harthousechess

2023 Ivy League Challenge Rules

Published on October 15, 2022March 24, 2023 by harthousechess

5th IVY LEAGUE CHALLENGE (2023) – TOURNAMENT RULES

Rating/Move Recording:

The tournament is FIDE Rated. The tournament is also Chess Federation of Canada (CFC) rated. Players are required to record their moves throughout the game.

Tournament Organization:

Tanner McNamara (Tournament Director): tanner.mcnamara@mail.utoronto.ca
Victor Zheng (Assistant Tournament Director): victork.zheng@mail.utoronto.ca

Arbiter:

Alex Ferreira (Chief Arbiter): alex.ferreira@utoronto.ca

Time Control:

Each player will have 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment from move 1.

Tournament System:

5-round round-robin system

Team Composition and Line-ups:

Teams are composed of 4 players and up to 2 additional alternates.

Board order must be submitted to the Tournament Director (Tanner McNamara) via e-mail, tanner.mcnamara@mail.utoronto.ca, by no later than Thursday, March 22^nd, 8:00 PM. Teammates must play in descending rating order, except that 50-point transpositions are allowed. Board order must remain the same throughout the event. When alternates play they must do so starting on the lowest boards. Any regular member sits out when an alternate plays; other team members move up accordingly.

Lineups for each round must be submitted 1 hour before the announced official round start times. Lineups can be submitted: a) in person at the Playing Hall, b) via email to Victor Zheng (victork.zheng@mail.utoronto.ca) and Tanner McNamara (tanner.mcnamara@mail.utoronto.ca).

Team Captains:

All teams must designate a captain. The role of the captain is:

To turn in their team line-up to the TD at least one hour before the round begins.
To report the result of the match to the TD and sign it.

Team Scores, Game Points:

Each team gets two match points if the combined scores of the four players in a Round is 2.5 or greater, one match point if the combined score is 2, and zero match points if the combined score is 1.5 or less.

Byes, defaults, lateness, and so forth are treated as in individual tournaments. Players are required to arrive at their board within 30 minutes after their clock is pressed on move 1, otherwise they forfeit their game.

Tie Breaks:

Tie-breaks are used to award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd only. If two or more teams are tied for first, the team which wins in the tie-breakers is the sole winner of the Ivy League Challenge.

When team match points are equal, the following order of tie-break systems will be used:

Head to head
Individual Game Points
Greater number of match wins
Greater number of individual wins
Two blitz games between one randomly selected player from each team. If the result is 1-1 after the blitz games, the players will play another game where white gets 6 minutes and black 5 (colours determined randomly). If the game is a draw, Black’s team wins.

Prizes:

Team Prize: 1st, 2nd, 3rd (Plaques)
Individual Prizes: Top Individual Boards 1-4 (Plaques) / Best Game of the Tournament (Hoodies)

Electronic Devices:

Any electronic device that could be used to transmit or receive information related to chess or to calculate potential moves, such as smart phones, tablets, computers and Apple or Android watches, is not allowed in the tournament playing area (the tournament director and TD’s support staff are excluded). Further, no such devices can be in the immediate possession of a player, regardless of the player’s location, during a game that is in progress. Violation of this rule by a player will result in the player’s immediate forfeit of a game in progress.

Appeals:

The Appeals Committee shall comprise of Tanner McNamara (TD), Victor Zheng (Assistant TD) and Ben Hahn (Alumni Chair). A protest against the decision of an Arbiter must be submitted in writing to the Appeals Committee, within 30 min after the end of the respective game. A protest fee of 60 CAD shall be payable to the organizer which is refundable if the protest is upheld. The Appeals Committee may also decide to refund the fee if it considers the appeal was not frivolous. The decision of the Appeals Committee is final, binding and takes effect immediately.

Tournament Schedule:

Please see the Event Post for the tournament schedule.

Information:

harthousechess.com

Organized by:

2022 Hart House Holidays Open

Published on October 15, 2022December 19, 2022 by harthousechess

We are delighted to share with the Hart House community that the annual Hart House Holidays Open Chess Tournament is back! We hope you will join us from December 9th – 11th at Hart House for the return of our annual flagship event. With five rounds in 6-sections for all skill levels, this is the perfect opportunity to play a competitive chess tournament. Official flyer.

Tournament News

New as of Nov. 29: Tournament standings, pairings, detailed pre-registered lists, policies, venue information, food options, and more can be found on the Tournament Website.

