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Jack Callaghan Public School

May 24, 2023 12:02 PM

George Supol
Marvellous Chess Classes – #7

May 17, 2023 11:32 PM

George Supol
Club News Update – May 8, 2023

May 08, 2023 9:26 AM

George Supol

Upcoming Classes

INTK3: Intermediate Chess for Kids - Mondays, 8 weeks, in-person (session 1 of 8)

June 05, 2023 5:00 PM

918 Bathurst Street, Lower level, Toronto ON M5R 3G5
BEGK5: Beginner Chess for Kids I/II - Mondays, 4 weeks, in-person (session 1 of 4)

June 05, 2023 5:00 PM

918 Bathurst Street, Lower Level, Toronto ON M5R 3G5
ADVK3: Advanced Chess for Kids - Mondays, 8 weeks, in-person (session 1 of 8)

June 05, 2023 5:45 PM

918 Bathurst Street, Lower level, Toronto ON M5R 3G5
INTA3: Intermediate Chess for Adults - Mondays, 8 weeks, in-person (session 1 of 8)

June 05, 2023 6:00 PM

918 Bathurst Street, Lower level, Toronto ON M5R 3G5
BEGA5: Beginner Chess for Adults I/II - Mondays, 4 weeks, in-person (session 1 of 4)

June 05, 2023 6:15 PM

918 Bathurst Street, Lower Level, Toronto ON M5R 3G5

On the edge of Toronto's Annex

Canadian Transnational

The Canadian Transnational Chess Championship (CTN), June 3-11, is being co-organized by Annex Chess Club of Toronto and Maplewood Chess Club of Montreal. It will have one of the strongest fields in the history of Canadian chess.

CTN offers three tournaments:

- BLITZ in Toronto (Sat June 3): 7 double-round Swiss, 3|2, 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM

- RAPID in Toronto (Sat June 3 & Sun June 4): 11 rounds Swiss, 15|5, Sat 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM and Sun 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM

- CLASSIC in Montreal (June 6-11 for Crown, June 9-11 for General Sections) – 9 rounds for Crown, 5 round for General, 90|30, morning rounds at 11am and evening rounds at 6pm, 90|30

Players can register for 1, 2 or all 3 events. Discounts are offered for ACC Club members. See the chart below for pricing options. Bye requests for the General Sections in all three events may be sent to info@annexchessclub.com. See the General Section Players' List re byes.

LATEST NEWS: Online registration is now Closed for the CTN Blitz and Rapid. We may be able to take several onsite registrations Saturday morning, however, play will only start from Rd #2 for these late comers. Registrations for the Classic General Sections will resume on Monday, June 5.

Players who want to register in French for the Montreal Classic (General Section) only, can alternatively do so on the FQE website here.

Players who want to register for the Crown Section should contact us via email at info@annexchessclub.com.

Links:

CTN Official Poster

CTN Crown Section Players' List

CTN General Section Players' List (pdf)

Chess-Results Server CTN Starting Ranks:

Blitz Crown

Blitz General

Rapid Crown

Rapid General

The June 3-4 venue is St. Casimir's Parish Hall (next to the StC Church),

156 Roncesvalles Ave., Toronto ON M6R 2L4.

(St. Casimir's local parking - Map #1 & Map #2)

(TTC Map - Bus/StrCar 504A South from Dundas West Bloor Sub Stn)

(Nearby GO Stn Map)

CTN Official Image

Club Activities

We run 5-week CFC/FIDE-rated competitive tournaments on Monday evenings starting at 7:30 PM until closing.

We typically have three sections of players – Crown, U1800, and U1400. Players may play up a section if their rating is within 100 points. Players must have a valid CFC membership which they can purchase from our STORE.

This chess is touch-move and uses a 90-minute + 30-second time control There are typically 40 such evenings annually, equal to 8 rated tournaments. Drop-in & membership options are both available.

Register for Tournament

(Button applies to tournaments)

We have 15-20 casual players on Monday evenings starting at 6:30 PM until closing.

We have a dedicated casual play area, so kibitzing and social talk are welcome. There are no CFC membership or rating requirements. We supply all equipment including clocks should players want to use one. We also use this area as our skittles room, where players can analyze their completed tournament games.

Our casual drop-in fee for non-members is $10/night plus HST (applies to both kids and adults, paid at our Front Desk). Casual memberships are also available.

Read our FAQs

(Button applies to tourn's/casual chess)

We have both in-person and online classes for chess instruction, including single classes and 4/8 class bundles purchased only through online registration.

Our courses are divided into adult and kids classes (<14) in beginner, intermediate, and advanced streams, We use titled chess players as our instructors, and our class sizes are managed. Each class involves a mix of lecture, discussion and play, and may run from 1 to 1.5 hrs. in length. Sometimes homework is assigned.

