Wannamaker Wins Again!

Linus Wannamaker, a high school sophomore from Moscow, ID, won the Inland Classic for the second consecutive year! Linus and IM John Donaldson, who trailed by one half point due to a third round bye, agreed to a draw in their final round game to leave Linus with 4.5 and awaiting the results of a board two encounter between Ken Erickson and David Rowles to see if anyone would share the title. The two Spokane veterans fought late into the game before settling with a draw and leaving the title to Linus. Seven players tied for second with 4.0 scores: Donaldson, Erickson, Rowles, Drew Bunch, Michael Cambareri, Eshan Reddy, and John Frostad. That group split the second and third place prizes, as well as the class A prizes and first in class B.

Four people had finished the first day’s action with perfect scores: Wannamaker, Drake Wilson, and two class C players: Daniel Amado and Caleb Courtney. With Amado taking a Sunday morning bye, Courtney had to face Donaldson on board two while Wannamaker and Wilson, newly returned to Spokane after concluding his education, battled on the top board. The IM quickly picked up the pointon board two, but the battle for first board supremacy was fought until the final seconds of time control. Despite being down a pawn much of the contest, Wannamaker displayed strong endgame skills and was able to pull out the victory, settting up the rematch with Donaldson in the final round.

The sixty player field featured closely packed classes that saw quite a few hard fought contests and every round saw multiple games played to the end of the time controls. When the dust settled, there were quite a few ties for class prizes. The second class B prize was shared by Jo Ong, Nikolay Bulakh, John Wheaton, and Francisco Lopez with scores of 3.5. Daniel Amado won the class C first prize with the same score, while four players achieved a 3.0 score to share the second class C prize: Caleb Courtney, Chris Gilbert, and Steve Brendemihl. The Class D/unrated section was won by newcomer Joseph Freedman with a 3.0 score. Second in class (2.5) was shared by Oregon’s Eric Spletstoser, Montana’s Lane Wicks, and Shancie Wagner.

Wes Marburger captured the Jim Waugh award for the largest upset, scoring a 605 point upset victory in round. The second upset prize saw Ben Shedlock overcome a 475 point rating differential to secure his first round victory. There were a half dozen upsets greater than 200 points, including a 450 point upset that just failed to win a prize.

The tournament was held at the gymnasium of St. John Vianney School in the Spokane Valley. The same venue is being considered for future use, so feedback from tournament players is greatly appreciated.

The weekend kicked off with a well attended lecture form IM John Donaldson that addressed the recent Tata Steel tournament, the world championship contender candidates, and his latest book, Inside the Mind of Bobby Fischer. The IM then played a ten person simul, scoring 8-1-1.

The USCF crosstable link: Inland Classic III- Classic | US Chess Ratings

Cambareri, Rowles are Winter Champions

Michael Cambareri defeated Dave Rowles in their final round encounter to share the Winter Championship title with 4.0 scores. Four players tied for second with 3.5: Daniel Amado, Nikolay Bulakh, John Frostad, and Asa Wadden. John was the top class A player; Nikolay the top class B scorer; and Asa and Daniel topped class C — it was a remarkable distribution of the top scores among the rating classes.

The USCF crosstable link: Winter Championships 2026 | US Chess Ratings

Our previous reports of the event:

Pder TD Ben Shedlock: The fifth and final round of the Winter Championships will be played this Thursday, and there’s plenty of action left to unfold. An unusually high number of draws among the A & B classes has opened a pathway for strong C Class player Daniel Amado to quietly rack up 3 points, putting him within reach of the top prize on Board 2 against John Frostad. Meanwhile, on Board 1 Dave Rowles holds the only perfect 4, which he’ll look to convert to a sweep against top seed Michael Cambareri. If Rowles falls and Amado pulls the upset on Board 2, 1517-rated Amado would join two A Class players in a share of the top prize.

Previous report on first two rounds:

There were no first round upsets when the 2026 Winter Championship started January 8, but that changed dramatically in round two. Ben Legard defeated top seed Michael Cambareri on board one, while second seed Ken Erickson drew with Keith Brownlee, one of five draws in the round that also featured some upset victories throughout the field. Dave Rowles and Ben Legard are the only undefeated players, with five others sitting just behind at 1.5 after two rounds. Expect some more fireworks in round three!

12/4 Quick Tournament Draws 8

Eight players showed for the December team event on 12/4, so the format was changed to a Quad event. The top quad included MIchael Cambareri, Ken Erickson, Matt Goodale and Keith Brownlee. Michael scored 3 to sweep the quad. The second quad included Vibi Varghese, Craig Moore, Ben Shedlock, and Wes Marburger. Craig also went undefeated, but a draw with Vibi denied him the perfect score even though it gave Craig the win.

The USCF cross table link: December Quick Quad | US Chess Ratings

Korsmo wins crazy g/45 tournament

Most nights the wall chart rules and the higher seeds advance to late round showdowns against each other. Not so on October 23 & 30 during a yet to be named two-week four round g/45 event. Sixteen players entered, the perfect figure for a four round Swiss event. However, upsets on boards three and four jumbled the first round results, and then second round saw an upset in all but one game. At the end of the first night, the four perfect scores belonged to sixth, seventh, eighth, and eleventh seeds: Kevin Korsmo, Dave Griffin, Craig Moore, and Devin Wolford.