Dec. 8: See the latest announcement on the event

Dec 12: Congrats to all winners and thank you for participating at our event! We’ll be contacting winners this week on prize distribution and ratings should be updated by Wednesday. The event report will go up this week. Photos taken during the event by former HHCC Exec Panagiotis Tsialas can be found here. Photos taken by the CFC can be found here.

Dec 13: The event report can be found here. Thank you for coming out!

Standings and Pairings

Cross-tables and previous rounds’ pairings can be viewable below.

Hart House Holidays Open – Crown

Hart House Holidays Open – U2200

Hart House Holidays Open – U1900

Hart House Holidays Open – U1600

Hart House Holidays Open – U1300

Hart House Holidays Open – U1000

information

WHERE: Great Hall, Hart House, University of Toronto.
WHEN: December 9th, 10th, 11th.
SCHEDULE: Friday 9th at 6:30pm, Saturday 10th at 10:00am & 4:00pm, Sunday 11th at 10:00am & 4:00pm
TIME CONTROL: 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move 1, for all sections.
STYLE: 5 Round Swiss split in 6 rating sections – Crown (2200+), Under 2200, Under 1900, Under 1600, Under 1300 & Under 1000 Sections
PRIZE FUND: $8000 based on 200 entries
RATING: All sections will be CFC rated. Crown, Under 2200 & Under 1900 sections will also be FIDE rated. Crown Section will be paired using FIDE ratings.
FORFEIT TIME: Players who do not arrive within 30 minutes of the round start time will be forfeited.
BYES: Maximum 2 half-point byes in rounds 1-4 if requested in advance before the start of Round 1.
ORGANIZER: Hart House Chess Club with Alex Ferreira as arbiter.
EMAIL: hhtournaments@gmail.com
CAPACITY: 200 players in Great Hall, plus possible side rooms

Registration

Online registration is available until December 7th at 11:59 PM. In-person and telephone registration is available through the Hart House Information Desk during Hart House Hours.
Cash registration is only available onsite before 5:30pm on December 9th
Cheque registration (arrival by December 7th, 2022) can be made payable to The Governing Council of the University of Toronto, state Hart House Chess Club in description, at 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto ON, M5S 3H3. No post-dated cheques.

Entry Fees

$70 by November 16th at 11:59pm, $80 by December 7th at 11:59pm and $100 cash only on-site.

Playing up

Extra $20 to play up a section (pay onsite before 5:30pm). Playing up is allowed only for players within 100 rating points of the section’s minimum rating. For example, a player in the Under 1600 section wanting to play up in the Under 1900 section must have a rating no lower than 1500. Unless the fee is paid, players will automatically be placed in their appropriate section prior to the start of the tournament.

Discounts

$35 discount for University of Toronto students and unrated players (max one discount per player). Unrated players are not eligible for prizes. Free entry for IMs/WIMs/GMs/WGMs if registered by November 25th. Please email us for all discount information.

OTHER info

Please bring chess sets and clocks if possible. HHCC will provide DGT boards for the Crown section.
Registrants must be current CFC members or bring payment prior to playing – https://chess.ca/membership-fees.
Withdrawals: see our Policies.
Unrated players should review our New To Tournament Guide
Parking is available at a daily rate of $10.
Free Wi-Fi will be made available.

Pre-Registered

Players will be placed in sections according to eligibility, based on Dec 7 ratings’ update. Not necessarily how people registered themselves.

Pre-registered as of December 8th. CFC expiries are based on December 11th, 2022.

