From the Eastern

In my first game of the Eastern Washington Open, I reached a wholly lost endgame against a young player who will become one of Spokane's top scholastic competitors this year. He still has much learning ahead of him, but has the potential to become a strong player.

Spokane is fortunate that a new chess coach moved into the area. John Dill started coaching at Northwest Christian last spring. As a consequence of his work, there are five young boys among the competitors at this year's EWO. Some of them have been getting attention at Thursday night meetings of the chess club, where my opponent in particular has racked up an important victory and given one of our strongest players a scare.

White to move


He pushed his passed e-pawn, letting me back into the game.