Chess in Utah refers to competitive chess played within the state of Utah. As of January 2025, Utah has 646 active players registered with the United States Chess Federation. The current USCF Utah state affiliate is the Utah Chess Association.

History In December 2004, Varuzhan Akobian was invited to play and teach chess to schoolchildren at the McGillis School in Salt Lake City. The Mountain West Chess Association paid for his visit. Gregory Kaidanov was also invited to the same school the following month.

In 2005, Brigham Young University alumni Erik Allebest and Jay Severson launched Chess.com in the hopes that it would become the largest chess platform on the internet.

In 2009, 10 year-old Kayden Troff won the Utah Blitz Championship. He was the youngest player in Utah's Game/60 Chess Championship that year. In March, Troff had a 2125 USCF rapid rating, the highest of every active Utah chess player at the time. Troff was expected to reach the highest rapid chess rating for kids under 13 in the nation during that April's USCF rating supplement. Later, Troff would be sponsored by Garry Kasparov and receive coaching from Alexander Chernin. Eventually, he would eventually earn the Grandmaster title at the Saint Louis Invitational in May 2014.Saint Louis Invitational, Troff earns GM Title http://saintlouischessclub.org/news/2014-06-03/sevian-homa-earn-norms-saint-louis

One Utah school that heavily promotes the game is Ecker Hill Middle School. One player from the school, Sam Mason, won the Utah State Junior High Chess Championship in 2013 without any defeats. In 2019, Ecker Hill expanded its annual K-9 chess tournament to all ages with a "friends and family" section.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, online chess grew in popularity with Utah children. As the pandemic restrictions lifted, they would continue to play the game in classrooms. In response, some Utah school districts banned Chess.com. The Iron County School District was one such school district, blocking access to "non-educational" games. Regarding students playing chess, the school district's communications and foundation coordinator stated, “Chess.com would be one of many classified as games that are blocked to ensure students focus and are learning during the school day."

In December 2024, the city of Murray hosted the second U.S. Senior Women's Championship. The tournament had an $8,000 prize fund. There were 12 participants: WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia, WIM Beatriz Marinello, WFM Natalya Tsodikova, WFM Olga Sagalchik, WIM Alexey Root, WIM Shernaz Kennedy, WCM Natasha C Christiansen, Julia O’Neill, Carla Naylor, WCM Mary K Kuhner, Brenda Nardi, and Jayashree Sekar. The tournament sought the participation from women aged 50 or older.

Competitors As of March 2026, the following people are the top rated active USCF players from Utah PositionNameUSCF RatingUSCF Titles1David Forthoffer 2232National Master2Bryan B Leano 2157National Master, Candidate Master (norms-based)3Anil Cengiz 2116None4Shreyan Sarangi 20791st Category5Ujan Ray 20751st Category6Tihn Son Nguyen 2056Candidate Master (norms-based)7Michael Qin Lu 20361st Category8Kingsley Koon 20121st Category9Tyler McIntosh 20081st Category10Sharif Usenov 20071st Category Other top Utah chess players who aren't currently active USCF members include IM Zhe Quan (2503 Rating), Mark Rubery (2387 Rating), and Sergey Akhpatelov (2355 Rating).

List of state champions (1991 - 2024) The Utah Chess Association has kept a record of every Utah state champion from 1991 onward. №YearWinner(s)Notes11991Igor Ivanov21992Igor Ivanov (2)31993Mark Rubery41994Zillur Rahman51995Doug Taffinder61996Igor Ivanov (3)71997Tegshsuren Enkhbat81998Laszlo Bekefi and Jeff PhillipsTie91999Tegshsuren Enkhbat (2)102000Tegshsuren Enkhbat (3)112001Igor Ivanov (4)122002Laszlo Bekefi (2)132003Igor Ivanov (5)142004Igor Ivanov (6)152005Igor Ivanov (7), JD Smith, and Damir TrtanjTie162006Doug Lee172007Randy Zumbrunnen182008Vanel Sanchez192009Ivan Martynenko and Vinh TranTie202010Damian Nash212011Damian Nash (2) and David VasquezTie222012Harold Stevens232013Enrique Arce-Larreta242014Scott Treiman252015Eric Hon262016Phil Humpherys272017Bryan Leano282018Bryan Leano (2) and Daniel PalaciosTie292019Andrew Duren302020Eric Hon (2) and Tinh NguyenTie312021Michael Lu322022Bryan Leano (3)332023Anil Cengiz342024Michael Lu (2)

See also

Chess in Wyoming Chess in Nebraska

References