Greetings!
Northern California is home to one of the most plentiful chess regions in the United States. We are one of the top five states* in membership in the U.S. Chess Federation.

We have dozens of local chess clubs in our club list that you can drop in and enjoy a casual game. The Mechanic's Institute Chess Club in downtown San Francisco is in fact the oldest chess club in the U.S. If you are serious about some competition, look at our tournament page as there is a chess tournament for almost every weekend in the year. We have several of the top scholastic players in the United States and a few of them are even World Champion caliber for their age group.

* USCF considers Northern and Southern California two different states.

What Does it Take to Make A National Champion Team
by Juie Xie (Sartorio)
On January 27, 2013, I opened my email as usual but was surprised to receive the following unusual message. A "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Sartorio: "My name is Jay Liu and I'm Joanna Liu's father. I get your information from Gomes PTA Directory. Joanna is a 5th grader at Gomes and a decent chess player...

Northern California Chess Teams triumph at Nationals
by Joe Lonsdale
Over 5,200 school children from all 50 states competed in National Scholastic Chess Championships in Nashville, Tennessee the weekend of April 6th to 8th.

MSJE K-6 National Champions Mission San Jose Elementary (MSJE) and Gomes Elementary, both of Fremont, won the two major elementary school chess championships.
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NorCal Teams and Individuals Shine at the 2013 SuperNationals
by Alan Kirshner
The largest rated tournament in the history of chess took place in Nashville, Tennessee from April 5 through April 7. Super Nationals V drew 5335 young players from Kindergarten through 12th grade.

Weibel Team at SuperNationals The Super Nationals, in a sense, are a scholastic chess Olympics as they are held every fourth year.
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4/27-28/2013
Event: CalChess State
Scholastic Chess
Championship
the BIG ONE!!!!!
Addr: Santa Clara
Convention Center
5001 Great America Pkwy
Santa Clara, CA
Rounds: 5 or 6
Prizes: Hundreds of
HUGE tropies
TC: G/30, G/75
or G/90 +30s inc
Entry Fee: $48
Contact: Salman Azhar
e-mail: ask@bayareachess.com

Click HERE For beginner's Flyer

Click HERE For regular Flyer

Advanced Registration List HERE

Regular (Open) Tournament
Quick List

Scholastic Tournament
Quick List

Play online chess

Re-Birth of the CCJ

The CalChess Board of Directors has voted to start publishing the California Chess Journal again. In March, Eric Schiller created a Winter 2009 issue ( see back issues), later we had well-known writer Frisco Del Rosario create a Summer 2010, up to January 2011 issue. Now we have the young and talented Aditya Kumar as editor with our January 2012 issue. Our current issue is see below. With your support, we are hoping to continue publishing an electronic version four times a year. Once we get this established, issues will be FREE and emailed to all current CalChess members.

If you are interested in receiving a copy, make sure your membership is up-to-date, by checking for your name on the Membership List. We will also publish back issues on the website, and if CalChess has the financial resources, you may see some printed issues you can pick up (for free) at your local tournament!