The first major weekend scholastic tournament of 2013 will be the 3rd Annual Metzger Winter Classic on Saturday, January 12, 2013.  You can register online here, but the regular registration fee of $15 available through only this Tuesday (12/8) evening.  (After that, late registration is available for $25.)  Here’s a list of who’s coming so far … we hope to see you in Metzger, too!

The Oregon High School Chess Team Association (OHSCTA) has been running Oregon’s state High School Team Chess Championship for over 40 years.  This year’s event will be held on March 8th & 9th at LaSalle College Prep High School located at 11999 SE Fuller Road in Milwaukie, Oregon.  Five rounds of play will determine the Oregon State Champion Team.

This year, the OHSCTA has added a new section to this annual tournament that is just for Oregon Middle School Chess Teams (Grades 6 to 8).  More about the event after the break…

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The Portland Area League (PAL) completed its fifth round on December 12th and will be taking a break until January 9th.  This is the first time that the PAL has taken a three week break in their season – but the schools in the Portland Area chose different weeks for their Winter Breaks, so the league will resume once everyone is back in session.  More detailed information about the current results can be found after the break! Read more »

Ring in a New Year of chess with the 3rd Annual Metzger Winter Classic on Saturday, January 12, 2013.  The third year of this event is again being organized by former OSCF Board member and Metzger Chess Club Coach Jeff Risher, and promises to be the best event yet! You can register online here.

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Ed Addis reports:  The Portland Area League held its first match of the season on Wednesday, November 7th at Lincoln High School in downtown Portland.  This year the League has 20 teams that have been split into two divisions.  The first division has the top team from each of the 10 schools participating in the League and the second divison has teams from schools that are participating with more than one team.

Last year’s League Champion Clackamas Cavaliers were completely surprised by their old time nemesis, the Lake Oswego Lakers by a score of 5 to 0.  Clackamas’ Hai Dao playing first board had very good chances against the Lakers’ Pranav Sharan but ran out of time just as he had won a Queen for his Rook.  The youngsters from Sylvan Middle School took down Cleveland by a similarly lopsided 5-0 victory.  Jesuit upended the Trojans of Wilson by a score of 3-2 by winning on boards 2, 4, and 5.  Access Academy (another middle school) slid by Westview by winning on boards 1,2, and 5.  The Lincoln Cardinals edged out LaSalle Prep by a score of 3-2 by winning on boards 1 and 2 and drawing on boards 3 and 4.

In the lower division the LaSalle Prep Falcons second team bested their fourth team by a score of 5-0.  LaSalle’s #3 took down Access Academy #3 by a score of 4 to 1.  Access Academy #2 beat Wilson #2 also by a 4 to 1 score and Lincoln #2 did the same to Jesuit #2.  Clackamas #2 eged out Lake Oswego #2 by a score of 3-1 (both teams forfeit the fifth board).

The Portland Area League will be competing until the end of February.  If you would like to join and are in grades 6 to 12 we will attempt to find you a place on an existing team.  We also offer a section we call “extra games”.  This section is for those schools that bring more players than is needed to play their League games.  This section is also open to anyone (grades 6 to 12) that would like to play a rated game.  However, you must sign up by 4 PM on the sign up sheet indicating your grade, school attending, and NW rating.

Clackamas High School Coach Ed Addis reports on a successful Clackamas K-12 Open, held on Saturday, October 20th. This 5-section, 126-player tournament featured a wide variety of awards, from Legend Products boards and pieces, along with clocks to winners, as well as $600 worth of door prizes from local businesses. Results of the tournament will be posted on the NWSRS ratings site later this week, but here’s a highlight of the top-placed players in each section:

Primary School (K-2):
Zoie Calora (Catlin Gable School) & Calvin Chang (Forest Park Elem.) with 4 points.

Elementary School (3-5):
Praveer Sharan (Oak Creek Elem.) with a perfect 5 points.
Followed by 5 players with 4 points.

Middle School (6-8):
Rohan Bhatt (Stoller Middle School) with a perfect 5 points.

Lower High School (9-10):
Pranav Sharan (Lake Oswego HS) with a perfect 5 points.
Followed by 4 players with 4 points.

Upper High School Section (11-12):
Alexandra Botez (Clackamas HS) – a perfect 5 points.
Followed by 4 players with 4 points.

First place team trophies went to Catlin Gable, Alliance Charter Academy, and Clackamas HS, followed by second place winners Happy Valley Elem., Athey Creek MS, and Lake Oswego HS.

Clackamas High School Chess Club hopes to make this an annual event — we hope they do!

The results from All-Stars have been reported to the USCF, and are available online here.  The results have also been reported to the NWSRS and are available here. Thanks to the quick work of our head TD, Roza Kotlyar, for getting those results in so quickly!  To our section winners, congratulations, and checks are going out in the mail early in the week of October 22.

Our photos will be available online soon.  If anyone has photos of their own that they would like to share, please let us know at admin@oscf.org.  We particularly need photos of the events and kids in hearing room E (Rising stars J & K) and Room 350 (Super Stars)!  Thanks again to all who attended and assisted.  We hope everyone had a good time (win or lose).

The section winners were:

Section A: Maxwell Sun & Aaron Grabinsky
Section B: Clemen Deng
Section C:  Cameron Kocher
Section D: Jonathan Yau
Section E: Philip Weiss
Section F: Cody Webb
Section G: Leonardo Sun & Craig Still
Section H: Keshav Siddhartha
Section I: James Maslen & Stephen Nguyen
Section J: Victor Dossin
Section K:  Kavish Siddhartha

Clackamas High School will host the first big Portland-area school-based tournament of the year this coming Saturday, October 20. Organizer and Clackamas HS Coach Ed Addis has gathered not merely trophies and plus-score prizes for this OSCF-State qualifier event, but has a variety of interesting gifts and gift cards from local businesses and supporters. Regular registration of $25 (there’s also a sibling discount) is available through Tuesday evening by emailing Ed.  There’s more information available on the tournament’s NWSRS Calendar entry (click here, then on the tournament name on 10/20) — that information is also reproduced after the break. Read more »

Congratulations to all the attendees at the 2012 All-Stars Tournament, which was held at the State Capitol in Salem on October 12. More details, and photos, to come, but in the meantime, Thank You to our many volunteers throughout the day. In particular, thanks to the room TDs Ed Addis, Max Booth, Dan Dalthorp, Katrina Halverson, and April Lutz who served as a constant and welcome presence in our playing rooms as the OSCF board members helped fulfill other duties. And thank you to all of the players, parents, and coaches that helped make it a successful day. More soon.

Detailed information and rules for the 2012 All-Stars Invitational Tournament have been posted, and registration is open now closed.  Eligible players are listed on the three 2012 All-Stars Lists and the 2012 Lifetime Achievement List.  Come join us in Salem on Friday, October 12 (a statewide inservice day) for a day celebrating hard work and great results in the game of chess, as well as quality competition against the state’s most dedicated scholastic players.

Here is a list of who’s coming (so far!).