Category: News

The Hart House Chess Club (HHCC) hosts the Hart House October Open Tournament from Sat. October 21st – Sun. October 22nd, 2023. The event is the perfect opportunity for students and community members wanting to play a classical-rated tournament over only two days. The tournament will be a 5-round Swiss, with 60 mins plus a 30-second increment added per move. We hope to see new and old faces again!

TOURNAMENT DETAILS: 

When: Sat. October 21st to Sun. October 22nd. Rd #1 starts at 10:00 A.M.
Format: 5-round CFC-Rated, Swiss Tournament
Location: Hart House Debates Room, 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 3H3. Analysis/Skittles: Committees Room
Time Control: 60 mins + 30 secs/move increment
Capacity: 100
Rounds:  Saturday: 10 am, 2 pm, 6 pm, Sunday: 10 am, 2 pm
Sections: Crown, U1800, U1200 (all CFC rated)
Equipment: HHCC will supply all chess equipment
Prizes: $3000 based on 100 players
Organizers: Hart House Chess Club

ENTRY FEES & REGISTRATION – entries sold-out
Entry Fees: 
$50 by September 20th, $60 by October 20th (see discounts below)

Registration: via the Club website by noon Fri. Oct. 20. No onsite registration. Registration is also available in person or via telephone at the Hart House Hub. SOLD OUT

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Byes: Up to two 1/2 point byes for rounds 1-4 can be requested by emailing us by noon October 20th. Please email for bye requests.
Check-In: no checking in required, players are paid based on latest CFC ratings update for week of Oct 18
CFC Memberships: Registrants must be current CFC members or bring payment before playing – https://www.chess.ca/en/players/membership-fees/.
Section Eligibility: No playing up allowed. CFC regular ratings used for pairings. 
Discounts: $30 discount for unrated players in their first tournament and U of T students. Max one discount per player. Unrated players are ineligible for prizes. Free entry for IM/WIM by October 1st (email us for all details). 
Notation: Chess notation is required for all moves starting from move 1.
Email: hhchess@studentorg.utoronto.ca.

Pairings and Standings

https://chess-results.com/tnr835862.aspx?lan=1

Prizes: prizes are paid via cheque, please note that it takes 1-3 weeks for cheques to be paid.

Pre-Registered (October 6)

Starting Rank	Player Name	CFC ID	CFC Regular Rating	CFC Quick Rating	CFC Membership Validity	Section	Byes
1	Nikolay Noritsyn	132534	2575	2508	Valid	Crown
2	Mark Plotkin	141086	2515	2551	Valid	Crown	Round 2
3	Advait Patel	171703	2442	2459	Valid	Crown
4	Nicholas Vettese	154199	2418	2488	Valid	Crown
5	Yunshan Li	175249	2411	2352	Valid	Crown
6	William Li	154677	2276	2274	Valid	Crown
7	Mahip Singh	157732	2260	2142	Valid	Crown
8	Isaak Huh	179882	2232	2211	Valid	Crown
9	Ethan Moon	150154	2208	2019	Valid	Crown
10	Aayush Ajith	167780	2154	1993	Valid	Crown
11	Ian Loadman	101686	2151	2105	Valid	Crown	Round 3
12	Ruining Wu	150768	2135	2180	Expired	Crown
13	Noah Nathaniel Yuen	158470	2100	1752	Valid	Crown
14	Cindy Qiao	155864	2070	2040	Expired	Crown
15	Saarthak Malakar	173204	2067	2020	Valid	Crown
16	Tony Lu	166742	2030	1944	Valid	Crown
17	Santo D’Agostino	101435	2008	2051	Valid	Crown
18	Richard Douglas	131191	2007	2087	Valid	Crown
19	Siddarth Narasimhan	161746	1972	1624	Valid	Crown
20	Bingfei Wang	172444	1865	1842	Valid	Crown
21	Irene Xie	175644	1849	1321	Valid	Crown
22	Dhruv Murali	166162	1786	1616	Valid	Crown*
23	Triston bai Li	166944	1739	1400	Valid	U1800
24	Haneul Park	183754	1705	1794	Valid	U1800
25	Aarush Ajith	167781	1679	1609	Valid	U1800
26	Trifelino Miaco	121781	1628	1647	Valid	U1800
27	Sean Liu	174972	1624	1892	Valid	U1800
28	Daniel Truong	175162	1616	1264	Valid	U1200
29	Adrien Cheng	158231	1608	1891	Valid	U1800
30	Ferdinand Supsup	142366	1599	1478	Valid	U1800
31	Zihan Hong	166217	1564	1359	Valid	U1800
32	Henry Pollitt	170969	1557	1322	Valid	U1800
33	Zeen Liu	173498	1556	1458	Valid	U1800
34	Slava Luckinykh	174578	1534	1520	Valid	U1800
35	Lucas Haoxuan Sun	171660	1533	1052	Valid	U1800
36	Jayden Zihan Zhan	172099	1491	1389	Valid	U1800
37	Tanish Patil	175770	1485	1524	Valid	U1800
38	Kailey Liu	168091	1479	1294	Valid	U1800
39	Nicholas Jirsch	173502	1478	1147	Valid	U1800
40	Daniel Wang	178191	1478	0	Valid	U1800
41	William Bi	169382	1476	1337	Valid	U1800
42	Mohan Dixit	169181	1445	1735	Valid	U1800
43	Matthew Lam	176826	1432	1465	Valid	U1800	Round 3
44	Austin Lu	169738	1427	874	Valid	U1800
45	Oscar Cheung	171229	1424	1346	Valid	U1200
46	Kevin Gaffneh	102701	1417	1530	Valid	U1800
47	Jordy Sehn	154488	1417	1317	Expired	U1800
48	Shabd Dembla	175704	1365	1564	Valid	U1800
49	Richard Kang	175618	1360	0	Valid	U1800
50	Isabelle GUAN	166081	1357	1055	Valid	U1800
51	Jasper Yunjie Jia	176373	1345	1040	Valid	U1800
52	Quentin Ma	177463	1340	1575	Valid	U1800
53	James Caille	176032	1337	0	Valid	U1800
54	Eric Huang	174612	1301	1287	Valid	U1800
55	Jerry Gerber	160103	1266	970	Valid	U1800
56	James Mourgelas	108540	1266	1549	Valid	U1800
57	Bhargav Ram Gummadi	174253	1231	1191	Expired	U1200
58	Liam McNally	178152	1198	1109	Valid	U1200	Round 5
59	Gabriel Saimoyici	175468	1175	1270	Valid	U1200
60	Stephen Kuzin	167624	1172	991	Valid	U1200
61	Boomba Nishikawa	178151	1167	1223	Valid	U1200
62	Jacob Fischer	174508	1148	1081	Valid	U1200
63	Edward, Shoukai Wang	173800	1136	1259	Valid	U1200
64	Yahya Elgabra	179520	1097	0	Valid	U1200
65	Yago Gaspar	175705	1081	1466	Expired	U1200
66	Tina Hui	176179	1064	1288	Valid	U1200
67	Darren Chen	176209	1045	1072	Valid	U1200
68	Matt Grenier	163058	1029	936	Valid	U1200
69	Patrick Yu Wang	167464	1016	968	Expired	U1200
70	Yiguo Gao	169414	1006	1059	Valid	U1200
71	Joshua Knott	176630	1005	0	Valid	U1200
72	Yuntian (Denis) Shen	172778	975	1163	Valid	U1200	Round 1
73	Alex Liao	183095	967	1264	Valid	U1200
74	Shannon Zhao	179928	936	1139	Valid	U1200
75	Bradley Northcote	178833	935	0	Valid	U1200	Round 1
76	Jayden Henry Tan	179333	933	1147	Valid	U1200
77	Su, Bo Ruei (Marcus)	184338	881	0	Valid	U1200
78	Benjamin Thomas	183903	842	757	Valid	U1200
79	Ian Gao	177611	836	1146	Valid	U1200
80	Yantao Yang	178114	822	598	Valid	U1200
81	Evan Gao	177612	776	817	Valid	U1200
82	Victor Delgashev	181511	759	851	Valid	U1200
83	Caleb Mann	178781	743	0	Valid	U1200
84	Joseph D’Agostino	183472	693	0	Valid	U1200
85	Harold Zhang	180565	685	897	Valid	U1200
86	Arham Bhura	182671	594	855	Valid	U1200
87	Daniel Delgashev	181513	400	596	Valid	U1200
88	Riley McCarron	184331	0			U1200
89	Robert Simone	184476	0			U1200
90	Andrew Paulley	174900	0			U1200	Round 1
91	Timothy Vo	183733	0	1179	Valid	U1200
92	Maria Polyanska	178767	0	632	Valid	U1200
93	Matthew Vo	183734	0	769	Valid	U1200
94	Joey Lu	184319	0			U1200
95	Toma Yuen	179235	0	1358	Valid	U1800
96	Logan Guitard	177400	0			U1200
97	Peter Angiolella	184710	0			U1200
98	Ahmed Khalf	NA	0			U1200
99	Eric Mitz	184757	0			U1800
100	Melody Chance	184711	0			U1200
101	Nuo Xu	NA	0			U1200
102	Richard Reischig	NA	0			U1200
103	Ivan Biletskyi	183834	0	1565	Valid	U1800
104	Magesh Sethupathy	184515	0			U1200
105	Jason Grant	184880	0			U1800

