Celebrate the end of the year with the Hart House Chess Club’s Bullet Championship tournament! 1+1 time control with 10 double rounds makes this an unmissable event! Are you fast at calculating? Come play in one of the only in-person bullet tournaments in Canada. New members and non-members welcome!
FORMAT AND EVENT DETAILS
WHEN: Friday, April 26th, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm.
WHERE: Hart House (7 Hart House Cir, Toronto) – Reading Room.
WHAT: 10-round double-round Bullet Event (Swiss), with a 1 minute + 1 second time control.
RATED: Unrated
ENTRY FEE: Free for members (free for students), $10 for non-members, free for titled players. Register onsite before 7:15 pm.
PRIZE FUND: Guaranteed $100. Paid via gift cards.
SPECIAL PRIZES: All participants will be entered into a door prize for a HHCC Sweater.
For the first time in decades, from March 2nd to 3rd, 2024, the Hart House Chess Club (the official chess club of the University of Toronto) hosted a team vs. team match against the University of Waterloo. Games were held at the East Common Room of Hart House, on the University of Toronto campus.
Originally planned as the 6th Ivy League Challenge (an inter-university tournament), the tournament was re-organized as a team-vs-team Blitz and Rapid match.
Each school fielded 12 players, split into two pools.
For Waterloo A: IM Yuanchen Zhang, FM Richard Chen, CM William Li, Patrick Huang, Momin Fayzan, Sriram Kumar.
For Waterloo B: William Ratelband, Dinny Wang, Vinushan Vijendran, Josh Zabor, Matthew Sekirin, Omkar Baraskar
For Toronto A: IM Advait Patel, IM Nicholas Vettese , Christopher Knox, Fengxi Mao , FM Eilia Zomorrodian, Ray Wu
For Toronto B: WFM Cindy Qiao, Bingfei Wang, Christopher Yu, Yukuan Zou, Daniel Stueckmann, Isabelle Wang / Eric Wan
WFM Cindy Qiao, FM Eilia Zomorrodian, IM Advait Patel, IM Nicholas Vettese, and Fengxi Mao analyse Eilia’s game
Each player played 12 blitz games (double round) against players from the opposing school in the same pool, followed by six single-round rapid games against the opposing school.
As the University of Toronto considerably outranked the University of Waterloo on almost every board, Toronto was the favourite in the match. The match did not disappoint, with many fighting and exciting games. From the get-go, Toronto took the lead and never looked back, winning all four tournaments: 55.5 – 16.5 in Pool A Blitz, 48.5 – 23.5 in Pool B Blitz, 21-15 in Pool A Rapid, and 19.5 – 16.5 in Pool B Rapid.
The playing hall at Hart House, University of Toronto
The winners of the event were:
Nicholas Vettese for winning the Pool A Rapid
Cindy Qiao for winning the Pool B Rapid
Advait Patel for winning the Pool A Blitz
Cindy Qiao and Bingfei Wang for winning the Pool B Blitz
Cindy Qiao for top performer UToronto in Rapid
Advait Patel for top performer UToronto in Blitz
Dinny Wang for top performer UWaterloo in Blitz
William Ratelband for top performer UWaterloo in Rapid
Shake of hands and we are off!
A big thank you to the organizers Victor Zheng (UToronto) and Richard Chen (UWaterloo) and the Arbiter team, which consists of Tanner McNamara and Victor. Also, a thank you to Deepanshi Matai, the photographer/assistant to the organizing team.
Overall, the feedback from the event was very positive. Participants enjoyed the format and organization. Free pizza and small snacks were covered for the participants. We hope that the event created lasting memories and will be remembered as a great success!
Event photographs taken by Deepanshi Matai can be found here.
All games were broadcast to lichess.org via DGT boards.
The 2024 Canadian University Chess Championship hosted by Queen’s University Chess Club was held from January 26th to January 28th, 2024.
The Hart House Chess Club, representing the University of Toronto, sent a school record and CUCC record of 6 teams (3 in each section) to compete in the event. 16 teams participated in the Championship and 30 teams in the Reserve, making the event one of the largest CUCCs in history.
The top team for U of T (U of T A) was led by IM Nicholas Vettese, WIM Yunshan Li, and NMs Fengxi Mao and Henry Zhang.
U of T B was led by FM Eilia Zomorrodian, Ethan Moon, Matthew Shih, and WFM Cindy Qiao.
