Chess in Spokane
The popular Turkey Quads, played November 7-14-21, are now complete. Quad A was won by the third seed, John Frostad, while Vibi Varghese won Quad B, Grant Larocca and Jeremy Burnett tied for first in Quad C, Devin Wolford won Quad D, and Tristen Santilli won Quad E. Way to go, everyone! The event drew 20 players competing in five sections.
The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for TURKEY QUADS (Event 202411216392)
The club will sponsor a g/60 USCF-rated quad on Saturday, December 14, in conjunction with the Frosty Pawn scholastic tournament at St. John Vianney school. Craig Moore is directing. The event will be played in a separate room from the scholastic tourney. EF is $20 and rounds are at 10-12-2 or ASAP. Contact Craig at craig.moore04@gmail.com to enter.
Cam Leslie scored an impressive 10.5 of 11 to win the 12 player blitz competition at club on October 24. He drew with second place finisher Ben Patterson (9.5). Michael Cambareri took third (9.0) and Ben Legard was fourth at 8.0.
Youngsters.Karl Keener and Stanley Deng shared 1st and 2nd prizes (3.5 from 4) in the Queen’s gambit even on Saturday 10/11, a fitting end to a tournament held alongside the scholastic event held by Inland Chess Academy. The two players were the only perfect scores heading in to a decisive round 4 game. Down three pawns to one in a king-rook endgame, Keener held even against Deng’s a-file pawn push to split the top prizes.
In the U1400 section, Sam Bethman took the top prize and the biggest upset prize. In all, only four of the ten entries in the open section were Spokane Chess Club regulars. The rest included middle and high school players testing their mettle in open play.
High school senior Ben Patterson won the 2024 Eastern Washington Open, played September 21-22 at the West Central Abbey, with a score of 4.5. He drew with Dave Rowles in the final round. Rowles, Eric Billaux, and Drew Bunch finished second with scores of 4.0. You can find a larger story on the EWO page (link above).
The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for 2024 EASTERN WASHINGTON OPEN (Event 202409229352) .
For the first time ever, the Eastern Washington High School Championship and the Eastern Washington Middle School Championship, are scheduled to be held in Spokane County! The events will be played January 25, 2025 at Cheney High School. The high school event will also double as the Greater Spokane High School Championship. There is no entry fee to compete in either event, but advance online registration is required.
The links to the event flyers: 2025 Eastern Wa. High School Chess Championships (northwestchess.info) and 2025 Eastern Washington Middle School Chess Championships (northwestchess.info).
Cam Leslie defeated Michael Cambareri 3-0 September 21 to claim the City Championship. Cam won both games with white on his way to claiming the title. The defending champion, Ryan Ackerman, has moved to the west side and was unable to defend his title. Cam and Michael won their won through a candidates tournament to meet in the match that was played in conjunction with the Eastern Washington Open. Congratulations, Cam!!
Our club was featured in the Spokesman-Review—check out the story here: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/aug/08/meet-spokanes-chess-king-and-the-other-players-who/
Come visit us and meet Spokane’s Chess King! On 8/22 we will host an event that has no membership requirement (either our club or US Chess Federation), so it’s a great time to come check us out. In early September, we’ll begin our 5-week Fall Championships—check back for details!
The August Ajeeb quads featured 19 players competing in five sections. The winners were: (Quad A) Nikolay Bulakh and Michael Cambareri (2.5); (Quad B) Keith Brownlee (3.0); (Section C) Jeremy Burnett (2.0); (Quad D) Ben Shedlock (3.0); (Quad E) Karl Milton (3.0). Congratulations to all the winners!
The USCF event cross table: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for AJEEB QUADS (Event 202408157312)
Our original post contained a report on round two action from the current City Champion, Cam Leslie, which is repeated below.
Cam Leslie’s analysis of round 2:
Last night at the club saw lots of action as Round 2 of the Ajeeb Quads was contested.
