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The Spokane Chess Club was stunned by the recent death of Doug Trainor, 55, on June 23. Doug, the son of longtime Spokane chess stalwart Ray Trainor, became an active tournament player only one year ago after spending some time bringing his father to club and staying to play casual games. In a short time he built his rating up over 1500 and proved himself a formidable opponent. More importantly, Doug was a gentleman and sportsman at the board. He was always a gracious opponent in victory or defeat. Doug was also one of those dependable people that form the backbone of any successful club. He will be greatly missed.

The new Coeur d'Alene Chess Club met for the first time on July 17 with 15 players in attendance. The club's initial meeting was held at the Hayden Library from12:30 to 4:30 located at 8385 N. Government Way in Hayden. The club will meet again this Sunday, July 25, and the following Saturday, July 31.

Organizers hope to make the club a USCF affiliate and sponsor USCF-rated events. The club's website can be found at: www.cdachessclub.com

Spokane CCers are encouraged to turn out to help this new fledgling club get off the ground. The more chess clubs, the more chess for all of us! Good luck, CDA!!!

Dave Griffin has scheduled two tournaments for August. The Qualchan Quads will be played August 14 at the Schoenberg Center in conjunction with the Contenders tournament that will select a player to contest city champion David Sprenkle in a match the following weekend.

The Spokane Falls Open will be played at Schoenberg Center on August 21-22. Details for both events can be found on our Area Events page (link at left).

Additionally, the Yakima Chess Club has some one day g/90 tourneys scheduled this summer, with the next events being played July 31 and August 15. Details can be found by clicking the event link on our Area Events page. We have at least one player interested in driving over and he would like company. Contact Louis Blair at ylblai2@yahoo.com if you are interested.

Our friends from the University-Community Chess Club in Missoula have done it again. We recently received a beautiful wall plaque from the UCCC which lists each of the winners of the first 18 Dave Collyer Memorial tournaments and also has room for the next 18 years! Included with the plaque were pictures of some of Missoula's finest posing with it. We owe special thanks to Bill McBroom, Dan McCourt, Bob Rajala, John Hay, Jim Wierson, Sherwood Moore, Dale Gross, and all the other Missoula chess players who help make our local tournaments special.

The plaque, pictured below, will be displayed at Ellen Collyer's home between tournaments.

Saturday, October 9, is National Chess Day. In honor of the occasion, Dave Griffin will run several chess events at Uncle's Games in the Spokane Valley. Friday night, October 8, will feature an unrated tourney. Several different events will take place there on Saturday, October 9. See or call Dave (928-3260) for more information.

The meeting on July 22 saw 11 take part in a two section round robin. Seven players in the top section played a single round robin, while the four in the second section played a double round robin (two games against each opponent); both sections were g/15 quick tourneys. The winning score was 5-1 in each section. Top seeds James Stripes and Phil Weyland won section A, while Dave Griffin and Ron Weyland won section B. The cross table will be posted on our Recent Results link later this weekend when the event is rated.

Next week's meeting, July 29, will see a Blitz tournament -- no entry free, no prizes, no memberships required -- just everyone playing everyone in a g/5 round robin.

The club's July 15 meeting featured a g/10 quick tourney in which ten took part in a round robin event. Top seed Phil Weyland won the event with a 8-1 score. Second place went to Michael Cambareri and Kairav Joshi (best u/1600 prize) with 7-2 scores. Ron Weyland (3.0) was the best under 1400. The cross table is posted on our Recent Results (link at left).

The June Consolation g/45 tourney filled the club's June calendar. Michael Cambareri won the event with a 3.5 score. Second place went to Nikolay Bulakh (3.0). The cross table for the event can be found on our recent events page (link at left).

The club's annual election of officers took place at the May 27 club meeting. A pair of younger attorneys took over the club, with John Julian (busily studying for the bar exam) chosen as President and Loyd Willaford serving as the new Vice President. Ted Baker continues as Secretary and Kevin Korsmo will remain as Treasurer. The first order of business was to set the club's schedule for the rest of the summer. Check the "Club Meetings" link at left to see what is on the schedule into mid-October.

Following the election, 12 took part in a four round g/10 thematic tourney. Each round consisted of a different opening that all the players had to play, selected at random from one of 16 openings on index cards! John Julian was the only perfect score (4.0) and took first, while Jim Burney was clear second at 3.0. Nikolay Bulakh and James Stripes tied for third at 2.5. The openings were: the Nimzo-Indian defense, the Benko opening, the Benoni defense, and the French defense. A good time was had by all!

