On Friday, March 21st, the Hart House Chess Club hosted a simultaneous exhibition conducted by International Master and current Canadian Champion Shiyam Thavandiran. Across 15 boards, Shiyam scored a perfect score with 15-0. Event photos are available here.
Bio: Shiyam is an International Master who was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, where he currently works full-time as a machine learning engineer. Shiyam started playing chess at the age of 7. He placed 4th in the World U10 Championships and became the youngest Canadian junior champion at the age of 12. Studying at the University of Western Ontario, he led his team to the 2012 Canadian University Chess Championship. After completing a master’s degree in mathematics in 2016 at the University of Western Ontario, he achieved the International Master title in 2017. At the 2024 Canadian Championship (hosted at Hart House), Shiyam went undefeated with 9/10 against Canada’s top players to be crowned Canadian Champion.
What is a Simul: A simultaneous exhibition is when one player plays multiple games at a time against a number of other players. Hart House Chess Club has an extensive History of hosting simuls featuring the best of Canadian Chess.
Shiyam conducted a lecture at the Hart House Chess Club on Friday, December 8th, 2017.
References: uschesschamps.org, Wikipedia on Shiyam, Wikipedia on Canadian Champions
Header photo credit: Deepanshi Matai
Hart House Chess Club 