Attention all chess enthusiasts and strategists! Get ready to experience the exhilarating world of Bughouse Chess, the most captivating and thrilling chess variant ever created! Join us this summer on Friday August 4th, 2023 from 7 pm – 8:30 pm for a great night of bughouse!
What is Bughouse Chess? Bughouse Chess is the fusion of lightning-fast gameplay and strategic teamwork, where two teams of two players apiece battle it out simultaneously on two chessboards. It’s like chess on steroids! Teamwork makes the dream work!
WHEN: Friday, August 4th, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm.
WHERE: Hart House (7 Hart House Cir, Toronto) – Reading Room.
WHAT: 5 round Blitz Event (Swiss), with a 5 minute time control.
RATED: Unrated
ENTRY FEE: Free for members, $10 for non-members, free for titled players. Register onsite before 7pm.
PRIZE FUND: Guaranteed $100. Distribution announced onsite.
Want to showcase your speed chess skills? Join the Club on Fri. June 30th at Hart House for a speed chess tournament featuring 7 double-rounds of 1 min + 1 second bullet starting at 7 pm! We hope to see you there!
FORMAT AND EVENT DETAILS
WHEN: Friday, June 30th, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm.
WHERE: Hart House (7 Hart House Cir, Toronto) – Reading Room.
WHAT: 7 double-round Bullet Event (Swiss), with a 1 minute + 1 second time control.
RATED: Unrated
ENTRY FEE: Free for members, $10 for non-members, free for titled players. Register onsite before 7pm.
PRIZE FUND: Guaranteed $150. Distribution announced onsite.
On June 30th, the Canada Day Eve Bullet took place at Hart House chess club in order to rejoice in the statutory holiday.
Serving as the prelude of the national celebration for the anniversary of the confederation, the tournament was made up of 7 double-round bullet games with a time control of 1min+1s. A total of 21 players of various skill levels participated in this event.
The top place was gained by IM Alexander Reprintsev with scores of 12/14 followed by CM Koosha Jaferian with 11/14 and IM Mark Plotkin 10.5/14.
IM Alexander Reprintsev (1st board white); CM Koosha Jaferian (2nd board black); IM Mark Plotkin (1st board black)
Join the Hart House Chess Club for the first blitz tournament of the summer this Friday, June 16th at Hart House! We’re playing 5 rounds of 5 minutes + 2 seconds blitz starting at 7 pm! We hope to see you there!
FORMAT AND EVENT DETAILS
WHEN: Friday, June 16th, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm.
WHERE: Hart House (7 Hart House Cir, Toronto) – Reading Room.
WHAT: 5-round Blitz Event (Swiss), with a 5 minute + 2 second time control.
RATED: Unrated
ENTRY FEE: Free for members, $10 for non-members, free for titled players. Register onsite before 7pm.
PRIZE FUND: Guaranteed $150. Distribution announced onsite.
Congrats to Ethan, Fengxi, Yunshan, Nicholas, Bingfei, Isabelle, and Cindy for qualifying to the PanAms to represent the Club!
See below for original event post:
The Club will be holding a qualifying tournament from September 9th-10th to select players to represent the University of Toronto at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championships to be held next year in McAllen, Texas, Jan 4th – 7th, 2024. Travel and accommodation will be covered partially by HHCC.
PANAM INFO:
The annual Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship is the pinnacle of international collegiate chess. Dubbed the “World Series of College Chess”, the Club had fundraised and fielded teams to the tournament every year since 1965 (less COVID restricted years). The storied championship pits the best collegiate chess teams against one another from the North and South Americas. The Hart House Chess Club, representing the University of Toronto, has won the championship 6 times, the most from any non-American school.
Pan-Am-Qualifiers SCHEDULE:
Time Control: 60 minutes + 30 seconds increment
Check-in: 9:00 am – 9:30 am Round 1: 9:30 am September 9th Round 2: 12:45 pm September 9th Round 3: 4 pm September 9th Round 4: 9:30 am September 10th Round 5: 12:45 pm September 10th Tiebreaks (if needed) 4pm September 10th
0-point-byes are in effect. Players are expected to play all rounds. Forced byes will be awarded 1 point.
Players are required to check-in by 9:30 am to be paired for Round 1.
Ratings will be used for seeding/pairing purposes but the tournament itself will not be rated with the Chess Federation of Canada.
