This post is intended to let everyone know what’s happening on Monday evening with the GTCL Cup.

Background

Annex Chess Club (ACC) has hosted this fun team event for the last several years in a row. In June 2019, the last time it was run, we had a total of 21 teams. We expect to have 32 teams and approximately 135 players for the 2022 GTCL Cup, so we are looking at 50% growth.

As in previous years, the time control for this 5-round event is 15 minutes plus a 5-second increment. However, this year we will be using two sections, Championship (1800+) and U1800, instead of one big section.

At ACC, we believe this growth is further confirmation of the post-pandemic chess renaissance in the GTA. It also demonstrates our Club’s commitment to promote and support the event. This year alone, we have 11 ACC teams, including 4 ACC kids teams competing against the adults! There is also good representation with both women’s and senior men’s teams.

An interesting development in GTA chess for 2022 has been a larger number of players that belong to two (or more) chess clubs in order to get additional hours of play each week. Multiple membership examples include ACC, Hart House, Scarborough, Chess in the Park and Pub Chess—which combined offer a mix of formal rated games (with regular time controls) and informal unrated games (often with blitz, rapid or no time controls).

This year, Hart House and Chess in the Park have fielded five teams between them. We also have teams from Agincourt, Scarborough, Willowdale and Canada Youth chess clubs. Chess Institute of Canada, a top chess-to-life instruction NFP/registered charity, has also provided a CIC instructor’s team along with two teams of its students. Other groups of players, not specifically affiliated with a single chess club, have also made up their own ad hoc teams for this one-night event.

Registration fees were intentionally kept low at $5 per ACC member and $10 for non-ACC members, who wished to be placed on a team. Four or five-player team registrations were similarly only $20 for an ACC team or $40 for a non-ACC team.

While there is no prize fund for this event, Timmies cards will be given to the two winning teams. We’ll also donate $1 per player to a local women’s shelter via Keith Denning’s monthly rapid chess event, Chess For Charity!, at Bluebird Bar.

Note that:

• The GTCL Cup will take place in both the Great Hall and the Sun Room.
• The Weekly ACC Tournament (“Winter is Coming”, Rd #2) is postponed until Dec 12.
• Casual Chess will be held (in the Star Room and/or downstairs).
• Chess classes continue downstairs.

Event Officials

1. Tournament Organizer: George Supol
2. Arbiters: Alex Ferreira (Lead) and Keith Denning (Assistant)
3. Front Desk: George Supol and Mel Directo

Doors Open at 6:00 P.M.

1. Team Captains should check in at the Front Desk, once the doors open.
2. Players (other than Team Captains) do not need to check in unless they need to pay (see below).
3. All players should arrive by 6:30 P.M.
4. Announcements at 6:50 P.M.
5. Round #1 starts at 7:00 P.M. if all goes well.
6. 45 minutes per round; 11:00 P.M. completion followed by tear-down.

Team Captains – Required Checkins Start at 6:00 P.M.

1. Identify any last minute player changes.
2. Confirm Board Order (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th). See our Registration Summary for team and member names, ratings and Team Captains.
3. Review team members who need to pay us (see below).

CFC Fee Options for Expired CFC Memberships:

1. Annual renewals: $48 (adults) or $32 (juniors), or
2. Rapid tournament fee: $12 (adult) or $6 (junior)

Note: For CFC purposes, a Junior player is a player born in 2002 or later

40+ Players Who Need to Still Pay Us (sorted by reg’n. order)

Below is a list of players who need to pay (at the Front Desk) before play starts. We are publishing this early in an attempt to be able to process outstanding payments more efficiently on Monday evening.

Team	Knickname	Player	Owes Us For
Agincourt CC	Get in the Sac	-Fengxi Mao -Raymond Gao	CFC CFC
ACC III	The Board Ones	-Michael Sutton -Keith Denning	CFC CFC
ACC	ACC Masters	-Eduardo Teodoro	CFC
CITP I	Oh My Park!	-David Gunapalan	CFC
ACC Kids I	Whiz Kids	-Charis Zhu -Artur Jankobayev -Sam Ghamarimonavvar	Reg – $5 Reg – $5 Reg – $5
ACC Kids II	The Cool Ones	-Glib Dunikov -Arkady Tenkov -Yeeshuen Li -Maxim Bondarev	Reg – $5 Reg – $5 Reg – $5 Reg – $5
ACC Kids III	Smooth as Glass	-David Dunikov -Ivan Huang -Marie Guan -Andre Donin	Reg – $5 Reg – $5 Reg – $5 Reg – $5
ACC Kids IV	Chess Pirates	-Justin Huang -William Wang -Preston Rehdner -Euan Davies	Reg – $5 Reg – $5 Reg – $5 Reg – $5
	The Cool Cucumbers	-Guangyu Song -Sudhir Pokhrel	CFC CFC
HHCC II	Fellowship of the Board	-Bowen Zhang	CFC
HHCC I	The Meteorites	-Joseph Bellisimo	CFC
TMU (Ryerson)	Bold Knights	-Jordan Chong -James Taptelis	CFC CFC
	Chess Stars	-Michael Kimelman -Sasha Starr	CFC CFC
Willowdale CC	WCC	-Vladimir Birarov -Denis Ryadnov	CFC CFC
	Kids+Dads	-Greg Rusonik	CFC
HHCC III	HH Stars	-Gregory Goulbourne* -Bhavya Bhatt*	CFC CFC
CIC I	Those Who Can’t	-Peter Lambert -Rose Tuong	CFC CFC
CIC Students I	The A-Team	-Dyaus Pan	CFC
CIC Students II	The B-Team	-Rory Mullaly*	CFC
ACC Other	Four Aces	-Anvarzh Mansurov*	CFC
	Friends of Chess	-Merlin Nazareno -Lucy Gao	Reg – $5 CFC
	The Barnstormers	-Claudio Sottile	Reg – $10

Good luck to all the teams and remember—make new friends and HAVE FUN!