Author: harthousechess

The 2024 Canadian Zonal and Women Zonal was hosted at Hart House of the University of Toronto from March 27th – April 2nd, 2024. Over Easter, 258 players and their families participated in 5 sections and many side events. A record-breaking 47 women’s players played in the biggest Canada Women Zonal in history alongside 61 players in the Open Zonal. In addition, 3 General sections were open to players of all skill levels. Players travelled across Canada, from as far as BC and Nova Scotia, to Downtown Toronto. 

At stake were places on the Canadian teams for the upcoming Olympiad and qualification for the next World Cup and Women’s World Cup. The playing location was the historic, neo-gothic student centre of the University, Hart House, which last hosted the Canadian Championship in 1978. Hart House is regarded as one of the premier student centres of the world, and is home to the historic 129-year old Hart House Chess Club. A dozen DGT boards relayed the top games worldwide, and all games for all boards were uploaded during the tournament, allowing all players to have the same preparation conditions. 

Similar to all Hart House tournaments over the past few years, the tournament used an online registration system that allowed payments to be made prior to Round 1, enabling an on-time start. Registrations were accepted in person, by telephone, online, and by cheque. The tournament featured a prize fund of $16,000, and the top winner of the Open Zonal took home $2,500. Games were played throughout Hart House, with the main festivities happening in the Great Hall. Student photographers were invited for many rounds to help document the interesting, serious, and funny moments of the tournament. 

Alongside the 7-day, 10-round Zonal and 6-day, 9-round Women’s Zonal sections, three “General” sections running on a 4-day, 7-round schedule were open to anyone of all levels based on ratings: Premier, U1800, and U1400. For the Open Zonals, a minimum rating of either 2200 CFC or 2000 FIDE was required to compete. All sections except for the U1400 were FIDE-rated. 

In the Open Zonals section, 35 of the 61 players were titled players, including 3 Grandmasters, 14 International Masters, 10 FIDE Masters, and 8 Candidate Masters. The top seeds for the event were GM-elect Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux, IM Raja Panjwani, and GM Razvan Preotu. 

In the Women’s Zonals, 10 of the 47 players were titled, with 1 Woman Grandmaster, 3 Women International Masters, 2 Women FIDE Masters, and 4 Women Candidate Masters. The top seeds were WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet, WIM Yunshan Li, and WIM Bich Ngoc Pham. 

Canada Zonal

The rounds featured very competitive chess and resulted in many very close matches alongside some surprising upsets. From the start, there were no easy games and no quickdraws. All games were competitive as the players knew that the winner and eventual Canadian Champion would have to pull off some amazing chess to win. 

In Round 1 of the Open, no major upsets occurred. Although GM Bator Sambuev drew to IM Leon Piasetski and IM Nikolay Noristyn drew IM Raymond Kaufman. However, the upsets would soon come. In the first three rounds, CM Koosha Jaferian defeated GM Razvan Preotu, IM Nicholas Vettese beat IM Mark Plotkin, IM Shiyam Thavandiran beat IM Raja Panjwani, and Sambuev beat IM Sai Krishna.

By Round 4, exciting matchups were on all the top boards, with IM-elect Anthony Atanasov playing Thavandiran (Shiyam won) and Rodrigue-Lemieux playing Vettese, a historic rivalry of past junior rivals (Shawn won).

In Round 5, Thavandiran defeated Sambuev, Noristyn lost to Rodrigue-Lemieux, and Atanasov lost to Panjwani. This set up an exciting match-up between Thavandiran and Rodrigue-Lemieux in Round 6.

A pivotal match, Thavandiran persevered to pull off the win in a long fight. Perhaps a theme for Thavandiran was perseverance, as he had beaten second seed IM Raja in Round 3 in a lost position.

Vettese bounced back from his loss against Shawn with consecutive wins against IM David Cummings and GM Preotu to set up his own clash with Shiyam in round 7, being the only player within half a point of Shiyam. Their game ended in an uneventful draw. However, GM Sambuev vs IM Noritsyn was not an uneventful game. It was the longest game of the round, as Sambuev blundered on move 93 after a long and tough defense. The two have had a historic rivalry and have both been at the top of Canadian chess for some time.

Noritsyn then played Shiyam in round 8, where Shiyam stretched his lead in the event to a full point by winning the encounter. IM Vettese also began his descent, losing to IM Raja from a good position.

In round 9, Adam Dorrance clinched his FM title by beating Vettese. Shiyam won the event with a round to spare, outlasting IM Sai Krishna in what may have been the longest game of the tournament; Shiyam ground out an exchange up endgame to force resignation on move 117, long after the rest of the players had emptied out of the hall.

Adam Dorrance’s reward for beating Vettese was a spot on board 1 for the final round; Shiyam promptly beat him to finish 9/10 and become Canadian Champion. IM Vettese continued to show his generous side, gifting fellow U of T student Sergey Noritsyn both top student and the FM title. The end result was Shiyam Thavandiran champion, followed by Anthony Atanasov (2nd), Shawn Rodrigue Lemieux (3rd), Raja Panjwani (4th), and Razvan Preotu (5th) all ending with 7/10.