* players section will be updated if rating does not change by tournament

On Fri. August 18th, the Hart House Chess Club is organizing a “Hand and Brain” Chess Tournament from 8 pm – 9:30 pm. Hand-and-brain is a chess variant of teams of two players per colour. Each player is assigned either the “brain” or the “hand”. The “brain” can choose any of the six pieces—king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, or pawn—and the other player (the “hand”) moves that named piece on the board that has a legal move. The catch: the “brain” cannot tell the exact move that they want to play or provide any hints to help the “hand”.

Players can sign-up individually or as teams prior to 8 pm onsite. We hope to see you there!

Format: 4-round unrated, Swiss Tournament
Location: Hart House Reading Room, 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 3H3
Time Control: 5 mins + 5 secs/move increment from move 1
Capacity: 20
When: 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm, Fri. August 18
Equipment: HHCC will supply all chess equipment
Entry Fees: Free for students and members of the Club, $5 for non-members (per player)

Prizes: $25 per team member

The Hart House Chess Club is pleased to announce an upcoming FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar at Hart House, Fri. Nov 10th – Sun. Nov. 12th, 2023. The seminar will be conducted by Canada’s leading Arbiter and organizer, International Arbiter Hal Bond.

Amongst his many accolades, Hal Bond has served as the Chief Arbiter at the 2012 Women’s World Chess Championship, Deputy Arbiter at the 2012 World Chess Championship, and as the Chief Arbiter of the 2017 World Youth Chess Championship.

WHEN: Friday, November 10th, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Saturday November 11th 10:00 am – 8:00 pm, Sunday November 12th 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
WHERE: Hart House (7 Hart House Cir, Toronto) – Committees Room.
WHAT: FIDE Arbiter Seminar hosted over 3 days
WHO: The Lecturer will be IA/IO Bond, Hal (CAN), FIDE Lecturer.
ENTRY FEE: $250 paid online only
CAPACITY: 15 participants
LANGUAGE: The language of the seminar will be English.
ORGANIZERS: Hart House Chess Club
EQUIPMENT: All materials provided

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The Seminar will give norms and titles of FIDE Arbiter, according to the Regulations for the titles of Arbiters.

Note: All participants must be National Arbiters to register.

