Chess in Wyoming 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

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

. As of January 2025, Wyoming only has 84 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 ...

, one of the lowest player counts in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The current USCF Wyoming state affiliate is the Wyoming Chess Association.

History

The first recorded Wyoming state chess championship took place in 1949. It continued to be held annually except in 1960, and then in 2020 due to

COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...

. Originally part of a greater Wyoming Open tournament, the state championship eventually split off into being its own closed tournament. In the 20th century, ranchers would watch for trains to try initiating games against traveling chess players such as

Samuel Reshevsky Samuel Herman Reshevsky (born Szmul Rzeszewski; November 26, 1911 – April 4, 1992) was a Polish chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. He was a contender for the World Chess Championship from the mid 1930s to the late 1 ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

chess player Jude Acers spent some time in

Jackson Jackson may refer to: Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson oil field in Durham, ...

, where he played against anyone willing to challenge him. Due to a lack of chess tournaments in the state, Wyoming residents would often travel to play in chess competitions in neighboring states. Daniel Joelson won the state championship 21 times, first winning at the age of 17 in 1984. As of January 2023, Joelson wanted

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...

to have an active local chess club of its own. Former

World Chess Champion The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...

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 ...

visited the state in November 2014. He spoke with a math professor from the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming, United States. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, ...

, who touted the educational benefits of learning to play chess. In May 2017, the PODER Academy Chess Team competed in that year's elementary school Super National tournament in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. The school placed 18th out of 75. On May 7, 2022, Jackson Hole Classical Academy held its first scholastic chess tournament in five years. This tournament would qualify four students to compete in the national tournament over the summer. The students who qualified would attend the school's week-long chess camp. Regarding this tournament, a virtual chess coach from

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

for students from the school stated:

I went back in, in preparation for this, this chapter we're having and looked at the different tournaments that scholastic tournaments that had been held in Wyoming over the last 20 years and they were few and far between. Usually when they were held, they had more kids from Colorado than they did from Wyoming, and I couldn't find any of them that had over eight kids from Wyoming that were represented at one of the tournaments.

During summer 2022, the Riverton Chess Club was established. The club began meeting on Wednesdays at the

Central Wyoming College Central Wyoming College (CWC or CW) is a public community college in Riverton, Wyoming. In addition to its main campus, the college provides online classes and has outreach centers in Jackson, Lander, Dubois, and the Wind River Indian Reservat ...

Library. On February 11, 2023, Worland Middle School hosted the community's first chess tournament in years.

Sheridan Chess Association

From April 30 to May 1 in 2022, the Sheridan Chess Association (founded in December 2021) began hosting an annual chess tournament in

Sheridan, Wyoming Sheridan is a city in the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Sheridan County, Wyoming, Sheridan County. The city is located halfway between Yellowstone National Park, Yellowstone Park and Mount Rushmore by U.S. Route 14 in Wyoming, U.S. ...

Sheridan College Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, formerly Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology, is a public polytechnic institute partnered with private Canadian College of Technology and Trades operating campuses ...

. In 2022, 76 players competed with a guaranteed prize pool of $3,875 and a top prize of $1,600. Some players in attendance included

Alexander Fishbein Alexander Gregory Fishbein (born May 8, 1968 in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, USSR as Aleksandr Grigoryevich Fishbein, Russian: Александр Григорьевич Фишбейн) is an American chess player with the FIDE title of Grandmaster ...

Justin Sarkar Justin Sarkar is an American chess player. Chess career He was the New York State Champion in 2008/2009 alongside Aleksandr Lenderman. In January 2013, he gave a talk on chess and autism and held a simul at the 3rd annual Chess Benefit at Co ...

, and masters Sullivan McConnell, Joel Johnson, Richard Shtivelband, James Neal, and Brian Wall. Sarkar won the Open section while Kevin Kuehnel and Karl Lehman tied for first place in the Under 1600 section. Prior to the start of the tournament, Fishbein conducted a

simultaneous exhibition A simultaneous exhibition or simultaneous display is a board game exhibition (commonly chess or Go) in which one player (typically of high rank, such as a grandmaster or dan-level player) plays multiple games at a time with a number of other pl ...

against 26 other players at the local

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

, winning 25 and drawing 1. In 2023, the tournament expanded to include $7,575 in prizes. The Sheridan Chess Association promotes chess education at Sheridan schools.

Competitors

As of January 2025, the following people are the top rated active USCF players from Wyoming: Other top Wyoming chess players who aren't currently active USCF members include NM Andre Peroit (2252 Rating), David A Wallace (2093 Rating), and four-time state champion Steve Smith (2085 Rating). GM Alexander Fishbein used to be a Wyoming chess player, the only Grandmaster to come from the state as of January 2025. Upon earning the

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

title, Fishbein was congratulated by

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

Alan Simpson. His current state is now

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. He would visit the state again to compete in the Sheridan Wyoming Open tournament.

List of state champions (1949 - 2024)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyoming, chess in Chess in the United States

History

Sheridan Chess Association

Competitors

List of state champions (1949 - 2024)

See also

References