U of T C, the final team in the top section, had Victor Zheng, Riyaan Lakhani, Yixiao Wang, and Kole Robertson representing the Club.
The second seed in the tournament was UWaterloo’s A team, which consisted of FM Ian Zhao, FM Richard Chen, CM William Li, Benito Surya, and Harry Zhao.
The tournament was kick-started with an exciting knock-out bughouse tournament dominated by U of T teams. Cindy Qiao and Eilia Zomorrodian’s team ended up playing IM Nicholas Vettese and Henry Zhang’s team in the final round.
Five rounds of 90 mins + 30 seconds increments were played over two days, as per CUCC tradition. Teams arrived in Kingston on Friday night for the opening ceremony and bughouse, before the festivities began.
Many of the University of Toronto’s players played excellent games, however unfortunately the teams came up short. U of T A and B scored 3/5 to finish tied for 3rd, and U of T C scored 2.5 / 5 to finish tied for 7th. The 2024 Canadian University Champions were McGill University after scoring 4 / 5 to tie with Waterloo but having the winning direct encounter.
Notable individual performances from U of T were Matthew Shih who finished top Board 3 in the Championship and Liam McNally who finished top Board 3 in the Reserve. Victor Zheng, current Secretary of the Club, scored the sole NM norm from U of T’s delegation, going undefeated.
On Sunday morning, the CUCC Presidents met and discussed ratifying a new process and framework for CUCC. The representatives also voted on CUCC 2025, which was ultimately won by a partnership between Montreal schools McGill and University of Montreal.
Victor Zheng and Riyaan Lakhani from U of T C
The tournament organization was led by Queen’s University Chess President Dennis Tran.
Chief Arbiter was Tanner McNamara, former Secretary of the Hart House Chess Club.
CM Koosha Jaferian from U of Twas the official commentator of the event.
U of T’s delegation was organized by Victor Zheng, Secretary of the Hart House Chess Club.
Jason Le, the official photographer from Toronto Metropolitan University, took photos. All photos are credited to him.
This year was Cindy Qiao’s second year participating in the Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship. Cindy is now in her third year studying computer science at UofT and below are her thoughts and report on the unforgettable trip.
Tactical ingenuity, positional acumen, calculative precision. These are all remarkable chess talents to have. But if you were to ask me what I admire the most in a chess player, it would be their undying passion for the game. I see chess as a game of resilience and I think it is a player’s passion for the game that helps them overcome the worst blunders, the most frustrating losses, and ultimately emerge wiser–not only over the chessboard, but also in life.
I was fortunate to receive the opportunity to represent UofT at multiple team championships now and it is in the teammates that I’ve met over the years that I’ve witnessed such passion for the chess game. It is the same teammates that resparked my own passion for the game and inspired me not to bring my chess journey to a close just yet.
This year, from January 3rd – 8th, 2024, I set off with seven other UofT students on a memorable journey consisting of multiple flights, hurried transfers, and dreadful 6-hour bus rides to McAllen, Texas, USA, for the annual Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship, the pinnacle of international collegiate chess. The tournament fields some of the strongest collegiate chess players, such as GM Grigoriy Oparin, GM Awonder Liang, and GM Benjamin Glendura, all rated above 2700 USCF and the top three seeds in this year’s Pan Ams. Dubbed the “World Series of College Chess”, Hart House Chess Club had fundraised and fielded teams to the Pan Ams tournament every year between 1965, the year the club first won it all, and 2019.
Once again, UofT sent two teams this year consisting of the top-8 finishers at the Pan Am Qualifiers tournament held earlier in September. Originally, FM Eilia Zomorrodian was guaranteed a spot on the team due to his visa troubles from last year, but due to continued unfortunate visa issues this year, he was unable to make the trip once again.
This year, the A team was led by WIM Yunshan Li, followed by IM Nicholas Vettese, NM Fengxi Mao, and Ethan Moon.
The B team was led by myself, followed by Riyaan Lakhani, Yixiao Wang, and Bingfei Wang.
Yunshan and I were assigned as co-team captains for the entire UofT team. We were in charge of ensuring the tournament went smoothly for both teams and we were greatly supported by the Hart House team back home, particularly Victor Zheng and Bowen Zhang.
New team sweatshirts were given to the members for this year! Team members from left to right: Nicholas Vettese, Yunshan Li, Cindy Qiao, Yixiao Wang, Ethan Moon, Fengxi Mao, Riyaan Lakhani, and Bingfei Wang.