Number	First Name	Last Name	CFC ID	CFC Rating	CFC Membership	FIDE ID	Section	Byes
1	Nikolay	Noritsyn	132534	2570	Valid	2604922	Crown
2	Max	Chen	155238	2328	Valid	2622440	Crown
3	Jura	Ochkoos	102669	2316	Valid	2601214	Crown
4	Youhe	Huang	159428	2300	Valid	2629445	Crown
5	Max	Rusonik	155671	2299	Valid	2619253	Crown
6	William	Li	154677	2283	Expired	2619750	Crown
7	Fengxi	Mao	166033	2234	Valid	2632586	Crown
8	Dorian	Kang	155339	2228	Expired	2619156	Crown
9	Leon	Perelman	146258	2223	Valid	2609495	Crown
10	Daniel	Abrahams	134333	2209	Valid	2606879	Crown
11	Vishruth	Sharma	156776	2208	Valid	2621215	Crown
12	Eric	Ning	158233	2204	Valid	2625407	Crown	Rd 1
13	Michael	Dougherty	100294	2198	Valid	2601559	Crown	Rd 2, 4
14	Aaron Reeve	Mendes	167084	2196	Valid	25954938	Crown
15	Aquino	Inigo	136995	2190	Expired	2607131	U2200	Rd 1
16	Henry	Liu	157720	2159	Valid	2628597	Crown
17	Fred	Gandolfi	108999	2147	Valid	0	Crown
18	Ian	Loadman	101686	2135	Valid	2613743	Crown
19	Allan	Munro	140841	2130	Valid	7700245	Crown
20	Inigo	Assaripallam	135189	2119	Expired	2060329	U2200	Rd 1
21	Ilia	Bluvshtein	125934	2112	Valid	2605317	Crown
22	Vaibhav	Bhat	175783	2096	Valid	5060931	Crown
23	Raymond	Gao	156480	2092	Valid	2629429	Crown
24	Eddie	Xu	166274	2053	Valid	2632160	U2200	Rd 1
25	Adam	Li	160391	2039	Valid	2632144	U2200
26	Jeffrey R.	Zhao	157007	2029	Valid	2627450	U2200	Rd 1
27	Tony Bohan	Bao	149351	2006	Expired	2613042	U2200
28	Andrei	Moffat	108272	2004	Expired	2602954	U2200
29	Richard	Douglas	131191	2000	Valid	0	U2200
30	Tony	Lu	166742	1991	Valid	2640643	U2200
31	Merlin	Nazareno	165079	1974	Valid	2632470	U2200
32	Eric	Qian	167975	1969	Valid	2637774	U2200
33	Noah Nathaniel	Yuen	158470	1969	Valid	2627353	U2200
34	Levi	Lim	168079	1923	Valid	2634325	U2200	Rd 1
35	Carina	D’Souza	167600	1913	Valid	2635550	U2200	Rd 1
36	Mohammed	Hadid	167255	1885	Expired	2638592	U2200
37	Charlie	Grisar	166101	1883	Valid	2639440	U2200
38	Jonath	Joseph	171981	1879	Valid	329105368	U2200
39	Andy	Wang	168247	1844	Valid	2637804	U2200
40	David	Gauthier	164946	1843	Valid	2634066	U1900
41	Ferdinand	Supsup	142366	1831	Valid	2614030	U1900
42	Olya	Kaye	120564	1822	Valid	2616475	U2200
43	Ryan Zhuoyuan	Xu	174722	1816	Valid	329105250	U1900
44	Larry	Yang	164823	1802	Valid	2637618	U1900
45	Ande	Li	172084	1786	Valid	8620997	U2200
46	Bhavatharshan	Jeyakumar	155309	1781	Valid	2619148	U1900
47	Ryan Yunhui	Zhong	166737	1773	Valid	2635860	U1900
48	Ashley	Qian	168050	1752	Valid	2636280	U1900
49	Daniel	Sirkovich	145096	1746	Valid	2618125	U2200
50	Luc	Chamberland	107346	1742	Valid	2646757	U1900
51	Kamila	Kolpashnikova	160572	1728	Valid	488100	U1900
52	Harrison (Hangchen)	Liu	162133	1726	Valid	2628570	U1900
53	Raj	Verma	112840	1720	Valid	2643138	U2200
54	Heye	Gao	166066	1711	Valid	2638223	U1900	Rd 1
55	Trifelino	Miaco	121781	1696	Valid	121781	U1900	Rd 1
56	Sean	Liu	174972	1686	Valid	2643170	U1600
57	Arkadiy	Ugodnikov	146626	1685	Valid	2615940	U1900
58	Vincent	Chen	163183	1685	Valid	2637553	U1900	Rd 1
59	Wah Sing (Joseph)	Leung	167606	1682	Valid	2636654	U1900	Rd 1
60	April Yunwei	Zhong	167271	1671	Valid	2635658	U1900
61	Modith Aaroh	Mutyalapati	171210	1662	Valid	25147870	U1600
62	Charis	Zhu	168132	1657	Valid	2638320	U1900
63	Mario	Moran-Venegas	143315	1656	Valid	2605279	U1900
64	Ethan	Lin	161997	1632	Valid	2635755	U1900
65	Siddarth	Narasimhan	161746	1624	Expired	2639645	U1900
66	Evan	Andersen	175925	1620	Expired	2642948	U1900
