Elgin Chess Club hosts first chess tournament in Lawton in 20 years

It’s the first time in over 20 years that an official chess tournament took place in Lawton.

The Elgin Chess Club on Friday hosted the Tanner Woodson Open tournament at Western Hills Church of Christ, 1108 NW 53rd Street.

Eleven participants, high school students and adults alike, played a so-called four-round qualifying Swiss. This means winner plays winner and loser plays loser, Joe Veal, board member of the Oklahoma Chess Association and certified official to oversee the tournament, said.

It’s the first United States Chess Federation-rated chess tournament in Lawton in over 20 years, with scores of the participants being entered into the official United States Chess Federation database.

“For every tournament, we had to drive up to Oklahoma City,” Benjamin Henry Roberts, who founded the Elgin Chess Club last year, said. Since its founding, the club’s members have attended three state tournaments, bringing home multiple trophies and many first places. They also ramped up miles by attending several other tournaments in Edmond, Norman and Midwest City.

Bringing chess back to Southwest Oklahoma was therefore important for the Elgin Chess Club. On March 4 this year, the club hosted its first own tournament in a coffee shop in Elgin. The success of this event encouraged the Elgin Chess Club and its members to organize an official, USCF-rated tournament and bring chess back to Lawton.

The Tanner Woodson Open was named in honor of Tanner Woodson, who will take over the role as president soon due to Roberts moving to the East Coast to attend John Hopkins University.