The new OCM is here!
In the December issue of Oklahoma Chess Magazine: Amburgy wins sixth state blitz title; NM Mark Hulsey presents two Sooner Chess Club games; Jon Jacobs gives us a fresh perspective on Nakamura's unconventional road to next year's Candidates; IM John Donaldson reviews a new edition of the classic Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual; NM Tom Braunlich presents a list of simuls held in Oklahoma and a history of Oklahoma Chess publications . . .
Plus a list of upcoming tournaments in Oklahoma and—you guessed it—GAMES from Oklahoma players like NM Mark Hulsey, Hugh Strain, Tom Nichols, Ted Grose, and FM Ryan Amburgy.
RYAN AMBURGY IS SIX-TIME STATE BLITZ CHAMP
With a score of 12.5 out of 14, FM Ryan Amburgy has won the Oklahoma Blitz Champion title for the sixth year in a row. His only loss was in one of his games with Joshua Alexander, who finished in second place with 10.5 points. NM Chuck Unruh and David Luscomb tied for third with 8.0 points each.
The seven-round double Swiss event drew 38 players in two sections: a 17-player Championship and a 21-player combined Reserve & Novice.
Reserve champion: Aryan Karn
Aryan Karn scored 10.5 points to win the Reserve (U1600) Champion title. Right behind him with 10.0 was Tyler Barton in second place. Nathan Crosby and Sawyer Latham tied for third with 9.0 each.
But that's where it gets interesting.
Novice champion: Sawyer Latham
While Latham tied for third in the Reserve, he also won the Novice (U1000) Champion title. It was a tremendous performance from a player who had begun the tournament as the 17th seed out of 21 players in the combined Novice and Reserve.
Rebecca Rutledge was chief tournament director. The event was held at the Chandler Interplanetary Office Suites in downtown Chandler, which is located on Route 66 halfway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Our host was Michael Bay, who has sponsored this state championship tournament for the past eight years. Please join us in thanking Michael for making our annual blitz championship such a special event for our players.
A few photos from the tournament are on this page. Click here for more photos. When the crosstables are live, we'll add a link here.
David Luscomb scores a GM win
David Luscomb's first GM win happened Saturday, October 25, at the Texas Chess Triathalon. The 12-round event comprised six rounds of blitz (G/5), four rounds of quick (G/20), and two classical games played at G/90;d5.
The big game was against GM Joshua Castillo in round two of the Quick event, in which Luscomb tied for first.
Grandmaster Joshua Daniel Ruiz Castillo (Quick rating 2455)
David Luscomb (Quick rating 2036)
Play through this game and read Luscomb's annotations here.
FIDE tournament held in honor of Frank Berry
With a 101-player field that included a 38-player, FIDE-rated Championship section, the 9th Frank K. Berry FIDE was the largest yet in the series of tournaments held in memory of legendary Oklahoma TD and organizer Frank Berry, who died in 2016.
A Texas player, Luke Anatol, won the Championship with a score of 4.5/5. His only draw was against WFM Rachael Li, also from Texas, who tied with Oklahoma's FM Ryan Amburgy for second (4.0).
It was all Oklahomans at the top of the Reserve. Matthew Huber took first with a score of 4.5. Right behind him with 4.0 points each were Kiara Pavithran, Aviel Ndengang, Jenny Baranker, and Anurag Roy Choudhury.
Michael Arredondo of Durant won the Novice with 4.5 points. Two players tied for second with 4.0: Praveen Lakshmiganapathy (formerly of Edmond, currently a Texan) and John Lee of Yukon.
Josie Braddy organized the event and served as chief tournament director. She was assisted by Rebecca Rutledge, Mike Waters, and David Brown. Sajish Pavithran managed the live broadcast of the top boards. The tournament was held at the Quail Springs Parkway Holiday Inn in north Oklahoma City.
