Author: harthousechess

The 2018 Hart House Holidays Open took place in Toronto, Ontario, from December 14th to December 16th, marking a huge and exciting end-of-year chess event. Situated at the heart of University of Toronto’s campus, the Gothic Revival-style building of Hart House opened the doors of its elegant Great Hall to chess players from all over the Greater Toronto Area. A diverse group of 193 participants representing all ages and skill levels, came out to play in the tournament and took a shot at the $7,800 prize funds.

Participants were divided into six different sections based on their rating and the games began! The winner in each section would be decided after five rounds of Swiss-style, classical chess, the top three sections being both CFC and FIDE rated. Many talented players, among them five International Masters, joined the event and displayed a rare level of enthusiasm and fighting spirit, to the delight of the many spectators.

As expected, the competition was fierce and the final standings saw many ties for the prizes in each section:

The big winner in the Crown Section (18 participants) was IM Nikolay Noritsyn with 4.5 points out of 5 games. Fourteen year-old FM Nicholas Vettese came second with 4 points, and three players, IM Tomas Krnan, IM Artiom Samsonkin and William Li.

In the Under 2200 Section (34 participants) Merlin Nazarenko was in great shape winning all five games for a perfect 5 out of 5 score. Egis Zeromskis, the experienced chess player from Aurora Chess Club, claimed second place with 4.5 out of 5 and the bronze medal position was split between Benito Surya, Eric Ning and Jabrayil Asadov.

In the Under 1900 Section (46 participants) Greg Rusonik and Austin Xie shared first place with 4.5 out of 5 games, while Dennis Tran, Kole Robertson and Map Singh tied for third.

In the Under 1600 Section (43 participants) Victor Stroganov finished the tournament undefeated with 4.5 out of 5 points and deservedly became the section winner. Jose Cabioc and Ben Smolkin scored 4 points each and shared the second place.

In the Under 1300 Section (40 participants) Ambarish Chandra and William Xu were the co-winners, as each dropped only half a point by drawing in their round three game. Daniel Zhang, Christopher Charles and Arthur Wang also had a splendid performance of 4 out of 5 and so they shared third place.

Finally, in the Under 1000 Section (22 participants) Zixuan Zhou was the sole and undisputed winner with 4.5 points in 5 games. Eric Zhang and Carina D’souza followed very closely with 4 out of 5, a really high score that earned them a shared second place.

Before the start of the last round a presentation ceremony took place, as David Cohen and Ian Findley, members of the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame Committee, inducted WIM Smilja Vujosevic to the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame, in recognition for her lifetime chess achievements and contributions to Canadian chess (a list of her remarkable achievements can be found here). In presenting the award, Ian Findley spoke eloquently about Smilja’s incredible accomplishments, emphasizing her unique contribution as a role model for female chess players, at a time when women’s chess was strikingly underdeveloped in Canada. In an emotional moment, Vojin Vujosevic, Smilja’s partner in life and in chess, was handed the recognition award by David Cohen amid an enthusiastic audience clapping in appreciation and gratitude.

Hart House Chess Club would like to express its thanks to certain individuals for their indispensable assistance towards hosting the event. To begin with, the grand vision, the hard labor and the tireless efforts of the Tournament Director and Chief Arbiter Alex Ferreira have been fueling this event for years and can hardly be overstated. It has been almost ten years since the first Hart House Open Chess Tournament took place and since that first initiative, Alex has been the tour de force of these big tournaments driving each of those to success and nation-wide acclaim.

Next we would like to recognize the generous contribution of Weiwen Leung, the Deputy Chief-arbiter who, with the support of UofT’s first year Sean Lei, did an amazing job transferring the results and doing the pairings for more than 190 players in 6 simultaneous sub-tournaments in a precise and timely manner. Jimmy Bartha, the club treasurer, performed exquisitely the very demanding task of doing the on-site registrations and the even harder mission of keeping in oder the financial accounts of the tournament. Sahan Karunaratne and Leslie Tang, the club’s Event Coordinator and Treasurer respectively, offered a really generous helping hand in setting-up the playing hall as well as in taking down after the end of the event; their presence in the venue throughout the tournament was very precious. Andrew McMillan was once again extremely helpful and massively productive, always arriving first and leaving last from the playing hall, taking care of the club equipment and laboring tirelessly to make the event a success. Brett Sherman, from Ryerson Film School, spent endless hours with the players and the organizers at the Great Hall, trying to capture in his video the most beautiful moments of the event. Finally, Panayoti Tsialas, the club fundraiser, created the nice photo gallery of the tournament and did a remarkable job in providing answers to the general inquiries of the participants and spectators.

