Here’s the latest ACC news for this Monday, April 17, 2023:

1. 2023 Toronto Closed Starts

• The 2023 Toronto Closed Chess Championship is starting at 7:30 PM this Monday, April 17 at Annex Chess Club. This year, 30 players will participate in three sections—Championship, Reserve and Development. This is a 9-round, round-robin event with 10 players per section. The top two sections will be FIDE-rated. The tournament is scheduled to end on June 26 with one round each Monday evening until then, excluding the Victoria Day holiday on May 22.

  The Championship Section has a starting ELO range of only 188 points, which should make for some very competitive chess. The other two sections have much broader rating ranges, providing chances for a few improving players to play against stronger players. Note that 10/40 (25%) of players who participated in the 2022 event are back in 2023, so there will be lots of new faces. Of the 30 players in 2023, 21 (70%) are members of ACC. This includes all 10 players in the Development Section.

  A copy of the event flyer is available here.  Our original TC news post is here.

  Good luck to all the players!

  
  

2. Greater Toronto Chess League (GTCL) Presentations

This Monday, April 17, Michael Barron, GTCL President will be making the following presentations at Annex Chess Club shortly before our weekly tournament and the Toronto Closed starts:

2022 GTCL Cup Winners:

• • Kids+Dads 5/5 (Mark Plotkin, Victor Plotkin, Max Rusonik, Jura Ochkoos)
• • Fellowship of the Board 4/5 (Ande Li, Saarthak Malakar, Nick Pestov, Bowen Zhang)

2023 GTCL League Winners:

• • Hart House Students Team (Nicolas Vettese, Yunshan Li, Derek Ma, Wenzhi Dai, Ande Li)

3. TWCC Meets on April 17

Toronto Women’s Chess Club (TWCC) meets again this Monday at 6:30 PM in ACC's Sun Room. Resident WGM, Anna Burtasova, has informed us that her theme for the evening is “The World Chess Championship.”

This is perfect timing as the world chess championship match is currently taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan at the St. Regis Astana Hotel. After 6 games, the score presently stands at Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE) 3.0, Ding Liren (CHN) 3.0.

Note that this meeting is for women, including girls.

4. 2023 Canadian Women’s Closed Championship

This chess championship was completed on April 11, 2023. The event had 21 registered players of which 7 players (33%) were members of Annex Chess Club.

Memorable performances by ACC members in this event were: Carina D’Souza (2^nd place, 7/9 pts.), Ashley Qian (9^th place, 5/9 pts.), Yeeshuen Li (12^th place, 4/8 pts.) and Marie Guan (13^th place, 4/8 pts.). Carina’s performance was especially notable in that even though she finished second, she handed the first-place winner, WIM Svitlana Demchenko, her only defeat.

Congratulations to all players who participated in this event.

5. Other Activities

Round #4/5 of our weekly tournament series ("Night Moves") will be held in the Great Hall. Round 3 results may be found here.

Casual chess will be held in the smaller Star Room until about 8:00 PM, after which time the Star and Sun Rooms may both be used for casual chess.

In-person classes will be held downstairs Monday, April 17:

Students must register online and pay for a drop-in class (or bundle) prior to attending. Students may attend starting in any week. True beginner players should not generally skip weeks 1-2.

On-line classes (kids and adults) will be held this week: