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8-22-08 Club Championship Finals, 6-game match: Edwin Straver won the Final match 3.5-0.5 against Vern Young. Congratulations to Edwin Straver, the new Reno Chess Club/Northern Nevada Champion. See results>>.

8-22-08 Beat GM Kudrin Swiss, round 3 of 7: This is a seven-round swiss to run into late September. Jerry Weikel beat Terry Alsasua to seize the sole lead 3.0/3 atop a field of 18. At least one prize will be entry into the GM Kudrin simul at the Western States Open. See results>>.

8-11-08 Western States Open 2008 updated website>> is up! It's a little more than two months away.

8-3-08 Hot August Knights/David Ryba Memorial: Rick Arteaga, who began seeded 4th, finished atop a six-player field and gained 160 rating points! See results>>.

7-25-08 Dark Knight Swiss, final round 4: George Fischer and Eric Shoemaker drew against each other and finished 3.5/4 atop a field of ten. See results>>.

6-26-08 Crystal Skull Swiss, final round 4: Eric Shoemaker cleaned up with a perfect 4.0/4 atop of a field of 11. See results>>.

5-29-08 Merry May, final round 5. David Parreira beat Mauricio Amaya to knock him out of first. Craig Christensen edged him at the finish with 4.0/5 atop the field of ten players. Congratulations to Mauricio for gaining 150 rating points!!!. He's within 26 points of Class C. See results>>.

5-16-08 Club Championship Secondary Qualifier, final round 7: Edwin Straver finished in sole first at 6.0/7. Straver, Alsasua, Gafni, and Fischer were joined by Weikel, Simanis and Young for the club championship finals with defending champion Bill Case. See results>>. Congratulations to Edwin Straver for obtaining his FIDE Master title this week. Also congratulations to Vern Young for crossing the threshold into Class A. One game has been added to the Game Archive>>.

4-24-08 April Tears Swiss, final round 4. Soltani and Smith finished tied at 3.0/4 atop a field of seven players. See results>>.

3-26-08 Far West Open 2008 is done! 193 players competed for $20,376 in prizes. GM Melikset Khachiyan ran away with the Open prize, finishing at 5.5/6 a full point ahead of the field. The results are in>>.

3-13-08 Club Championship, Primary Qualifier, final round 4: Vern Young finished with a perfect 4.0/4 followed by Chris Harrington at 3.0 and Robert Bennett at 2.5. Robert Pearson has the best Modified Median tiebreak among the 2.0s. See Results>>.

3-13-08 Warm-up Tournament Kevin Gafni defeated each of the other three players in the Warmup Tournament>>. If he holds his own at the Far West Open, he should stay in Expert rating territory.

2-14-08 Class Championships!: Congratulations to Class B Champion Robert Pearson, Class D Champion George Smith, Expert Champion Nathaniel Garingo, Class A Champion Kevin Gafni, and Class C Champion Chris Harrington. Their names have been carved into the Champions page. See Results>>.

12-27-07 Return December, final round 4. Kevin Gafni took a bye, while George Fischer won to both finish at 3.0/4 atop the 9-player 1800+ section. Craig Christensen put an end to Norm Wyatt's remarkable run and finished atop the 13-player U1800 section, with a perfect 4.0/4. See results>>. Two games have been added to the game archive>>. There were some notable ratings jumps: Norm Wyatt gained 162 points and Craig Christensen gained 95.

11-29-07 Sweet November Swiss, final round 4. Terry Alsasua and Alex Hall finished atop the field of 22. See Results>>.

11-16-07 New Blog Links page Please note a new page to link to blogs authored by six members.

10-25-07 Quick Championship: Continuing his good results lately, Kevin Gafni won the Quick Championship with 4.0/4 atop a field of 14. See Results>>.

10-19-07 Blitz Championship Ten players showed up, including some visitors. Nathaniel Garingo and Jennifer Acon finished at 13.0/16. Nathaniel won the mini-match playoff and so he is this year's Blitz Champion.

10-19-07 25th Annual Western States Open is DONE! 341 players did battle royale at the Sands Regency last weekend. There was a seven-way tie in the Open Section. Our own Kevin Gafni won clear first in Class A. See Western States Open tournament website>>.

10-19-07 North vs. South Match. Pretty much bad news all around for us as everything went the South's way. Congratulations to the South team and James Schuyler, the Nevada State Champion.