View games from the top boards here. Look for more information and game analysis from the event in the upcoming issue of Oklahoma Chess Magazine. In the meantime, some photos of the event are on this page. View and download more of them here. For full results, click here to view the crosstables.
Five in a row Almost five in a row for Luscomb
Tulsa player David Luscomb enjoying yet another winning streak. He won the Tulsa Midtown Chess Club's quads in July, then went down to Texas and won the Many Springs event in Tarrant County on August 9. He ran into trouble back home in Tulsa at the MTCC's August event, where draws with FM Ryan Amburgy and NM Tom Braunlich landed him in second (by a half point to Amburgy). He ended August with back-to-back wins in Oklahoma City, with perfect scores in both the August Divertimento Ricorrente and the Chaturanga IAOK Premier.
New peak for Amburgy
Oklahoma's top player, FM Ryan Amburgy, hit a ratings peak this summer. After a whale of a performance at the Cornerstone Invitational in Sunnydale, California in July, he reached 2419 USCF/2363 FIDE. Up next for Amburgy is the Frank K. Berry FIDE this month, a norms event in Houston in October, the Oklahoma Blitz Championships in November, and the US Masters in Charlotte, North Carolina over Thanksgiving weekend.
OSCO announces 2025-26 tournament dates
20 August 2025
Oklahoma Scholastic Chess has announced the dates for its 2025–26 series of tournaments. The season opener will be held in Porum, near Lake Eufaula, on September 13. Four more regular-season events follow: two in Tulsa and one each in Oklahoma City, and Edmond. The grade championship will be held in Norman and the state championship will be held at the University of Central Oklahoma again this year.
Registration is open for the September 13 event in Porum. Click here to learn more or register a player.
MAX BARNES IS 2025 OKLAHOMA STATE CHESS CHAMPION
22 June 2025
Maxwell Barnes has been named the Oklahoma state chess champion for 2025. The win makes Barnes a two-time state champion; he also won the title in 2023.
The Jerry Spann Memorial & 79th Oklahoma State Chess Championships were held June 21–22 in Edmond, Oklahoma.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Barnes scored 4.0/5 points, ending the tournament in a tie with Gautam Kowshik and Havish Kunchanpalli. Just behind them with 3.5 points were Mohit Bayyarapu, NM Mark Hulsey, Josh Alexander, and David Luscomb.
RESERVE
Liam Applegate repeated last year's sweep of the Reserve section, taking the title of Reserve Champion for another year. James Smith, Kanshk Malli, Logan Fisher, and Cody Calhoun tied for second with 4.0/5 points each.
AMATEUR
Unrated player Denver Piatt was a newcomer to the tournament scene, but we suspect he was no newcomer to chess. He won all his games in the amateur and took the title in that division. Next was a four-way tie between Arka Debray, Tristan Zhai, Matthew Baucom, and David Brown, all of whom scored 4.0/5.
The tournament drew 109 players in three sections. David Stewart directed the event with assistance from Joe Veal. Games on the top three boards were broadcast live via DGT by assistant TD Sajish Pavithran.
Click here to view the crosstables: 2025 state championships
Oklahoma wins 23rd Red River Shootout
21 May 2025
Oklahoma players Wayne Hatcher, Bruce Wells, Jeff Williams, and Ajay Basnet led the Oklahoma team to a resounding 16–12 victory over Texas at this year's Red River Shootout, held May 17 at the Lake Murray Lodge in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Team Captains were Rebecca Rutledge (Oklahoma) and Tom Crane (Texas). Crane was one of the RRSO's founders and has participated in the event as either a player, organizer, or TD every year since the inaugural RRSO in 2002.
