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It’s summer in Toronto and there are a thousand ways to celebrate! Summer starts officially in the Annex neighbourhood on Sunday June 8 with the Annex Festival on Bloor.

Then, Sunday June 15, Harbourfront Centre hosts Chessfest, presented by Scotiabank. Enter the blitz tournament, try your luck against the blindfold master, or just show up for free family fun: face painting, chess lessons, casual games, and more! (Chessfest returns August 10.)

Meanwhile, at 918 Bathurst, Annex Chess Club is celebrating summer every Monday night in June. The Celebrate Summer Swiss runs June 2 to June 30. It’s a five-round tournament in 3 sections: Crown, under 1900, and under 1500.

Round One – June 2

The tournament gets started at 7:30 pm with forty-two players paired. Before the round starts, Ted Winick celebrates our Annex A team (who won the GTCL Cup last week): Michael Humphreys, Pavel Peev, Zehn Nasir, and Bill Evans. Showing off our new trophy, Ted remarks that Annex Chess Club is “not just a pretty face” on the Toronto chess scene. The winners share a round of applause with all participants as Ted thanks all the Annex players who came out for the event.

When the round gets underway, it’s David-versus-Goliath chess as players wrestle with typically lopsided Round-One Swiss pairings. In the Crown section, Goliaths dominate, but at the end of the night the biggest Goliath of them all, Club Champion FM Michael Humphreys is held to a draw on Board One by Nicholas Gellner.

Things are much more topsy-turvy in the U1900 section. Rife with upsets, the section sees Adrian Chin, Cindy Qiao, George Supol, and Richard Morrison all take down higher-rated opponents. Ulli Diemer calculates after the round that the average rating of the five losers in the section is 1624, while the average rating of the five winners is 1469. Wow!

In U1500, Goliaths return to their rightful dominance, and David is defeated on every board but one. On that one board, it’s young Tigran Ghazarian, Canadian Chess Challenge Grade One Champion, who takes down Daniele Pirri.

Round Two – June 9

In the Crown section, there is a huge upset as Omar Shah defeats Club Champion Michael Humphreys. Shah joins Hugh Siddeley and Bill Evans in a three-way tie for first at 2.0/2.

In U1900, Adrian Chin and Greg Beal are tied for first with 2.0/2. Both prevail against tough opponents as George Supol and Cindy Qiao make the leaders work hard for their round-two wins. (Good luck to Cindy Qiao and Nicholas Vettese at the North American Youth Chess Championships in New York this week!)

In U1500, Raymond Lin and Max England are tied for first with 2.0/2.

Round Three – June 16

Not everyone can be perfect all the time. Round Three features a number of mini-playoffs between players with perfect records through two rounds.

In the Crown section, Hugh Siddeley prevails against Bill Evans, while Omar Shah takes a bye. Siddeley is now alone in first with 3.0/3.

In U1900 action, Adrian Chin and Greg Beal battle to a draw. Chin and Beal are now tied for the lead in the section with 2.5/3. Having played each other, they’ll now face challengers from the 2-point group.

In the U1500 section, Max England defeats Raymond Lin. England is now alone in first with 3.0/3.

Round Four – June 23

Round Four we welcome back Cindy Qiao and Nicholas Vettese from the NAYCC in New York. Nicholas Vettese won 2nd place in U10 (and earned a new CM title):

In the Crown section, Danny Zotkin defeats leader Hugh Siddeley to take over first place, with 3.5/4.

In U1900, Adrian Chin defeats Ulli Diemer while co-leader Greg Beal is held to a draw by Hooshang Abbarin, allowing Chin to pull into first with 3.5/4.

In U1500, Mark Gelowitz defeats leader Max England to take over first place, with 3.5/4.

The three new leaders will face a final challenger in Round 5 as they fight to hold their first-place positions.

Round Five – June 30

The final round of the tournament sees tournament leader Daniel Zotkin hold his half-point lead as he defeats Bill Evans to finish clear first in the Crown section with 4.5/5. Keeping the pressure on the leader, Hugh Siddeley wins his game against Chris Udrea to finishes second with 4.0/5. In third, Jianqiu Chen wins three in a row to finish with 3.5/5.

In U1900 last-round action, Claudio Sottile plays spoiler, knocking leader Adrian Chin down to second place, as Greg Beal, from half a point behind, wins his game against Ulli Diemer to takes clear first with 4.0/5.

In the 1500 section, Max England holds tough, defeating Howard Halim to take clear first with 4.0/5. Behind him, Mark Gelowitz and Vinorth Vigneswaramoorthy tie for second with 3.5/5.

Congratulations to Daniel Zotkin for taking the tournament, and to Greg Beal and Max England for winning their sections!

A new club tournament, the Drum and Dance Swiss, starts next Monday July 7, with Round One games starting at 7:30 pm. Arrive before 7:00 if you’re not pre-registered.

