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Rik Roy Scores 3.5 / 6.0 In Strong National Tournament of Champions Showing
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| Our own Rik Roy competed in the 6th Annual John D. Rockefeller National Tournament of Elementary School State Champions and finished with 3.5 points / 6 games. Rik won games against the state champions of South Dakota, Oregon and Delaware, drew with the champion of Ohio, and placed 18th overall out of 51 state champions! |
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Columbia Chess Club Awarded US Chess 2025 Large Chess Club of the Year
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| August 1, 2025 Awards Ceremony, US Open, Middleton Wisconsin |
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The Columbia Chess Club has been officially awarded the 2025 Large Chess Club of the Year award by US Chess, with NM Mike Sailer on hand to accept the award on the club's behalf. A special congratulations also goes to South Carolinians David and Maureen Grimaud, who were awarded the Silver KolKoltanowski Award, and to Dr. Kay McCrary who was recognized as an Honorary Chess Mate. List of 2025 US Chess Award Recipients.
Thank you to all the Columbia Chess Club Community & Volunteers who make Columbia a great place to play chess! |
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IM Matros Ties for 3rd in Irwin Tournament of Sr. State Champions
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| Adding on to his victory in the 2024 SC Senior Championship held in November at the Columbia Chess Club, IM Matros acquitted South Carolina well with his third-place finish at the Irwin Tournament of Sr. State Champions, just 0.5 points out of first place! |
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Kid's Night: We had 24 young competitors at our Kid’s Night Tournament, led by Coach James. Coaches Brandon, Tyler, Chris, and Sean guided our future chess masters in the casual play lobby.
A Rated Section: Charlotte Jordan took home the medal.
B Rated Section: Chihaya Mukunoki earned the medal.
Unrated Section: Shivaan Desai won a US Chess Membership!
Kid's Night Rating Report
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Quad Night: Congratulations to James MacDougall, Sean Miller, and Tyler Murrah for winning their respective quads!
Quad Night Rating Report
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Thursday Main Meeting: We had a fighting crowd of 27 chess players playing in our throwback Dual-Action event on Thursday. In the Upper section, Aaryav Saha, Thomas Kemp Sr., and Tyler Murrah tied for first on 2.5/3.0. In the Under section Eduard Murillo and Charlie Jordan tied for first on perfect 3.0/3.0 scores - with Eduard winning an entertaining tiebreaker game against Charlie!
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| Sunday Diamond Arena: Thanks to all of our wonderful players for playing in our last minute makeup tournament! A very big congratulations to all of our winners and diamond membership recipients: Overall First place: UndisclosedPlayer; U1400 Class prize: Super_Smorz, Biggest Upset: Zexarium. Thanks to everyone for playing tonight. Congratulations to our winners!!! We'll see everyone next week for another tournament where YOU can win a free diamond membership!!! |
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Chess Sharkz Coming to Tunnelvision XXXV on Aug. 16, 2025
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The Chess Sharkz are coming to Columbia! 🦈♟️
Join us August 16th for Tunnelvision XXXV at the Columbia Chess Club.
🎙️ GM Kayden Troff will be commentating as Expert Tony Padron competes.
🍕 Afterward: blitz, banter, and a pizza party with the Sharkz!
Don’t miss this epic night of chess and fun. |
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Number Nerd for July 2025
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This month we held 8 different classically rated events in which 100 different people competed in at least 1 of the events. The person who gained the most classical rating in the club was Larry Feng who gained a whopping 381 points by picking up rating in 5/6 classical events he played in this month. He shined the brightest in the monthly classical event played from July 3 - July 24th in which he won the U1200 with a perfect 4/4 score. The second most points for the month was Russell Bryant with a 342 points gain at Tunnelvision XXXIV. Despite going in as an underdog he finished 8th with 2.5/4 points and a win against the top seeded player in the U1000. The third most points gained was by Mosiah Keels who won the U1000 section of Tunnelvision XXXIV with a perfect score picking up 211 points. Honorable Mentions to other plays who gained 100+ point in classical go to Thomas Kemp Sr, Xavier Tucker, Payton Carter, Alex Fisher, Abhyudaya Raj, Eric York, Arnav Singh, John McCollum, Jonah James, Mitch Nimmich, and Sheldon Sewell.
The best performance by an unrated player in his first event was Jason Cheng who played in the monthly classical beating a 1600+ opponent and then followed up that performance by getting 4th in the top section of the Dual Rated event at the end of the month.
