Hello everyone!

We have quite a bit of news to deliver this week.

First, thanks to everyone who joined us in our very successful ACC Hallowe'en Rapid! We're grateful for the sponsorship of Spirit of Math, Central Toronto Campus for this event.

Special thanks to everyone who gave their time and efforts to make this tournament work so well, especially Heidi, Daniel, and Gabriel.

You can view the final results of this tournament on chess-results.com 

This five-round rapid tournament had a field of 101 players from near and far. Thank you for visiting our club!

Congratulations to the tournament winners, IM Mark Plotkin and Brendan Cater, each with a perfect 5/5 score.

The prize for top score by women is shared by Olena Kucherenko, Haneul Park, and ACC members Adie Todd and Samantha Tajik, each with 3.0/5.

The prize for top juniors is shared by ACC members Noah and Amirmahdi, each with 3.5/5.

We had first thought to award only one prize for best costume, but we've doubled it, to give costume prizes for adults and kids!

Best costume (adult) is tied between A.J. Smit (a clever Alice in Wonderland mashup) and Adie Todd (with a costume evoking something belonging to the Hellboy universe, I think...)

 

Best costume (juniors) is tied between Terra (Death playing chess, from Ingmar Bergman's classic The Seventh Seal), and Tanishq (The Rooooooook!) 

Prizes will be sent by e-transfer. Congratulations everyone!

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You'll be pleased to know that our online classes are starting this week! On Tuesday evenings, IM Mark Plotkin will guide you through the dense jungle that is the Middlegame.

On Thursday evenings, FM Michael Humphreys will teach you about Strategic Thinking In Chess.

Both courses still have spots available, and ACC members get an amazing 50% discount!

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Our new regular tournament (Chill Out!) starts on Monday November 6. If you're planning to play in the tournament, please register here.

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We've made the decision to delay (again) the start of the Toronto Women's Closed. We hope to start this in December.

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Registration is open for the GTCL Team Cup, which is happening on November 27! You can register your team for $10 per player ($5 for ACC members.)

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Finally, a reminder that Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend. Be sure to adjust your clocks and arrive at the right time for our new tournament, and classes, on Monday!

Hello everyone!

Just a reminder that our club is closed this evening for Thanksgiving.

We're re-launching our Advanced Online Classes, with IM Mark Plotkin and FM Michael Humphreys! ACC members get a 50% discount! 

Also, don't forget about our upcoming special events: the Toronto Women's Closed Championship and our annual Hallowe'en Rapid!

Our most recent tournament has had a name change! Originally called "Harvest Moon," we've decided to rename it the "2023 Ted Winick Memorial."

As many club members will know, Ted founded the club in 2010. ACC is one of the most successful clubs in Toronto, hosting many major tournaments with great success, and welcoming a number of big names in chess, including Wesley So, Nigel Short, Aryan Chopra and Hikaru Nakamura.

Ted's impact on the Canadian chess scene can hardly be overstated, having also founded National Chess Camp and Chess Institute of Canada. Ted passed away, far too young, in 2019.

As Ted's birthday is in late September, ACC will name any of our regular tournaments that run at that time after him.

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ACC now uses the program Swiss Manager for pairing. Updates and results from our tournaments are now on chess-results.com

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We're pleased to announce that in our regular tournaments our Crown section (1800+, with the option of playing up for those 1700+) is now FIDE-rated, as well as CFC-rated.

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We are working on a Master section for our tournaments. The hard floor for this section will be 2200, with no playups. Any interested participants should email the club at info@annexchessclub.com.

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The 2023 Toronto Women's Closed is currently on hold, but we hope to re-open registration soon!

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Our next big event is the 2023 Hallowe'en Rapid! Please register for this today!

ACC hosted the 2023 Toronto Blitz Championship this past Monday, August 14. We've hosted this event for the past eight years, and were pleased to do it again.

We're grateful for the support of the GTCL.