REGISTRATION: available online here, or in-person at the Hart House Info Desk. Also available in-person before 9:20 am day of the event. With valid proof of student enrollment. WHAT: Unrated 5 Round Swiss Tournament with a 60 min + 30 sec increment time control. COST: Free WHERE: Hart House Debates Room, Committees Room for analysis/skittles ELIGIBILITY: Current U of T students.
The tournament will select 7 players based on final standings to represent the Hart House Chess Club and the University of Toronto at this year’s Pan-Ams. A mandatory fee of $250 for all participants is required and paid before end-of-September, however, the Club will cover the rest of fundraising costs. We ask that you only play in the tournament if you want to play in the Pan-Ams. Note that one spot was given out last year to Eilia Zomorrodian due to visa timelines.
It’s another semester, which means lessons are starting up again! For 12-weeks this Summer, the Club is hosting free lessons for all members of the Club. Students can become members for free.
Summer semester lessons begin this Friday, June 9th, 2023 and run until September 1st, 2023! 13-weeks of free chess classes for everyone interested in learning and being in a chess environment! Students can get their free membership and show up day-of! No need to commit to all lessons – you can show up to one, some, or all of them! Community members can become a Hart House Chess Club member for the summer to take part in lessons. The lessons are structured in a way that missing lessons due to midterms, assignments, and exams will not affect learning outcomes.
Beginner Lessons: Fridays, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM will be taught by Victor Zheng (CFC: 2079) and Bowen Zhang (CFC 1348). Victor is a 3rd year CS Specialist student, a Varsity Chess Team player, and Secretary/President of the Club this year. Bowen is a 4th year Medical Biophysics PHD student and Events Director of the Club who also has lots of experience coaching beginners on playing chess! Both are looking forward to sharing their knowledge with everyone this summer!
Format: (Note: this format may change) The first 45 minutes will be a prepared lesson conducted on the weekly selected topic. Then, the second 45 minutes will be a mixture of activities such as playing out a positions, blindfold chess, hand and brain, blitz tournaments, or other interactive chess activities.
Beginner Lesson Plan for Summer 2023: (subject to change)
The rules of chess/mate in one, piece value, piece value in relation to pawn structure
For Alan (Yi-Lun), chess was initially as unremarkable as an unnoticed pebble on a bustling street. His journey with chess began unexpectedly in high school when he discovered the “Chess Titans” app on a computer within the quiet serenity of the top floor of his father’s clinic. This sparked a curiosity that soon evolved into a deep interest in the game. Since then, his passion for chess has propelled him to significant achievements, including becoming the gold medalist of the 2016 Prince Edward Island YCA Chess Tournament and the 2017 Prince Edward Island Provincial Chess Challenge. In addition to chess, Alan has developed a strong passion for the French language. He’s specializing in French, a language for which he harbors deep love. Beyond academics, he puts his French skills into practice, serving as a translator for a food company and a French teacher at an educational center. When he’s not playing chess or working on French, Alan can also be found obsessively playing Chopin’s ballades. As the Fundraiser, Alan aims to utilize his passions to expand the influence of HHCC. He is committed to securing the resources necessary to create a more inclusive chess community, ensuring that the beauty of the game is accessible to all.
WGM Dana is giving a talk. (Photo: Anna Burtasova)
On May 14th a special Mother’s Day was celebrated in Toronto as 60 women and girls came together at Hart House for a Chess Festival. Dana Reizniece-Ozola, managing director of FIDE (the international chess federation), spent the whole day with these women and girls, some of whom traveled from Waterloo or even as far away as Thunder Bay. A strong woman grandmaster herself who has made a successful career in politics in her home country of Latvia, Dana was joined by well-known titled women from the Toronto area, Anna Burtasova and Oksana Golubeva, in giving talks during the morning. Alla Mischanka spoke briefly as well, on FIDE’s INFINITE Chess Project, an initiative to engage children with autism spectrum disorder with chess.
Following the morning talks, the participants went upstairs for a pizza lunch while the volunteers worked hard to reset the room for a simul. Dana and Anna gave large simuls in the Debates Room while several participants spilled over into the Committees Room where Cindy Qiao, UofT’s strongest woman in attendance, gave a third simul. To ensure the subsequent rapid tournament could start on time, a clock was put on each board, giving 45 minutes to the simul giver and 15 minutes to the participants. With the number of games to be played, that edge on the clock was not enough to give Dana, Anna, and Cindy an easy time, and many games came down to the wire in serious time pressure. It was a great experience for the participants to play these games, and some of them even scored memorable points.