A performance perhaps of note – Samuel Zhang, started the event with a three 0 point byes, did win 6 games in a row, somewhat remarkably, and was the longest winning streak of the Zonals.

Canada Women Zonal

In the Women’s Zonal, the exciting matchups began in Round 3 as the top seeds all scored wins in their early rounds. In Round 3, WIM Svitlana Demchenko drew WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet.

This left the top of the table with WIM Pham Bich Ngoc, WIM Yunshan Li, and WFM Oksana Golubeva at 3-0. Pham and Yunshan drew, and both Ouellet’s beat Golubeva and Demchenko beat WFM Morgen Mills, resulting in a group of 4 leading on 3.5/4.

In Round 5, Ouellet drew WIM Li and Demchenko beat Bich Ngoc. This meant Demchenko entered with the lead into Round 6,

In Round 6, importantly Yunshan was held to a draw by Valerie Ruchinskaya while Svitlana and Maili-Jade both won.

In Round 7, Demchenko led with a point ahead of the field but fell to WIM Li in a Dutch. Svitlana got a good position out of the opening but was probably close to equal for a long time, and lost her way (as it happens) just after move 40. WIM Li was a full point back behind the leaders and was able to catch up back in the standings. Maili won her round and entered the penultimate round in the clear half point lead.

In a very important Round 8, Bich Ngoc drew Ouellet meaning that heading into the pivotal Round 9 Ouellet was at 6.5/8. Li and Demchenko won, meaning all the top seeds had played each other, and Li, Demchenko, and Ouellet were tied with 6.5 / 8 apiece.

Since all the tied players had played each other, the final round saw a fight for wins. The only player within half a point was Yilin Li, who had beaten Golubeva in Round 8. Yilin Li lost to Maili-Jade on the top board, and Yunshan and Svitlana won against “weaker” opponents. This meant that the top-three players finished with 7.5 / 9, forcing computer tiebreaks came into effect. After tiebreaks, Maili-Jade Ouellet was awarded 2024 Canadian Women’s Champion. Demchenko finished 2nd, and Li finished 3rd. 

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Therefore, Shiyam and Maili-Jade will be official representatives of Team Canada at the 2025 World Cup and 2024 Olympiad in Budapest. We wish them the best of luck in their upcoming events.

A number of direct titles were achieved including FM titles for Sergey Noristyn (top U of T student), and Adam Dorrance from Nova Scotia. Yilin Li in the Women’s Zonal also achieved the requirements for WFM. A large number of players also achieved CM and WCM titles. These titles are conditional upon reaching the minimum FIDE ratings.

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Festival Sections

In the 4-day Festival Sections, GM Petro Golubka entered as the considerable favourite for the Premier section. However, he forfeited round 1 coming in minutes after the forfeit time. This provided enough opportunity for Vadim Razin, second seed to go on and finish 6/7 and clear first. After catching up to the pack, GM Golubka played local Torontonian Hugh Siddeley, resulting in Hugh’s first ever GM victory and clear 2nd at 5.5/7. A large tie for 3rd was was seen at 5/7 between Jonathan Yu, David Filipovich, Ashwin Chunchu, and Heye Gao.

In the U1800 section, Park Haneul and Sarthak Deshpande finished tied first-second. Thusitha Hettigama and Slava Lukinykh tied for third.

In the U1400 section, Jayden Tan finished with 6.5/7 for first, and Velan Mangai finished 5.5/7 for second. Lyam Katz and Venkata Kola tied for third with 5/7.

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A slew of side events were also offered, including an International Master Lecture on Calculation by IM Advait Patel, a Grandmaster Lecture on a6 and h6 pawns by GM Petro Golubka, interviews with players by Sahan Kauranatne, a video recap by Hammad Khalil, professional photography opportunities led by Deepanshi Matai, a tour of the University of Toronto from the U of T Visitor Centre, the induction of Kalev Pugi to the CFC Hall of Fame, and a simul for 20 players by GM Golubka. These events were free, open to all, and were well attended by numerous participants and families. 

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The Organizing Committee would like to express our thanks to certain individuals for their work in making this event possible. 

We would like to thank the student organizers of the tournament who volunteered their time busy lives to make the event a success: Victor Zheng, Tanner McNamara, Bowen Zhang, Ahmed Khalf, Deepanshi Matai, and Crystal Cao. Victor, Bowen, Tanner, and Ahmed are all former executives of the club who became National Arbiters while students at the university. Deepanshi played a pivotal role in entering chess score sheets and taking photographs for the event. Crystal played a crucial role in managing the phone check-in and recording results. Their commitment to the tournament made the tournament a success. 

In addition, we would like to thank the Arbiter team consisting of Chief Arbiter IA Omar Shah, Deputy Arbiters FA Uttam Dhungel and FA Alex Ferreira, and Arbiters NA Michael Corrie and NA Daniel Rokvargher. They ensured the smooth execution of a fantastic Zonal Championship. 