67	Gauri	Sreekumar	165299	1611	Valid	2631458	U1900
68	Saarthak	Malakar	173204	1608	Valid	30974291	U1900
69	Irene	Xie	175644	1600	Valid	2643537	U1900
70	Daniel	Zhang	163312	1598	Valid	2637820	U1900	Rd 1
71	Triston	Li	166944	1586	Valid	2638282	U1900
72	Nathan Zian	Wang	161735	1586	Valid	2638681	U1900
73	Toy Chack	Kwan	162706	1579	Valid	2635097	U1900
74	Glib	Dunikov	172705	1572	Valid	150267727	U1900
75	Adrien	Cheng	158231	1568	Valid	2633167	U1600	Rd 1
76	Laksshana	Deepak	175714	1550	Valid	25980548	U1600
77	Sudhir	Pokhrel	150104	1550	Valid	0	U1600	Rd 1
78	Dania	Surya	161403	1531	Valid	2627280	U1900	Rd 1
79	Nolan	Wu	160709	1523	Valid	2644681	U1900
80	Adie	Todd	125156	1517	Valid	2609908	U1900	Rd 4
81	Frank	Helwig	105788	1517	Valid	2642344	U1600
82	Robert J.	Armstrong	100034	1513	Valid	2605791	U1900
83	Richard	Wing	103265	1506	Required	0	U1900
84	Shafkat	Ali	149142	1503	Valid	2613441	U1900
85	Umid	Allahverdi	175557	1502	Valid	13432834	U1600
86	George	Supol	152286	1497	Valid	0	U1600
87	Benjamin	de Costa	156465	1494	Expired	0	U1600
88	Undriadi	Benggawan	107301	1493	Valid	2627973	U1600
89	DeParse	Cottrell	155942	1492	Expired	0	U1600
90	Ken	Kurkowski	104537	1487	Valid	2613719	U1600
91	Kailey	Liu	168091	1461	Valid	2640392	U1600
92	Ting En Ryan	Wu	172850	1459	Valid	0	U1600
93	Don	Parakin	106488	1447	Valid	2634759	U1600
94	William	McCarthy	104319	1445	Valid	0	U1600
95	Brendan	Chan	165022	1444	Valid	2646846	U1600
96	Anthony	Pham	176506	1442	Valid	2645599	U1600
97	Minh	Bui	172955	1439	Valid	0	U1600
98	Jaipreet	Singh Dhaliwal	172163	1438	Valid	0	U1600
99	Isabelle	Zhu	149553	1437	Valid	0	U1600
100	Michael	Dennahower	175696	1427	Valid	0	U1600
101	Mengxuan	Wang	171404	1426	Valid	2640775	U1600
102	Justin	Li	154417	1424	Valid	2620871	U1600
103	Eli	Schyngera	164976	1414	Expired	2635763	U1600
104	David	Dunikov	172706	1403	Valid	329218432	U1600	Rd 5
105	Isaac	Duanmu	163584	1397	Valid	2640589	U1600
106	Noah	Velasquez	168145	1379	Valid	2637057	U1600
107	Henry	Vu	159501	1376	Valid	0	U1600
108	Mark	Rozin	157844	1373	Valid	0	U1600
109	Arnav	Mane	160927	1362	Valid	2632705	U1600	Rd 1
110	Oswald	Barmasch	132784	1360	Expired	0	U1600
111	Nikolai	Lomov	176820	1359	Valid	0	U1600
112	Anna	Gavrileva	156634	1352	Valid	2641305	U1900	Rd 1
113	Max	Qian	175330	1334	Valid	2647486	U1900
114	Justin	Huang	166068	1325	Valid	2638240	U1600
115	Nathan	Hilker	171186	1316	Valid	0	U1600
116	Felix	Zhou	167758	1312	Valid	2638851	U1600	Rd 4
117	Andrew	Effat	155007	1300	Expired	0	U1300	Rd 3
118	Zachary	Shepherd	170831	1295	Valid	0	U1300
119	Sithu	Aravindanathan	132950	1284	Expired	0	U1300
120	Austin	Lu	169738	1281	Valid	2644614	U1300
121	Balakrishnan	Sreekumar Maliekal	170478	1279	Valid	2642689	U1600
122	Ivan	Huang	164614	1271	Valid	2637715	U1600
123	Evgeny	Kalmanson	161966	1262	Valid	0	U1300
124	James	Mourgelas	108540	1255	Valid	2613816	U1600	Rd 3
125	William	Bi	169382	1233	Valid	2640600	U1600
126	Neil	Goel	177022	1231	Valid	0	U1600	Rd 2
127	Lucas haoxuan	Sun	171660	1220	Valid	2644630	U1300
128	Onur	Naiboglu	170778	1213	Valid	0	U1300
129	Eric	Huang	174612	1211	Valid	2644550	U1600
130	Lucy	Yang	164595	1206	Valid	2639084	U1300
131	Slava	Lukinykh	174578	1193	Valid	2648130	U1600
132	Richard	Chen	133926	1192	Expired	0	U1300	Rd 1
133	Austin	Lin	173895	1188	Valid	2640783	U1300	Rd 3
134	Allen	Li	175534	1184	Valid	0	U1300
135	Jerry	Gerber	160103	1176	Valid	2638894	U1300
136	Richard	Kang	175618	1138	Valid	0	U1300