The event attracted nearly 100 players, including eleven titled players. The Blitz Championship is a seven double-round tournament with a time control of 3+2, meaning that nearly seven hundred games of chess were played in one fairly hectic night!

The arbiter team was sometimes a bit overwhelmed, but we fell in to a good rhythm and kept the event moving smoothly for the most part. Keith was the chief arbiter. Thanks to Abdul, Riley and club member Daniel for their hard work.

At the end, we had a $1500 prize fund, which was awarded to the overall winners, as well as the following prizes:

• 1st Place: IM Nicholas Vetesse (13/14, $600)
• 2nd Place: Jeffrey Zhao (11.5/14, $300)
• 3rd Place, three-way tie: IM Artiom Samsonkin, IM Shiyam Thavandiran, AFM Saarthak Malakar (11/14, share $150 prize)
• Top Scoring Woman: WFM Oksana Golubeva (10/14, $90)
• Top Junior: AFM Saarthak Malakar (11/14, $90)
• Top Female Junior: Haneul Park (8/14, $90)
• Best U1800: Noah Velasquez (9.5/14, $90)
• Best U1400: Artur Jankobayev (9.5/14, $90)

Jeffrey Zhao's performance was particularly impressive, gaining over 200 rating points!

A great deal of fun was had by all! Thank you to our photographer, Leo.

1. IM Ilyass Msellek plays Rapid/Blitz Simul at ACC

Ilyass Msellek, an International Master from Morocco, will play a rapid chess simul at ACC this evening, Monday June 19, starting at 8:00 PM, for a couple of hours.

Ilyass recently played in our Canadian Transnational Chess Championship, Crown Section. He had a nice performance finishing T17/38 in the Blitz, T11/34 in the Rapid and T14 in the Classic. He finished 16/29 Crown players who played in all 3 events. In total, 63 players participated in at least one Crown section event.

The simul is free for all ACC members and $10+HST ($11.30) for non-ACC members. This is our normal casual play drop-in fee. Several players will simultaneously play Ilyass using a 10|5 rapid time control. Players will be continuously rotated at the end of each round. There may also be some blitz games.

GM Hikaru Nakamura (left) plays blitz against IM Ilyass Msellek at CTN post-tournament play

2. Toronto Closed Makeup Game Evening at ACC

This evening, the Toronto Closed Chess Championship continues with 9 makeup games, as follows:

Championship Section:

• Board #1 (DGT): Fred Gandolfi vs IM Michael Barron (M4) - Rd #9
• Board #2 (DGT): Isaak Huh vs Abhinandan Mohan (M7) - Rd #3
• Board #3: Tony Bohan Bao vs Hugh Siddeley (M5) - Rd #3

Reserve Section:

• Board #4: Ryan Xu vs Daniel Sirkovich (M3) - Rd #1
• Board #5: Saarthak Malakar vs David Southam (M9) - Rd #3
• Board #6: Toy Chack Kwan vs Sean Liu (M12) - Rd #4

Development Section:

• Board #7: Nicolas Bonnard vs Peter Grucza (M2) - Rd #5
• Board #8: Beau McArthur vs George Supol (M11) - Rd #4
• Board #9: Sudhir Pokhrel vs Karandeep Basi (M19) - Rd #6

Next Monday, June 26, will be the final round of the Toronto Closed. Participating players in this round-robin event are competing, in their respective sections, for 1st, 2nd 3rd place prizes. The total prize fund is $2,000, with $500 going to first place in the Championship Section.

3. Hazy Days 5-Week Rated Tournament Continues

Round #2/5 continues. The June 12 results for Rd #1 are presented here.

It is possible that several (of the 12) players not competing this week in the Toronto Closed makeup games may decide to get their weekly ACC chess fix by participating in our weekly tournament.

Players may register online here.

