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!

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.