Chess Clubs in Oregon

The Portland Chess Club, founded in 1911, is the backbone of organized chess in the state and hosted early simultaneous exhibitions by world champions José Raúl Capablanca (1916), Alexander Alekhine (1924), and Emanuel Lasker (1926). One of its students was Arthur Dake, a Portland-born player who beat World Champion Alekhine at Pasadena in 1932, won on U.S. Olympiad teams in the 1930s, and was later awarded the honorary Grandmaster title. The Oregon Chess Federation, the state's US Chess affiliate, runs the Oregon Closed (the state championship), the Oregon Class Championships, and other statewide events, and co-sponsors the Oregon Open with the Portland Chess Club each Labor Day weekend. Beaverton's Zoey Tang, who became Oregon's first Woman Grandmaster in January 2025, founded the Puddletown Chess Club, which has grown youth chess across the Portland area.

• Portland Chess Club (founded 1911) runs a full weekly schedule of quads plus named opens like the Neil Dale Memorial and the Portland Spring and Summer Opens
• The Oregon Open, held over Labor Day weekend, is the state's largest annual open tournament, co-sponsored by the Oregon Chess Federation and the Portland Chess Club
• Puddletown Chess Club, founded by Zoey Tang, runs youth chess programs and scholastic events around Portland