WGM Dana in Simul.
WFM Cindy in Simul.
WGM Anna in Simul.
Simul in the Debates Room (Photo: Bowen Zhang)
After the simul, the volunteers reset the room slightly for the rapid tournament as we finalized the starting list for that event. Pairings were up to start the first round at 2:45pm, and that kicked off a 6-round tournament with 54 participants, surely the largest tournament for women and girls to be held at Hart House, and one of the biggest such events in Canada. Players had 10 minutes per game, gaining 2 seconds on the clock with each move they made. The first 6 boards were DGT boards with moves relayed live and broadcast on lichess. The tournament was so strong that each of these boards featured a titled player in round 1: WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola, WFM Oksana Golubeva, WGM Anna Burtasova, WCM Olena Kucherenko, WFM Cindy Qiao, and WIM Gabriella Johnson were the top six seeds. At the other end, we saw a lot of new faces in chess with 17 unrated players starting the tournament.
Before the match (Photo: Michael Reyes)
Players were fighting for a generous prize fund, with the Chess Federation of Canada and Ontario Chess Association sponsoring the event with prize fund contributions, while FIDE’s support included contributions to trophies. Prizes were available to the top three finishers, as well as top finishers by rating category (U2000, U1600, U1200, U800 and unrated). Trophies went to the top three and then by age category (U18, U15, U12, U9) with prizes as well for the top UofT student and youngest participant.
The top seeds made it unscathed through three rounds, with the exception of Gabriella’s defeat to Ingrid Wu in round 3. Round 4 saw the start of titled players being matched against each other, with Dana getting the best of Olena on board 1 and Cindy defeating Oksana on board 2. Such fighting chess characterized the tournament across all boards – after 4 rounds of play and over 100 games of chess, still, no draws had been made. Three undefeated players started round 5 – Dana gave up her queen in a nice fashion to defeat Anna while Cindy matched Dana’s 5/5 when she delivered a checkmate against Olena after breaking through with a rook sacrifice.
Dana vs. Anna (Photo: Michael Reyes)
In round 6, the board one clash featured the two remaining undefeated players. In a long game with some ups and downs, but one that was roughly balanced throughout, Dana emerged victorious against Cindy with the clock playing a big role. Several players took the opportunity to catch Cindy in second place, as the tournament finished without a single draw occurring on the top 6 DGT boards.
Dana took clear first place for her efforts, recording the only perfect score. Joining Cindy in a tie for second place were Oksana, Anna, Lucy Gao, and April Zhong. The five players shared the prizes for 2nd and 3rd place while each was awarded their own trophy: Anna took 2nd place on tiebreaks, Oksana took 3rd, Cindy (4th) was awarded Top UofT Student, Lucy (5th) won Top U15 and April (6th) won Top U18. Lucy and April also shared the top U2000 prize.
Top U1600 was split 5 ways among players finishing at 4/6: Ingrid Wu, Chloe Duong, Shabnam Abbarin, Adie Todd, and Anna Gavrileva. Top U1200 was shared by 2 players finishing at 4/6: Emily Robinson and Chloe Huang. Four players at 3/6 shared Top U800: Victoria Lai, Katherine Leung, Angela Wang, and Tiffany Chen. Liza Augistin took top unrated alone, scoring 3.5/6 (after making one of just 3 draws in the whole tournament).
The final trophies were awarded to Laksshana Deepak (Top U12 at 4/6) and Chloe Huang (Top U9 at 4/6). Carter Payne was recognized as the youngest participant, at just 6 years old. All attendees were awarded certificates recognizing their participation.
Trophies! (Photo: Michael Reyes)
At the end of the awards ceremony, Dana presented certificates recognizing the efforts of Anna, Oksana, and the Hart House Chess Club in making this event possible.
Special thank you again to the generous sponsors, to FIDE and the Commission for Women’s Chess, the Chess Federation of Canada, and the Ontario Chess Association. To Hart House for hosting and to the volunteers from the club who helped arrange everything on the day – Victor, Bowen, Ahmed, and Alex. Thanks to the participants as well who took time to help set up boards and clocks. Thank you to all the special guests Dana, Anna, Oksana, and Alla. Thank you to Sahan, who recorded all the morning lectures. Thank you to all the mothers who spent their day with us. The feedback received from participants has been overwhelmingly positive, and we can only hope that there can be more such events to promote the participation of women and girls in chess.
