Organizer: Pacific Northwest Chess Center

Reviews for Pacific Northwest Chess Center

Total Reviews : 20 | Average Rating : 5.0

Rating	Comments
01-21-2022 IM Narayanan, Samrug	I have had the chance to play two PNWCC tournaments recently. One was the Fide Masters Artist Point(OTB), which was very well conducted, had a great venue, and was filled with strong players that you would be able to play throughout the tournament. It was a bonus that it was on the Microsoft Campus, which made it an even more unique venue. The other was one of the PNWCC Hybrid matches, in this case against Serbia. It went very smoothly, and it was a great chance to play players from Europe. There were no technical problems, which made it a very good experience. Overall, both tournaments I played were great, and I look forward to being able to play in more PNWCC tournaments.
01-04-2022 Yau, Benjamin Yuen
09-14-2021 GM Repka, Christopher	The PNWCC FIDE Masters Artist Point was a tournament that welcomed me with open arms and gave me a family feel. Not only was it done extremely professionally (nice hotel, nice playing hall, good player conditions) but the organizer made sure that everyone is well accommodated. The pizza party at the end was a nice touch.
09-13-2021 IM Tian, Eddy	The PNWCC FIDE Masters Artist Point tournament is one of the most well-organized tournaments I have ever played in! It is perfect for any player: non-masters will have the experience of playing several strong grandmasters even if they perform poorly, which is not the case in any other tournaments. The field is great for aspiring norm-seekers, with enough titled players and enough foreign players to guarantee a norm for someone who performs well. In this particular event, two players achieved IM norms, myself and Anthony He, and one other player achieved all the requirements for an IM norm but was unfortunately not eligible for it because he requested a bye. A few players were even close to GM norms, and would have gotten them if they'd performed better in the last two rounds. I like that there are prizes; in most norm tournaments, the norm providers are paid up-front, and there is no prize. The addition of prizes, albeit small ones, encourages people to fight harder, which makes games more interesting and avoids the pile of early draws that is often seen towards the end of norm tournaments. The playing area is great; all COVID regulations are followed, and cell-phone signal is disabled around the tournament room to prevent cheating. High-quality water is provided, and the hotel is elegant, spacious, and aesthetically pleasing. It even has a stove! In fact, everything is provided for the chess tournament - you don't need to bring anything to the tournament room! Everyone received a very nice new pen before round 1 started. There is a Safeway near the hotel where you can buy essentials, as well as many great food places. Another perk is that the hotel is only a few minutes' walk away from Microsoft's headquarters. You can find a chess tournament anywhere, but visiting Microsoft's headquarters is something that many people never get to do. There is even a pizza party at the end! Playing with PNWCC is a great experience that I'd definitely recommend to any player!
09-13-2021 FM Maiti, Milind	The Summer of Seattle RR tournament is one of the best and well organized tournament I have played so far. The tournament rooms were well organized and completely COVID compliant. Coming to Pacific Northwest Chess Center to play any tournament will be my first choice always. Also, not to forget the location is super convenient from hotel and groceries/restaurants.
09-13-2021 IM He, Anthony B	PNWCC has made it possible for motivated players in the USA to play strong GM's around the world in seriously organized events with plenty of fair play regulations. Even though these events are not USCF/FIDE/OTB rated, they still helped improve! They also organize fun and creative events such as the Jackpot Blitz and Bullet Team Championship. I hope PNWCC can eventually organize some FIDE hybrid events that are FIDE rated. I am confident that the management team of PNWCC can make it happen!
09-12-2021 GM Vazquez, Guillermo	The tournaments are always excellently organized and of very high level, with a great location for them too. I look forward to participating in the next PNWCC event
08-08-2021 GM Muradli, Mahammad	Everything is good!