137	Jayden Zihan	Zhan	172099	1131	Valid	2640732	U1300
138	William kaiyuan	Wang	167336	1126	Valid	2638312	U1300	Rd 3
139	Rose	Tuong	158024	1117	Valid	0	U1300	Rd 3
140	Lily	Liu	168024	1113	Expired	0	U1300
141	Paco	Li	164368	1076	Expired	0	U1300
142	Ricky	Chen	166353	1061	Valid	2638380	U1300	Rd 1
143	Zeyu	Liu	174540	1047	Valid	2647443	U1600	Rd 4
144	Donald	McCarthy	175494	1039	Valid	0	U1300
145	Cameron	Kwan	173215	1033	Valid	0	U1000
146	Sreekar	Voleti	175978	1021	Expired	0	U1300
147	Kush	Kheni	160823	996	Valid	0	U1300
148	Isabelle	Guan	166081	996	Valid	2637642	U1300
149	Quentin	Ma	177463	989	Valid	0	U1000
150	Ed	Smyk	146332	984	Valid	2646986	U1300
151	Shi	Duanmu	171680	966	Valid	0	U1300
152	Gayathri	Sreekumar	172806	964	Valid	2640929	U1300
153	Marie	Guan	164627	953	Valid	2635909	U1300
154	Peter	Grucza	173478	950	Valid	0	U1000
155	Joseph	McGowan	175626	933	Expired	0	U1300
156	Stephanie	Xiao	167303	932	Valid	0	U1300
157	Heidi	Gay	175381	911	Valid	0	U1300
158	Joshua	Bakradze	177444	883	Valid	0	U1000
159	Tsing Yee (Tina)	Hui	176179	874	Valid	0	U1000	Rd 5
160	Oscar	Cheung	171229	871	Valid	0	U1000
161	Christian	Kapsales	161062	871	Valid	0	U1000
162	Jasper	Jia	176373	867	Valid	0	U1000
163	Peter	Lomov	176819	866	Valid	0	U1000
164	Gabriel	Saimovici	175468	863	Valid	0	U1000	Rd 3
165	Sibi	Selvanathan	175353	860	Expired	175353	U1000
166	Joshua	Knott	176630	855	Valid	0	U1000
167	Jacob	Fischer	174508	848	Valid	0	U1000
168	Lynette	Guo	175283	847	Valid	0	U1300
169	Ian	Gao	177611	820	Valid	0	U1000	Rd 4
170	Alexa	Roque	172868	809	Valid	2640490	U1000
171	Siddharth	Surendran	174502	799	Valid	0	U1000
172	Glen	Newbury	177785	762	Valid	0	U1000
173	Yiguo	Gao	169414	658	Valid	0	U1300
174	Evan	Gao	177612	639	Valid	0	U1000	Rd 4
175	Hao En Colin	Wu	175981	625	Valid	0	U1000
176	Kristopher	Jiang	168235	566	Expired	0	U1000
177	Narek	Hovhannisyan	177585	0	Valid	13318233	U1600
178	Michael	Wodzinski	178002	0	Valid	0	U1600
179	George	Eilender	174317	0	Valid	0	U1900
180	Daniel	Wang	178191	0	Valid	0	U1600	Rd 2
181	Riyaan	Lakhani	177989	0	Valid	0	U2200
182	Denys	Melnychuk	178133	0	Valid	14182807	U1900
183	Nicholas	Ossine	173090	0	Valid	0	U1900
184	Alex	Roozmon	NA	0	Required	0	U1600
185	Ivan Hin Ip	Liu	NA	0	Required	0	U1600
186	Daniel	Stueckmann	178199	0	Required	0	U1300
187	Jaime	Xiang	NA	0	Required	0	U1300
188	Eric	Blay	NA	0	Required	0	U1300	Rd 2
189	He	Liu	178194	0	Valid	0	U1000
190	Artham	Bhoutika	178192	0	Valid	0	U1000
191	David	Huang	177718	0	Valid	0	U1000
192	Bradley	Northcote	NA	0	Required	0	U1600
193	Adam	Wong	178231	0	Valid	0	U1000
194	Michael	Ackworth	178292	0	Valid	0	U1600
195	Stefano	Picone	NA	0	Required	0	U1300
196	Mohankumar	Janakiraman	175419	0	Valid	0	U1000
197	Leo	Zhang	178549	0	Valid	0	U1000
198	Alexander	Teegarden	178657	0	Valid	0	U1300
199	Ethan	Jia	178148	0	Valid	0	U1000
200	Geoffrey	McCollam	177710	0	Valid	177710	U1600
201	Caleb	Mann	NA	0	Required	0	U1000
202	Turhan	Yalin	NA	0	Required	0	U1600
203	Inderjit	Singh	178676	0	Valid	0	Crown
204	Lior	Korochov	NA	0	Required	0	U1000
205	Oleh	Sych	178066	0	Valid	148108948	U1300
206	Leon	Kossoras	178699	0	Valid	0	U1000
207	Yantao	Yang	178114	0	Valid	0	U1000
208	Ethan Yichen	Li	164372	0	Expired	0	U1000
209	Reshetniak	Vitaliy	178653	0	Valid	14125250	U2200
210	Mannan	Attlee	178741	0	Required	0	U1300	Rd 3, Rd 4
211	Joshua	Gui	NA	0	Required	0	U1300	Rd 1
212	Matthew	Jung	177644	0	Valid	0	U1300
213	Daniel	Botello	176457	0	Valid	0	Crown

