For NWC magazine contents and PDF files, see the magazine back issues page.

Interesting article! "Check mates: how chess saved my mental wellbeing" by Sam Parker in The Guardian (British publication). Posted 12/26.

Washington Champion Anthony He now FIDE IM! Anthony He became Washington State’s youngest ever FIDE International Master on September 6, 2021 by achieving his third IM norm in the PNWCC FIDE Masters - Artist Point tournament with 5/9. His FIDE rating reached 2453, and he is currently world number 7 ranked in his age group. Anthony achieved the title at the age of 16 years and 28 weeks. Anthony He is the current Washington State Chess Champion. Congratulations, Anthony! Photo: Anthony with his IM certificate in the background.

Seattle CC in the paper! The Seattle Chess Club is featured in an article in The Seattle Times, which was subsequently published in the Times' Pacific NW Magazine. Read the story online. Reporter Christy Karras was at the club to take notes and talk with players. Alina Ramig, Austin Cluff and Chad Boey are in the photo. So is Paul Morphy!

World Championship - Carlsen Wins! Magnus Carlsen has successfully defended his title against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi. The match ended on 12/10, with Carlsen winning 7.5-3.5 after a decisive and record-breaking 136-move marathon in game 6, followed by wins in games 8, 9 and 11. The opening ceremony of the $2m World Championship Match was on 11/24 in Dubai, and the opening game got underway two days later on 11/26. NBC Sports provided limited (but interesting) TV coverage on its NBCSN sports channel, with commentator Maurice Ashley.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

August magazine! The August 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 7/28. It's a 32-page issue with "Mini-Teams Summer Kickoff" by Josh Sinanan and Siva Sankrithi, "NW Regional Scholastic" by Josh Sinanan, "Rusty Miller Memorial" by Josh Sinanan, "WA State High School Team Championship" by Josh Sinanan and Randy Walther, "Team WA Wins 30th WA vs BC Intermat" by Josh Sinanan, "José And Tony—We Will Miss You" by Karen Schmidt, "Barber/Rockefeller Closed" by Jacob Mayer, "OTB vs Online" by Sarang Sankrithi, "Coaching Corner" by Ralph Dubisch, "The Heck With Covid," "Girls State And Women’s State Championship" and "Kayden Troff Simul" by Adam Porth, "Chronicle of a Loss Foretold" by Nobel Ang, "Oregon Senior Open" by Mike Morris, "Corrected Crossword Puzzle" by Carol Kleist and Fred Kleist and a back-cover photo of "Darren Su at Kayden Troff Simul" by Adam Porth. Cover: Michael Cambareri and Antonius Raelund by Adam Porth.

Errors in July magazine! We regret that two significant errors have been found since the July magazine was published. One is in the crossword puzzle (which affects multiple puzzle clues), and the other is in the Grand Prix standings table, which was mistakenly copied from a previous year. If you are interested in either of those two features, please see the corrected full online edition (all pages with color).

International Chess Day! July 20 is well-known as the anniversary of the first manned lunar landing, but it's also International Chess Day, marking FIDE's 97th anniversary!

July magazine! The July 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 7/6. It's a 32-page issue with "PNWCC Photo of Eddie Chang and Ignacio Perez" by Xuhao He, "Business Manager To Retire" by Eric Holcomb, "2021 Washington Open," "Washington Open Chess960 Championship," "Washington Open G/10 Championship" and "Washington Open Blitz Championship" by Josh Sinanan, "Is Chess A Game?" by Nobel Ang, "Coaching Corner" by Ralph Dubisch, "Crossword Puzzle" by Carol Kleist assisted by Fred Kleist, and back-cover art of "Same Chesstoon, Different Presentation" By Brian Berger. Cover: Chesstoon by Brian Berger.

Idaho Residents - The Idaho Chess Association has a matching grant for up to $2,000. You can join or donate. ICA premium members also receive a NWC magazine subscription. For more information, see https://www.idahochessassociation.com/ or email idahochessassociation@gmail.com.

