“Chess for everyone!”

Monday nights at 918 Bathurst Street, Toronto

The Annex Chess Club is open on Monday nights, from 6:30 to 11:00 pm. We offer chess for everyone – social or serious chess players of any age or ability – in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Here is some of what’s going on at the club every week:

Children’s classes

The ACC children’s chess programme is an exciting way for children to learn the game of chess. Designed to take children from beginner to tournament level, our instruction is organized into graduated seven-week sessions.

Classes run on Monday evenings. Check the current schedule and find the class that is right for your child.

More information:

Children's chess instruction at ACC

Adult classes

Offering intensive chess training for everyone from teenagers to senior citizens, our general instructional chess programme is designed for players of all ages and all levels of chess ability.

In the new year, we relaunched our popular Introduction to Chess classes, with beginner and intermediate levels on Monday nights, 8 to 9.

The last class of our winter session is March 4 – register now for our Spring courses, starting March 18.

Last year, we also organized a special advanced course for tournament players, taught by National Master Liam Henry. And this fall, we offered a course on Developing an Opening Repertoire, taught by IM Bindi Cheng. Let us know if you’re interested in taking one of our special advanced training courses in the future.

More information:

Regular tournaments

Regular tournaments run for five or six weeks, with one round each Monday night, 7:30 to 10:30 pm.

The tournament schedule is posted on the events page.

Latest tournament results posts are available by selecting results on the menu bar.

  • Time control: First introduced into the premier section (FIDE-rated), all sections now play under the incremental time control, G/90′+30″ (each player has 90 minutes for the game, plus an extra 30 seconds each move from move 1).
  • Swiss pairing system: Each round, players face an opponent who has the same score as they do in the tournament
  • CFC-rated games: All players receive a national rating by Canada’s chess governing body, the Chess Federation of Canada. The premier section is also FIDE-rated.
  • Tie-break: In the case of ties, we will use the following tie-break systems in order:
    1. Modifided Median-Buchholz (the sum of opponents’ total scores, with bottom score, top score, or both, discarded, depending on whether the tied players’ final scores are plus, minus, or equal)
    2. Solkoff (simply the sum of opponents’ total scores)
    3. Cumulative Score (the sum of the player’s own cumulative scores from each round)
    4. Performance of Opposition (the average performance rating of the player’s opposition)
  • Byes: Players can request a half-point bye for the round (maximum of two half-point byes per tournament; only zero-point byes available in the last round) if they are unable to attend (fill out the form on our Contact page). Members can join an ongoing tournament at any time, with byes

Regular CFC-rated tournaments at ACC

Casual Section

Members are welcome to play friendly games before and after—or instead of—the regular tournament game. We also have some chess 960 players.

Kids’ Club

Kids who have already graduated from the instructional program, or who just enjoy playing games against other kids, will love our Annex Kids’ Chess Club – featuring supervised casual play, game analysis, and a weekly round of the ongoing kids’ rapid tournaments. Every Monday 6:45 to 8:15 with Keith Denning.

Chess lectures

Lectures have fallen off lately, but for a while we had an experienced player give a half-hour chess talk pretty regularly at 6:50 pm, before the tournament round started. Lecture topics have include various elements of chess history and culture, as well as tactical and positional themes.

The lecture schedule is posted on the events page.

What else?

Speed-chess tournaments, simultaneous chess exhibitions, inter-club play, and other chess events will be scheduled throughout the year. Let us know if there’s anything you would be particularly interested in.

Private lessons can also be arranged.

Who are we?

Meet some of our Annex Chess Club players through our player profiles.

Club By-Laws

Our club is governed by its own members through a Board of Directors elected at our Annual General Meeting. See our ACC By-Laws for full details.

Our mission

Annex Chess Club is a non-profit organization, founded in October 2010. Our club is affiliated with the Chess Federation of Canada (CFC).

“Chess for everyone!” – Annex Chess Club is downtown Toronto’s community chess club – join us for classes, lectures, tournaments, and other chess-related events for people of all ages and levels – from beginner to master, whether social or serious.