Third round action on October 30th saw Korsmo and Wolford fight to a draw with only a couple of minutes left each on the clock, while Moore topped Griffin to enter the final round as the undisputed leader of the pack at 3.0. Craig and Kevin, the third and fourth oldest players in the field, battled on board one while Devin had to compete with top seed Michael Cambareri. Kevin won a pawn in the middle game and kept the pressure on, resulting in a late game mate. Michael’s sacrificial mating attack failed, but Devin was able to force a repetition of postion while facing a forced mate in two. When all was said and down, Kevin (3.5) was on top, while Devin, Craig, and Dave all finished a 3.0 and won the u/1800 prize (Craig and Dave) and the u/1400 prize (Devin). Pat Kirlin took the second u/1400 prize.

The USCF crosstable link: A Very Upsetting Tournament | US Chess Ratings

Erickson is the Fall Champion!

Ken Erickson is the new club champion, winning the Fall Championship with a 4.5 score to claim his first club championship. Second place was shared by three Class A players — Michael Cambareri, Antonious Raelund, and Dave Rowles — whose 4.0 scores claimed the two A prizes. The Class B prizes were shared by three players with 3.5 scores — Keith Brownlee (who fell to Erickson on board one in the final round), Nikolay Bulakh, and Ben Legard. Newcomer Deric Lamphiear scored 3.0 (and earned a 1720 provisional rating) to win the first Class D/unrated prize. Five players with 2.5 scores shared the two Class C prizes — Omar Embaby, Dave Griffin, Karl Milton, Craig Moore, and Asa Wadden. Second place in Class D went to Pat Kirlin (2.0).

A record 31 players signed up for the event. The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for FALL CHAMPIONSHIP 2025- FALL 2025 (Event 202510163912)

Billaux, Bunch win Eastern Washington Open

by Craig Moore

A diverse group of 33 players participated in the 2025 edition of the Eastern Washington Open held September 27-28 at West Central Abbey. For instance, geographically, players came from as far Idaho’s Silver Valley, Pendleton, Oregon and Washington’s Tri-Cities. The age distribution ranged from 6 to older than 70 (about as senior as I am willing to identify), with nearly a third under 18. Various chess ratings were also well-represented:

Expert     2

Class A    9

Class B    5

Class C    5

Class D    6

=<E/Unr.    6

Each round had exciting games and unexpected results. There were 16 upsets! The largest was in the first round when Ben Shedlock (1419) overpowered Pat Herbers (1900). Perhaps it mysteriously influenced the high portion of upsets relative to all games played – 22%!  Only one player – Jose Jair Gomez Rodriguez – was unrated. Although he had an established regular rating on chess.com under 700, he played significantly better, achieving a score of 2.5 and an estimated 1500 rating based on 5 games. 

The results:

Prize                 Score         Winnners

Overall 1st-2nd (tie):    4.5        Eric Billaux & Drew Bunch

Class A 1st-2nd (tie):    4.0        Brian Lee & James Stripes

Class B 1st:            3.5        David Rowles

            2nd (tie):        3.0       Matt Goodale, Walter VHO, Kevin Korsmo

Class C 1st-2nd (tie):    2.5        Ben Legard, Dave Griffin, Ben Shedlock

Class D 1st-2nd (tie):    2.0        Jessie Li, Adam Porth, Eric Spletstoser

Class E/Unrated 1st:      2.5        Jose Jair Gomez Rodriguez

                   2nd:    2.0        Leo Grace

Finally, this was my first time directing this tournament. It was a pleasure. Thanks to Mike Byrne and Ben Shedlock for their assistance. Thank you to the Abbey for the playing hall. Thank you to all the players for the peaceful atmosphere and no disputes!

The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for 2025 EASTERN WA OPEN (Event 202509280872)

Chess in the Courtyard Collab a Success

Sixteen players turned out for the Chess in the Courtyard event held jointly by the Spokane Chess Club and our friends over at Blitz and Blunders. Twelve competed in the rated section, with four participating in an unrated round robin.

It was a warm but not hot day with a breeze, and players squared off under the shade of two broad trees in the courtyard of the SPokane Chess Club’s home, the West Central Abbey.

A big thank you to Joe at Blitz and Blunders for providing beautiful wooden sets and boards to play on and pre-set clocks! Thanks also to those who visited our site for the first time!

Not Enough Rounds at G20 Tournament!

Four players shared the top prize at the four-round G20 tournament last Thursday. A slew of upsets capped the highest score at 3, resulting in no clear winner.

Sharing the top spot were Nikolay Bulakh, Ken Erickson, Vibi Varghese, and Keith Brownlee. Of the top group, the only player not suffering an upset was Varghese, whose performance was the strongest of the evening, including dealing second-ranked Erickson his only loss.. Brownlee worked his way to the top tier as the fifth ranked player of the event. This group split the overall and C-class prizes.

On the other side of those results, Wes Marburger was the night’s most upsetting player, earning a 700-point upset over Brownlee, whose steeliness earned him the upset of Omar Embaby two rounds later. Other notable upsets included Ben Heiken’s 300+-point upset over Bulakh and Patrick Kirlin’s 400+-point upset over Embaby,

The most impressive performance of the evening, however, was your editor, who turned in the only perfect performance with three losses and a bye. Adding insult to injury, he was the only member of the U-1400 group—a group in which he was ranked first—not to share in the group prize.