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SCHEDULE:
November 10:
6pm – 10pm Role of Arbiters, Laws of Chess (4hrs)
November 11:
10 am – 12 pm Ratings and OTB Title Regulations (2hrs.)
12 pm- 1 pm System of Games, Tie-breaks (1 hour)
2 pm – 4:30pm: Swiss Pairings, (2.5 hrs)
4:30 – 6pm Competition Rules, Equipment standards and clocks (1.5hrs)
November 12:
10 am – 11 am Arbiter Title Regs (1 hr)
11 am – 12 pm: Fair Play (1 hr)
12 pm – 2 pm: seminar review (2 hrs)
2 pm -6 pm : Exam (4 hrs)

Official FIDE posting: https://arbiters.fide.com/news/event/138th-internet-based-fide-arbiters-seminar-chess-federation-of-canada?instance_id=17693

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REGISTRATION:

Registration is available here. Please note that there are some pre-requisites required before signing up for this event. For information, please email us at hhchess@studentorg.utoronto.ca

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For more information regarding the FIDE Arbiter seminar and system, see:
1. https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B0602
2. https://arbiters.fide.com/arb-titles/fide-arbiters-system

REPORT:

FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar in Toronto (CAN) – Report

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The Hart House Chess Club is participating in an outdoor chess event organized by Queen’s University Chess Club on Saturday, August 5th. In association with Fred Victor, a Toronto non-profit with the mission to improve the health, income and housing of people experiencing poverty and homelessness. All proceeds from the charity event will be donated to Fred Victor.

Queen’s University Chess Club is the host of the 2024 Canadian University Chess Championship, which will be held in January 2024 in-person at Queen’s University. More information will be announced and posted on the HHCC website as information becomes available.

FORMAT AND LOGISTICS

Where: Regent Park, Toronto, M5A 3G1, Toronto, Ontario
When: Saturday, August 5th, 2023 from 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Format: Casual Play followed by a Blitz tournament from 4 pm – 8 pm
Sections:
– Beginner to intermediate (Online Elo: 100-1700)
– Intermediate to advanced (Online Elo: 1800+)
Cost: free casual play, $10 for blitz (students), $15 for blitz (non students)
Eligibility: only to everyone including non-students
Registration: online via Google Forms
Organizer: Queen’s University Chess Club
Email:  Queen’s U: 19dt17@queensu.ca, hhchess@studentorg.utoronto.ca
CFC: unrated
Equipment: Chess sets and clocks supplied

Join the Hart House Chess Club (HHCC) for a Summer Junior Tournament on Saturday, August 26th, in the Hart House Debates, Committee, Meeting Rooms. The tournament includes game analysis provided by UofT’s top chess players.

Format: 4-round CFC-Regular Rated, Swiss Tournament
Location: Hart House Debates Room, 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 3H3
Time Control: 45 mins + 15 secs/move increment from move 1 for all sections
Rating: Both sections will be CFC Classical Rated
Capacity: 50
Rounds: 9:00 am, 11:15 am, 2:00 pm, 4:00 pm
Awards Ceremony: 6:00 pm or ASAP after round 4
Sections:  U1300, U900
Equipment: HHCC will supply all chess equipment
Prizes: Trophies for 1st-3rd in all sections, top-girl
Entry Fees: $35.00 by July 31st, $40.00 before noon August 24th and is only available on the Hart House website. 
Registration: via Hart House website by noon Fri. August 25th, 2023. No onsite registration. Once full, a waitlist will open for possible additional spots.
Eligibility: This tournament is juniors 18 and under only, born 2005 or later.
Organizer: Hart House Chess Club

Game Analysis: Free game analysis will be provided between every round for players interested in analyzing their games with some of U of T’s strongest chess players. This is your chance to learn and compete in a CFC event in a community of chess lovers. Analysis will be conducted in the Committees Room.

Free snacks and water provided. Coffee also will be available for parents.

Chess Federation of Canada (CFC) Membership: Updated CFC memberships are not required since this tournament is a juniors-only event. However, players must have a CFC ID, which can be created here: https://www.chess.ca/en/players/membership-fees/.

