I found a chess park! Regrade Park is a tiny, off-leash dog park in Seattle. Sadly no dogs wanted to play

What brought you to chess?

My older brother taught me to play when I was 9 yrs old. After he taught me the fundamentals, he and I’d go to chess club on Friday nights, and I learned so many things from those experiences — both in chess and in life. To this day I think of him and the gift of chess that he gave me and how it helped shape me into who I am today. I needed that support when I was a kid, and I’m grateful that I had it. Now I try to be that person for others.

What keeps you going?

When jumping into something new I subscribe to the “rule of threes” to help me keep my priorities straight: if there’s a good reason to do something, I might do it; if there are two good reasons, I’ll probably do it; and, if there are three good reasons to do something then I’ll definitely do it.

There are so many good reasons for me to dedicate myself to chess and the chess club that very little can keep me away, from my love of the game and how scholastic chess became a natural evolution of my youth work to my desire to continually learn and improve. I love organizing and creating spaces for people to meet each other, have fun, and discover something new. I get a lot of joy out of seeing so many smiling faces over the chess boards during club meetings.

Teaching a chess lesson during Cruising McMinnville 2025

For me, a fun venue is also the key to what brings me (and hopefully others) back again and again, and the club is incredibly fortunate to have the venue partners it does. Our venues have a lot to offer that go way beyond just being “a space” to meet. They have great food options, the chance to do some shopping, and a strong and supportive relationship for our club to in turn support them for all they give us. There’s that “rule of threes” again.

What kinds of chess do you either play or enjoy the most, and why?

I love Blitz chess and playing 5-minute games. I first got into Blitz when playing at Harvard Square, in Cambridge across the river from Boston, where everyone plays speed chess. The McMinnville Chess Club is actually the first club I’ve been a part of where timed play is the exception rather than the rule, and that’s helped me slow down my chess and practice more deep thinking.

I enjoy the pressure of playing speed chess a lot, though, and it’s helped me get to the idea of losing, resetting the board, and playing again. It’s also a really good way to get a lot of games in, practice specific openings, and — if I’m losing a game — switch my thinking from “How do I efficiently win this game?” to “How can I make my opponent work really hard here,” and maybe I’ll win on time.

Hopefully we’ll get our Friday Night Chess meetings going at Roth’s again, but we have 2 meetings a week already and I’m often out of town on Friday nights, so I can’t consistently host another regular club meeting. This would be a great volunteer opportunity if someone else wants to host!

What’s your favorite thing about the chess club? What would you like more people to know about?

Our regulars go out of their way to teach and mentor attendees who are looking for support, especially our younger players, and the kindness, patience, and expertise I’ve seen has been tremendously moving for me.

We also have a lot of fun at our events. If anyone in the club has an idea for an event, the main requirement is we just need two event hosts to make it happen.

Christefano Reyes (right) and club attendee extraordinaire Raul Ramirez (left) enjoying Blacklight Chess at our Holiday Party in 2023.

What’s your favorite chess opening at the moment? 

That’s a tough one, but I think I can answer that. For White, I enjoy the King’s Gambit and for Black I’ve been playing the Rousseau Gambit, which is kind of like a King’s Gambit for Black. Both are risky “razor’s edge” openings with a fun sense of danger, precision, and big payoff if played correctly. I’m writing a book about the Rousseau Gambit, and I recently finished the first draft. If you know any publishers I should reach out to, please let me know.

If you could give your younger self one piece of chess wisdom and advice, what would it be?

Don’t give up, and find a mentor or someone to play regularly with.

When I was 11, I entered my first chess tournament and got 2nd place. I can still recall the game I played in the final round and the feeling of terror when I realized I’d left a piece hanging. I was pretty upset with myself and went to maybe just one or two tournaments after that, and I wish I’d stayed with it. I needed a chess tutor or mentor, not just for improving my chess skills but also for the psychology of the game, dealing with “tilting” and burnout, and how to keep my head on straight.

Christefano Reyes (right) teaching a chess lesson at Mac Market

Has chess made you into a better person?

Absolutely. From a young age, chess has taught me skills essential for life, like problem solving, staying calm under pressure, and how to both win and lose gracefully. Chess has also helped me build a strong sense of identity and self-confidence and taught me how to manage my emotions and recover from failure. Chess has made me more resilient as a person as a whole.

Running the chess club has introduced me to countless wonderful people and the local business community, and I even started Chess Zendō, my private tutoring and coaching practice. Chess Zendō came about because I saw how many people came to chess club looking for one-on-one mentoring, and as much as I wanted I just wasn’t able to host club meetings, teach, and play, too, all at the same time. It’s a lot, and I’m glad I was able to find a way to teach outside of chess club.

Photo courtesy of the News-Register

Chess has always been a part of my personal life, but now it’s become so much more. If you’d told me a few years ago that one day I’d restart the chess club at McMinnville High School, be working as a successful chess tutor, getting certified as a Tournament Director, and organizing large tournaments and go on to build a full-blown tournament management system, I probably wouldn’t have believed it.

