Chess Coaches in Wyoming

The Wyoming Chess Association, the state's US Chess affiliate, has run a state championship almost every year since 1949 (skipping only 1960 and 2020). Weekly club play is scattered thin across the state: the Cheyenne Chess Club meets Thursdays, the Casper Chess Club meets Tuesdays, and the Laramie Knights Chess Club meets Mondays at the Laramie Teen Center, alongside a student chess club at the University of Wyoming. The bigger recent story is Sheridan, where the Sheridan Chess Association (founded in late 2021) has built the Wyoming Community Foundation Open into an annual spring event with a $9,000 guaranteed prize fund that now draws grandmasters like Zhou Jianchao and Bryan Smith. Cheyenne's Dan Joelson has dominated the state championship for four decades, and GM Alexander Fishbein, who grew up in Casper and is Wyoming's only grandmaster, has returned for exhibitions including a 25-board simultaneous in Sheridan.

• Wyoming Community Foundation Open in Sheridan each spring — a strong weekend with a $9,000 guaranteed purse and visiting grandmasters
• The Wyoming State Championship, run by the Wyoming Chess Association and held nearly every year since 1949
• Weekly local clubs in Cheyenne, Casper, and Laramie for regular over-the-board play outside tournament weekends