07-20-2021 IM Sarkar, Justin J	I enjoyed your Jackpot and Openings blitz events very much. The opening thematic events near the end of 2020 were particularly interesting. I'd love to have more of them, if possible. If you want I can suggest a thematic opening of the month, or just let others on your team vote! I also quite liked your various strong open events including the Thanksgiving Open and super G/60s. I found your events lots of fun and also very nice practice. Also with the impressive number of GMs, it's a nice way to face players of almost literally all strengths. I can experiment with new opening variations or types of positions at the comfort of my home or wherever, without having to travel far and try them in real classical tournament games. Also part of the fun is keeping opponents guessing what I'm going to play and whether or not I'll repeat a given line. Sorry for such late feedback. I've always been treated well, like family at your events. I'm glad to see you're opening up over the board events in your area. Even if in person chess will slowly get "back to normal", I hope these online events won't completely disappear. I'll be happy to keep playing as my schedule permits. Something like a jackpot and/or thematic openings blitz once or twice a month may be just right.
06-05-2021 CM Kondakov, Adrian	This Chess Club is: Professional, Anti-Cheating Compliant, Hard-working and Innovative!!! The Team has immediately reacted to the COVID -19 situation and came out to the chess "market" with some innovative ideas. Their tournaments were like "first aid" and saved me during COVID-19 Lock-down times! Thank you for all your tournaments and camps!!! Can not be more grateful. I got a chance to play/compete! with/ learn from the WORLD's top chess professionals. I will continue to play online at this club's amazing tournaments, and I will surely consider to attend your other-the-board Tourneys, despite some distance to fly. THANK YOU, ans DEEP RESPECT, PNWCC!!!
03-12-2021 WGM Doluhanova, Evgeniya	I enjoy to be part of this event and I like that WGM can decide to play under 2400 section and fight for a prizes or main tournament and play against very strong GM
03-10-2021 WGM Huda, Maryana	They organize great events, where all players have a possibility to play some serious chess with slow time controls, and they do have the same good blitz events as well with time increment, and every time they do attract a lot of outstanding players as participants. Great job!
03-01-2021 FM Porter, Ryan W	It's almost unbelievable how many strong players they are able to attract to their tournaments. I just played in a weekend tournament in which over half of the 30 players in the top sections were GMs! This was a great opportunity for me to gain experience in a tournament that was also run very smoothly.
02-27-2021 GM Murzin, Volodar	The organizers had a good tournament, played with strong grandmasters and gained experience, did a good job!
02-20-2021 Liu, Richard	These are my first online tournaments, and the friendly setup instructions and formatting makes me want to get back into playing tournaments
02-20-2021 Zhang, Brian	I am a regular player for G45 and G60. The tournaments gave me amazing experiences to play with so many strong players. I learned a great deal in a very short period of time. All the tournament were well organized and closed monitored to eliminate any unfair behavior. I think PNWCC has offered many young players the opportunity that they can never have elsewhere.
02-17-2021 Shi, Ted	I have participated in Blitz, G45, G60. I like Blitz more since it leaves me more time to do other things. I hope in the future there will be more Blitz tournaments. I will continue to participate in PNWCC events.
02-17-2021 GM Xiong, Jeffery	Xuhao and his team have done an excellent job organizing many high quality tournaments and camps, especially during the pandemic period. They represent the future of chess event organization! Go PNWCC! Keep up the good work!
02-17-2021 CM Lin, Leo Fanyue	Great organizer! The quality of the tournaments are really high. With strict supervision requirement, they spent great effort to ensure the fairness of the games, which is very important for online players. Also, timely responce from the TD made the communication very smooth and effective. The result are posted right after every tourny which shows the high efficiency of the team. The variaty of the touranment covers the players in each level. Good Job!
02-17-2021 Vega, Isaac	Playing chess at PNWCC has been an amazingly outstanding chess experience. As a 1900 former 2000 who strives to obtain a chess title someday, PNWCC has given me plethora of opportunities to grow immensely as a chess player by many strong tournaments to play far up and offer lots of classes by top GMS to enhance my chess understanding and knowledge significantly. I hope there will be more tournaments like the format section for PNWCC WOW for 1900s/2000+ to play up against title players and perhaps more tournaments like the Expert G75 except with more spots for 1900/2000+ players since currently it's limited to first come first serve which is not enough time to register, since these tournaments are really popular among players my rating group. My favorite events are the PNWCC FIDE opens playing at master section with the rule only few play up spots and the opportunities to win a spot in master section by winning a lower section. More chances like this would be super fantastic.