4. ACC Chess Classes Continue

In-person chess classes continue tonight, as follows:

• Beginner kids and adults, weeks 3/4 (1.0 hrs. class) - taught by Sue Foster
• Intermediate kids and adults, weeks 3/8 (1.5 hrs. class) - taught by NM David Filipovich
• Advanced kids, week 3/8 (1.5 hrs. class) - taught by FM Michael Humphreys

Online classes continue tomorrow evening, as follows:

• Intermediate/Advanced Maneuvering Class for Club Players, participating in weekly rated tournaments - Class #2 (Maneuvering in Queenless Middlegames) - Tuesday, June 20 at 7:30 PM - taught by IM Mark Plotkin

Students may register for single drop-in classes or 4- or 8-class bundles for both in-person and online courses. Discounts are available for both ACC members and non-members. Registration and pricing options are available here.

Students of both in-person and online classes may pop in and out of classes as long as they have pre-registered/paid for each attended class.

CTN Official Image

Classic Crown Section Play in Montreal

Classic General Section Play in Montreal

The 2023 CTN Prize Funds were distributed as follows (all figures in CDN $'s):

Crown Section

• Classic - $3,500
• Blitz - $1,500
• Rapid - $2,050
• Bonus Pool - $6,500

Total - $13,550

General Sections

• Classic Open - $1,750
• Classic U1600 - $700
• Classic U1300 - $450
• Classic Special - $100
• Blitz - $500
• Rapid - $950

Total - $4,450

Combined Total - $18,000

Here are the CTN Classic Prizes for all sections:

1. Classic – Crown Section

• 1st - GM Toms Kantens (LAT) - 7.5/9 - $2,000
  
• T2nd - IM Shawn Rodrigues-Lemieux (CAN) - 6.5/9 - $750
  
• T2nd - GM Marteusz Bartel (POL) - 6.5/9 - $750
  

Total - $3,500

2. Classic – General Section (Open)

• 1st - IM Thanh Nha Duong - 5/5 - $1,000
  
• T2nd - Daniel Pomeranz - 4/5 - $187.50
  
• T2nd - Derek Wang - 4/5 - $187.50
  
• T2nd - WIM Omya Vidyarthi (USA) - 4/5 - $187.50
• T2nd - Mathieu Duval - 4/5 - $187.50

Total - $1,750

3. Classic – General Section (U1600)

• 1st - Leo Auersperg - 5/5 - $400
  
• T2nd - Marcus Sanders - 4/5 - $75
  
• T2nd - Sartaj Banger - 4/5 - $75
  
• T2nd - Ting En Ryan Wu - 4/5 - $75
• T2nd - Xavier Portier - 4/5 - $75

Total - $700

4. Classic – General Section (U1300)

• 1st - Vigneshwaran Krishnamurthy - 4.5/5 - $200
  
• 2nd - Joseph Nguyen - 4/5 - $150
  
• T3rd - Jean-Phillippe Cloutier - 3.5/5 - $34
  
• T3rd - Rohan Mullur - 3.5/5 - $33
• T3rd - Sasha Corps - 3.5/5 - $33

Total - $450

5. Classic – General Sections (Special)

• < 12 ans/years old - TBD - $50
  
• Top Femme/Woman - TBD - $50

Total - $100

Here are the CTN Bonus Pool Prizes for the Crown Section:

6. Bonus Pool – Crown Section

• T1st - GM Awonder Liang (USA) - 12.875/18 - $2,250
  
• T1st - IM Shawn Rodrigues-Lemieux (CAN) - 12.875/18 - $2,250
  
• 3rd - GM Marteusz Bartel (POL) - 12.625/18 - $500
  

• 1st Woman - WGM Thalia Cervantes Landeiro (USA) - 8.375/18 - $1,000
• 2nd Woman - WGM Yulesy Hernandez Moya (CUB) - 5.875/18 - $500

Total - $1,500

Combined Total - $6,500

Crown Section Bonus Pool Prizes were determined based on a relative weighting of Blitz (25%), Rapid (50%) and Classic (100%) points earned. Here is a list of the raw and weighted points earned in the CTN Crown Sections of all three events. The Blitz was played in Toronto on June 3. The Rapid was played in Toronto on June 3-4. The Classic was played in Montreal during the week June 6 - 11.