As aforementioned, it sure wasn’t an easy time making it to McAllen, Texas. The trip started extremely early for the members, with most getting from zero to two hours of sleep. We had a packed travel schedule with only one hour to change flights and buses. There were members leaving their suitcases behind (??) and none got a chance to have proper meals for essentially the entire day of travel. Despite the stressful and tiresome moments, there was a certain charm in traveling together as a chess team. We would switch from team chess over to crazyhouse, over to bullet until someone finally got a headache from all the chess. For the more sane members, sleep was a much more natural choice.
After our plane-to-plane-to-taxi-to-bus-to-taxi ordeal in the span of 20 hours did the team finally make it to our hotel in McAllen. We were warmly greeted by Yixiao, who arrived earlier on her own, at the hotel lobby as she stared at seven people stumbling out of a taxi. Instead of worrying about the lack of internet access which Yixiao notified us about (of course, we switched rooms later on to fix this), the team set off for our first team dinner in McAllen. There were lots of food options near our accommodation, so after wandering around in darkness and nearly getting chased by an angry dog, we settled on the amazing option of Domino’s pizza.
This Domino’s pizza location received so much business from us over the course of our time in McAllen. Also, believe it or not, I think Nicholas is still playing chess on his phone here.
It was a long day for everyone, but after what seemed like a short night (perhaps because we slept for less hours than the duration of our bus ride), it was the next day already. The schedule for the first day was pretty relaxed as the first round was in the evening. The members spent their morning enjoying the hotel breakfast, peak-quality filtered water from the hotel gym, and some card games in which we learned that Bingfei is a master in. Then, it was time for tournament check-in and the entire team headed to the tournament building which was a 15-minute walk away from the hotel we were staying at. The walk was harder than we expected, but some broken traffic lights weren’t enough to stop us.
Making our way to the tournament hall.We always tried to walk in groups when goingbetween the tournament hall and the hotel.
Waiting at the crossroad of death (basically, the traffic light would never turn green here).
The complimentary nachos served were delicious! In fact, Fengxi filled himself up on them and failed to finish his actual meal. To be fair, the servings were quite generous.
After exploring the tournament rooms and having a small team meeting to discuss some technicalities (since there were no phones allowed in the venue, we decided to walk together at night so that no one gets lost) the team headed for lunch. This time, we had something a little less fancy than pizza, at a Mexican restaurant. There was still lots of time until the first round so everyone headed back to get some rest. Riyaan went for a walk to a park, but the park was completely empty except for reportedly one guy who stared at him from a truck in the parking lot. After a short break, I headed back to the tournament hall along with Ethan again for the captain’s meeting and to pick up team badges and other items.
The tournament hall. We were surprisedto find out there were no actual DGT boards.
Full credit to Ethan for carrying allthe badges and complimentary drinks.
After some more rest back at the hotel, the entire team headed to the tournament hall for round one. We were a bit worried as we were running late, but it turns out that there was a huge hold up at the doors due to all the security measures being taken–it definitely took some time to get hundreds of people through a metal detector. We joked that the security for entering the tournament hall was tighter than airport security.
In round 1, UofT A was paired down against the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and UofT B was paired up against Georgia Tech. UofT A sweeped 4-0 relatively easily, except for Yunshan who had a tough game as her opponent had clearly prepped for her. Luckily, as the stronger player, she caught her opponent’s mistakes and won her game. UofT B ended round 1 with 0.5-3.5, with Bingfei saving the team from getting sweeped.
Round 1 in progress, with team A and team B only one table away from one another. Ethan’s opponent was a no show in this game, so he enjoyed this round watching all of the other games in progress.
Avinash Shashikala Rajendra (2162 USCF) vs. Yunshan Li. Yunshan seems to have walked into some prep and has a pretty scary position to face here.
The tournament started picking up pace with round 2 the next morning. UofT A was paired with the tough University of Texas at Dallas in which all four boards had to face GMs. Except for Yunshan who drew her game, the rest of the team faced losses one after another. Ethan actually held his game for very long despite being low on time for essentially the entire game, but eventually the time pressure became too much.
In round 2, UofT B was paired with Georgia Tech again, except this time they were playing the B team. On paper, Georgia Tech B’s average team rating was still considerably higher and it was an expected loss for team B. Bingfei won his game, while boards 2 and 3 lost theirs. It was down to my game to decide whether we would lose or tie the match and at the time, it seemed unlikely I could win my position.
