Yesterday was the first day of the 70th Annual Texas State and Amateur Championship chess tournament at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Marriott South in Fort Worth, Texas. The event itself is a 7-Round Swiss with both Champion Sections (G/90 with 30 second increments) and an Amateur Sections (G/90 with 30 second increments). The tournament runs from May 22 to May 25 and is the official State Championship Event for Texas! The Amateur Section is open to players U2000 ELO or unrated, while the Championship Section is open to players over 2000 ELO or with a rating higher than the 2014 Amateur Champion, IM Darwin Yang (2570 ELO).

The Playing Venue (from WCM Claudia Munõz)

The schedule of events for the 2015 Texas Championship should make for quite a fun-filled Memorial Day weekend for those looking to get out and see some fantastic Texas-style chess playing. Among the players is the always inspiring and social-media savvy WCM Claudia Munõz, who is reporting on her official website regularly from the tournament. The schedule for the three and four day events is below. Note that both schedules converge today, Saturday the 23rd:

Schedule of Events

  • May 22 @ 1945 CST: Round 1 (4-Day Event)
  • May 23 @ 1000 CST: Round 1 (3-Day Event)
  • May 23 @ 1430 CST: Round 2
  • May 23 @ 2000 CST: Round 3
  • May 24 @ 1100 CST: Round 4
  • May 24 @ 1715 CST: Round 5
  • May 25 @ 0900 CST: Round 6
  • May 25 @ 1445 CST: Round 7

Human-Sized chess board at The University of Texas – Dallas

Texas has a strong reputation for being the land of beer, BBQ, and cowboys. Yet, amongst those things (which are all real things…even the cowboys), Texas has an incredibly vibrant chess life. The Dallas Chess Club is one of the US Chess Federation‘s Gold-Member clubs. San Antonio, my current city, is home to its own flourishing chess club and it seems like I find chess players almost everywhere I go. The US Chess Federation’s governing body for chess in Texas is the Texas Chess Association, which publishes the Texas Knights Chess Magazine and does an incredible job of promoting chess across the state.

Good luck to all of this year’s State Championship participants and the families that have traveled from all-across the lone-star state to support them!