Area Event Updates
Check out several events coming up in
the next couple of months by clicking on the Area Events link above!
WINTER CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND THREE:
Julian on Top
Current Club News
The third round of the Winter Championship narrowed the leader board to one name: top seed John Julian has the only 3.0 score. Close behind in striking distance at 2.5 are Steve Brendemihl and James Stripes. Five others have 2.0. There were 26 at club this week, with 18 taking part in the tourney.
Previously this tourney:
The second night of the club's Winter Championship was held January 28 with two draws and a bye knocking the list of perfect scores down from 8 to 2: top seed John Julian and eighth seed Loyd Willaford were the only players with 2.0 scores. Julian dispatched Kevin Korsmo, while Loyd topped Nikolay Bulakh to move to the top of the heap. Six players are close behind at 1.5.
The first round action on January 21 saw only two boards where the higher rated player did not win: a provisional player (Doug Trainor) scored a draw on board 5 and unrated Jesse Gamboa claimed a win on board 9.
Gonzaga Basketball Conflicts
The West Coast Conference is back to playing on Thursdays and Saturdays this year, which means that every Thursday there is either a men's or a women's basketball game taking place at the McCarthy Athletic Center. The men's contests create a parking challenge for us. Those games will be played February 4 (8 pm), February 11 (8 pm), and February 25 (8 pm). If you plan to arrive at club early (6:45) on the late start games, parking should not be too bad around the Administration building, but it will get worse later in the evening.
2010 DAVE COLLYER MEMORIAL
With the arrival of the New Year, it is time to turn our attention to Spokane's premiere chess event, the Dave Collyer Memorial. This year's event, to be played February 27-28 at the St. Anne's Children's Center, is the 18th installment. Featuring the same great prize fund as last year, we expect this year's edition again to be special. IM John Donaldson will return and will give a lecture and play a simul on February 26 at Riverpark Square's Kress Gallery.
The flyer for the tourney can be found on our Area Events page (link at left).
February 6
Groundhog Gambit has International Flavor
The annual Groundhog Gambit drew 96 players to St. Georges on February 6. The event had an international flavor when Azerbaijani ten-year-old Ayshan Aliyeva made her second local scholastic event a success with a perfect 5.0 score and first place in the K-6 section. Alysahn is staying in Pullman for a month while her mother completes work on a Fulbright fellowship. Her previous foray into local play was a successful tie for first at Winterfest. Her success there made its way on to an Azerbaijani website: http://www.news.az/articles/7665
Regional players also did well! The 23-player K-3 section title was shared by three who scored 4.0 (listed in tie-break order): Koh Micek, Nathan Arthurs, and Joshua Joierman. Koh goes to school at Moran Prairie, while Nathan and Joshua are teammates at Pullman's Jefferson school.
North Central senior Ben Blue followed his victory at Winterfest with another perfect 5.0 score to win the K-12 section. The section featured 43 players, which is the largest for the K-12 section at any local open scholastic tourney in your editor's recent memory (the 53 player GSL individual championship at Mt. Spokane in 2001 may be the largest).
The standings can be found on our Scholastic Events page (link at left). A story from the tournament organizer will be posted when received.
More Scholastic News
Upcoming Events
The remaining scholastic tournaments, with flyers posted on our Scholastic Events website, are:
GSL Team Championship (Mar. 5) -- High school (grades 9-12 only) team tourney at Gonzaga Prep.
Black Knights' Quest (Mar. 6) -- This will be Deer Park's final event.
Dragonslayer (Mar. 20) -- St. Georges' final event. No flyer yet.
Liberty Lake Chess Club
There is a new chess club meeting at the Liberty Lake Library on the first and third Wednesdays (6-8 p.m.) and Saturdays (10:30 a.m. --1:30 p.m.). Phil Lechtenberg is hosting the club and has purchased sets for people to use. There will be a special emphasis on lessons for young players. Stay tuned here for more details, or email Phil at: plechten@msn.com
2009: Spokane's Biggest Chess Year
All of the special chess events that made 2009 a unprecedented year for chess are now remembered on their own page! Check out Remembering 2009 on the link at left.