Past Holidays Opens

2018 Hart House Holidays Open

IM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux Simultaneous Exhibition

Published on October 13, 2022October 18, 2022 by harthousechess

On Friday, October 14th, current World Under 18 Champion and International Master Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux visited the Hart House Chess Club to perform a simultaneous exhibition. Shawn played 15 boards at the Hart House Library, winning 14.

IM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux is the 2022 World-U18 Champion

Shawn’s visit marked a chess-filled weekend in Toronto thanks to the arrival of Super-GM Hikaru Nakamura in the city along with FM James Canty III. Hikaru visited many clubs during the weekend, including Pub Chess, Annex Chess Club, and Chess in the Park.

As perhaps the oldest, most prestigious Chess Club in Canada, the HHCC was happy to have the 2022 FIDE World-U18 Champion, Canadian Champion, Canadian Youth Chess Champion, and GM norm holder to the famed halls of Hart House. Rated FIDE 2482, he was the 4th highest rated Canadian player at the time of his visit. The Hart House Chess Club believes in supporting young chess players, and we wish IM Shawn the very best in his pursuit of the Grandmaster title. Bonne chance, Shawn!

Shawn played 15 HHCC members and community members, finishing with a score of 14 wins and 1 loss. He played all these games after travelling 5 long hours from Montréal. Congratulations!

Gallery:

We hope to see IM Shawn back at the Hart House Chess Club in the future!

Bowen Zhang — Fundraiser Representative

Published on October 2, 2022October 2, 2022 by harthousechess

Bowen is a 3rd 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 fundraising representative, he will help organize fundraising tournaments and seek out opportunities for titled player lectures/simultaneous exhibitions along with collaborations with chess content creators.

Bughouse Championship

Published on October 1, 2022October 19, 2022 by harthousechess

On Friday, October 7th, the Hart House Chess Club hosted its annual Bughouse Championship to crown the best bughouse team in the Club! Congratulations to IM Nicholas Vettese and his partner, Denis, for becoming HHCC’s 2022-2023 Bughouse Champions!

23 2-player teams registered for the 6 round swiss event, which was played during HHCC’s weekly casual play.

