United States

Chess Tournaments in Idaho

Idaho's chess scene centers on Boise, where a 1947-founded state association, a long-running annual open tournament, and an active scholastic league keep organized play going year-round in a state without a major metro chess hub.

1
Club: 257
Idaho USCF players

The state scene

Chess in Idaho runs through the Idaho Chess Association (ICA), founded in 1947 and the state's official US Chess affiliate, which sanctions the Idaho Open and the Idaho State Chess Championship. Boise is the clear hub: the Boise Chess Club (revived in January 2014) holds regular meetups at All About Games on Overland Road and at Flying M Coffee Garage in Meridian, while the Chandra Alexis Chess Club has run weekly rated tournament play in the Boise area since 2008. Scholastic chess is unusually well organized for a state this size, with the Western Idaho Scholastic Chess League drawing more than 20 area schools into monthly team competition. Idaho has never produced a homegrown Grandmaster, but International Master Luke Harmon-Vellotti, a Boise native, put the state on the national scholastic chess map as a multiple-time national youth champion.

The Idaho Open, run by the Idaho Chess Association, is one of the state's longest-running events, tracing back to the association's founding in 1947.
Boise Chess Club meets weekly — Monday evenings at All About Games on Overland Road in Boise and Sunday mornings at Flying M Coffee Garage in Meridian — for casual and rated play outside tournament weekends.
Scholastic players have real ladders to climb here: the Western Idaho Scholastic Chess League runs monthly team events for 20+ area schools, feeding into the annual Idaho Scholastic State Chess Championship.