1. Canadian Transnational Completed

Canadian Transnational Chess Championship (CTN) was completed on Sunday June 11 with the end of the 9-round Classic norms tournament in Montreal.  The previous weekend, CTN Blitz and Rapid tournaments were held in Toronto. 

CTN was co-organized by Annex Chess Club of Toronto and Maplewood Chess Club of Montreal. It had one of the strongest fields in the history of Canadian chess. More than 60 titled players, including 18 International Grandmasters (GMs) and 5 Woman Grandmasters (WGMs) participated in the three CTN events. Fifteen different chess federations had participating titled players.

Please see our main HOME page for details about the excellent performances by some of the event's key players.  

Most notably, Canadian IMs, Shawn Rodrigues-Lemieux and Nikolay Noritsyn, successfully earned GM norms as a result of their excellent performances in the Classic.

Shawn, Salim Belcadi (Organizer & ACC President), and Nikolay

We are also pleased that IM Mark Plotkin, an online chess instructor for Annex Chess Club also put in nice performances in CTN finishing T8th in the Classic (5.5/9), T7th in the Blitz (8.5/14), and T19 in the Rapid (5/11). Mark was close to earning a GM norm in the Classic. See more info about Mark's new Maneuvering course below under item 5. ACC Chess Classes Continue.

ACC Arbiter, Keith Denning, also earned his FIDE Arbiter (FA) norm. Way to go Keith!

Special Visit

Super GM, Hikaru Nakamura made a special visit to the CTN Classic. He made a short speech and also played blitz games against some of the titled players, after the conclusion of the Classic. More pics of Hikaru are available on our Facebook page. 

 

Hikaru, Organizers and Officials

Shawn plays Hikaru blitz chess

Please see our home page links to the Chess-Results.com server to see how all the players, including the General Sections, fared.

2. Toronto Women's Chess Club Meets

Tonight, WGM Anna Burtasova will hold the 8th meeting of the TWCC. The topic for the evening is GM Yifan Hou, the former woman's world chess champion from China. Yifan is still the highest-rated woman player at FIDE 2628 (Std). TWCC starts at 6:30 PM in the Sun Room at 918 Bathurst Street and runs until 8:00 PM. All women are invited free of charge. The meeting consists of lecture followed by some casual play.

GM Yifan Hou

3. New 5-Week Tournament Starts

A new 5-week tournament, "Hazy Days," starts tonight. Players may register online here.

Players are reminded to check their CFC membership in case of expiry.

In addition, several players' ACC memberships have recently expired and players are reminded that there is only a 30-day grace period after expiry, to renew your membership before it lapses. Once a membership has lapsed, a player will be charged a $25 (+HST) reinstatement fee in order to be eligible to play again at ACC.

4. Toronto Closed Continues

The Toronto Closed event continues tonight with Round #8 of this 9-round round-robin event. There are three sections in play, each with 10 players competing for a share of the estimated $2,000 prize fund. First place in the Championship section is $500. There are prizes for the first three winners (including ties) in each section.

The Toronto Closed finishes on Monday, June 26, 2023. There are still 11 makeup games to be played across the three sections prior to the finishing date.  Competition in this event is fierce in all sections.

5. ACC Chess Classes Continue

In-person classes continue tonight with: Week 2/4 (Beginner Kids and Beginner Adults); Week 2/8 (Intermediate Kids and Intermediate Adults); Week 2/8 (Advanced Kids). Registered students may generally jump into these classes at any time. These classes are taught by a team of great instructors including Sue Foster, Nick Grachev, NM David Filipovich and FM Michael Humphreys.

Advanced online classes continue with: IM Mark Plotkin's new Maneuvering course on Tuesday's for 8 weeks. This course is aimed at club players already playing in rated tournaments. Students should already be familiar with the concepts covered in our Adult Intermediate Course. Junior players may attend this course with the instructor's permission, though their parents will pay the adult fees including HST. Registered students may also generally join these classes at any time over the 8 weeks.

ACC is providing a FREE Drop-in to Class #1 of Mark's new Maneuvering Course. Simply register at no cost to attend the free first class online on Tuesday, June 13, 2023 at 7:30 PM.

About Maneuvering

Maneuvering refers to the strategic positioning of your pieces in a way that improves your chances of winning the game. It involves identifying weaknesses in your opponent's position, creating threats, and improving the mobility and coordination of your own pieces. Maneuvering is an essential skill for any serious chess player.

Below are the individual classes being taught by Mark in his Maneuvering course:

Each class is a mix of lecture and reviewing example positions. Homework problems are given each week in order to reinforce the principles learned in the previous week. The homework is reviewed at the start of each class. Students also receive links to the recorded Zoom sessions for their personal use as well as access to the related Lichess studies.

This is an excellent course for players focused on advanced chess improvement.

IM Mark Plotkin played in the Canadian Transnational tournament (see the first news item above) and put in a strong performance against other high-rated players.

Note: We are still deciding whether to continue FM Michael Humphrey's Thursday evening Marvellous Chess classes during the summer months. Chances are, we will hold these classes on one Thursday each month.