The club held a whopping 14 rapid events in July with 123 players. The most rating gained was by Jason Cheng who had a whopping 544 point rise from a couple of events. His biggest gain came from the Thursday night rapid on the 24th where he went 2/3 and pulled off a 500 point upset and only lost to the winner of the event. Russell Bryant had the 2nd most points with 362 from his Tunnelvision performance in which he upset an opponent almost 800 higher rated than him. Riley Arndt and Thomas Kemp Sr both had the 3rd most rating gained with 181. Riley won the lower section of the Kid's Night on the 8th for his best performance with a perfect score. Thomas Kemp Sr won the dual rated event at the end of the month with a score of 2.5/3 after a couple of massive upsets and a draw against the top player rated about 600 points more. Honorable Mentions to other players who gained more than 100+ are Charlie Jordan, Payton Carter, Theodore Nimmich, Govind Kummari, Alex Fisher, Arnav Singh, Eric York, Robert Mareska, Chihaya Mukunoki, Sheldon Sewell, Logan Santos, Jack Hannagan, and Ethan Nesbitt.
The best quick performance by an unrated player in the month of July was by Michael Sheaf who had never played a quick rated game before competing in Tunnelvision XXXIV. He won the top section with a score of 3.5/4 after beating a National Master. His break-out rating is 1978.
We had only one blitz event in July which held 20 players. The player who gained the most rating was Jason Cheng who gained 105 points after going 3/4 and pulling off two upsets. Rio Saha had 84 points gained for the 2nd most in the month after pulling off a 400 point upset. Larry Feng had the 3rd most points gained with 47 after upsetting an opponent almost 200 points higher rated.
Joshua Verdugo had the best performance by an unrated attaining a rating of 507 after going 1.5/4 and beating an opponent rated 581.
Paul Copeland
Number Nerd
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2025-2026 Scholastic Chess Magazine
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| The Columbia Chess Club has published the 2025-2026 Scholastic Chess Magazine to help orient players and schools with the upcoming scholastic chess season. Please use this as a resource to orient potential players, coaches, and school administrators to competitive scholastic chess! |
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2025-2026 Scholastic Season
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The Scholastic Season for the next school year is now set—get ready!
The Columbia Chess Club has officially been approved by the South Carolina Chess Association to host the 2026 South Carolina Scholastic Chess Championship at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center! |
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| The Columbia Chess Club's next generation of streaming setup is live, and you can create your own personal icon to have displayed during our events. Follow the link to submit us your photo. |
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Hall of S.C. State Champions
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To promote this year's State Chess Championship being held at the Columbia Chess Club on Oct. 3-5, 2025 with a $6000 prize pool, we are highlighting state champions in chronological order each week. For more details about the state championship, visit www.scchampionship.com. |
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John Geddings Wallenburg
(1941-1963)
1961 South Carolina Chess Champion
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John G. Wallenburg was born on April 9, 1941 in Aiken, SC. He graduated from Aiken High School in 1959 as a member of the National Honor's Society. He attended Davidson College in North Carolina before transferring to the University of South Carolina in 1960 to study mathematics and English. After moving to Columbia, SC, he also took a serious interest in chess, joining the Palmetto Chess Club--the Columbia Chess Club's predecessor--where he improved rapidly. His first appearance in a major chess tournament was the 1960 Two Carolinas Open in Charleston, where he won only 2 out of 6 games. By the summer of 1961 he had skyrocketed to prominence, taking third place in the same tournament held in Southport, N.C., and he also became the University of South Carolina Chess Champion. While still a Junior in college, he competed in the South Carolina State Championship held at the Trenholm Road Foster School of Dance in Columbia, SC from November 24-26, 1961. There, he bested multiple former state champions and won the state championship with a perfect score of 5.0/5.0.
Mr. Wallenburg enlisted in the US Navy a few months after winning the state chess title in 1961 and was enrolled in the Guided Missile School. While staying in Norfolk, VA during his tour of duty, Wallenburg met an untimely death at the young age of 22, falling from the seventh-story roof of the Thomas Nelson Hotel on the mid-morning of July 20, 1963. He is buried at the St. Thaddeus Cemetery at St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church in Aiken, SC.
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| A puzzle from the Discord, answer at the bottom of the newsletter. |
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| Join our Discord to be part of our community chat. |
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Free Ways to Support the Club
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| The Columbia Chess Club is an affiliate of major chess retailers, like House of Staunton and others, and using our affiliate links can earn us a commission that helps us continue our efforts to enrich and grow the chess community in South Carolina! We also sell our own line of parody scorebooks, if you're looking to buy a notation book. You could also follow us on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media--the Club earns partnership revenue from streaming services, so your viewership helps the club too. Consider also leaving us a Google business review! |
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| Thank you for all the support! Only 8 tables remain available for sponsorship. If you would like to sponsor a table, you can do so on our website. |
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| Saturday, August 16, 2025: |
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| Chess Social with the Chess Sharkz, GM Kayden Troff and Tony Padron to follow, with pizza! |
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| Saturday, September 13, 2025: |
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| Saturday, September 20, 2025: |
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| The answer to the puzzle comes by way of Sean: |
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