In-person classes are held at 918 Bathurst on Monday evenings from 5:00 to 9:30 PM. Online classes run on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

Check Pricing & Proceed to Buy

(Button applies to all 4 activities)

We usually run several special events throughout the year.

Smaller events may include our Halloween Rapid and guest GMs/WGMs or other titled players participating in multiplayer blitz or rapid simuls in our casual play area. We also organize and run larger events including GTCL and OCA—blitz, rapid and classical chess. We periodically run GM/IM norm events with help from some great sponsors and chess federations.

See below under Useful Information for a quick list of all nine special events in 2023. You can also review our Master Schedule using the button below.

Check Our Master Schedule

(Button applies to all 4 activities)

Test Yourself

Women's Chess

An ongoing initiative is the operation of Toronto Women's Chess Club (TWCC). This is a chess-related women's group (including girls) that meets for free at Annex Chess Club on the second Monday of every month. Each meeting, ACC's Resident WGM Anna Burtasova chooses a new chess-related theme. Women from all GTA chess clubs are welcome.

Learn More

<<Click on the Lichess Puzzle of the Day and solve it, plus others. Login to Lichess not req'd.

Our Home

Above: "The Great Hall" at 918 Bathurst Centre

Useful Information

VOLUNTEERS WANTED

On a typical Monday evening, we have 100+ people attending the Club. It takes us a couple of hours to setup the Club on those evenings and maybe half that time to do the tear-down. Those times can be reduced dramatically if we have volunteers helping.

Therefore, we ask our members and visitors to the Club to please help us with setup and tear-down. If everyone takes a turn at helping, we all benefit!

High school students can help our local chess community and satisfy their volunteer hours requirement, by participating in setup and tear-down of the Club on Monday nights.

Read more (Our Contact Us page)

Read more (Volunteer Toronto)

ACC SPECIAL EVENTS FOR 2023

Annex Chess Club is hosting 9 important chess tournaments in 2023. Mark your calendar!

See our SPECIAL EVENTS page for more info including individual event flyers. ACC members receive discounts for most events.

E1. TORONTO CLOSED (Mon. Apr 17 - Jun 26, ACC) *

- 9-round, ROUND-ROBIN classical (90|30); 30 players

E2-4. CANADIAN TRANSNATIONAL (Jun 3 - Jun 11)

- see above, Toronto (St.C) + Montreal; 250+ players

E5. TORONTO BLITZ (Mon. Aug 14, ACC) *

- 7-double round BLITZ (3|2); 100 players

E6. TORONTO OPEN (Labour Day w/e; Sep 2 - 4, St.C) *

- 6-round SWISS in 4-5 sections (90|30); 200+ players

E7. TORONTO WOMEN'S CLOSED (Sep 18 - Nov 13, ACC) *

- 7-round SWISS (90|30); 20+ players

E8. ACC HALLOWEEN RAPID (Mon. Oct 30, ACC)

- 5-round RAPID (15|5); 80 players

E9. GTCL CUP TEAM RAPID (Mon. Nov 27, ACC) *

- 5-round TEAM RAPID (15|5); 125+ players

* = Greater Toronto Chess League (GTCL) awarded bids.

St.C = St. Casimir's Parish Hall

ABOUT OUR NEW SYSTEM

In 2023, we installed a new online system with the following key features:

automated ACC membership processing and renewals;
a built-in registration system for ACC classes and special events;
an online store that we use for CFC memberships;
pricing discounts for non-member "contacts";
even better pricing discounts for ACC members;
logging of all contacts and members by email address to make future transactions easy;
a flexible and automated email delivery system for news, student homework and renewals
simple password recovery;
an integrated website; and
a mobile members app (see below).

MOBILE MEMBERS APP

You can now use a Wild Apricot Mobile Members App which makes interactions with our new registration system as "easy as pie." (Apple and IOS versions)

Learn More

World Chess News

TORONTO HOSTS 2024 CANDIDATES

Toronto will host the 2024 FIDE Candidates and Women's Candidates Matches, scheduled for April 3-25, 2024, with a prize fund of EUR 750,000 (approx. $1.1 Million CDN).

It will be the first time in chess history that both events will be held at the same time and venue, and also the first time that the Candidates Tournament will be held in North America.

Read more (FIDE News Post)

ACC IN THE NEWS

View two articles about ACC's memorable 2022 Ontario Open, the first post-Covid-19 chess tournament in Ontario. An interesting story with some fascinating players and some great chess analysis.

• ACM_027 (A Very Special CDN Chess Event)

• ACM_029 (An Array of Tough Challenges)