We’re turning five!
On Monday October 18, 2010, Canadian GM Mark Bluvshtein helped us launch our club with a chess lecture and simultaneous exhibition. The following Monday, our first-ever club tournament started with 8 players. It’s fall 2015 now, and we’re celebrating five fantastic years of downtown Toronto chess!
Running from September 28 to November 2, the ACC 5th Anniversary Swiss is a five-round regular club tournament in three sections by CFC rating: Crown, Under-1900, and Under-1500.
Round One – September 28
Compared to the first-ever tournament at ACC, which had 8 players in the first round, 40 players play Round One in this event! And two of the original eight are still here: Alex Ferreira and Daniel Wiebe!
In the unevenly matched first round of a Swiss, it’s always fun to look for upsets: this time, Nameer Issani (2025) scores an upset win over Dave Southam (2238) in the Crown section; Tigran Ghazarian (1544) defeats Hooshang Abbarin (1670) in the U1900 section; and Jeff Pancer (1112) beats Brendan Grady (1379) in the U1500 section.
Round Two – October 5
New players have joined for Round Two, and the tournament is now over 50 strong – including five new, unrated players!
After two rounds, the leader group in each section has already gotten quite small. In the Crown (FIDE-rated) section, only two players have perfect scores: Joseph Bellissimo and Michael Humphreys.
In the U1900 section, Bob Armstrong and Kamran Amirirad are the only two with 2.0/2.
And in the U1500 section, there’s a four-way tie for the lead: Michael Saltat, Benjamin Thalman, Richard Morrison, and Chris Field have 2.0/2.
Games from Round 2
Round Three – October 19
The third round sees battles of titans end in draws on the top boards.
In the Crown section, leaders Joseph Bellissimo and Michael Humphreys fight to a draw and remain half a point ahead of their closest rivals at 2.5/3.
In the U1900 section, Bob Armstrong and Kamran Amirirad battle to a draw on the top board – allowing Vinorth Vigneswaramoorthy, with a win over Hooshang Abbarin, to join them at 2.5/3.
But in the U1500 section, Richard Morrison is victorious over Chris Field to take sole possession of first place with a perfect 3.0/3.
Round Four – October 26
In the Crown section, Joseph Bellissimo scores a full point against Sergey Malakhovets to take sole possession of first place with 3.5/4, while Erik Malmsten holds Michael Humphreys to a draw.
In U1900 Kamran Amirirad defeats Vinorth Vigneswaramoorthy to take first place with 3.5/4.
And in U1500, Richard Morrison is still perfect after a victory over Benjamin Thalman, leading the section with 4.0/4.
Games from Round 4
Round Five – November 2
The leaders stay strong in the final round! In the Crown section, Joseph Bellissimo scores another victory, this time over Dave Southam, to take the tournament with 4.5/5. Congratulations, Joseph!
In U1900, Kamran Amirirad defeats George Supol to take the section with 4.5/5! Congratulations, Kamran!
And in U1500, it’s another win by Richard Morrison, this time over Milan Cvetkovic, to finish with a perfect 5.0/5! Congratulations, Richard!
See complete results on the standings table below.
A big thank-you to all for helping us celebrate five wonderful years of downtown Toronto chess at Annex Chess Club!
A new club tournament starts next week, Monday November 9, with the round starting at 7:30 pm. New players are welcome to join! Please arrive before 7:00 pm to register.
Club members, please stop in at the front desk and check your club membership renewal date. Then make a note to remind yourself to renew on time!
Final Standings after Round 5
SwissSys Standings. ACC 5th Anniversary Swiss: Crown section
# | Name | ID | Rtng | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Rd 5 | Tot |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Joseph Bellissimo | 147544 | 2225 | W6 | W10 | D2 | W7 | W3 | 4.5 |
2 | Michael Humphreys | 131628 | 2350 | W8 | W7 | D1 | D4 | D5 | 3.5 |
3 | David Southam | 102535 | 2238 | L13 | W14 | W10 | W6 | L1 | 3.0 |
4 | Erik Malmsten | 100196 | 1949 | H— | W12 | H— | D2 | D7 | 3.0 |
5 | Alex T. Ferreira | 127516 | 2107 | D14 | H— | H— | W11 | D2 | 3.0 |