Seattle Chess Club Reopening! As reported by Josh Sinanan, SCC reopened on June 14 at the Orlov Academy in Greenlake, their new temporary location. About 18 players turned out, mostly younger people, and they even had to turn away a few people at the door! It was promoted as a type of chess meet-up and spread by word of mouth.

In Memoriam - Daniel Scoones, 6 July 1952 – 11 April 2021. Dan was a two-time British Columbia champion (1977 and 1984) and a National Master since 1984. See the BCCF E-MAIL BULLETIN #409 for more information.

June magazine! The June 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 5/26. It's a 32-page issue with Jeffrey Roland and Duane Polich (photo) by Alex Machin, "OSCF Scholastic State Championships" by Chad Lykins, "Maryhill Museum Of Art" by Karen Schmidt, "Chess, Death, Freedom" by Nobel Ang, "Washington Scholastic Tournament" by James Stripes, "Coaching Corner" by Ralph Dubisch, "WA State Barber/Rockefeller Open," "May 8 Seattle Chess Club Quads," "May 9 Seattle Chess Club Tornado" and "Washington Senior Championship" by Josh Sinanan, and a back-cover photo of "Sandhills And Chess Kings" by Philip Peterson. Cover: Two Chess Kings At Monahans Sandhills by Philip Peterson.

A windy day on some sand dunes ... short chess-themed video by Philip Peterson.

May magazine! The May 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 4/27. It's a 32-page issue with "Chess-Themed Movies: Hatley High" by Breck Haining, "Chess In A New World" by Karen Schmidt, "Washington Closed Brilliancy Prizes (by section):" Championship by Brendan Zhang, Premier by Samuel He, Invitational by Daniel He, "February 13 Seattle Chess Club Quads," "2021 Presidential Scholastic," "2021 Washington Girls Championship," "2021 Orlov Academy vs Juniors to Masters Academy," and "March 7 Seattle Chess Club Quads" by Josh Sinanan, "2021 Washington Spring Mini-Teams" by Siva Sankrithi and Josh Sinanan, "March 14 Seattle Chess Club Tornado," "2021 Intermat Candidates," "Seattle Spring Open" and "April 4 Seattle Chess Club Quads" by Josh Sinanan, "Chess Fever & The 1925 Moscow International" by Breck Haining, "Humor In Chess, Part Three" by Karen Schmidt, "Idaho Chess Roundup" by Jeffrey Roland, and a back-cover photo of Jeffrey Roland by Alex Machin. Cover: Renaissance Chess Set (photo by Jeffrey Roland).

New Dake article! Casey Bush, who has written extensively about chess master Arthur Dake (1910-2000) before, just had a new article posted on a site called The Decadent Review. The article, "Marcel Duchamp Mugged by a Street Hustler," is about a game played by Arthur Dake at the Folkestone Olympiad in 1933, but it is also about the evolution of culture from the arts to the sciences as seen through the lens of chess, according to Casey.

April magazine! The April 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 3/24. It's a 48-page issue with a Letter To The Editor by Jerry Richards, "2021 Washington State Championship" by Josh Sinanan, "Chess Shorts: Geri’s game" by Breck Haining, "Readers’ Showcase" by Ryan Porter, "2021 Washington Chess960 Championship" by Josh Sinanan, "2021 Washington Junior Closed" by Jacob Mayer, "Game Of The Gods Review" by Karen Schmidt, "2021 Seattle City Championship" by Josh Sinanan, "Self-Acceptance: My Chess Story" by Nobel Ang, "2021 Washington President’s Cup" by Josh Sinanan, "Meet Xuhao He" by Breck Haining, "Washington State High School Individual 2021" and "2021 Washington Junior Open And Reserve" by Jacob Mayer, "Membership/Subscription #6000" by Eric Holcomb, "1966 US Open" by Daniel Shubin, and a back-cover photo of "The He Family with GM Miroslav Miljkovic" by Xuhao He. Cover: Anthony He by Xuhao He.

