We are incredibly excited to host the first official side event of the 2024 Candidates Tournament, the Candidates Blitz!

This is a nine-round 3+2 rated tournament featuring over thirty titled players, including GM Emil Sutovsky, president of FIDE, and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, former Women's World Champion, among many others.

At 7:00 p.m. we are delighted to host our guest lecturer, Canadian GM Mark Bluvstein!

The tournament starts at 8:00 p.m. sharp.

While this tournament is completely sold out, there is a wait list here: https://candidates-blitz-2024.square.site

Annex Chess Club gratefully acknowledges the generous sponsorship of Ell-Rod Holdings.

Ell-Rod Holdings is a manufacturing company that prides itself with more than 30 years of experience in custom architectural millwork for corporate and retail clients in Canada and the Caribbean. Ell-Rod Holdings Inc. specializes in the manufacturing of high-quality architectural woodwork, custom millwork, wood doors and frames, and casework for both general contractors and end-users. Ell-Rod Holdings believe quality craftsmanship and service is fundamental in the industry, which is why Ell-Rod Holdings is dedicated to delivering nothing but excellence to corporate and retail clients.

Hello everyone!

We recently concluded the 2024 ACC Club Championship. About eighty people participated, including a strong field in the Championship section.

When all was said and done, Jonathan Yu and David Southam tied with 4.5/6.0 in the Championship section, and will split the prize money. However, Jonathan edged out on tiebreaks, and so we congratulate Jonathan Yu as the winner of the 2024 ACC Club Championship!

In the Reserve Section, Amirmahdi Hosseinzadeh won with a commanding 5.5/6.0, winning the reserve outright. Congratulations!

Daniel Marchildon won the U1400 section, also with 5.5/6.0!

Both Amirmahdi and Daniel have earned the right to play up a section in our next tournament, called Spring Is Sprung. (You can register for this tournament right now!)

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Please note that our club is closed on April 1 in observance of Easter Monday. No fooling!

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We're very excited to be hosting the Candidates Blitz, which is taking place on Monday April 8.

At 7:00 p.m. we have a lecture by Canadian legend Mark Bluvstein, and then at 8:00 p.m. we are hosting a nine-round blitz tournament with a huge array of titled players, including: GM Evgeny Bareev, GM Bator Sambuev, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, GM Aryan Tari, IM Michael Barron, WGM Qiyu Zhou, and many others! (The full list is here.)

Who knows who else will join the tourney as the date approaches? 

As this tournament will be played in one section, you will have a decent chance of playing a titled player!

Click here and register today!

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Our club will get back to its regular schedule on April 15th, with the first round of our Spring Is Sprung! tournament.

Please note that Annex Chess Club will be closed this Monday, February 19.

This means no tournament, casual play or classes will run.

Enjoy your long weekend, and we'll see you on the 26th!

Hello everyone!

Thank you for an amazing 2023! Annex Chess Club is closed for the holidays and will re-open on January 8, 2024.

In January we start our new regular tournament, appropriately named A New Leaf.

We are also starting our Junior tournament, open to players 16 and under. These tournaments will start at 5:00 on Mondays and have a time control of 30+30. These games are perfect for serious young players who need to get home early on a school night.

We wish you all the best for 2024, and we'll see you in January!

ACC's motto is Chess For Everyone!

Everything we do is informed by this. This is why we offer tournament play and casual play. This is why we offer classes for beginners and advanced players.

This is why we launched the Toronto Women's Chess Club in 2023. At ACC we strive to create a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.

One area where we've fallen down is providing an opportunity for competitive play for younger players.

True, many juniors play in our regular tournaments, but many more cannot participate because the games go too late for a school night.

We're pleased to announce the launch of our Junior Tournaments.

These are classically-rated tournaments that will mirror our regular tournaments, with one round per week. Rounds start at 5:00 p.m. and have a time control of 30+30, meaning that games should be over by 6:30.

Aside from the short time control and early start, everything about these tournaments is identical to our regular tournaments. Players must record their moves, and these tournaments will be supervised by qualified arbiters. This offering is ideal for younger players who want to play serious games but can't play until 11:00 p.m.

If we have good numbers, we will have multiple sections; otherwise we'll just have one.

We plan to launch on January 8 2024, after our holiday break, but the actual start will depend on registration.

The cost is $10 per round, or $40 for a full tournament. A valid CFC ID is required.

You can sign up here.

We're excited to announce that the Toronto Women's Closed Championship is finally getting underway! 

There's still room in this seven-round Swiss tournament. The first round is on Monday December 11 at 6:30. Time control is 60+30. This shorter time control and earlier start time makes this tournament appealing to younger players.

Round two will take place on January 8, after the club's holiday break.

We're thrilled to have WIM Yunshan Li playing.

On Monday Nov. 27th, ACC hosted the 2023 GTCL Cup. Twenty-nine teams from many different chess organizations (ACC itself, of course, Hart House CC, Etobicoke CC, Willowdale CC, Pub Chess, Chess In The Park, and more) participated in this five-round rapid teams tournament.

In the Championship Section, a three-way tie for the top prize (between Kids and Dads, Kramnik Fanclub and Chess Stars, each with 4 team points, was broken by the total match score, in which Kids and Dads edged out the other teams. Congratulations to Kids and Dads (Mark Plotkin, Victor Plotkin, Max Rusonik, Greg Rusonik, and alternate Mike Ivanov)! Mike and Mark are pictured hoisting the cup!