In Quad A Matt had white against Michael and deployed his Jobava London against Michael’s Stonewall Dutch. The dark-squared bishops came off the board and Matt was left with a dominant knight on e5. But as so often happens in the stonewall, one good piece doesn’t win the game and the position became more and more complicated/random with Matt eventually blundering a fork of his queen and rook by a knight, after which Michael smoothly converted. In the second game of the top quad, Nikolay and Dave squared off in a two knights tango which saw Dave shed a pawn early and suffer for most of the middle game. After the middlegame the Gods placed the endgame and so it came to pass that an interesting rook endgame ensued. See below.
(Diagram) 39.Kd3 Rc7? [39…d5!= The white king is cutoff and if the d-pawn is captured then the a-pawn falls and it is a draw.] 40.Rb5 Ke7 41.a5 Kd7
(Diagram) 42.Kd4?! Seems logical enough to bring the king up but I thought while watching that pushing the a-pawn is stronger, getting ready to place the white rook behind the pawn, because if the a-pawn is ever “won” by the black king and rook, then the resulting king and pawn endgame would be lost since white’s king is so much closer to the king-side.
[42.a6! (diagram) 42…Ra7 (42…Kc6 43.Rb3! Keeping the king cutoff. 43…Re7 44.Kd4 Black is forced to wait. 44…Ra7 45.Ra3+- Eventually black will exhaust all his waiting moves with his pawns and then white will shuffle his rook on the a-file forcing black to move his king since any rook move allows the pawn to advance and then the white king will infiltrate.; 42…Kc8 43.Rb3 With a similar plan as Kc6 above.) 43.Ra5 Kc6 44.Kd4 Kb6 45.Ra1 Rxa6 46.Rxa6+ Kxa6 47.Kd5 Kb6 48.Kxd6] 42…Rc2?! Again a logical move, especially in time pressure but this allows white to cleanly execute a winning plan, more testing was… [42…Ra7 Tying the white rook to the defense of the pawn. 43.Kc4 Kc7 44.Kb4 Ra8 45.Rf5 (45.Ka4 Kc6 46.Rb6+ Kc5 47.Rb7 d5 And the game continues…) 45…f6 46.Rf3 Rb8+ 47.Ka4 Re8 Still hanging on.]
43.Rb7++- (Diagram) Now the rest is fairly straightforward.43…Ke6 44.a6 Rxf2 45.a7 Ra2 46.Kc4 d5+ 47.Kc5 d4 48.Kxd4 Ra1 49.Kc5 Rc1+ 50.Kb6 Rb1+ 51.Kc7 1-0
In Quad B, Keith and John locked up in an exciting battle that was the final game of the night to conclude. Out of a Queen’s Gambit Declined an Isolated Queen’s Pawn position arose where black was decidedly more comfortable, however on Move 18, both sides had about 20 minutes remaining, if memory serves, with lots of pieces still on the board so fireworks were a given. Eventually white ended up down (sac’ed or blundered I don’t know) a piece with two central passed pawns as collateral. With seconds on both clocks a time scramble ensued with multiple hanging queens and pieces in which Keith eventually prevailed, although John had his chances for sure.
In Quad C on Ben and Jeremey were in action. At first as I walked past the board, Jeremey was losing the exchange to a skewer but then when I returned material had levelled but Jeremey’s pieces were much more active and he took home the point.
In Quad D Ben beat Pat with his patented Winawer French when Pat got too far behind in development.
In Quad E Nick and Carl had an entertaining scrap where Nick blundered his bishop on a7 in a “Fischer Trap” but got 2 pawns for it and had doubled Carl’s e-pawns. Eventually Nick’s dark squared weakness coupled with Carl’s extra dark square bishop prevailed for Carl.
All in all in was an exciting evening with lots of interesting games and hard fought chess.
Club’s return from the Fourth of July holiday was celebrated by over 20 players turning out for chess on a hot evening. Sixteen people took part in a round robin blitz event that ran until 10:30. Ben Patterson scored 12.5 to top the field. Ben Eitzen and Dave Rowles finished second with 11.5 each. A large number of high school players turned out and demonstrated strong blitz play — a promising sign for next fall’s scholastic chess season!