10-4-07 Indian Summer Swiss, final round 5: Nathaniel Garingo finished ahead of the field of 19 at 5.0/5. The simul prize winners are Nathaniel Garingo, Kevin Gafni, Hadi Soltani, George Smith, Chris Harrington, and Norm Wyatt. See Results>>.

9-27-07 Club Championship: Congratulations to Bill Case who won the Final match 4-2 against Terry Alsasua. Bill gains the title of Reno Chess Club/Northern Nevada Champion and will face James Schuyler of Southern Nevada during the Tonopah match on October 6. Club Championship Bracket>>

9-13-07 Annual Meeting: It was a rather perfunctory meeting with relatively little controversy. Club finances are healthy. Dues remain at $40/year. Last year's officers were unchallenged and so they were unanimously re-elected by acclamation. President - Mike Filipas; Vice President - Grant Fleming; Treasurer - George Smith; Sergeant-At-Arms - Robert Pearson; Secretary - Ernest Hong.

9-1-07 Calendar Set 'Til New Year's Check out the proposed schedule of events. The annual meeting is set for September 13. October will bring a change of pace with some fast time control events such as the blitz championship and the quick championship.

8-30-07 August Scorcher Swiss, final round 5: David Ryba finished at 4.0/5 atop the field of 18. See Results>>.

7-26-07 Midsummer Knights Swiss, final round 4: Jerry Weikel finished at 3.5/4 ahead of the field of 18. See Results>>.

6-28-07 Summer Blockbuster Swiss, final round 6: Ernie Hong finished 4.5/6 ahead of the field of 15. See Results>>.

5-18-07 Club Championship Qualifier, final round 5: Twenty players contested the club championship qualifier. Bill Case, David Ryba, Arkia Bayati, Jerry Weikel, Eric Shoemaker, and Robert Bennett, join Terry Alsasua for the championship playoff. Grant Fleming and Mike Filipas play a wildcard match to see who plays Bill Case. See Results>>.

4-17-07 Far West Open is done! 185 players played in the Far West Open. GM Melikset Khachiyan won the tiebreak playoff over three others to win the open section. See the crosstable at the Far West Open>> website and an excellent recap written by Michael Aigner at Chess Life Online>>.

3-30-07 Class Championships, done! Congratulations to the new Class Champions: Bill Case in Expert, George Fischer in Class A, Steve Kesti repeated in Class B, Hadi Soltani in Class C, and George Smith in Class D. Case and Fischer both started slow with 1 point out of 3 games and then they each won 5 straight games. Kesti won a hard-fought six-game match. Both Soltani and Smith had perfect scores in their respective sections. See Results>>. The names of the new champions have been added to the Champions page>>.

2-9-07 White Knights, final round 6: George Fischer finished 5.0/6 to win atop a field of 19. See Results>>.

12-29-06 Upcoming events scheduled: I have taken the liberty of making a schedule for the coming year. White Knights 6-round Swiss starts next week. This will be followed by about six weeks of class championships leading up to the Far West Open. Following the Far West Open, there will be a skittles week which will also be the deadline to sign up for the club championship qualifier. The formats will likely be similar to last year. See Calendar>>.

12-29-06 December Swiss, final round 4: Terry Alsasua and George Fischer dispatched their final round opponents to share the lead at 3.5/4. However, Grant Fleming had built an almost insurmountable lead going into the December phase of the Grant Prix. Grant finished first in the Grand Prix X/A section with 9 points. Craig Christensen finished first in the B/C section with 6.5 points. And George Smith finished first in the D/under section with 5.5 points. Since the prizes were based on participation, Grant wins $17, Craig wins $18, and George wins $12. See Grand Prix>> and December Results>>.

11-30-06 November Swiss, final round 4: Grant Fleming and David Ryba finished atop the field of 17 players. See Results>>. Three games have been added to the Game Archive>>.

10-27-06 October Swiss, final round 4: Grant Fleming upset Terry Alsasua while David Ryba and Ed Simanis drew, so Grant finished in sole first at 3.5/4. See Results>>.

10-26-06 Tonopah result: Unfortunately, the only good news is that we played to a 6-6 draw with the South. The South retains the trophy in the tie and also Terry Alsasua lost the third mini-match (games 5&6) giving the state championship also to Virgil Reyes.

10-9-06 Western States Open is done! Despite the last-minute cancellation of Boris Spassky's appearance for health reasons, the tournament seemed to go well and as a TD I heard a lot of nice comments. 312 players met in Reno to fight in the 6-round marathon. Except for a two-way tie in the C section, every section had a clear winner. Sergey Kudrin won clear first in the Open section. As far as I know, no one in the Reno-Sparks area finished above 4 points, but we also didn't fare too poorly in the low-score department. Apparently it was enough for Reno to win the top team prize. The cross table is now available in Results>>.