Particularly, we would like to highlight and thank the venerable Alex Ferreira, a former student, advisor, mentor, and Tournament Director who has been mentoring student organizers at the University of Toronto for the past 15 years. His work over the years mentoring and advising students made the event possible. 

We would also like to thank the various volunteers who contributed to a great tournament, including Andrew Leung, Grace Miao, Kaiy Cao, Steven Guo, and other university students who came out to help. We also acknowledge our French Translations team for providing valuable French-English translations, co-led by Ahmed Khalf and Alan Huang. We would also like to thank the Appeals Committee led by IA Hal Bond. 

Finally, we would like to thank our Organizing Committee, led by Victor Zheng, and consisting of Alex Ferreira, Tanner McNamara, and Bowen Zhang. Many logistics and organizer meetings were conducted to make the event a success. 

In addition to these volunteers, we would like to thank the Hart House staff for their continued and dedicated support of our chess events and tournaments. The Hart House Information Hub, with Jamie, Mauro, Naesha, Andrew, and student staff, provided important registration assistance throughout the entire lead-up of the event. Many phone calls, emails, and event reports were coordinated professionally. We would also like to thank the Events office with Madeline for their support with the event logistics. We would also like to thank the Finance Office with Anna and Kerry, who supported the prize payments. Many thanks also goes to our Staff Advisor Zoe Dille as well, who was recently moved over to help coordinate the Chess Club. Finally, we would like to thank the Staging personnel, the Building Services Office, and the Hospitality office, who provided a coordinated effort to make this tournament a success. We wish to acknowledge their assistance.

The Club would also like to express its gratitude to the Annex Chess Club for lending clocks to ensure the smooth operation of the 2nd time control. Annex Chess Club and Hart House Chess Club have worked cooperatively over the past few years to bring high-quality chess to Toronto.  

Additionally, a large shoutout to the photographers and community photographers who contributed to a historical reference of the event. A video recap was created (see below), and interviews conducted to provide a historical reference of chess in Canada in 2024 with the goal of providing a window into Canadian chess decades from 2024. As customary, we took individual, high-quality photos of almost every player. Those photos are linked at the bottom of this post.

Finally, the most important and deserved “thank-you” goes to the 258 participants who came out during Easter to play in the tournament, as well as the friends, family, supporters, and chess enthusiasts who came out to the tournament as spectators. The 2024 Zonals was the biggest chess tournament hosted at Hart House in the past 30 years, and it is with your support that the Club’s initiatives and vibrancy as a hub for chess have continued for 129 years. We are very thankful for your participation and look forward to welcoming you back to Hart House for our many upcoming events later this year and in the future. 

Click the following links below to view photos by: 

• John Upper Batch 1, Batch 2, Batch 3
• Michael Hsu for Round 2 Open / Round 1 Women
• Kennedy Kao Round 4 Open / Round 3 Women / Round 1 Festival
• Yankee Zhu Round 5 Open / Round 3 Women’s photos
• Jay Bhadreshwara Round 7 Open / Round 6 Women’s photos
• Deepanshi Matai All Rounds, Side Events

Click the links below to view crosstables for: 

• Chess Results Open Zonals
• Chess Results Women’s Zonals
• Chess Results Premier
• Chess Results U1800
• Chess Results U1400

View interviews conducted by Sahan Karunaratne and Norman Huang below.

Full interviews: https://www.youtube.com/@harthousechessclub/videos

Razvan Preotu: https://youtu.be/AGwoGOvKdFo
Mark Plotkin: https://youtu.be/kcrrzpErLrU and https://youtu.be/Y4ot6SaYwPM
Svitlana Demchenko: https://youtu.be/0WAZjYgTt68
Yunshan Li: https://youtu.be/ObBKISJLW5k
John Upper: https://youtu.be/ru8Gcx_qTRM
Victor Zheng: https://youtu.be/S9J40n_f98Q
Tanner McNamara: https://youtu.be/fmbfesDETAY
Zachary Dukic: https://youtu.be/8RoJ9nGCVCM

View the tournament recap by Hammad Khalil below.

Chief Organizer Victor Zheng wrote the above report. With round reports thanks to Tanner McNamara.

For the original event post, visit here.

Photo credit header image: Jay Bhadreshwara

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.
• MAXIMUM CAPACITY: 50 players.
• NOTE: chess sets and boards provided

CONTACT:

Any questions can be sent to: hhchess@studentorg.utoronto.ca

PAIRINGS:

https://www.chessmanager.com/en/tournaments/5096852799619072/rounds/1

For more info, see last year’s event here.

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

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 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

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. 

• All blitz games played can be found here. 
• All rapid games played can be found here.

Cross-tables of the event can be found here. 

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. 

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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. 

Final standings and results are available here. 

All games from the top two pairings of the Championship and the top pairing of the Reserve can be found here.

Photos of the U of T player contingent is available here. 

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See you at CUCC 2025 in Montreal! 

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.

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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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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 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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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! 

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. 

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. 

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.

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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!

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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!

Thank you very much for your attention!