I was white here against David Schmitz (2040 USCF).
I had a decent position throughout the game, but eventually blundered an exchange and ended up in a worse position due to time pressure. However, due to black’s king being so open, I had high hopes in securing a draw through some sort of perpetual. After a couple of moves were made, I began to have hopes in winning the position and did go on to win the game, surprising not only myself, but also my teammates who saw me go from being down an exchange to up an entire piece. Thanks to the tied match, UofT B slowly started making our way up.
My opponent got greedy in snatching the pawns on the queenside, while my h-pawn plodded its way down the board.
In the afternoon round, UofT A played against Texas Tech University Team B which was tougher than they seemed, as their board 2 and board 4 scored upset draws against our board 2 and board 4 players. Still, UofT A won the match 3-1 which was what mattered.
UofT B played against Washington University in St. Louis Team B. The average team rating for Washington University in St. Louis was 1983, whereas the average team rating for UofT B stood at 1737. UofT B went into this tournament severely underrated as all team members had significantly lower USCF and FIDE ratings compared to their CFC ratings. Throughout the tournament several of my opponents came up to me to complain about how our team members were underrated (in a friendly way). Despite every board being outmatched in rating for this round, UofT B was close to sweeping and won the match with 3.5-0.5. Particularly, Riyaan played a nice game against Jacob Song (1944 USCF) with a neat opening sacrifice. He has annotated his game here. I’m the one guilty for the 0.5, as I chickened out in a position I knew was better for me and offered a draw while down on time. Still, it was from this upset win that UofT B went on to receive the award for the ‘Biggest Team Upset’ throughout the entire tournament.
Riyaan Lakhani vs. Jacob Song. Riyaan sacrificed his c3-knight here with Nf5!
After round 3, there was a blitz tournament which Ethan, Riyaan, Yixiao, Bingfei, as well as myself participated in. The Pan Ams blitz tournament was one of my fondest memories from my time at Pan Ams last year, so I thought I couldn’t miss it this year. However, I started to regret deciding to play after realizing how late it would go until and how we still hadn’t eaten dinner. By the time the tournament ended, the five of us trudged back to the hotel half alive and got some–you guessed it–Domino’s pizza to eat at 1:00 am. It was the next morning that all the exhaustion hit. Half of the team members were feeling sick including me, but we still had to play regardless with no substitute players.
Fengxi Mao, UofT A Team’s Board 3.
Bingfei Wang, UofT B Team’s Board 4.
Round 4 pairings was a bit of a shock for team B as we weren’t expecting to face a school as strong as Stanford University, with two IMs included in their lineup and an average team rating of 2350. UofT A was also paired against a tough opponent, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (at this point, it was looking like UofT A was going to just be playing one Texas team after another!). UofT A ended up losing 0.5-3.5 with Fengxi scoring a half-point against IM Tianqi Wang. Yunshan was upset with her result this game as she actually had the advantage against GM Juraj Druska, but failed to play some key winning moves which she had actually calculated.
Team B was in for a rough ride this round against Stanford and lost 0-4 for the first time. However, many of the games were fighting games. On board 3, Yixiao was holding a rook endgame down a pawn for a long time, with her game finishing last. On my board, I was playing IM Bryce Tiglon, probably the highest rated opponent I had faced in a while. I played an okay game despite feeling sick, with an advantage in the opening and chances to hold throughout the game, but eventually got outplayed.
In between the morning and afternoon rounds, we always had plenty of time to get some rest and enjoy some good food. I went out to try some more Mexican food, whereas others tried very hot chicken and burgers.
All four of us approved of the food at this Mexican restaurant–it was good food at a good price!
Round 5 saw UofT A facing Saint Louis University and UofT B facing the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. UofT A won their match 3-1 with Yunshan and Ethan drawing their games and Nicholas and Fengxi winning their games convincingly. Fengxi played his beloved Czech Benoni and having known the opening and its ideas so well, he outplayed his opponent from start to finish.
Fengxi’s beloved opening setup. I have to respectthe Be7-g5 maneuver.
UofT A Team vs. Saint Louis University C Team.
As one of the lowest rated teams in the open section, UofT B was once again playing opponents that out-rated us on all four boards. However, our board 4, Bingfei was the first to finish with yet another win (he only lost one game throughout the entire event!). Boards 2 and 3 were not so fortunate and ended with losses, so once again it was down to my game to decide whether we could tie the match. I was playing Alan Finkelstein (2195 USCF) as black, and for reference, my USCF rating at the time was a solid 1875. It didn’t help that he played confidently into an opening line in which I forgot all theory in by move 13. I was left with a position down a clean pawn and down tons of time.
Shown on the board was the position I was left stumped on. I remembered the best move being Be6, but I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why my position was okay down a pawn. I ended up playing Bb7 which is already a clean +1 for white.
Despite not going on to win the game, which meant a loss for our team, this game was my favorite amongst my games in the tournament. I gave my all during this game, calculating every move I possibly could despite having only 1-2 minutes on the clock in the latter half of the game. I found a nice tactic that equalized the position, and after a long and tense endgame maneuver, I finally secured a draw.
Black to move. The position was nearly +2 for whiteuntil my opponent played the natural-looking e4.
With one round left to go in the tournament, I think everyone was relieved that the tournament was coming to an end. The ones who were feeling sick were only getting worse and personally, I lived off of throat-soothing candies for the last two days.
For the final round, UofT A was paired against Stanford University, which UofT B had faced in round 4. Yunshan faced IM Bryce Tiglon, but unfortunately her opening didn’t go well and she ended with a loss. Nicholas also lost his game against IM Carissa Yip, whom he played the French against. Despite all of us (including him) agreeing that his position looked ugly out of the opening, it turns out he had several chances to be better when we looked at the game later on. Ethan had the upper hand in a draw against his opponent, but at this point it was already determined that UofT A had lost the match. Fengxi’s game was the last to finish–it had seemed like his position was tough to win, as he was playing a queen vs. knight + rook position down 1 point in material. However, he slowly but surely grinded the game from an equal position to a win. Fengxi ended the tournament with 4.5/6, the highest scorer amongst the members in team A.
Fengxi Mao vs. Sina Mohammadi (2225 USCF)
UofT B faced Cornell University, which we tied 2-2 with. Our boards 1 and 2 lost whereas our boards 3 and 4 won. Bingfei, our board 4, was the MVP of our team, ending with 4.5/6. However, all the members on both team A and team B gave their all given their own circumstances and I’d like to thank every member for that.
The tournament ended with UofT A scoring 3 points with 3 wins, and UofT B scoring 2 points with 1 win and two draws. UofT A was awarded the top international team award, and to our surprise, UofT B was called up to the stage as well for the biggest team upset award. Congratulations to the University of Missouri A Team for winning the Open event!
UofT’s A Team – Top International Award.
UofT’s B Team – Biggest Team Upset
The tournament had finally concluded, but there was more to our trip! After the awards ceremony ended, the teams had an entire evening to spend as our flights back home were early the next day. Ever since arriving in McAllen, Yixiao and Yunshan mentioned their interest in visiting Mexico as the borders were so close to where we were staying. Originally I planned to accompany them, but given that I still felt sick on the last day, I decided to stay back at the hotel instead.
Out of us eight chess players, there had been no one wise enough to bring a chess set to McAllen. So far, we had made do with a scuffed iPad and phone setup to play games back at our hotel, but it just didn’t feel the same. Plus, we couldn’t play our favorite–okay, my favorite–bughouse! I decided to approach the organizers to ask if we could buy/borrow their chess sets and they were kind enough to lend us two chess sets that we could bring back to the hotel. I got the chance to speak to the organizers a couple of times throughout the tournament and they had been nothing but accommodating for any troubles we had. Here’s another thank you towards them for making Pan Ams possible this year.
As the rest of us gathered to play bullet/blitz/hand-and-brain/bughouse with our newly acquired sets back at the hotel, Yixiao and Yunshan headed off for their short but sweet Mexico journey. From what I heard, they spent most of their time waiting in line to cross the border and no more than a few minutes actually in Mexico.
Yixiao and Yunshan in Mexico! The sunset was so pretty that day, it’s a bit of a shame the rest of the team was busy cooped up inside.
Finally, our time in McAllen came to an end as we gathered at 4:00 am the next morning to begin our tiresome journey back to Toronto. All of the members were exhausted, some were feeling more sick than ever, but we all made it safely back to Toronto.
All the members are happy to be back in Toronto. Picture taken by Ethan Moon.
For me, this year’s Pan Ams felt completely different from last year’s, and I will treasure the memories I made from both experiences fondly. There’s just something so captivating about playing chess on a team when those teammates are friends that would genuinely support you for any loss and congratulate you for any win. I admire each and every one of my teammates not only for their chess, but also for who they are as people. To Yunshan, Nicholas, Fengxi, Ethan, Yixiao, Riyaan, and Bingfei: Thank you for making this trip everything that it was. Also, here’s a final thank you to Hart House Chess Club for giving all of us this opportunity–I look forward to next year to do it all over again!
Special thanks to Riyaan for proofreading the article and providing details I had missed.
After the conclusion of the 2024 Spring Elections, Alumni Chair Ben Hahn has informed the Club Executive that the following members will serve as the 2024-2025 Club Executive:
Victor Zheng – Secretary Toma Yuen – Treasurer Deepanshi Matai – Communications Kaiy Cao – Communications Mark Li – Events Steven Guo – Fundraiser
See below for the original post.
Attention all members,
It’s election time!
Please carefully read the short outline below if you wish to exercise your right to vote or to become a part of the HHCC Executive Board!
Annual Club Elections
Interested in being a part of the executive team of the coolest Hart House Student Club? Our annual election process begins this month!
The following six are our executive positions.
The Secretary is responsible for calling meetings of the Executive, maintaining records (minutes) of all such meetings, refereeing all votes taken by the Executive, ensuring communication of all relevant Club information among Executive members, managing the schedule of weekly club meetings/events for rotations and ensuring executive commitment, maintaining an inventory of club equipment, organizing an annual General Assembly of the Club members, liaising with the Hart House staff via the Club’s Programme Advisor, and acting as the Club’s representative where necessary.
The Events-Coordinator is responsible for informing the Executive about the specifics of the Pan-Ams, the Pan-Ams Qualifier and the Canadian University Chess Championship, communicating with tournament organizers and all other relevant parties, overseeing the assembly of the Team, working with the Programme Advisor to organize accommodation, registration, and transportation for the Team, and dealing with all other concerns pertaining to these three events. The Events Co-ordinator is also charged with administering the special events hosted by the Club, such as the Master Lectures, the Casual Chess Tournaments, the Chess Lessons and the Simultaneous Chess Exhibitions.
The two Communications Representatives maintain a directory of email addresses for all Club members and interested parties, inform Club members of upcoming events, promotes the Club to prospective members, advertise Club events when required, and maintain the Club’s website and social media accounts.
The Treasurer is responsible for keeping an account of the Club’s revenues and expenditures, informing the Executive of any deviation from established budgets, and devising the annual budget with the input and approval of the Executive. The Treasurer is also responsible for keeping track of the chess materials borrowed by members as part of the Club’s lending library.
The Fundraising Representative acts closely with the Treasurer to determine the extent and nature of the Club’s financial needs, and organizes corresponding fundraising initiatives with the assistance of other Executive members.
Eligibility
All student club members, have the right to vote and to be candidates for an executive position, provided that they have been Hart House Chess Club members for at least one month on April 5th, 2024.
Club members interested in Executive positions are asked to email bfohahn@gmail.com expressing interest, the position(s) interested in, and a short bio/background by 5 pm March 29. They are asked to include [HHCC Elections] as the subject of the email.
If there are two or more candidates for a position, a vote will be held to determine the successful candidate on April 5 at 7 pm. A person can be candidate for more than one Executive position. The voting is done by secret ballot.
The electoral process will be administered by the club’s Alumni Chair, Ben Hahn. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Hahn at bfohahn@gmail.com, indicating [HHCC Elections] as the subject of your e-mail.
Hart House Chess Club is an open and inclusive environment. As a positive space we welcome and encourage members of all sexes, genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities, languages, abilities, religions and creeds to participate in the student government of the club, either as members of the executive or as volunteers!
The Hart House Spring Junior Open is back for another year and is open to anyone born in 2006 or later! The tournament is an opportunity for up and coming juniors to play other juniors and utilize free onsite expert-analysis from some of UofT’s top chess players.
With two sections for anyone U1300 or new-to-chess, this is the perfect opportunity to bring families and young children to their first chess tournament. It is also a great opportunity to meet some of UofT’s best chess players and explore Hart House and the University of Toronto. We look forward to welcoming families and young chess enthusiasts to the magnificent Music Room on March 24th.