Congratulations to all the winners. Prizes will be distributed shortly.

Here is a link to our previous news post on the CTN Blitz and Rapid events. That post summarized the winners and prizes earned.

Note: Any errors or omissions should be immediately brought to the attention of the CTN Organizers.

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.

The Canadian Transnational (CTN) Blitz and Rapid Tournaments were held over the June 3-4, weekend, at St. Casimir's Parish Hall, located in the charming Roncesvalles neighbourhood about 1.5 kilometres from Toronto's downtown core. St. Casimir's provided an intimate setting for 94 players and numerous friends and spectators to compete, observe games being played, and also mix and mingle between rounds and at lunch. This was speedy chess at its finest!

In the Crown Section, 40 titled chess players participated, including 18 Grandmasters and 4 Women's Grandmasters.  This was one of the strongest fields ever assembled for a Canadian chess tournament. In the General Section, another 54 chess players participated. All players competed for cash prizes and rating points in their respective sections.

Saturday's 7-double round Blitz tournament had a short time control of 3 minutes plus a 2 second increment. The Rapid tournament had a longer time control of 15 minutes plus a 5 second increment, and was distributed over Saturday (3 evening rounds) and Sunday (8 daytime rounds).

More pics are available below and here.

Below are the results of the two tournaments, including player details, ratings, scores and total and individual prizes:

CTN Blitz - CROWN SECTION (Max of 14 pts.) - $1,500

• 1st place - Marin Bosiocic (GM, CRO, FIDE 2576) - 11 pts. - $750
• 2nd place - Awonder Liang (GM, USA, FIDE 2508) - 10.5 pts. - $500
• T3rd place - Mateusz Bartel (GM, POL, FIDE 2521) - 9.5 pts. - $84
• T3rd place - Cristhian Cruz (GM, PER, FIDE 2502) - 9.5 pts. - $83
• T3rd place - Shawn Rodrigues-Lemieux (IM, CAN, FIDE 2502) - 9.5 pts. - $83

CTN Blitz - GENERAL SECTION (Max of 14 pts.) - $500

• 1st place - Ethan Moon (CFC 2024) - 11 pts. - $250
• Top U1600 - T14 - Joshua Bakradze (CFC 1535) - 8 pts. - $75
• Top U1600 - T14 - Ryan Puri (CFC 1155) - 8 pts. - $75
• Top Jr. (U12) - T2nd - Aaron Reeve Mendez (CM, CFC 2331) - 10.5 pts. - $50
• Top Woman - T2nd - Cindy Qiao (CFC 1986) - 10.5 pts. - $50

CTN Rapid - CROWN SECTION (Max of 11 pts.) - $2,050

• 1st place - Awonder Liang (GM, USA, FIDE 2508) - 8.5 pts. - $1,000
• T2nd/3rd place - Razvan Preotu (GM, CAN, FIDE 2532) - 8 pts. - $525
• T2nd/3rd place - Shawn Rodrigues-Lemieux (IM, CAN, FIDE 2532) - 8 pts. - $525

CTN Rapid - GENERAL SECTION (Max of 11 pts.) - $950

• 1st place - Richard Douglas (CFC 2116) - 9 pts. - $500
• Top U1600 - T18 - Arya Sen (CFC 1524) - 6 pts. - $100
• Top U1600 - T18 - Ademar Gonzales (CFC 1265) - 6 pts. - $100
• Top Jr. (U12) - T2nd - Aaron Reeve Mendez (CM, CFC 2331) - 8.5 pts. - $100
• Top Woman - T11th - Cindy Qiao (CFC 1986) - 6.5 pts. - $100
• Top Unrated - T36th - Jayson Whiteford (CFC UNR) - 4 pts. - $50

Congratulations to all the winners. Monetary prizes will be distributed soon.