Gallery:

Final Standings

	Team Name	Combined Rating	Points	Better Buchholz Tiebreaker
1	Nicholas/Denis	4900	6	21
2	peepeepoopoo man	2400	5	19
3	Chol Matthew	2200	5	18.5
4	IBG	4274	4	21.5
5	Alligators Angry	2800	4	20
6	Solo Sacrifice	0	4	15
7	_ Ubermensch	0	4	14.5
8	Kole/Kevin	3000	3.5	16.5
9	Solo	950	3.5	16
10	Swindle Uncle	3200	3	22
11	Engineers Team	3400	3	18.5
12	Rick Cookie	2400	3	17
13	Nicholas/Jason	1591	2	18
14	Degenerate Gambiter 2	2100	2	16.5
15	AD/Albert	0	2	16
16	Knook	0	2	15
17	Unrateddd/No Idea	0	2	14
18	Abarca’s	1300	2	12
19	J & J	1500	2	11
20	Wow/peepeepoopoo man	2400	0.5	13.5
21	No Idea	0	0.5	13
22	rdmp/Solo	2200	0	13.5
23	Brain Chip Hans’	0	0	12

Original Event Info:

The HHCC Bughouse Championship is happening Friday, October 7th from 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm! You can sign up at the Hart House Reading Room anytime between 4 pm – 7:30 pm the day of. If you don’t have a team, you can register as a “solo,” and we will pair you up.

Free entries for all members and the prize will be a $25 gift card for the two players of the winning team! (for non-members it will be a fee of $5)

Bughouse is a popular variant of chess that is played with teams of 2 players. The goal of this tournament is to get you to engage with others and have fun! It should be a fun night!

Coaches

Published on September 28, 2022September 28, 2022 by harthousechess

Victor Zheng

CFC: 2139

Computer Science Undergrad (2nd-year)

Sahan Karunaratne

CFC: 1495

Applied Mathematics with
Statistics Specialist

Jonathan Yu

CFC: 2150

Engineering (Alumnus)

HHCC 2023 PanAm Qualifier Recap

Published on September 25, 2022September 26, 2022 by harthousechess

From September 24th-25th 2022, the HHCC organized its annual PanAm Qualifier to select four players to represent the University of Toronto at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championships to be held next year, January 5-8 in Seattle, WA. Travel and accommodation will be covered partially by HHCC.

A record number, 37 players, competed at this year’s iteration. Congratulations to Nicholas Vettese, Tanraj Sohal, Derek Ma, and Yunshan Li for finishing in the top 4. Depending on funding, the Club may also send a second, “B”, team.

Results and Pairings

The final pairings and results can be found at the following links:

Round 1 Pairings and Results

Round 2 Pairings and Results

Round 3 Pairings and Results

Round 4 Pairings and Results

Round 5 Pairings and Results

Final Standings

Tiebreakers

After 5 rounds, a 6-person tiebreaker was played to determine the remaining player for the first team. The tiebreaker results can be found here.

Gallery

Grandmaster Evgeny Bareev Simultaneous Exhibition at the Hart House Chess Club

Published on September 23, 2022September 28, 2022 by harthousechess

On September 23rd 2022, Grandmaster Evgeny Bareev visited the Hart House Chess Club to complete a simultaneous exhibition against 20 UofT students. Marking his first visit to the HHCC, Bareev soundly defeated all his opponents, recording a 20-0 score.

Just as numerous Grandmasters and former World Chess Championship Candidates had done before him at Hart House, Bareev played students from all levels and backgrounds. As Canada’s highest rated player, and former World Chess Championship Candidate, his visit brought lots of hype and drew crowds to watch his games.

Michel Hajjar, a 2nd Year JD student, remarked, “My game was really something, It was my first time playing with a Grandmaster, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.” Followed by the ominous words that every chess player knows from heart, “everything was fine until it wasn’t … my knight was in the middle of the board, I thought I was doing okay, and I felt the pressure; I had a general idea of what he wanted to do but I missed one tiny thing, and that’s when it all collapsed.”

Bareev playing Max Qian. Alongside Ahmed Khalf, HHCC Exec Board member

Bareev playing Michel Hajjar, who had dressed up with a suit and tie to give respect to the GM.

Mateo, another simul participant, and a HHCC member, explained that he learned from this experience to “play every game like your opponent isn’t rated“.

Mark Li, a first-year student, and the winner of the final board standing prize, explained, “It was tiring, it was very complex… I started off with a Sicilian, which I usually don’t play ever, but I knew that there is a variation that would be really weird to Grandmasters… that allowed for lots of complexities.” Followed by explaining that “the position was so complex that most of our pieces stayed on the board for the majority of the game. During this, I was going through hard-core defence… and the pieces weren’t ever exchanged and I made sure that it stayed that way“.

