The Toronto Closed Chess Championship starts on Monday, April 17, 2023 and runs for 10 Monday evenings at Annex Chess Club. This is a 9-round, Round Robin tournament with a 90 minute + 30 second increment time control for each game. One extra night (the ninth) is used for a makeup game.

Last year (2022), there were 4 sections of 10 players each. They were as follows—Championship (#1-10), Reserve (#11-20), Development (#21-30) and Annex (#31-40). This year, the number of sections in use, will depend on how many players sign up. Spots are assigned to players in their relative order of CFC regular rating.

The tournament has a storied past as many of the GTA's top players have competed in this championship. Below is a pic from the 1967 Toronto Championship, a precursor event.

Winners of the Toronto Closed, Championship Section, since 2000 are listed below. Asterisks indicate those events that were held at ACC.

Before Annex, GTCL President Michael Barron organized the closed at the Willowdale Chess Club. In the current era, the two most regular players, Victor Plotkin has won four and Michael Barron has won three. Plotkin won strong tournaments with average ratings of 2316, 2318 and 2329 (in 2014). Mike Ivanov has also won twice.

Additional details about prior years’ Toronto Closed events, both Championship and Reserve Sections, may be found on the CFC website here.

Pre-registration for the 2023 Toronto Closed starts on Thursday, March 16 and ends on Friday, April 7 at 6:00 PM. Players who have secured a spot through pre-registration will then have until Wednesday, April 13 at 6:00 PM to  complete their final registrations and pay their fees to ACC. Players will be able to follow pre-registrations and final registrations here.