This was the 23rd year for the annual team match between Oklahoma and Texas in which players are paired for a two-game match with an opponent from the opposing state. This year's 28-player field ranged in rating from 2533 to 362. A side event, The Carter County Open, was held for players who were not paired in the match. Click here to view the crosstables: RRSO Carter County Open
Ryan Amburgy is 2025 Space Coast Open Champion
FM Ryan Amburgy came out on top after tiebreaks with a 4.0/5 score in the 2025 Space Coast Open, held May 2–4 in Melbourne, Florida. He tied with GM Jiancho Zhou (who won the event in 2023 and 2024), GM Nikola Mitkov, IM John Gabriel Ludwig, and FIDE masters Eric Rodriguez and Brejesh Chakrabarti.
The win makes Ryan the first native Oklahoman with a US Chess rating above 2400. He needs just 71 FIDE rating points and one more norm to earn the International Master title.
View the crosstables here: 2025 Space Coast Open - RESULTS
When you don't know what to do...
We've all been there. You get out of the opening with a good position, but if you don't spot a tactic right away, what do you do?
Don't despair; NM Tom Braunlich has good news. There's a solution, and he'll be presenting it at this Saturday's meeting of the Tulsa Midtown Chess Club.
In his lecture "Advice on What to do When You Don't Know What to Do," Braunlich will demonstrate a memory aid anagram to use in those situations, reinforced by examples from recent games.
"One example is brand new," he said. "There was a very cool game played at the currently ongoing Superbet Poland rapid tournament which is excellent for showing how the masters orient themselves in such middlegames where they have to maneuver, where both players follow the guidelines we'll be talking about."
The lecture will be held this Saturday, May 3, at Foolish Things Coffee Company, 1001 S. Main Street in Tulsa. The club meets from 8:30 until noon. For more information or to be added to Tom's weekly Oklahoma Chess newsletter, send him an email at tom.braunlich@cox.net.
Tulsa tournaments are back!
The Tulsa Midtown Chess Club is back in action! On Sunday, April 27, the club held its first rated event since the loss of longtime organizer & TD Harold Brown last year. The four-round, quick-rated (G/12;+2) tournament drew a crowd of players ranging from unrated to Master.
David Luscomb won the event with a perfect 4.0 score. NM Thomas Braunlich and Chris Dooley tied for second with 3.0 points each. Check out the full results here. To learn more about the Tulsa Midtown Chess Club or to sign up for alerts for future tournaments, send an email to tom.braunlich@cox.net.
Shaun Graham is Oklahoma senior champion
The Oklahoma Senior Open & Championship was held April 12 & 13 in Norman. Josh Turin of Texas won with a perfect 4.0 score. Tied with 3.0 each were Shaun Graham, Wayne Hatcher, Chris Dooley, and Leon Toliver. Graham won on tiebreaks and will represent Oklahoma at the John T. Irwin Tournament of Senior State Champions during the US Open in Wisconsin this summer.
Chief TD was Joe Veal; he was assisted by Rebecca Rutledge. Our thanks to Tom Nichols for providing such a wonderful venue for this year's Seniors event. Crosstables are here.
FM Ryan Amburgy wins 2025 Rózsa Trophy
For the second year in a row, FM Ryan Amburgy has won the Rósza Trophy. The tournament is an invitational round robin for Oklahoma's top six players. Peter Ferris directed this year's event, which was held January 24–26 at the University of Tulsa.
Béla Rósza won Oklahoma's chess championship ten times between 1947 and 1963. He was a noted composer who served for 39 years on the faculty of University of Tulsa's school of music. On Saturday evening, players enjoyed a special presentation by pianist Stephen Truelove, a former student and friend of Béla Rósza.
The evening's highlights included the performance of one of Rósza's compositions and a suite of shorter pieces composed by Truelove as a tribute to his former teacher. Truelove's presentation engaged both the chess players in the audience and the musicians, bringing the two disciplines together in both a historical and thematic context.
The Oklahoma Chess Association wishes to thank Stephen Truelove and the University of Tulsa for making this year's Rósza Trophy such a memorable one for the players.
PHOTO: Two-time Rozsa Trophy
winner FM Ryan Amburgy
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