March magazine! The March 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 2/24. It's a 48-page issue with a Letter To The Editor by Marvin Hayami, "2020 Oregon Junior Closed Championships" by Wilson Gibbins, "Carol Kleist / August Piper" by Karen Schmidt, "Remembering Michael Franett" by John Donaldson, "Viktors Pupols vs Bobby Fischer" by Daniel Shubin, "Duane Reminisces" by Duane Polich, "Pan-Am Intercollegiate 2020-2021" by Nicholas Whale, "The Price Is Austin" by Jude Acers, "British Columbia Defeats Washington" by Paul Leblanc and Josh Sinanan, "Recap For ICA Online Events" by Jeffrey Roland, "Nine Bobcats In The Morning" by Nick Allison, "Chess Lines Canines Play" by Breck Haining, and "80 Glorious Years Of US Chess Federation (A Special Knight's Tour) by Awani Kumar. Cover: Caricature of Jeffrey Roland by Brian Berger.

February magazine updated due to error in Grand Prix results!! The printed edition of the February 2021 Northwest Chess inadvertently had the wrong 2020 Mike Neeley Memorial Grand Prix results table. The table was copied from the January magazine, instead of replacing it with the correct final results. The teaser edition (selected pages with color) has been updated with the correct results, along with the online edition on Google Drive. Checks will be mailed to Washington winners by 2/19, and winners of online subscriptions from other states or locations will be notified by next week. We regret this error.

Bellingham club featured! See "Bellingham Knights Chess Club Captures Enthusiasm From All Ages and Skill Levels," published 1/21 by local newspaper Whatcom Talk.

February magazine! The February 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 1/27. It's a 32-page issue with "Rusty ...like the father of Northwest Chess..." by Duane Polich, "Russell “Rusty” Miller (1942-2020)" by John Donaldson, Murlin Varner, Ralph Dubisch, Mike Mulford, Jude Acers, Philip Peterson; "2020 Washington Scholastic Mini Teams Championship" by Siva Sankrithi and Josh Sinanan, "2020 Northwest Chess Winter Open," "2020 SCC Extravaganza," "2020 Washington Class Championships" and "Washington Winter Classic" by Josh Sinanan; and a back-cover photo of "Kathy Miller and Russell Miller" by Jeffrey Roland. Cover: Russell “Rusty” Miller by Philip Peterson.

In Memoriam - Rusty Miller, 1942-2020. We regret to announce that Rusty Miller passed away unexpectedly on Dec. 29, 2020, at the age of 78, at his home in Vancouver, as reported by daughter Ielleen Miller. Rusty was born in 1942 in Hood River Oregon, and most recently lived in Vancouver, Washington. He was the editor of Northwest Chess, and for several years he and his wife Kathryn (Kathy) Eddy (sister of editor Buz Eddy) printed the magazine on a press in their home in Seattle. Rusty also served as NWC Business Manager, until current Business Manager Eric Holcomb took over the job in 2003. We'll miss you, Rusty! More information will be posted when available, and there will be a memorial in the February 2021 edition of Northwest Chess.

January magazine! The January 2021 issue of Northwest Chess was mailed on 12/31. It's a 40-page issue with "The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)" by Karen Schmidt, "Portland Chess Club Championship" by Wilson Gibbins, "Team Washington Wins Inaugural States Chess Cup" by Josh Sinanan, "Washington Scholastic Mini Teams Championship" by Siva Sankrithi and Josh Sinanan, "Chess960 (Fischer-Random)" by Valentin Razmov, "WA Chess960 Pilot Tournament" by Josh Sinanan, "Oregon Class Championships" by Wilson Gibbins,"Chess Shorts: Cheerleaders And Chess" by Breck Haining, "Recap For ICA Online Events" by Jeffrey Roland, "PCC Winter Open" by Mike Morris and a back-cover photo of "Faded Warrior" by Philip Peterson. Cover: Fairy Chess by Philip Peterson.