9-21-06 Annual Meeting Summary: Dues remained at $40/year. Members who bring in another dues-paying member get a $10 discount for next year's dues. Officers elected were Mike Filipas for President, Grant Fleming for Vice President, George Smith for Treasurer, Ernie Hong for Secretary, and Robert Pearson for Segeant-at-arms.

9-8-06 Club Championship Finals Congratulations to Terry Alsasua, the new Northern Nevada Chess Champion for 2006 who defeated two-time defending Nevada State Champion Arkia Bayati in a match 4-0. See Results>>. Terry's name has been added to the Champions>> page.

8-31-06 August Swiss, Final Round 4: George Fischer withstood Craig Christensen's dangerous looking pawn storm to take second behind Kevin Gafni who coasted in Round 4 with a bye. See Results>>.

8-13-06 Hot August Knights: Fifteen players competed for $270 in prizes during the Friday-Sunday weekend. George Fischer rolled to a 4-0 start before finally being stopped by Arkia Bayati in round 5. Arkia started slow with a draw against Craig Christensen but then got into form with a brilliant win in round 2 against Class A player Ted Belanoff visiting from the bay area. George and Arkia shared first and second prizes $72.50 each. Arkia got an additional $10 brilliancy prize. Grant Fleming missed some wins against David Ryba and Terry Alsasua, but still finished Top U2000, $44. Rick Arteaga came from the U1400 section to top all the U1600 players and win their prize of $44 plus the $10 upset prize for his round 5 win over Kevin Gafni rated 466 points higher. Mauricio Amaya won the $15 U1400 prize. See Results>>. Thirty-four(!) games have been added to the Game Archive>>.

8-10-06 Blitz and Brats Polish sausages served as the brats eaten before a dozen players battled in a 5-round double swiss. Ten games later, Kevin Gafni stood alone at 9.0/10 ahead of five experts. See results>>.

7-27-06 July Swiss, Final Round 4: David Ryba made it a clean sweep at 4.0/4 among the field of 14. See Results>>. Three games have been added to the Game Archive>>.

6-29-06 June Swiss, Final Round 5: George Fischer pulled out another win in time trouble to finish the June swiss with 5.0/5 atop a field of 13. Norm Wyatt should earn close to 75 rating points. See Results>>. Two games have been added to the Game Archive>>.

4-14-06 Class Championships concluded: The 2006 class champions are Terry Alsasua in Expert, David Peterson in Class A, Steve Kesti in Class B, John Clifford in Class C, and Mike Kirkhouse in Class D. See Results>>. The names of the new champions have been added to the Champions>> page.

4-10-06 Far West Open is done!: Crosstable is now posted! 183 players showed including several GMs and IMs. GM Alex Yermolinsky and GM Jaan Ehlvest tied atop the open section. See Results>>.

2-24-06 February Swiss, Final Round 4: Terry Alsasua made a clean sweep and finished at 4.0, a full point ahead of the field of 29. See Results>>. Three games have been added to the Game Archive>>.

2-10-06 Chess Blog and a new essay: Robert Pearson has started a chess blog on his quest for chess improvement. Read it here Blog>>. My creative writing skills deserted me for this latest installment of the Post Mortem, so it's a little dry. The Post Mortem #2

2-7-06 Quarantine: "Chess is not a game but a disease." - Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Sometimes, when my head aches after the second six-hour game of the day in the middle of a weekend swiss, I wonder if I haven't begun to tresspass on the zone between the realms of Obsession and Masochism. Here's a nice vignette of the big picture by Arthur C. Clarke. Quarantine>>

1-27-06 January Swiss, Final Round 4: George Fischer left little doubt about who is Mr. January, beating Laroy O'Doan and finishing a point ahead of the field of 26. See Results>>.

12-30-05 December Swiss, Final Round 5. The final round matchup saw Ernie Hong and George Fischer draw for the first time in their 18-game series, leaving them at 4.0/5 atop the field of 27. See Results>>. Three games have been added to the Game Archive>>.

11-17-05 November Swiss, Final Round 4: George Fischer had the upper hand but couldn't deliver the knockout. Instead, Terry Alsasua turned the tables and finished atop the field of 24 with 3.5/4. Several major upsets occurred. See Results>>. One game has been added to the Game Archive>>.

