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!

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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)