as national champions on September 7, 2021, defeating Team VA in the second annual master’s level States Chess Cup, an online master’s level team chess tournament between the states." See the news article for more information, including about Kyle Haining's participation on board 2.

September magazine! The September 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 8/25. It's a 48-page issue with a Letter To The Editor by John Donaldson, "2021 Oregon State Championship" by Mike Morris, "World Champions In The NW" (complete three-part series) by John Donaldson, "2021 CJA Awards" (NWC wins five awards!), "Coaching Corner" by Ralph Dubisch, "Playing Kids And Seeing Ghosts" by Nobel Ang, "Chess Can Get You Into Trouble" by Karen Schmidt, "Seattle Seafair Open" by Josh Sinanan and Valentin Razmov, "2021 WA Scholastic Summer Chess Fest," "WA Spring into Chess960 Open" and "Vancouver Open" by Josh Sinanan, "Answers To Last Month’s Crossword Puzzle" by Carol and Fred Kleist, "Two Players Win ICA Summer Classic" by Adam Porth, and a back-cover photo of “Multiple Susans” by Philip Peterson. Cover: Oregon Closed Championship and Challengers by Mike Morris. See the teaser edition (selected pages with color).

Helff featured in Podcast! Florian Helff, WCF board member for Corporate and Collegiate Chess, was recently featured on NM Evan Rabin's Premier Chess Podcast - see Premier Chess Podcast Episode 170. Helff, who also serves as president of the Amazon Chess Club, is preparing for the Second Corporate Chess Championship, beginning online in September.

CJA Awards! Northwest Chess is pleased to have won multiple Chess Journalists of America (CJA) awards in 2021 including "Best State Magazine/Newsletter" (both print and online), and "Best Photography" and "Best Cartoon" awards. Congratulations to Editor Jeff Roland, photographer Philip Peterson, and cartoonist Brian Berger. See the magazine page for more information and images of all the certificates.

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.