10-17-05 Western States Open 2005 is done!: The overall event was a success, although the turnout was shy of what we hoped for. 10th World Champion Boris Spassky entertained chess enthusiasts again with colorful game analysis and a 27-board simul. 355 players including 11 Grandmasters and 12 International Masters gathered at the Sands Regency Reno. Alexander Ivanov went 4-0 until he was defeated by Alex Yermolinsky in round 5. Yermo was clear leader going into round 6, but then he lost to Ildar Ibragimov. Ivanov and Ibragimov had a two-game G/10 match for bragging rights. Ivanov won the first game and Ibragimov won the second. In a final blitz game with 7 minutes for White and 5 minutes for Black, Ibragimov conceded the draw to Ivanov, so Alexander Ivanov won the tournament. Click here for the crosstables.

10-7-05 Tonopah Warm-up Swiss, Final Round 7: Terry Alsasua could only manage a draw against Ed Simanis, but it was good enough to take first by a full point ahead of the field of 21. See Results>>.

10-1-05 Tonopah match result. In a repeat of last year's news, the South team won the match by a score of 7.5-6.5. Arkia Bayati defeated Dewey Maynard in an 11-hour 6-game match and retained the title of Nevada State Chess Champion! See coverage of the matches on the Nevada Chess website.

9-15-05 Annual Meeting: The elections were held and results were: President - Mike Filipas; Vice President - Jerry Weikel; Secretary - Ernie Hong; Treasurer - George Smith; Sergeant At Arms - Steve Kesti. A tournament committee was formed among Jerry Weikel, Ernie Hong, George Fischer, Eric Shoemaker, and Grant Fleming to carefully consider the options as well as member preferences. Please contact any member of the tournament committee to express your opinion.

8-25-05 Quick Finals: Eleuterio Alsasua beat George Fischer 2.5-0.5 in the finals to become the Reno Quick Chess Champion.

8-14-05 Hot August Knights results: Ernie Hong took first prize ($100) while Eleuterio Alsasua ($25), David Ryba ($25), and George Fischer shared second (U2000 $40). A single round robin playoff between Rick Arteaga, Craig Christensen, and Paul Gafni ended in a tie between Christensen and Gafni, so they split the U1600 prize and took home $20 apiece. See Results>>.

8-4-05 Midsummer Knights, Final Round 6: David Ryba and Eleuterio Alsasua finished off their respective opponents to top the field of 21. Results>>.

7-28-05 Club Championship: Arkia Bayati beat Jim McCormick three games in a row to take the match 3.5-1.5, thus clinching the Northern Nevada Championship. Club championship information page>>.

6-24-05 Jedi Knights Tournament, Final Round 5: Kevin Gafni made it a clean sweep by finishing off late entrant Ernest Hong and topping the field of 21 players. See Results>>.

6-9-05 Quick Intro As a prelude to the upcoming Game/29 championship, eight players each played four rounds in one night! The Game/29 tournament was won by Jerry Weikel with a perfect 4.0/4 score. See Results>>.

5-5-05 Class Championships: Congratulations to George Smith who won the Class D Championship 5.0-3.0 over Norm Wyatt. In the Class C Championship, Chinnici beat Christensen 2-0 in their semifinal two-game match and awaits Bellegarde-Filipas to resolve a tie at 1.0-1.0. View Class C progess here.

5-13-05 Tax Free Swiss: Steve Kesti beat Joe Bellegarde in the fourth and final round to top the field of 13. Results>>.

3-21-05 Far West Open results! 192 players including 4 GMs and 6 IMs met at the Sands Regency Reno for a weekend of chess battling for a $20,000 prize fund. GM's Atalik and Yermolinsky traveled to the tournament together and left together with the top open prizes. Atalik won the 3rd playoff game with Black on draw odds and claimed an extra $100. There were clear winners in the Expert, Class A, Class B, and Class D sections. See the final standings here>>.

2-17-05 Club Championship Qualifier: Hong, Fleming, Simanis, and Reyes advanced to the championship, none of them losing any games in the qualifier. See the finished qualifier results in Results.

2-10-05 Champ Warmup: 7-time Washington State Champion Jim McCormick finished with the highest points in a double round robin warm-up. Former NV state champs Jerry Weikel and David Ryba were 2nd and 3rd with current NV state champ, Arkia Bayati in 4th. Results>>

12-2-04 Burnout Swiss fifth and final round results are posted>>. James McCormick once again topped the field of 19.

