National Chess Week Rewind: National Recognition for Olympiad Teams and More

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For National Chess Week, at least 49 tournaments were held across the country, consisting of 2,979 players and tens of thousands of rated games. This is only including tournaments that were submitted with "National Chess Day," "National Chess Week," "NCD," or "NCW" as part of the tournament name. 

If you organized one of these tournaments — or any non-rated chess festivities — we want to hear from you! Email John Hartmann with any photos or information if you are interested in having your event included in future magazine spreads on National Chess Day. This page will also be updated with photos from National Chess Day events. 

Event Round-Up

To start, here are some photos from Hampton Roads Chess Association in Virginia. Co-Founder and Executive Director Tina Schweiss writes, "On Monday, October 7th, we held a Rookie Training Camp that consisted of an extended orientation to tournament procedures and rules in the morning, followed by learning notation and playing a full practice game with notation and clocks before lunch.  After lunch, they competed in a full four-round Swiss tournament.  We held it at Central Library in Virginia Beach.  Monday was a Staff Day for the local public schools, so we created the event to help parents who needed to work: it was popular and maxed out the capacity of the space with 48 kids."

The chess celebration continued the next weekend, Schweiss writes: "On October 12th, we held our annual National Chess Day tournament at MacArthur Center in Norfolk. We use quick time controls due to the public space. We had 95 total players, including those in our non-rated Rookie sections. Other members of the public walked up and played some casual chess, and the kids enjoyed variation games in the back between rounds. This is also our annual scholarship fundraiser, and we raised nearly $3000 for kids and adults who can't afford fees for class tuition, entry fees, tournament travel, etc.  Thanks to a sponsor for this event, all expenses were covered."

Other highlights from around the country:

Everything's bigger in Texas 

Houston Scholastic Chess Association hosted a one-day scholastic with 314 players across 14 sections on National Chess Day. The previous weekend, a number of events from elsewhere around Texas — including 284 players from Dark Knights Chess Club's Edinburg event, United Warriors Chess Club's event in Combes with 238 players and Rocks & Rooks Chess Club's Austin event with 177 players — brought the total number of Texas tournament participants to 1,113!

Tournaments Far and Wide

Among myriad events from chess meccas such as New York and Florida, several tournaments from less populous areas stood out. First, Alaska Arctic Chess Club's tournament in Soldotna was just the ninth Alaskan tournament held this calendar year and — with 33 participants — the state's largest. 

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Speaking of tournaments in less populous states ...

Familiar Names in New Places

IM Justin Sarkar won the Fargo Chess Club's North Dakota Open with a 5½/6 score. Of the 33 participants, Sarkar was the only player rated over 2000! This was the New Yorker's 1,927th tournament, and first in North Dakota. Congratulations to Sarkar and a tip of the hat to Ryan Deering, who was the only player to take a half-point off Sarkar. 

One week prior and roughly 740 miles away, GM Varuzhan Akobian won the Montana Chess Association's Chinook Open, in Great Falls. This was Akobian's first tournament in Montana and, like Sarkar, he was the only player rated over 2000 in the event. Akobian took clear first with a 4½/5 score, winning his first four games before taking a last-round bye. For players in both events, this was likely a rare opportunity to play such strong and experienced opposition!

Armed Forces Open

The 65th Annual Armed Forces Open was also held over the holiday weekend from Oct. 12-14 in Annapolis, Md. The event was open to all current, retired, and former members of the U.S. Military, Coast Guard, and other uniformed federal services, as well as midshipmen/cadets attending one of the nation's military academies or a university where they are enrolled in an ROTC program. Stay tuned for a separate full report on this event.

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Congressional Record

Last month's U.S. Olympiad teams set an American record for the best-ever joint finish. After 11 grueling rounds at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad — held Sept. 10-23 in Budapest, Hungary (see all Chess Life Online coverage here) — Team USA boasted a silver medal finish in the Open and bronze in the Women's event. This was the Women's team's first podium finish in 16 years, after finishing just shy of a medal on tiebreaks in 2022.

But on the eve of National Chess Day, the Olympiad teams entered another kind of record book. U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, introduced a resolution on the House floor on Friday, Oct. 11, recognizing the accomplishments of both American teams. The well-deserved accolades are now a matter of congressional record!

The congressional remarks can be downloaded here and are displayed in full below.

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