Anything else you’d like our readers to know? Do you have any passions or pasttimes outside of chess you want to tell us about?

I’m pretty excited about Chess Bingō, a variant of Bingo I created and use as a teaching tool with my students. I was thrilled that NW Chess magazine recently picked up my article about it and ran it in the March, 2026 issue. It’s important to me that learning chess is fun — and if it’s fun, it doesn’t feel like learning!

Chess Bingō scorecards, combining chess and Bingo. Fun for the whole family!

It’s probably not a big surprise that I enjoy analyzing problems, setting goals, and creating solutions, and something people probably don’t know about me is that my day job is in tech as a consultant, virtual CTO, and certified project manager. I’ve been in the tech industry for over 30 years, and I’ve worked with many companies and nonprofits you’ve heard of and countless others. My favorite client and one of my biggest engineering challenges was probably Digital Dollhouse, which was the project that originally brought me out to the West Coast.

I’m also very into rock climbing and particularly bouldering. I’m a V8 climber, a volunteer judge with USA Climbing’s Youth Series, and I run ClimbPDX, the largest community of rock climbers in Oregon and SW Washington. For a while I curated the local events calendar, wrote climbing product reviews, and did interviews with members of the climbing community. I want to get back into that some day and also get into sports photography.

What brought you to chess?

My dad taught me how to play when I around 6 years old.

What keeps you going?

The game fits with my personality, so it’s hard to stay away from it!

What kinds of chess do you either play or enjoy the most, and why?

Now I mostly play over-the-board, though I have played a lot of online chess over the years. I prefer playing actual humans instead of bots.

What’s your favorite chess opening at the moment?

Scotch Gambit. There are a lot of different move orders to get it after 1.e4 e5. There are also a lot of traps and tactical ideas in the opening.

If you could give your younger self one piece of chess wisdom and advice, what would it be?

I would tell my twenty-year old self to avoid extremes in my play and not to let my emotions get the best of me.

Has chess made you into a better person?

That is a tough question to answer, since it’s been a part of me for the vast majority of my life.

Anything else you’d like our readers to know? Do you have any projects outside of chess that you’re working on?

I was a scholastic chess coach in the Portland Metro area for twelve and a half years before moving to McMinnville in 2020. Along with being one of the founding members of the McMinnville Chess Club, I’m also a member of McMinnville Community Media‘s Saturday Film Club and am planning a series of shows about chess to be filmed at MCM.

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 program in Cuenca, Ecuador, when I was 8. As I continued learning about chess, I fell in love with it, and suddenly I realized that I could play and create things on the board.      

What keeps you going?

In chess, like in life, you never stop learning; therefore, I’d like to keep improving my game at the same time I have fun, regardless of the tournament results I get. Also, it is a lot of fun to connect with people through a chess game, even if no words are spoken during a game!

What does the chess club mean for you? What would you like more people to know about?

The McMinnville Chess Club means to me a safe space where people from any culture, language, religion, gender preference, political views, generation, etc. can connect through a chess game and share ideas, chess anecdotes, and their passion for this ancient game. 

I want people to know that chess is for anybody, regardless of their skill level and personality type. There’s a misconception that chess is only for introverted people, which is not accurate.

Additionally, chess can help people to improve their critical thinking skills, patience, perseverance, focus, and so on. Chess is a great workout for the brain, so the more you play and study it, the sharper your brain will be to tackle daily life situations!

What kinds of chess do you either play or enjoy the most, and why?

I love playing blitz (3min. + 2sec.) due to the adrenaline rush. However, in terms of improvement, it has been proven that longer time controls help with the quality of the game due to players have more time to think about their moves.

Additionally, I enjoy playing long games in official chess tournaments since it is not only a mental battle on the board but also a physical one. I’m currently training to play in the Oregon Open Chess tournament at the end of August in the 2000+ category.

What’s your favorite chess opening at the moment? 

ST: I love open games because they are wild, so any opening that would give me an open position fits well with me at the moment. I grew up playing closed and semi-open games, so it was about time for a change.    

If you could give your younger self one piece of chess wisdom and advice, what would it be?

This is a hypothetical question, so I’d say “believe in yourself despite disappointments and learn a lot from the games you lose”.  
 
Has chess made you into a better person?

Absolutely! Chess keeps your ego in check all the time, and it has helped me become a more patient, understanding, compassionate, humble, and better problem solver, among other things. 

Anything else you’d like our readers to know? Do you have any passions or pastimes outside of chess you want to tell us about?

I love playing soccer, tennis, doing trail running, and doing weight training in my spare time. Believe it or not, it is very important to be in good shape to keep up with the physical demands of tournament play. I have figured that in a two-day chess tournament (4 four-hour games), I burn more calories than if I had done trail running (10 km/6.2 miles) for about 70 minutes.