10-17-04 Western States Open: Hikaru Nakamura won the open section with 5.5/6. Having bested GMs Wojtkiewicz, Kudrin, and Yermolinsky in rounds 3-5, he was a full point ahead of the field going into the last round and only needed a draw with Alexander Ivanov to clinch clear first. Reno Chess Club scored third in the team competition. Yours truly, Ernest Hong, tied for first in the A section and took the top trophy on tiebreaks. It was truly a privilege to meet Boris Spassky, a courageous, decent, and humorous man and great chessplayer. Click here>> to see the Western States crosstables. WSO Website>>

10-8-04 Spassky Six, Final Round 6 results>>. McCormick steamrolled all challengers with 6.0 atop the field of 26. Two games have been added to the Games Archive.

10-1-04 Tonopah Results Well, unfortunately, the South team came to play and they took the match by a fairly convincing score of 12-8. On the brighter side, Arkia Bayati won the Nevada State Championship.

9-18-04 Championships Arkia Bayati won the first four games against Jerry Weikel in their six-game match making him the Reno Chess Club/Northern Nevada Champion for 2004. Congratulations to Arlo Mann, the 2004 Class C Champion, and Hadi Soltani, the 2004 Class D Champion! See Results.

9-16-04 Election returns: Jerry Weikel was voted President. Grant Fleming was voted Vice President. George Smith, Ernie Hong, and Steve Kesti were re-elected to Treasurer, Secretary, and Sergeant-At-Arms.

8-26-04 New Chess Sayings page up! Ever wondered who said, "I'd rather have a pawn than a finger"? Find out from my collected chess sayings page.

8-15-04 Hot August Knights: James McCormick topped the field of 18, yielding only a last-round draw. Class winners included Ernie Hong(A), Steve Kesti(B), Joe Bellegarde(B), Dan Kiely(B), Craig Christensen(C), and George Smith(D). See Results.

7-22-04 Summer Puzzler: Ernie Hong topped the field of 22. See Results.

5-18-04 Far West Recovery: Some newcomers did well, but Mike Goffe won with 4 wins and one bye atop a field of 13.

5-1-04 Far West Open crosstable and tournament bulletin! Details at the Far West website. If you want to check out Far West Open games, there are now 75 games from Class A, B, and C posted in the games section of the FWO website.

4-2-04 Far West Open Warm-up: George Fischer knocked off David Ryba and Michael Kahan quietly accumulated points to finish at the top of the field of 21. See Results.

12-19-03 Halloween Special: Ernie Hong topped the field of 21. Check out Results>>.

10-25-03 Western States Open: 406 players showed up at the Sands Regency including 12 GMs and 9 IMs. Hikaru Nakamura and Sergey Kudrin won the Open Section with Nakamura taking an extra $100 in the playoff. Reno Chess Club took second in the team competition. Courtesy of Victor Flashman, you can now check out the cross table in Results>>.

10-10-03 WSO Warm-Up: Dan Wermers topped the field of 21. Check the standings in Results>>.

9-27-03 The North Won!!: The Annual North vs. South Nevada Team Match was won by the North, but the new individual state champion is IM Enrico Sevillano of Las Vegas. See the report including all 20 games of the matches on Nevada Chess, Inc.'s website.

9-11-03 Tonopah Warm-Up results: David Ryba topped a field of 14. The results are available in Results>>.

9-6-03 Tournament of Northern Nevada Champions: Jerry Weikel topped the four-way round robin. See details in Results>>.

8-17-03 Hot August Knights results: It was a four-way tie at the top among Jerry Weikel, David Ryba, Edgar Reyes, and Steve Kesti. The results are now available in Results>>.

8-7-03 Results of Championships: Arkia Bayati started off in the hole, but finished strong to defeat David Ryba 3.5-1.5 for the Club Championship and the title of Northern Nevada Champion. In the Class A Playoff, George Fischer won 3-1 against Ernest Hong. Mike Goffe finished ahead of the field and became Class B Champion. In the Class C Championship, Brandon Wimbley beat Robert Bennett 2-0 in a playoff for second seed of the finals and then went on to take the Championship by beating Karl Bohlmann 1.5-0.5. Rick Arteaga beat Norm Wyatt in the match for the Class D Championship. See details in Results>>.

11-3-02 Website Live: The official Reno Chess Club website came on line. Email Ernie Hong, ernie@renochess.org, to make announcements or post games.