Christefano Reyes

  • 3rd Annual McMinnville Chess Tournament

    We are excited to announce our next McMinnville Chess Tournament on Saturday, May 16th, 2026, from 9am-5pm. Join us! We will have USCF-rated and -unrated sections for both Scholastic Youth and Adults. If you’d like to learn more about our last tournament, including tournament results, photos, and sponsor details, check out our article, A…

  • Community Spotlight: Mike Terrill

    Get to know McMinnville Chess Club and our regulars with our Community Spotlight series. In this spotlight focus, we’re joined by one of the club’s founding members and organizers, Mike Terrill. What brought you to chess? My dad taught me how to play when I around 6 years old. What keeps you going? The…

  • We’re having another tournament! 

    McMinnville Chess Club will include an in-house tournament on October 22nd, and, of course, free, open play as usual for those not in the tournament. Details: Games will start promptly at 5:45pm on Wednesday night. We will start on time so we can finish up before Mac Market closes. BYOB (bring your own board!)…

  • Calling all parents! Announcing the McMinnville Chess Club Parents group chat

    For our youth members and attendees, meeting and playing other youth players is a great way to have fun, make new friends, and enjoy the game that we love — but what if their friends aren’t there and there’s no one they want to play? To foster our youth members’ immediate sense of ease…

  • Community Spotlight: Santiago Tenesaca

    Get to know McMinnville Chess Club and our regulars with our Community Spotlight series. In this spotlight focus, we’re joined by long-time attendee and club co-organizer, Santiago Tenesaca. What brought you to chess? I always say that I learned to play it by mistake. My mom signed me up for the elementary after-school chess…

  • How chess teaches the skills for a successful life

    This article is part 1 of a series of posts by our members. How chess teaches the skills for a successful lifeby Christefano Reyes, Chess Zendō I believe in the values of learning, playing, and improving in chess — and in the power that chess has to develop the skills for a successful life.…

  • A Knight to Remember: May, 2025 tournament results

    Editor’s note: This article appeared in the July, 2025 issue of NW Chess magazine. It has been since been updated with our current club meeting schedule, a mention of Memorial Elementary School’s new chess club, and the names and links to several of our attendees’ USCF profiles. At the Evergreen Museum this month, our…

  • McMinnville Chess is fit to print!

    Many thanks to the News-Register for featuring our club and the McMinnville Chess Tournament at Evergreen Museum in this week’s print edition! “One of the perks of McMinnville Chess Club membership is the weekly meetup location. ‘It’s the best-smelling chess club ever,’ said Christefano Reyes, one of the local club’s founders, about their Wednesday…

  • Closed Sicilian and an unorthodox move

    Today at chess club one of our members shared a recent game they played that shows how a seemingly unorthodox move led to a decisive win. It’s with great pleasure to be able to share it here. This game was a short game — just 14 moves! — and yet it demonstrates how an…

  • McMinnville Chess Club adopts SafeSport Code

    I’m excited to announce that the McMinnville Chess Club has officially adopted the US Center for SafeSport Code for our club meetings and tournaments where we host official US Chess events. This is an important step for our club, and I’d like to share why we believe this is valuable to our members and to…