ACC will have its final night of the 2024 on December 16. We will be taking two weeks off for the holidays. The club will be closed on December 23 and 30. We thank all of our members for a great year, and wish you all a great holiday and a happy new year.

Our reopens on January 6, 2025, with round four of our current tournament, Snowy Knights, and round five on January 13th. A new series of classes will also be starting in January as follows:

• Kid's Intermediate (eight weeks) starting on January 6.
• Adult Intermediate (eight weeks) starting on January 6.
• Kid's Beginner (four weeks) starting on January 13.
• Adult Beginner (four weeks) starting on January 13.

On January 20th our new tournament, Pushing Forward, will start, and this will have two special additions to our regular three sections. We will be launching a Master section, with a hard floor of 2200 (CFC or FIDE), and an attractive prize fund.

We will also be starting a youth section of the tournament, with a short (but classical) time control of 30+30 (delay). Younger players (U16) can participate in this tournament section with the knowledge that their games will not last much more than one hour.

A warm thanks to everyone who participated in the 2024 Toronto Women's Closed! This seven-round Swiss tournament attracted a diverse group of women, from novice to strong players.

Congratulations to Jennie Cabrera, who won the tournament with six out of a possible seven points.

Second place went to Agniya Pobereshnikova (5/7), and third place went to Serena Wilson (4.5/7), who also won the top U16 prize.

Grace Taylor (4/7) won the top ACC Member prize.

You can see the results here.

ACC thanks the GTCL for their support in operating this event. We look forward to the 2025 edition!

We had a great time at the Hallowe'en Rapid. Over sixty players participated in a five-round rapid that led to many ties.

Congratulations to Wesley Russell (left) and Nihad Mammadov for tying for first place with an impressive 4.5/5! They also share the top junior and top ACC member prize.

Tanishq Dhingra and Rymn Wadhwa share the prize for best costume, Tanishq for his "Schach Arcade" costume, and Rymn for her "sexy TTC info personnel" costume.

Here's a full list of winners.

First Place (4.5/5), also top ACC/top junior

Wesley Russell, Nihad Mammadov

Second Place (4.0/5)

Christopher Yu, Amirmahdi Hosseinzadeh, Richard Douglas, Korbin Schantz, Tanishq Dhingra, Michael Blair, Lubomir Agirov

Third Place (3.5/5)

Bingfei Wang, Tony Bao, WCM Olena Kucherenko, Kris Todi, Marco Chirigoni

Top Woman: WCM Olena Kucherenko

Top Senior: Ulli Diemer

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Our annual Hallowe'en Rapid is happening on Monday October 28th at 7:00! Join us for spooky chess fun!

Hello everyone!

We're pleased to announce that our club has moved to Chess Manager as our pairing software.

Our current tournament, Sweet Summertime, is entering round three.

You can view tournament standings and results here.

Please note that Toronto Women's Chess Club will be running tonight. It was delayed by several weeks.

Finally, please note that our club will not be operating on Monday August 5 due to the Civic Holiday, and will be hosting the Toronto Blitz Championship on August 12. ACC members can register for this great event by clicking on the link above.

The final round of our current regular tournament will be on August 19.

Hello everyone!

Please note that the club will be closed on Monday July 1 (Canada Day.)

Congratulations to the winners of our June Bug tournament!

David Southam won the Crown section, Nadir Guliyev won the U1800 section, and we had a three-way tie for the U1400 section. Congrats to Scott Ecksel, Alexei Antonov and Alexander Chavez.

Nadir has earned the right to play in the Crown section in our next tournament. Scott, Alexei and Alexander can play in the U1800 section.

David, Nadir and Scott (who wins by tiebreak) will all be offered a book from our library as well as an ACC tshirt.

Our next tournament, Sweet Summertime, starts on July 8th.

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We have shifted from Swiss Manager to Chess Manager, a relatively new pairing software program that offers a beautiful interface and modern features.

We are also going to be launching our new website in the next few days. Thank you to Heidi for spearheading this effort.

For now, ACC members can sign up for the new tournament by emailing info@annexchessclub.com.

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We are happy to announce that the membership elected a new board at our recent AGM. The 2024 board is: Salim Belcadi, Heidi Gay, Michael Blair, Frank Helwig, Mike Souza, Hari Raghavan and Keith Denning.

We thank all outgoing board members for their hard work over the past year.

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Happy Canada Day, everyone!

What a fantastic event! The 2024 Ontario Open has concluded. We're very grateful to the volunteers, arbiters and staff that made this event possible.

Around 250 players battled for prizes in every category. 

Thank you to Black Diary Investments and the Ontario Chess Association for their sponsorship of the event, the Schleifer family for funding of the Michael Schleifer Brilliancy Prize (which will be awarded shortly.)

Thank you also to St. Casimir's Parish for opening their venue to us, and to Hart House Chess Club and Chess Institute of Canada for the use of their equipment.

And of course, thank you to our great arbiter team, staff and volunteers!

Congratulations to the winners, as follows:

Crown

• 1st Place: Vadim Razin (5/6)
• 2nd Place: IM Nicholas Vettese (5/6)
• 3rd Place: GM Bator Sambuev, IM Nikolai Noritsyn, WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet (4.5/6)

U2200

• 1st Place: Jaipreet Singh Dhaliwal (6/6!)
• 2nd Place: Larry Yang (5/6)
• 3rd Place: Brendan Tan, Leon Perelman, Anthony Maulucci (4.5/6)

U1800

• 1st Place: Henry Yao (5.5/6)
• 2nd Place: Marie Guan (5/6)
• 3rd Place: Raunak Amit Ramesan (5/6)

U1400

• 1st Place: Ariel Emengga (5.5/6)
• 2nd Place: Elyas Samano (5.5/6)
• 3rd Place: Scott Ecksel, Ryan Guo (5/6)

Other Prizes

• Top Woman: Maili-Jade Ouellet
• Top Senior: Mario Moran-Venegas, Aaron Sponagle
• Top Junior: Jaipreet Singh Dhaliwal
• Top Junior Girl: Marie Guan
• Top ACC Member: Scott Ecksel, Ryan Guo

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!