Chess in Utah refers to competitive
chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
played within the state of
Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
. As of January 2025, Utah has 646 active players registered with the
United States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, The World Chess Federation (FIDE). USCF administers the official national Chess ...
.
The current USCF Utah state affiliate is the Utah Chess Association.
History
In December 2004,
Varuzhan Akobian
Varuzhan Akobian (, born 19 November 1983 in Yerevan, Soviet Union) is an Armenian-born American chess Grandmaster. Originally from Armenia, he now resides in St. Louis. He played on the bronze medal-winning U.S. team in the 2006 and 2008 Ches ...
was invited to play and teach chess to schoolchildren at the McGillis School in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
. The Mountain West Chess Association paid for his visit.
Gregory Kaidanov
Gregory Kaidanov (, ; born 11 October 1959) is a Soviet-born American chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, ch ...
was also invited to the same school the following month.
In 2005,
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...
alumni Erik Allebest and Jay Severson launched
Chess.com
Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...
in the hopes that it would become the largest chess platform on the internet.
In 2009, 10 year-old
Kayden Troff won the Utah Blitz Championship. He was the youngest player in Utah's Game/60 Chess Championship that year. In March, Troff had a 2125 USCF rapid rating, the highest of every active Utah chess player at the time. Troff was expected to reach the highest rapid chess rating for kids under 13 in the nation during that April's USCF rating supplement. Later, Troff would be sponsored by
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
and receive coaching from
Alexander Chernin. Eventually, he would eventually earn the Grandmaster title at the Saint Louis Invitational in May 2014.
One Utah school that heavily promotes the game is Ecker Hill Middle School. One player from the school, Sam Mason, won the Utah State Junior High Chess Championship in 2013 without any defeats. In 2019, Ecker Hill expanded its annual K-9 chess tournament to all ages with a "friends and family" section.
During the
COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, online chess grew in popularity with Utah children. As the pandemic restrictions lifted, they would continue to play the game in classrooms. In response, some Utah school districts banned Chess.com. The
Iron County School District was one such school district, blocking access to "non-educational" games. Regarding students playing chess, the school district's communications and foundation coordinator stated, “Chess.com would be one of many classified as games that are blocked to ensure students focus and are learning during the school day."
In December 2024, the city of
Murray hosted the second U.S. Senior Women's Championship. The tournament had an $8,000 prize fund. There were 12 participants:
WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia,
WIM Beatriz Marinello, WFM Natalya Tsodikova, WFM Olga Sagalchik,
WIM Alexey Root, WIM Shernaz Kennedy, WCM Natasha C Christiansen, Julia O’Neill, Carla Naylor, WCM Mary K Kuhner, Brenda Nardi, and Jayashree Sekar. The tournament sought the participation from women aged 50 or older.
Competitors
As of January 2025, the following people are the top rated active USCF players from Utah:
Other top Utah chess players who aren't currently active USCF members include IM Zhe Quan (2503 Rating), Mark Rubery (2387 Rating), and Sergey Akhpatelov (2355 Rating).
List of state champions (1991 - 2024)
The Utah Chess Association has kept a record of every Utah state champion from 1991 onward.
See also
*
Chess in Wyoming Chess in Wyoming refers to competitive chess played within the state of Wyoming. As of January 2025, Wyoming only has 84 active players registered with the United States Chess Federation, one of the lowest player counts in the United States. The cur ...
*
Chess in Nebraska
References
{{Reflist
Chess in the United States
Utah culture