The May 20 meeting saw 16 turn out, with 14 taking part in a four round g/20 quick tourney. Phil Weyland won with a 3.5 score and earned $35. Second place with 3.0 scores was shared by Michael Cambareri, Kairav Joshi, Jeremy Krasin, Doug Trainor, and Loyd Willaford. Doug claimed the best u/1300 prize of $15, while the others shared second place and best u/1500 prizes totaling $10 each. The cross table is posted on our Recent Results page (link at left).

The club's first "quints" tourney -- a five person round robin, was played May 6 & May 13. Chris Copeland scored 3.0 in winning the top quint. Ted Baker and Ron Weyland also scored 3.0 to tie for first in the second quint. The cross table is found on our Recent Results page (link at left).

Top seeds Mark Havrilla and Avinaya Subedi won the Inland Empire Open held May 1-2, but it was not easy. Both had to fight out of a four-way tie for second in the last round to claim first. Each scored 4.0. Five people scored 3.5 to tie for third place: Adam Attwood, Nikolay Bulakh, Kevin Korsmo, Aaron Nickoski, and Kairav Joshi. The first four won the B section prizes, while Kairav claimed first place in Class C. Second place in Class C was shared by Chris Copeland, Dallas Filan, and Timothy Grupp. Jim Derocher and Jim Waugh shared the Class D prizes with 2.5 scores. The biggest upset prize was claimed by 81-year-old Jim Waugh who a 326 point scalping in the first round.

There were 24 players competing in this year's installment of Spokane's oldest weekend tournament, which got its start in 1954. At the end of the first day's action, Adam Attwood had the only perfect (3.0) score. A group of four sitting one half point off the lead at 2.5 had to play each other in round four while Adam had a morning bye:: Mark Havrilla, Aveniya Subedi, Kevin Korsmo, and Nikolay Bulakh. Both of those games drew, so the quartet stayed one half point behind Adam heading into the final round. The board one contest between Atwood and Havrilla was the last to finish, but the top seed hung on and pulled through. Subedi defeated Dallas Filan in the endgame to also move into the four point category, while the other contenders drew to finish in third.

The state elementary championships drew 1200 players to the Tacoma Convention Center on April 24. Dr. James Stripes filed the following report on local participants:

Spokane Area Players and Teams Win State Trophies

Garrett Casey is the kindergarten co-champion and took first on tie-breaks over the other two with perfect scores. Tariq Ravasia placed sixteenth with the strongest tie-breaks of all the 3.0 scores; his teammate James Gunn also had 3.0. All competitors with 3.0 or more earned trophies.

In first grade, Dawson Jury finished without a loss, and had stronger tie-breaks than the player he drew in the final round, placing him third.

Second grader Braxton Casey had a disappointing loss against last year's third place finisher in their grade, Max Wu (whose rating has improved 500 points over the past year), but bounced back to win his last round game and finish with 4.0. In second grade, 4.0 was good for places 7-26, and Braxton's tie-breaks put him at sixteenth.

Wenatchee's Gregory Berndt, a regular at Spokane area tournaments, scored 3.0 at placed 106 in third grade, and Pullman's Daniel Arthurs, also with 3.0, finished at 111.

With 3.0 (places 44-105) and eighty-fifth on tie-breaks, Alexandra Elkins was the top placing fourth grader from the Spokane area. Reo Reyes was five places down from her.

Brandon Hill's twenty-fourth place finish in fifth grade with 4.0 put him at the top of the Spokane contingent in that section. His teammate Jacob Gifford had 3.5 and placed thirty-eighth. Drew Lindh's 3.0 placed him in seventy-sixth place, and earned a trophy.

In sixth grade, Pullman teammates Nathan Arthurs (eighth) and Peter Schumaker (nineteenth) both finished with 4.0, as did Shay Hutyler (twenty-first) and Collin Cremers (twenty-third).

Lake Spokane Elementary won twelfth place in the team competition in 4-6. Saint George's strong kindergarten contingent led them to twenty-first in K-3 team scoring.

Our own Phil Weyland of Post Falls, currently a student at Boise State University, shared the Idaho Closed Championship title with a 5-1 score. The 42-player event was played February 13-15 in Boise. Proud papa Ron Weyland also played in the event and finished with a 3.0 score.

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