Here's the final standings for the Championship Section:

Rank	Team Name	Team Points	Individual Points
1.	Kids and Dads	4	14.5
2.	Kramnik Fanclub	4	14
	Chess Stars	4	14
4.	Hart House Alumni	2.5	11
5.	Willowdale CC	2.5	10
	20th Century Juniors	2.5	10
7.	ACC A	2	9
8.	Hart House A Team	2	8
9.	Etobicoke CC	1.5	8.5
10	ACC A Team	0	1

And here are the final standings for the U1800 Section:

Rank	Team Name	Team Points	Individual Points
1.	Parktically GMs	4.5	15
2.	Lorne's Butlers	4	13.5
3.	ACC C	3.5	11.5
4.	Willowdale Youth	3.5	10
5.	Smuggling Beats	3	12.5
6.	Hart House Friends	3	12
7.	ACC D	3	11
	Anarchy Posse	3	11
9.	Tigers 1	3	10.5
10.	Persian Knights	2.5	10
11.	Pub Chess	2.5	9.5
12.	Park Timers	2	9.5
13.	Knight Riders	2	8.5
14.	ACC Ladies	2	8
15.	ACC E	2	5
	Chess Chefs	2	5
17.	Tigers 2	1.5	7.5
18.	ACC B	1.5	5.5
19.	Wright Bros.	1.5	4.5

Congratulations to all of the winners. Individual results will take a few days to be posted on chess-results.com. A link will be provided when this is ready.

Hello everyone!

We have quite a bit of news to deliver this week.

First, thanks to everyone who joined us in our very successful ACC Hallowe'en Rapid! We're grateful for the sponsorship of Spirit of Math, Central Toronto Campus for this event.

Special thanks to everyone who gave their time and efforts to make this tournament work so well, especially Heidi, Daniel, and Gabriel.

You can view the final results of this tournament on chess-results.com 

This five-round rapid tournament had a field of 101 players from near and far. Thank you for visiting our club!

Congratulations to the tournament winners, IM Mark Plotkin and Brendan Cater, each with a perfect 5/5 score.

The prize for top score by women is shared by Olena Kucherenko, Haneul Park, and ACC members Adie Todd and Samantha Tajik, each with 3.0/5.

The prize for top juniors is shared by ACC members Noah and Amirmahdi, each with 3.5/5.

We had first thought to award only one prize for best costume, but we've doubled it, to give costume prizes for adults and kids!

Best costume (adult) is tied between A.J. Smit (a clever Alice in Wonderland mashup) and Adie Todd (with a costume evoking something belonging to the Hellboy universe, I think...)

 

Best costume (juniors) is tied between Terra (Death playing chess, from Ingmar Bergman's classic The Seventh Seal), and Tanishq (The Rooooooook!) 

Prizes will be sent by e-transfer. Congratulations everyone!

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You'll be pleased to know that our online classes are starting this week! On Tuesday evenings, IM Mark Plotkin will guide you through the dense jungle that is the Middlegame.

On Thursday evenings, FM Michael Humphreys will teach you about Strategic Thinking In Chess.

Both courses still have spots available, and ACC members get an amazing 50% discount!

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Our new regular tournament (Chill Out!) starts on Monday November 6. If you're planning to play in the tournament, please register here.

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We've made the decision to delay (again) the start of the Toronto Women's Closed. We hope to start this in December.

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Registration is open for the GTCL Team Cup, which is happening on November 27! You can register your team for $10 per player ($5 for ACC members.)

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Finally, a reminder that Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend. Be sure to adjust your clocks and arrive at the right time for our new tournament, and classes, on Monday!

Hello everyone!

Just a reminder that our club is closed this evening for Thanksgiving.

We're re-launching our Advanced Online Classes, with IM Mark Plotkin and FM Michael Humphreys! ACC members get a 50% discount! 

Also, don't forget about our upcoming special events: the Toronto Women's Closed Championship and our annual Hallowe'en Rapid!

Our most recent tournament has had a name change! Originally called "Harvest Moon," we've decided to rename it the "2023 Ted Winick Memorial."

As many club members will know, Ted founded the club in 2010. ACC is one of the most successful clubs in Toronto, hosting many major tournaments with great success, and welcoming a number of big names in chess, including Wesley So, Nigel Short, Aryan Chopra and Hikaru Nakamura.

Ted's impact on the Canadian chess scene can hardly be overstated, having also founded National Chess Camp and Chess Institute of Canada. Ted passed away, far too young, in 2019.

As Ted's birthday is in late September, ACC will name any of our regular tournaments that run at that time after him.

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ACC now uses the program Swiss Manager for pairing. Updates and results from our tournaments are now on chess-results.com

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We're pleased to announce that in our regular tournaments our Crown section (1800+, with the option of playing up for those 1700+) is now FIDE-rated, as well as CFC-rated.

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We are working on a Master section for our tournaments. The hard floor for this section will be 2200, with no playups. Any interested participants should email the club at info@annexchessclub.com.

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The 2023 Toronto Women's Closed is currently on hold, but we hope to re-open registration soon!

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Our next big event is the 2023 Hallowe'en Rapid! Please register for this today!