 

 

On top of these volunteers, we would like to thank University of Toronto as well as Hart House for their steady support to our chess initiatives, including our Holidays Open tournament. The Hart House Information Hub, the Meetings and Events Office, the Staging Personnel, the Department of Communications as well as the Financial Accounting Office coordinated their efforts amazingly to help us in our event. We wish to kindly acknowledge their assistance.

Finally, the most heartfelt “thank you” goes out to the 193 people, who came out to play in the tournament, and to their parents and friends who attended the event as spectators. We are very thankful for your participation and we are looking forward to seeing you again in our upcoming Hart House Reading Week Open, in mid-February!

Click on the links below to view:

• The List of Participants in each section
• The Board Pairings and Results per round
• The Final Standing in each section
• The Photo Gallery of the Event

From September 21st to December 14th, 2018 Hart House Chess Club hosted a series of lessons for advanced chess players. It was a rigorous workshop aimed at players from 1400 to 1800 CFC rating which attracted a total of about 20 students! The lessons focused on Chess Endgames with special emphasis on Rook Endgames. National Master and ex-Varsity player Jonathan Yu was the instructor in this workshop, providing lots of useful practical tips for how to conduct the endgame!

The Workshops went for 10 weeks and Jonathan would like to thank all his students and wish them to keep studying, practicing and enjoying the game of chess!

Starting on Friday, October 12th and ending on November 23rd, Hart House Chess Club  ran a series of workshops for first-time chess players, introducing them to the movements of the pieces and the rules of the game. These lessons were taught by Varsity chess player, Panayoti Tsialas, and they were directed to students who wanted to learn how to play the royal game!

As per tradition, the first workshops covered the basic rules of the game and the later ones discussed the rudiments of the strategy & tactics of chess. The course took place at the Hart House Reading Room, 5-6 pm and it was completed in 6 weeks.

The topics covered included: The Pieces and their Movements/ En passant, Pawn Promotion, Castling / Check, Checkmate, Stalemate / Basic Pawn-less Endgames / The Names of the Squares /Short and Long Algebraic Notation

Teaching material and ideas were taken from Learning Chess (Step 1), by Rob Brunia and For van Wijgerden, and Chess Camp (Volumes 1-4), by Igor Sukhin, copies of which can be found in the Chess Club Library.

Panayoti would like to thank each and every one of his students for their very active participation, which made this workshop a success but especially Mehr Mukhtar and Eunji Byun for their very active participation.

We hope to see you all again in the Winter Semester in more advanced chess workshops!

Starting on Friday, September 21st, 2018 Hart House Chess Club ran a series of workshops for Upper Beginner and Intermediate chess players, introducing them to the rudiments of chess tactics and strategy. These lessons were taught by the Club Secretary, Leslie Tang, and more than 20 people attended them! The seminar proved popular especially with chess enthusiasts who had learnt the movements of the pieces and wished to step-up their game.

The Workshops went on for 10 weeks and the topics discussed included, the fundamental principles of chess, hanging piece, forks, pins and skewers, lots of checkmates, discovered attacks, traps and guidelines for the end-game. Leslie would like to thank and wish all the best to each and every one of the many students who attended the workshop!

On Saturday, November 17th, several chess enthusiasts enjoyed an opportunity to face Zehn Nasir, a Hart House Chess Club executive and a National Chess Master, in an exciting simultaneous chess exhibition in the South Dining Room. Having South American family himself, Zehn made an inspiring presentation on why it is important to raise funds for Brazilian youth, inviting people to show altruism for a good cause (raising funds for impoverished youth in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

In the end, a mixture of the simul and the online campaign raised “more funds than expected, but slightly less than the target.” Chess.com bughouse star, helmsknight even made a guest appearance to add to the excitement! We would like to extend our thanks to National Master Zehn Nasir and to everyone who came out to play in the simul! The Hart House Chess Club always works to promote an equitable environment and hopes that its contribution in Rio will make a meaningful change in a less fortunate child’s life.