Spokane Chess Club

02/24/2026

Kevin Korsmo's report on the Inland Classic:

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.

Photos by James Stripes

02/21/2026

IM John Donaldson playing a ten board simul in Spokane after giving us an instructive lecture on rising stars in the chess world. He also talked about Bobby Fischer and his new book on Fisher’s writings.

02/08/2026

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

02/08/2026

The Groundhog Gambit youth chess tournament, held at Saint George's School 7 February, was among the largest local scholastic tournaments in the Spokane area the past two years with 49 participants from a dozen schools, two homeschool resource centers, and independent homeschoolers. Competition was strong across both sections.

The USCF Championship section had ten players. Anthony Eakin and Conan Rivers Tapia tied for first with 4.0 each. Anthony won the first place trophy on tiebreaks and Conan took home second. Anthony's loss was to Darshini Dinesh Babu (2.5) who lost to Patrick Bray (2.0). One of Patrick's losses was to ninth place Reyansh Jayesh Modha. This string of who lost to whom highlights that every player in the section could begin each game with confidence. Reyansh earned a trophy for biggest upset.

Among the top six players in the 39 player Premier section, there were only three losses, all of which were to others in the top six. Lawrence Fahlstrom (4.5) took first place. Five others tied for second with 4.0. Tiebreaks gave the second place trophy to A.J. Duncan, whose one loss was to Lawrence. The other four each earned a trophy for the second place tie. Owen Stark and Logan Byrd each gave up two draws enroute to 4.0. Joseph Eberlein lost to A.J. and Ben Richards lost to Owen. Austin Johnson (2.5) won a trophy for biggest upset.

Three teams brought enough players that for the first time in several years, team scoring was based on top-four, which had been the standard for many years in the past. Top-three, which has become the new norm would have produced the same results. St. Thomas More and Coeur d'Alene High School tied for second (10.5 for top-four). Immaculate Conception won the team plaque with 15.5 points among the top-four.

Three endgames that I observed have lessons for all players. The first emphasizes the need to practice basic checkmating technique and emotional control. Both players had about seven minutes left on the clock when they reached queen and king vs. lone king. The stronger player was doing well as both blitzed out moves with speed one might expect if they were under half a minute. The stronger player saw and avoided a stalemate trap, but then a few moves later fell into one and the game ended drawn.

In a pawn ending with kings and most of the pawns still on the board, a draw was offered and refused. I thought the player offering the draw was slightly better, but cannot be certain. Concrete calculation is needed to correctly assess such a position. The players did not give me time as they were blitzing moves. The player who offered the draw had about 90 seconds left on her clock while the other had five minutes on his. Some errors shifted the advantage quickly and it was now a queen vs. pawns. In the critical position, the queen could have taken a pawn with check and then given itself up for a pawn that was about to promote. Instead, he took her advanced pawn and another pawn ending began with one pawn each. It was dead-drawn and she played it correctly to reach lone kings.

A rook ending occurred with two pawns against one. The weaker side had blocked her opponent's passed pawn with her king and occupied a vital rank with her rook. A few moves after I started watching, both players had one pawn remaining both on the edge and unable to move. After she stepped her king closer to her rook, a draw looked to be the likely result. If rooks were exchanged, he would have been able to reach a king and pawn vs. king ending, but her king would have trapped his king on the edge in front of its pawn to force the draw. There was an error waiting to be played and he made it. He captured the pawn with his rook. This error walked into a skewer that can be so common in rook endings. She checked the king, it stepped out of check and she took his rook. The pawn would have fallen the next move, so he resigned.

02/08/2026

The Groundhog Gambit youth chess tournament, held at Saint George's School 7 February, was among the largest local scholastic tournaments in the Spokane area the past two years with 49 participants from a dozen schools, two homeschool resource centers, and independent homeschoolers. Competition was strong across both sections.

The USCF Championship section had ten players. Anthony Eakin and Conan Rivers Tapia tied for first with 4.0 each. Anthony won the first place trophy on tiebreaks and Conan took home second. Anthony's loss was to Darshini Dinesh Babu (2.5) who lost to Patrick Bray (2.0). One of Patrick's losses was to ninth place Reyansh Jayesh Modha. This string of who lost to whom highlights that every player in the section could begin each game with confidence. Reyansh earned a trophy for biggest upset.

