Spokane Chess Club

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)

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

            2^nd (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)

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!

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.

Thanks to the efforts of club member Chris Bruceri, two new concrete chess tables have been added to Riverfront Park in the shadow of the iconic Red Wagon. Chris, on behalf of the Greater Spokane (high school) Chess League, successfully obtained a grant for the tables from the park system’s foundation.

Bring your pieces down to the park and enjoy our favorite game in the comfort of the park!

Photo compliments of Chris Bruceri.

A dozen players took part in a four round g/15 event June 26th. After taking a first round bye, Joe Ong won his final three games to top the field with a 3.5 score. Michael Cambareri and Ken Erickson scored 3.0 to finish second. Kevin Korsmo and Vibi Varghese finished 2.5 to win the under 1600 prize. Khai Le and Michael Michalak (2.0) tied for the under 1400 prize.

The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for 626 QUICK (Event 202506263582)

The club’s annual meeting on June 5 saw a shuffling of officers for the next year. Ben Shedlock takes over as president, while Michael Cambareri serves as vice president and Cam Leslie is now the club’s secretary. Craig Moore replaces Kevin Korsmo as treasurer.

Michael Cambareri scored a perfect 5.0 to win the club’s Spring Champioonship. Second place was shared by five players with 3.5 scores. The tournament kicked off Thursday, April 24 with two dozen contenders and ran through through May 22. This 24-player field was well distributed, with four Expert/A-Class players, eight B-Class players, 9 C-/D-Class players, and three F-Class players.

A couple of Swiss surprises rankled the first round results. Newcomer Josh Maulolo (1220 (p)) played to a draw against Joe Ong, achieving a 200+ rating point upset. Nick Guerra, with a rating below 1000, scored an even more impressive result, notching a draw versus B-Class player Craig Moore. A third game looked headed for a split result when the chronically underrated C-Class player Khai Le battled third seed Nikolay Bulakh to a drawish endgame, with a rook and a bishop halting the progress of Bulakh’s two pawns supported by a lone rook. In the end, Bulakh’s patient and precise play slowly ramped up the pressure, and Le resigned when the conversion became inevitable.

The USCF cross table link: US Chess MSA – Cross Table for SPRING CHAMPIONSHIP 2025 (Event 202505227842)

Spokane Chess Club is excited to announce its first collaboration with Blitz & Blunders! For event details, see the Blitz & Blunders website here: https://www.blitzandblunders.org/events/jntthhc4lusu31md8ns10iclogmf2m

Blitz & Blunders is a great recent addition to the chess scene in Spokane. Featuring casual events in social environments like coffee shops, breweries, and pizzerias, they are offering Spokanites an easy, no-pressure way to get hooked on chess. Many of the Spokane Chess Club regulars have attended these events in the past. The idea behind our first collaboration is to demonstrate the diverse opportunities for chess play in Spokane, with Spokane Chess Club offering classic, long time control events and Blitz & Blunders creating new opportunities for relaxed play. Spokane has something for everyone in chess!

The 2025 Taxing Quads are in the books, with upsets putting newer or infrequent players in the top half of the cross tables and toppling pre-event favorites.

Twenty-two players entered the 2025 edition of this ever-popular event, one of our three annual quad events (with the Ajeeb Quads coming in August, followed by the Turkey Quads in November). To accommodate this number indivisible by four, a 6-player mini-Swiss was added to the four top quads. 

Quad A featured three Class A players and one high Class B player, John Frostad. Frostad managed a draw against Nikolay Bulakh and a win against Ben Patterson to secure third place and knock on the Class A door with a post-event rating of 1797. Bulakh scored an upset himself, beating Michael Cambareri in the final round to take the Quad in decisive fashion.

In Quad B, players separated by just 95 pre-event rating points sorted to opposite ends of the results bell curve, with the top two players, Walter van Heemstede Obelt and Joe Ong  scoring 3 and 2 points respectively, with the bottom half of the quad splitting a point in the first round. As a result, Walter added a shocking 73 points to his post-event rating. His clean sweep was the best result of the Quad groups.

In Quad C, Khai Le notched an impressive tie for second place with Craig Moore. Khai entered the event a 150-point underdog against Moore, the top rated player in the group. 

In Quad D, Omar Embaby had the best event performance behind Walter VHO. Avoiding losses and scoring 2.5 points gave him a post-event rating boost of 96 points (provisional). Michael Michalak scored a draw against Embaby, avoiding a loss in time pressure to take second place. His post-event rating of 1398 puts him just below Class C.

Karl Milton posted the third unblemished performance of the event, joining Walter VHO and Omar Embaby. His 3.0 took the mini-Swiss running away, taking him from second-highest rated pre-event to highest post-event. The pressure on higher ranked players to convert their advantages is intense, and Karl  justified his ranking, beating Jim Burney, his rival for the top spot, in a head-to-head final round match-up.