CTN Classic Starts Soon in Montreal

The CTN Classic Tournament starts soon in Montreal as close to 60 titled players gather together for 9 rounds of classic chess from June 6 to 11. Most of the GMs, WGMs and other titled players that played in the Toronto events will travel from Toronto to Montreal by train or car for this event. They will be joined in Montreal by another 20 or so additional titled players that did not attend the Toronto events. The non-GMs will  be playing in the Classic with the hope of earning a Grandmaster (or an International Master) norm through a strong performance against higher titled players.

In addition, 100 or more non-titled players are expected to compete for prizes and rating points in the accompanying General Section for 5 rounds of classic chess from June 9-11. Registrations are still open for the General Section. Please visit our annexchessclub.com main home page to register and for further information.

Links, Pics and Thanks

We have posted pics from the two Toronto events here.

Twitch Streamer, WGM Qiyu Zhou (akaNemsko) has posted her streamed CTN Blitz games on Twitch along with some commentary about the event.

Here is a link more pics on our Facebook page, including John Upper's pics of the Rapid and Salim's pics from the Classic.

Here is a link to the CTN Rapid games stored on Lichess.

Here is a link to the Crown Players' List.

Links to Chess-results.com may be found on our main home page.

Thanks to everyone who participated — the talented and friendly players, our superb Arbiter team (with their yellow ACC hats), our Organizers/Board members and volunteers, and also the staff at St. Casimir's. You all did a great job in making the CTN Blitz and Rapid Events an enjoyable experience for everyone!

In January 2023, Shealaine Richardson, a teacher at Jack Callaghan Public School, in Lindsay Ontario, reached out to Annex Chess Club for some help in setting up a chess club at her school. The school did not have budgeted funds to support a chess club, so ACC's Board approved the donation of 6 chess sets to help them get started.

We just received an update from Shealaine and it's very positive. Here's what she told us:

"We can’t thank you enough for your extremely generous donation of chess boards and pieces to our school. The students are LOVING chess as we are meeting multiple times a week to practice our skills. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your kindness and support. The chess club is a huge hit at our school and it wouldn’t be possible without your donation."

We asked Shealaine some additional questions and here's her followup:

What grade(s) do you teach chess to?

Grades 3-8

How often do the kids play chess, and for how long?

Kids are playing 3-4 times a week. Roughly 1-2 hours a week during their lunch and recess time. 

Besides the fun element, what benefits do you think your students get from playing?

Students are gaining spatial reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and mental math skills. 

Any feedback from the parents?

Parents are excited that students are playing! Most families have bought their own boards and they are now playing at home.

Congratulations to Shealaine and her students!

Marvellous Chess - New Topics This Week

FM Michael Humphreys continues his Marvellous Chess series (#7) this Thursday, May 18 at 7:00 PM with the following topics:

Commonly Overlooked Tactics

The importance of pattern recognition in chess is widely understood and difficult to overstate, but some patterns occur so rarely that even masters will quite reliably overlook them.  In this lesson we'll look at comparatively rare tactics such as the cross-pin, the life-line, sneaky retreating moves, and the unexpected opening of files. 

A Weapon for Black in the Saemisch KID

Having read the previous paragraph, you might wonder: "Do masters really lose regularly to these tactics, or is the author suffering from some form of selection bias?"  By searching through openings which make use of these tactics on the Lichess database, we can gather reliable data on the subject and conclude that the answer is: Yes—more often than not even titled players will overlook these tactical resources.  One particularly noteworthy example occurs in a sideline for black in Panno variation of the Saemisch King's Indian. Over Ten Thousand games in this line have been played on Lichess and black's score is fantastic: they win 53% of games, draw 7% and lose just 40% against an opposition whose average rating is over 2300!  

The Best Games of Leonid Stein

In this lesson we'll look at the games of a master in unexpected tactics. Although not so well known in the western hemisphere, Leonid Stein was unquestionably one of the top players in the world throughout the 1960's and until his untimely death in 1973.  We'll pay tribute to this great player by examining a few of his tactical masterpieces.

The cost to attend this week's class is only $25 ($20 for ACC members).

What a great value!

You can register here for Marvellous Chess.