Evgeny Bareev simul at Hart House on September 23rd, 2022. He scored 20 wins, 0 draws and 0 losses.

Paul Keres simul at Hart House on May 7th, 1975. He scored 25 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses.

The Hart House Chess Club would like to thank Grandmaster Bareev and Joshua, a HHCC member, for helping facilitate this simul opportunity for the members of the Club. We hope to see Bareev again at the Club in the future. We also hope to have further simuls throughout the year.

Event recap written by Victor Zheng, HHCC Communications Representative

HHCC members deep in concentration against Grandmaster Evgeny Bareev (September 23rd, 2022)

HHCC Fall 2022 Announcements & Schedule

Published on September 6, 2022September 21, 2022 by harthousechess

Hello everyone!

Welcome to September and the start of a new semester! Here’s a quick run through of what we’re planning this academic year.

Casual Play Fridays

Every Friday this semester, we will be open every Friday from 4pm-11pm except for holidays. Everyone, regardless of UofT student status can drop by to play chess for FREE at the Hart House Reading Room.

Memberships:

This year, the Hart House Chess Club membership is FREE for all undergraduates and graduates of UofT. Students must register with the Hart House Hub (front-desk) to become a member. A separate non-student HHCC membership can be purchased for alumni and all other members of the community (special prices for those under 29 or over 65) at the Hart House Hub. For all info on memberships, visit our memberships page here: https://harthousechess.com/membership-benefits/

Events this semester:

All events currently on our FALL 2022 calendar can be found here: https://harthousechess.com/upcoming-events/

Our upcoming events this September are:

Clubs Day 2022 – (Wednesday, September 7th)
Welcome Back Party – (Friday, September 16th)
GrandMaster Simul by Evgeny Bareev (Sept 23rd)
PanAm Qualifiers – (Sept 24-25 2022)
HHCC Fall 2022 Special Election – (Sept 30)

Links to the above events can be found on our upcoming events page.

Lessons:

Lessons are scheduled to begin Friday, September 30^th at the HH Reading Room. Beginner lessons will be from 5-6 pm and intermediate/advanced is planned for 6 pm – 7 pm. Participants must be members of the club to join.

HHCC 2023 Pan-Am Qualifier

Published on September 6, 2022September 26, 2022 by harthousechess

Event recap can be found here. Congrats to the winners and good luck in Seattle!

The Club will be holding a qualifying tournament from September 24th-25th to select four players to represent the University of Toronto at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championships to be held next year, January 5-8 in Seattle, WA. Travel and accommodation will be covered partially by HHCC.

Official flyer for the event is located here.

Pan-Am-Qualifiers Schedule:

Time Control: 60 minutes + 30 seconds increment
Round 1: 9:30am September 24
Round 2: 12:45pm September 24
Round 3: 4pm September 24
Round 4: 9:30am September 25
Round 5: 12:45pm September 25
Tiebreaks (if needed) 4pm September 25

Please note that this schedule is scheduled to change. Full confirmation will be sent to all registered players.

0-point-byes are in effect. Players are expected to play all rounds.
Forced byes will be awarded 1/2 point.

Ratings will be used for seeding/pairing purposes but the tournament itself will not be rated with the Chess Federation of Canada.

Registration:

Participants are kindly asked to register online by Friday, September 23rd, 9:00 pm. To do that send us an e-mail at hhchess@studentorg.utoronto.ca with the following information:

Your first and last name
Your current Elo rating (CFC, FIDE, or other international rating)

No entry fee is required but all players must show up by 9:15 am Saturday morning, as registered members of the Hart House Chess Club, at the playing hall (signs will be posted in the Hart House).

Eligibility Requirements:

To participate in Pan-Am-Qualifier one must be a member of the Hart House Chess Club. The membership for 2022-2023 is FREE for all UofT students.

To participate in the Pan-Ams tournament itself you must be available to travel to Seattle, January 5th-8th, and you must meet the following requirements :

Additional Requirements:

– A $250 fee must be paid to Hart House within a week after the qualifying tournament.
– Participants will be required to attend a tutorial on Safety Abroad as per UofT policy
– Participants will be responsible for, and required to have valid passport, travel visa if applicable, and travel health insurance

For further information please consult the Collegiate Eligibility Rules.