Tanner McNamara (Right) and Victor Zheng(Left) recording the scores (Photo: Michael Reyes)
The above report was written by Tanner McNamara, outgoing Secretary of the Hart House Chess Club and the lead organizer! A big shoutout should go to Tanner for his vision and expertise running the event.
The Hart House Chess Club (HHCC) is hosting a Summer Rapid and Blitz Festival at the Hart House Debates Room on Saturday, July 15th. Come join the Hart House Chess Club this summer for some fun! The event aims to provide a tournament experience for all levels all in one day! event flyer
RAPID DETAILS:
Format: 5-round CFC-Active, FIDE Rapid Rated (Premier and U1600 sections), Swiss Tournament Location: Hart House Debates and Committees Rooms, 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 3H3 Time Control: 15 mins + 10 secs/move increment Capacity: 120 Rounds: 10 am, 11:15 am, 1:00 pm, 2:15 pm, 3:30 pm Sections: Premier, U1600, U1000 Equipment: HHCC will supply all chess equipment Prizes: $2000 based on 100 players
Format: 7 double-round CFC-Active, FIDE Blitz Rated (Premier section), Swiss Tournament Location: Hart House Debates and Committees Rooms, 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 3H3 Time Control: 3 minutes + 2 seconds per move from move 1 Capacity: 120 Rounds: 6 pm and then ASAP (we will finish around 9 pm) Sections: Premier, U1500 Equipment: HHCC will supply all chess equipment Prizes: $1000 based on 100 players
Entry Fees: Rapid and Blitz: $40 by June 15th, $50 by July 14. $20 discount for UofT students. Rapid only: $35 by June 15th, $40 by July 14. $20 discount for UofT students. Blitz only: $15 by June 15th, $20 by July 14. $10 discount for UofT students. Free entries for IM/WIM by June 30.
Note for incoming students: please email us to receive a discount. For UofT students, the discount is applied automatically.
Registration: via the Club website by Fri. July 14th at noon. No onsite registration for rapid, blitz onsite available in-person before 5:30 pm.
Byes: Up to one 1/2 point bye can be requested by emailing us by noon July 14th.
CFC Memberships: Registrants must be current CFC members or bring payment prior to playing – https://chess.ca/membership-fees ($12 for adults, $6 for juniors for single-tournament).
Section eligibility: No playing up allowed. We will take the highest of CFC Regular, CFC Active, and FIDE Rapid/Blitz for section eligibility. At arbiters’ discretion. CFC Quick Ratings will be used for pairing purposes.
Tournament Organizers: Chief TD: Victor Zheng, Deputy TD: Alex Ferreira, Organizer: Bowen Zhang
Eric is a third-year student pursuing a double major in computer science and mathematics. He learned the rules of chess at the age of 5, but only played casually for many years. In high school, he became one of the leaders of his school’s chess club and organized club events for his fellow students. Eric found out about the Hart House Chess Club in his first year via the club’s Discord server. Thanks to the club’s events, he played his first classical tournament and made many new friends. As the club’s treasurer, Eric is responsible for managing the club’s revenue and expenses, as well as the club’s budget. With this role, he hopes to make future events enjoyable to help new members make the same great memories he did. In his free time when not playing chess, Eric can also be found watching YouTube, browsing Reddit, or playing piano pieces by Frédéric Chopin.
Bowen is a 4th year Medical Biophysics PhD candidate studying human mammary metabolism using organoid models. He initially started learning chess in grade 6 with the goal of defeating a rival at the school chess club. However, over time he was captivated by how the game blurs the boundaries between strategic problem solving and artistic creativity as well as the game’s rich history. In high school, he served as the president of the school chess club where he not only led the competitive chess team in inter-school tournaments, but also focused on promoting the game to the greater student body. Despite a hiatus from competing in tournaments during his undergraduate studies at Western University, Bowen continued to spread his passion for the game as the volunteer coordinator of the London branch of Chess in the Library, which aims to allow more people, particularly kids, to learn and enjoy chess.
Bowen has joined the Hart House Chess Club (HHCC) executive team with the overarching goal of generating a vibrant, inclusive environment where the beautiful game may be shared with the U of T community and beyond. As the Events Director, Bowen is in charge of running chess events and organizing important tournaments.