Where: Music Room, Hart House, University of Toronto When: Sunday, March 24th, 2024 Rounds: 9:30 am, 11:30 am, (lunch), 1:30 pm, 3:30 pm (Game Analysis available 10 am – 4 pm) Award Ceremony: 6:00 pm or ASAP after round 4. Style: 4Round Swiss in 2 Rating Sections: U1300, and U900. Time Control: 30 minutes plus 30 seconds per move from move 1, for all sections. Rating: All sections will be CFC Classical Rated (Chess Federation of Canada). Byes: Maximum 1 half-point byes in rounds 1-3, if requested in advance before the start of Round 1. Prizes:Trophies for top three finishers and top girl in each section. First and second place receives in both sections also receive 1 tickets to either Rd 6 or Rd 7 Candidates. Entry Fee: $40 for online registrations before 11:59 PM March 22nd. Arbiters: Hart House Chess Club provided Organizer: Hart House Chess Club Game Analysis: Free expert-level analysis will be provided by UofT’s Varsity Chess Team and other U of T players (see below). Notation: E-mail:hhchess@studentorg.utoronto.ca
Other Info: Chess sets and clocks will be provided
CFC Memberships: Registrants must create a CFC ID before registering. Paid CFC memberships are not required as this is a juniors-only tournament with time controls. Rating fees will be covered by HHCC. Unrated players will get a CFC Regular Rating after this tournament and are welcome and encouraged to play!
Parents: WiFi will be provided and you can use rooms such as the Reading Room, or Burwash Room (skittles/analysis room) while waiting for games to finish.
Withdrawals: Full refund by March 10, Refunds from March 11th to close of online registrations are charged $10 fee.
Registration:
All players must have been born on or after year 2006. Tournament is for juniors 18 and under.
Online registration is recommended and available until March 22nd at 11:59pm.
Extra $10 to play up a section. Playing up is allowed only for players within 100 rating points of the section’s minimum rating. The $10 added play up fee is charged in-person. For example: a player in the Under 900 section who wants to play up in the Under 1300 section must have a rating no lower than 800.
The tournament will admit up to 45 participants.
Photography:
HHCC will aim to provide an official photographer for this event. By signing up, you permit HHCC the ability to take and use photos from the tournament on its social media. If you would not like your photo used, please email us.
Game Analysis:
Game analysis will be provided by UofT’s Varsity Chess Team and other strong players after each round in the Burwash Room. All players are encouraged to show their games to HHCC player’s for their feedback and learn from their games.
If there are any corrections, please let us know via email to hhchess@studentorg.utoronto.ca. Please do not call Hart House as they are not informed about the specific details of the tournament.
Find the event report here. See below for event details.
The Hart House Chess Club (University of Toronto) and University of Waterloo Chess Club have agreed to an inter-university match between the clubs from March 2nd – March 3rd, 2024. As two leading university hubs for chess in Ontario, this match will see two schools battle it out for school pride and glory. The tournament is a Team Match with Scheveningen pairings, and players will play only against players from opposing schools. There will be 12 players per team, and two pools per team. The tournament is a Team Rapid and Blitz, with each point counting towards the overall team score.
Sections: Each school will have a Team A and Team B, each with 6 players.
Team A will play all players of Team A in rapid.
Pizza will be provided on Sunday afternoon after Round 2.
Tournament System:
Scheveningen System, Round Robin. Pairings will be announced by February 29th, 48 hours before the start of the tournament.
Prizes:
Team Plaque for overall team winner. A Rapid win counts as 2 points and a Blitz win as 1 point. If team are tied in points after the Rapid, a single-game tiebreaker blitz will be played from a player nominated from each school, until a decisive result is achieved.
Individual Prizes: $100 + Plaque for 1st for the top-player in each section for each tournament.
Players: Please contact your university representative if you are interested in playing for your team.
Attention all “double chess” lovers and strategists! Get ready to experience the exhilarating world of Bughouse Chess, the most captivating and thrilling chess variant ever created! Join us on Friday February 9th, 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, February 9, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm.
WHERE: Hart House (7 Hart House Cir, Toronto) – Reading Room.
WHAT: 5 round double-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: Hart House Chess Club sweatshirts for both winners.
For the first time in the 21st Century, the Hart House Chess Club hosted the Toronto Rapid Championship in the Hart House Great Hall on Saturday, April 20th. The rapid tournament was a 6-round FIDE-rated and CFC-rated Rapid Swiss Event with a 10 mins + 5 seconds increment time control. Students were encouraged to attend and enjoy a break from exams!
