Some of the highest-ranked chess players in Oregon competed in a tournament this weekend at the EMU. The Oregon Chess Federation sponsored the 2005 Oregon Class Championships in partnership with the UO Chess Club.
“This is a pretty big thing for U of O Chess because we’re trying to break into the bigger chess scene,” UO Chess Club President and tournament coordinator Sara Hamilton said. Hamilton said it has been at least a decade since the University hosted such a chess tournament.
The 57 players at the tournament ranged in age from sixth graders to “really old,” Oregon Chess Federation President Jerry Ramey said. The tournament was divided into six classes based on ability.
Eight players in the tournament had ratings above 2,000, according to the U.S. Chess Federation Rating System, designating them as master-expert. The ratings are based on the number of games won and opponents competed against.
“A lot of these players do play at some of the bigger venues, like the U.S. Open,” Ramey said.
Three University students competed in the tournament: Morgan Griffiths, Elden Burns and Scott Levin. Griffiths placed fourth in the master-expert class; Oleg Zaikov, a South Eugene High School junior who gives chess lessons for the UO Chess Club every other week, tied for second.
Levin, a law student, competed in the tournament’s A-B class.
“I had a great experience at the tournament,” he said. “It was good to play against high-caliber competition.”
According to some chess enthusiasts, the game combines intellectual endeavor with the thrill of an athletic contest.
“Chess is a sport,” Hamilton said, adding that the game is a spectator sport as well. “We have a lot of people who just want to watch these great players.”
“I think chess is an icon,” Ramey said. “Everybody associates a good chess player with intelligence.”
Ramey said studies show playing chess can improve academic performance, help reintegrate prisoners into society and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in elderly people.
Ramey said the first reference to chess was recorded in fifth century Persia. The king said no ruler could effectively govern a kingdom without being a chess player. Chess was introduced to Europe through
Russia in the ninth and 10th centuries when Russian leaders
adopted it as the royal game.
Ramey, who teaches chess at ChessWays in Eugene, described four main aspects to the study of chess: opening moves and sequences of moves; tactics and exchanges; strategy and
long-range planning; and “endgame.”
Chess games in the tournament were allowed to last up to four hours, with two hours per player monitored by clocks on the tables. Hamilton said during one of the tournament’s games, a player took 25 minutes to make a move.
“You reach a certain point in a chess game where you reach a complex position,” Ramey said. “If you find the right move, it can set the tone of the rest of the game for you.”
The UO Chess Club meets at 5 p.m. Fridays in the EMU Fishbowl. The ASUO-funded group offers instruction, friendly play and intercollegiate play, and it is open to all.

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