6 | Daniel Wiebe | 132137 | 2024 | L1 | W8 | W11 | L3 | B— | 3.0 |
7 | Sergey Malakhovets | 158413 | 2094 | W12 | L2 | W13 | L1 | D4 | 2.5 |
8 | Daniel Zotkin | 146857 | 2077 | L2 | L6 | W14 | H— | W10 | 2.5 |
9 | Jonathan Yu | 126131 | 2238 | H— | H— | U— | U— | W11 | 2.0 |
10 | Arkadiy Ugodnikov | 146626 | 1824 | B— | L1 | L3 | D12 | L8 | 1.5 |
11 | William Li | 154677 | 1940 | H— | W13 | L6 | L5 | L9 | 1.5 |
12 | Armand Jess Mendoza | 156958 | 1918 | L7 | L4 | B— | D10 | U— | 1.5 |
13 | Nameer Issani | 154796 | 2025 | W3 | L11 | L7 | H— | U— | 1.5 |
14 | Aahil Noorali | 155015 | 1940 | D5 | L3 | L8 | H— | U— | 1.0 |
SwissSys Standings. ACC 5th Anniversary Swiss: U1900 section
# | Name | ID | Rtng | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Rd 5 | Tot |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kamran Amirirad | 158329 | 1698 | W9 | W4 | D3 | W2 | W7 | 4.5 |
2 | Vinorth Vigneswaramoorthy | 153938 | 1636 | W6 | H— | W5 | L1 | W3 | 3.5 |
3 | Robert J. Armstrong | 100034 | 1590 | W10 | W8 | D1 | D4 | L2 | 3.0 |
4 | Tigran Ghazarian | 155438 | 1544 | W5 | L1 | H— | D3 | W10 | 3.0 |
5 | Hooshang Ab-barin | 152910 | 1670 | L4 | W7 | L2 | B— | W9 | 3.0 |
6 | Mysha Gilani | 155004 | 1476 | L2 | W9 | W10 | H— | U— | 2.5 |
7 | George Supol | 152286 | 1482 | H— | L5 | B— | H— | L1 | 2.0 |
8 | Max England | 155135 | 1671 | W11 | L3 | H— | H— | U— | 2.0 |
9 | Ulli Diemer | 153538 | 1567 | L1 | L6 | H— | W10 | L5 | 1.5 |
10 | Mark A. Patton | 104721 | 1469 | L3 | X11 | L6 | L9 | L4 | 1.0 |
11 | Marc Ben-Avraham | 145628 | 1549 | L8 | F10 | U— | U— | U— | 0.0 |
SwissSys Standings. ACC 5th Anniversary Swiss: U1500 section
# | Name | ID | Rtng | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Rd 5 | Tot |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Richard Morrison | 135889 | 1359 | W2 | W15 | W14 | W10 | W5 | 5.0 |
2 | Joey Qiao | 156764 | 1096 | L1 | H— | W22 | W14 | W6 | 3.5 |
3 | Larissa Souchko | 145490 | 935 | L12 | W27 | W15 | W18 | L21 | 3.0 |
4 | Jean-Marc David | 151900 | 1351 | L13 | H— | W11 | H— | W10 | 3.0 |
5 | Milan Cvetkovic | 150817 | 1286 | H— | W26 | W24 | H— | L1 | 3.0 |
6 | Rahul Gangolli | 156023 | 994 | H— | W30 | H— | W16 | L2 | 3.0 |
7 | Joshua Allen | 105802 | 1421 | W16 | H— | H— | W12 | U— | 3.0 |
8 | Harry [Siqi] Chen | 159391 | 975 | H— | H— | L16 | W21 | W25 | 3.0 |
9 | Paul Panayotou | 160475 | 1032 | H— | W25 | H— | U— | W14 | 3.0 |
10 | Benjamin Thalman | 160474 | 1375 | W22 | W19 | H— | L1 | L4 | 2.5 |
11 | Henry XianRui Zhang | 156492 | 975 | D23 | L20 | L4 | W25 | W18 | 2.5 |
12 | Michael Saltat | 158633 | 1289 | W3 | W13 | H— | L7 | U— | 2.5 |
13 | Alex Geddie | 155388 | 1051 | W4 | L12 | H— | W15 | U— | 2.5 |
14 | Christopher Field | 108098 | 1229 | W29 | W24 | L1 | L2 | L9 | 2.0 |
15 | Ryan Guo | 154346 | 1169 | W21 | L1 | L3 | L13 | W30 | 2.0 |
16 | Eli Teram | 107314 | 1117 | L7 | W21 | W8 | L6 | U— | 2.0 |
17 | Justin Tanasijczuk | 160476 | 1309 | H— | W18 | U— | H— | U— | 2.0 |
18 | Jeff Pancer | 107543 | 1112 | W20 | L17 | W19 | L3 | L11 | 2.0 |
19 | Nick Jafari | 160405 | 1160 | W28 | L10 | L18 | W24 | U— | 2.0 |
20 | Brendan Grady | 158392 | 1379 | L18 | W11 | H— | H— | U— | 2.0 |
21 | Piotr Jucha | unr. | L15 | L16 | W30 | L8 | W3 | 2.0 | |
22 | Howard Halim | 153419 | 1101 | L10 | H— | L2 | W30 | U— | 1.5 |
23 | Adam Goldfarb | 153496 | 1299 | D11 | H— | H— | U— | U— | 1.5 |
24 | Alex Moiseev | 160217 | 771 | B— | L14 | L5 | L19 | U— | 1.0 |
25 | Jacob Tobin | unr. | H— | L9 | H— | L11 | L8 | 1.0 | |
26 | Martin Pitt-Bradley | 158457 | 960 | H— | L5 | H— | U— | U— | 1.0 |
27 | Dylan Hickson | unr. | H— | L3 | H— | U— | U— | 1.0 | |
28 | Abdalla Seddik | unr. | L19 | H— | H— | U— | U— | 1.0 | |
29 | Keira Cuthbert | 160468 | 903 | L14 | H— | H— | U— | U— | 1.0 |
30 | Larry Tobin | unr. | H— | L6 | L21 | L22 | L15 | 0.5 |
Legend
W = win (e.g., W9 means a win against player 9 – worth 1 point)
L = loss (0 pt)
D = draw (½ pt)
H = ½-pt bye (requested in advance or assigned on registration, max 2 per player, not in final round)
B = 1-pt bye (“forced bye” – e.g., odd number of players)
U = 0-pt bye (e.g., when max ½-pt byes previously awarded, or in final round)
F = forfeit loss (0 pt)
X = forfeit win (1 pt)