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Final Results after Round Five

SwissSys Standings. Celebrate Summer Swiss: Crown

#	Name	ID	Rating	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total
1	Daniel Zotkin	146857	2104	D7	W3	W15	W2	W5	4.5
2	Hugh Siddeley	120619	2011	W19	W11	W5	L1	W7	4.0
3	Jianqiu Chen	157842	1874	H—	L1	W14	W16	W10	3.5
4	Omaray M. Shah	121329	1965	W14	W9	H—	H—	U—	3.0
5	Bill Evans	103309	2013	W13	W15	L2	D8	L1	2.5
6	Arkadiy Ugodnikov	146626	1802	H—	L18	L9	B—	W19	2.5
7	Chris Udrea	155000	1911	D1	D8	D16	W18	L2	2.5
8	David Southam	102535	2220	H—	D7	W19	D5	U—	2.5
9	Michael Humphreys	131628	2288	D16	L4	W6	H—	U—	2.0
10	Daniel Wiebe	132137	2041	H—	H—	U—	W13	L3	2.0
11	Alex T. Ferreira	127516	2072	W17	L2	H—	H—	U—	2.0
12	Wajdy Shebetah	148432	2022	H—	H—	U—	W19	U—	2.0
13	Armand Jess Mendoza	156958	1854	L5	L19	W17	L10	X15	2.0
14	Marcus Wilker	102713	1710	L4	W17	L3	H—	U—	1.5
15	Rodrigo Oliveira	152923	2113	W18	L5	L1	H—	F13	1.5
16	Nicholas Gellner	132628	1949	D9	H—	D7	L3	U—	1.5
17	Pepin Manalo	112277	1897	L11	L14	L13	H—	B—	1.5
18	Nicholas Vettese	154199	1943	L15	W6	H—	L7	U—	1.5
19	Josep Sobrepere	152976	1816	L2	W13	L8	L12	L6	1.0

SwissSys Standings. Celebrate Summer Swiss: U1900

#	Name	ID	Rating	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total
1	Greg Beal	101490	1673	W10	W7	D2	D3	W8	4.0
2	Adrian Chin	155527	1570	W3	W6	D1	W8	L5	3.5
3	Hooshang Ab-barin	152910	1656	L2	W13	W12	D1	D7	3.0
4	Richard Morrison	135889	1303	W12	L9	H—	D7	W11	3.0
5	Claudio Sottile	148499	1440	H—	H—	U—	W14	W2	3.0
6	George Supol	152286	1395	W8	L2	L10	D11	X12	2.5
7	Cindy Qiao	155864	1405	W11	L1	H—	D4	D3	2.5
8	Ulli Diemer	153538	1651	L6	W11	B—	L2	L1	2.0
9	Hugh McNeil	108257	1798	H—	W4	H—	U—	U—	2.0
10	Bill Thornton	131181	1575	L1	H—	W6	H—	U—	2.0
11	Jack Maguire	144604	1653	L7	L8	W13	D6	L4	1.5
12	Mark A. Patton	104721	1586	L4	B—	L3	H—	F6	1.5
13	Julian Pulgarin	140527	1495	H—	L3	L11	B—	U—	1.5
14	Adie Todd	125156	1689	H—	H—	U—	L5	U—	1.0

SwissSys Standings. Celebrate Summer Swiss: U1500

#	Name	ID	Rating	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total
1	Max England	155135	1396	W11	W17	W10	L2	W15	4.0
2	Mark A. Gelowitz	126627	1424	W16	D12	W13	W1	U—	3.5
3	Vinorth Vigneswaramoorthy	153938	1353	W24	U—	W20	W4	D18	3.5
4	Daniele Pirri	132983	1454	L13	W11	W12	L3	W10	3.0
5	Julian Csik	133774	1358	W7	L10	U—	W17	W12	3.0
6	Eli Teram	107314	1250	H—	H—	L11	W22	W7	3.0
7	Rahul Gangolli	156023	1044	L5	H—	W9	W13	L6	2.5
8	Jean-Marc David	151900	1351	H—	D13	H—	W16	U—	2.5
9	Larissa Souchko	145490	996	L17	D16	L7	W23	W21	2.5
10	Raymond Lin	150193	1206	W19	W5	L1	U—	L4	2.0
11	Nick Mourtos	156384	1107	L1	L4	W6	X20	U—	2.0
12	Dennis Li	153129	1209	W21	D2	L4	D15	L5	2.0
13	Tigran Ghazarian	155438	1191	W4	D8	L2	L7	D19	2.0
14	Abdolreza Radpey	149018	1362	W15	H—	H—	U—	U—	2.0
15	Howard Halim	153419	1056	L14	H—	W21	D12	L1	2.0
16	Alex Geddie	155388	1158	L2	D9	W19	L8	U—	1.5
17	Milan Cvetkovic	150817	1258	W9	L1	H—	L5	U—	1.5
18	George Supol	152286	1395	H—	H—	U—	U—	D3	1.5
19	Zaynah Bhanji	155866	895	L10	H—	L16	H—	D13	1.5
20	Kaizen Liu	152053	1052	H—	H—	L3	F11	U—	1.0
21	Areez Bhanji	156144	904	L12	H—	L15	H—	L9	1.0
22	Luka Svirac		unr.	H—	H—	U—	L6	U—	1.0
23	Jeffrey Wang Zhu	154705	unr.	H—	H—	U—	L9	U—	1.0
24	Michael Vermont	151783	1002	L3	H—	H—	U—	U—	1.0