Among the top six players in the 39 player Premier section, there were only three losses, all of which were to others in the top six. Lawrence Fahlstrom (4.5) took first place. Five others tied for second with 4.0. Tiebreaks gave the second place trophy to A.J. Duncan, whose one loss was to Lawrence. The other four each earned a trophy for the second place tie. Owen Stark and Logan Byrd each gave up two draws enroute to 4.0. Joseph Eberlein lost to A.J. and Ben Richards lost to Owen. Austin Johnson (2.5) won a trophy for biggest upset.

Three teams brought enough players that for the first time in several years, team scoring was based on top-four, which had been the standard for many years in the past. Top-three, which has become the new norm would have produced the same results. St. Thomas More and Coeur d'Alene High School tied for second (10.5 for top-four). Immaculate Conception won the team plaque with 15.5 points among the top-four.

Three endgames that I observed have lessons for all players. The first emphasizes the need to practice basic checkmating technique and emotional control. Both players had about seven minutes left on the clock when they reached queen and king vs. lone king. The stronger player was doing well as both blitzed out moves with speed one might expect if they were under half a minute. The stronger player saw and avoided a stalemate trap, but then a few moves later fell into one and the game ended drawn.

In a pawn ending with kings and most of the pawns still on the board, a draw was offered and refused. I thought the player offering the draw was slightly better, but cannot be certain. Concrete calculation is needed to correctly assess such a position. The players did not give me time as they were blitzing moves. The player who offered the draw had about 90 seconds left on her clock while the other had five minutes on his. Some errors shifted the advantage quickly and it was now a queen vs. pawns. In the critical position, the queen could have taken a pawn with check and then given itself up for a pawn that was about to promote. Instead, he took her advanced pawn and another pawn ending began with one pawn each. It was dead-drawn and she played it correctly to reach lone kings.

A rook ending occurred with two pawns against one. The weaker side had blocked her opponent's passed pawn with her king and occupied a vital rank with her rook. A few moves after I started watching, both players had one pawn remaining both on the edge and unable to move. After she stepped her king closer to her rook, a draw looked to be the likely result. If rooks were exchanged, he would have been able to reach a king and pawn vs. king ending, but her king would have trapped his king on the edge in front of its pawn to force the draw. There was an error waiting to be played and he made it. He captured the pawn with his rook. This error walked into a skewer that can be so common in rook endings. She checked the king, it stepped out of check and she took his rook. The pawn would have fallen the next move, so he resigned.

Send a message to learn more

01/17/2026

Round one of the Winterfest tournament is underway at Deer Park High School.

01/13/2026

The annual Winterfest youth chess tournament is Saturday. This year, there is also an open USCF section.

10/02/2025

Billaux, Bunch win Eastern Washington Open

September 28, 2025

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
=

07/08/2025

Join us for Chess in the Courtyard, Saturday July 26!

If you’ve played at the Spokane Chess Club’s current home, the West Central Abbey, you know that our playing hall has that perfect church basement vibe that always seems to bring out the best in club chess. But you’ve also walked through the beautiful courtyard to get there. Our Chess in the Courtyard event will give you the chance to play in that al fresco environment.

On Saturday, July 26th, we’re bringing the Washington Square Park experience to Spokane! In partnership with our friends at Blitz & Blunders, you can participate in either a USCF-rated tournament or an unofficial tournament open to the community. Both tournaments will be 5-round rapid time controls of G/10;d5. That means each player will have 10 minutes and there will be a 5-second delay before your clock starts for each move. This means games will be up to about 25 minutes max. It’s a perfect way to try out tournament chess in a low-pressure environment without giving up your whole weekend!

More details to come, but show up at 4pm for a 4:30 start time. No advanced registration required. Rain/Smoke/Heat site will be inside the fellowship hall at the same location.

Spokane Chess Club: chess worth hydrating for

05/18/2025

Expert Eric Billaux won the Inland Empire Open with a perfect 5.0. High School freshman and B Class player Eshan Reddy also won all his games, but took a bye, so finished with 4.5 and sole second place. Several players finished with 3.5: Dave Rowles and James Stripes shared the A Class prize. Chase Rands took first in B Class. More results will be reported when I have the full list.

05/17/2025

Inland Empire Open in progress in west Spokane with 35 players.