IM Nicholas Vettese won the Toronto Rapid Crown section with a score of 5.5/6. Closely followed by FM Mike Ivanov and FM Aaron Reeve Mendes. In the U1800 section, Sudip Poudel, Korbin Schantz, and Jayden Lau tied for 1st. Finally, in the U1400 section, Ariel Emengga was first, followed by a tie between Jacob Fischer, Titan Wang, Calvin Devries, Mohammad Alsaiah, German Ierzhakov, and Alex Li for 2nd – 7th.
Chief TD was Alex Ferreira, assisted by Victor Zheng, Tanner McNamara, Bowen Zhang, Ahmed Khalf, and Michael Corrie.
Thank you all for coming and congratulations to all the winners! We hope to see you at future Hart House events soon.
For the original tournament post, see below.
Tournament Details
WHEN: Saturday, April 20th, 10 am – 2:30 pm. Rd #1 starts at 10:00 A.M. WHAT: 6-round FIDE Rated, CFC-Active Rated Swiss Tournament, 10 mins + 5 secs/move increment time control. WHERE: Hart House (7 Hart House Circle, Toronto, ON) Great Hall (playing hall) and East Common Room (analysis) RATINGS: CFC Quick Rated & FIDE Rapid Rated for Crown and U1800. CFC classical ratings will be used for Rd #1 pairings and final prizes. All players must have a valid CFC membership to play. ROUND TIMES: 10:00 am, 10:45 am, 11:30 am, 12:15 pm, 1:00 pm, 1:45 pm SECTIONS: Crown (FIDE and CFC), U1800 (FIDE and CFC), U1400 (CFC) EQUIPMENT: HHCC will supply all chess equipment PRIZES: $5000 based on 180 players (1-3 weeks processing time paid via cheque or direct deposit). Prize winners: check your emails for confirmation and next steps after the event. Chief Arbiter: FA Alex Ferreira CAPACITY: 200 ORGANIZERS: Hart House Chess Club
Entry fees and Registration
Registration: Online via the Hart House Registration website by Thursday, April 18th at 11:59 pm. Onsite registration accepted until 9 AM for $50.
Entry Fees: $40 by April 1st at 11:59 pm, $45 afterwards until Thursday April 18th 11:59pm. Discounts: $20 discount for unrated players in their first tournament (see below) and $20 discount for U of T students. Max one discount per player. U of T student discount applied automatically. Unrated players are ineligible for prizes. Free for WIM/IM/GM/WGM.
Hart House Great Hall
Additional Information
Byes: Up to one 1/2 point bye for rounds 1-5 can be requested by emailing us by April 18th at 11:59pm. Endorsement: Tournament is endorsed by the Greater Toronto Chess League (GTCL) CFC Memberships: Registrants must be current CFC members. All memberships should be paid and renewed online at https://chess.ca/membership-fees. Full year $48 for adults, $32 for juniors ($12 for adults, $6 for juniors for single-tournament). Foreign players $8. Section Eligibility: No playing up allowed. Highest of CFC Regular/CFC Active/FIDE Rapid Ratings used. Unrated Players: Review our New To Tournament Guide for expectations before playing in your first tournament. Photography: By signing up, you permit HHCC the ability to take and use photos from the tournament on its social media. If you would not like your photo used, please email us at hhtournaments@gmail.com. CFC Active or CFC Regular: this tournament will use the highest of either CFC Regular/CFC Active/FIDE Rapid for section eligibility, however, CFC Regular will be used for pairings. Up to TDs discretion. Foreign Ratings: all participants must disclose all foreign ratings at time of registration or via email. Accessibility and Visitor Information: Hart House is a accessible building and conveniently located. For further details, visit Visitor Information and Accessibility. Directions to/from Candidates Venue: 1 hr walk, 16 minute bus, 45 min transit Food and Restaurants: Hart House is located in Downtown Toronto, just minutes from most major restaurants and eateries, including Tim-Hortons, McDonald’s, and Starbucks. In addition, sit-down restaurants are located throughout the area on Bloor, College, Spadina, Bay and Yonge Streets. All are within 15 minutes of walking distance.
The tournament will be hosted at the historic, neo-gothic building, Hart House, at the University of Toronto. Hart House is regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful student centers and is a visual icon of the University of Toronto. The grand interior of Hart House is designed with high arched ceilings that vary from room to room.
Since 2008, the venue has hosted two of the largest annual Toronto chess events, the Hart House Holidays and Hart House Reading Week Open Chess Tournaments, regularly attracting over 200 players.
Hart House Chess Club 