Chess Notation: chess notation is required for this tournament for all moves until a player reaches 5 minutes. For more info, see: https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-notation.

New to chess tournament players: After completion of this tournament, you will get a CFC rating. No memberships are required, however, a member ID must be created. For a refresher on tournaments, see our New To Tournament Guide.

Parents: Children and teens must be supervised at all times. Please do not disturb students and other guests of Hart House. Players and their parents will be held responsible for any damages and fees caused by their actions and may be further sanctioned from Hart House Chess Club events.

Pairings and Standings

U1300 Pairings and Standings

U900 Pairings and Standings

Pre-Registered: (Updated August 26)

Starting Rank	Name of Participant	CFC ID	CFC Regular Rating	Quick Ratings (used for section eligibility)	Section	Byes
1	Noureddin T Mohamed	176495	1264	1511	U1300
2	Noah Chung	177781	1223	1214	U1300
3	Joshua Visva	175355	1222	1067	U1300
4	Andy Rui Wang	167302	1134	1303	U1300
5	Tommy (Zhuoxuan) Li	179190	1047	1032	U1300
6	Angela Wang	175459	1043	1346	U1300
7	Darren Chen	176209	1025	1072	U1300
8	Alyssa (Zhuojing) Li	179191	990	1011	U1300
9	Yiguo Gao	169414	985	1054	U1300
10	Shannon Zhao	179928	959	1087	U1300
11	Bryan Liang	177485	958	819	U1300
12	Jachin Liem	172356	902	660	U1300
13	Jayden Henry Tan	179333	897	1147	U1300
14	Michael Ivkin	175540	895	1074	U1300
15	Ridit Kakani	180518	875	1545	U1300
16	Jayden Kwok	180577	871	926	U1300
17	Connor Cao	181297	860	594	U900
18	Emma Yang	161205	842	1167	U1300
19	Sunny Wu	162808	810	1157	U1300
20	Etienne Ma	179465	798	1151	U1300
21	Cedric Gao	175697	798	901	U1300
22	Ian Gao	177611	776	799	U900
23	Evan Gao	177612	741	784	U900
24	Luke Ma	179464	734	1174	U1300
25	Jasper Liem	172354	717	560	U900
26	Harold Zhang	180565	707	915	U900
27	Caleb Liem	172355	679	642	U900
28	Cecilia Gu	178668	629	737	U900
29	Archer Feng	179922	589	905	U900
30	Jasper Feng	182453	582	719	U900
31	Roger Yang	180149	420	990	U900
32	Ethan Soong	182091	0	1148	U1300
33	Michael Sirkovich	183783	0		U900
34	Adrian Aranha	183755	0	807	U900
35	Bosco Sham	181164	0	1220	U1300
36	Brendan Madden	183838	0		U900
37	Kimberley Place	182441	0	477	U900
38	Balzac Zukerman-Desjardins	NA	0		U900
39	Ashwin Raja Perumal	183894	0		U900
40	Callum Cheng	182119	0		U900
41	Benjamin Thomas	183903	0		U900
42	Coen Kwok	183916	0		U900
43	Sou Yamauchi	184043	0		U900
44	Arham Bhura	182671	0	855	U900
45	Lucas Jia	180138	0	850	U900
46	Shiven Priebe	183932	0		U900
47	John Nguyen	180674	0	1073	U1300
48	Benjamin Chung	184042	0		U900	Bye Rd 3,4
49	Satoya Insel	184056	0		U900
50	Nova Cassel	168670	0		U900
51	Owen Hodnett	184303

For more details of past iterations, see 2023 Hart House Spring Junior.

Email: hhchess@studentorg.utoronto.ca

Want to showcase your speed chess skills? Join the Club on Fri. June 30th at Hart House for a speed chess tournament featuring 7 double-rounds of 1 min + 1 second bullet starting at 7 pm! We hope to see you there!

FORMAT AND EVENT DETAILS

• WHEN: Friday, June 30th, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm.
• WHERE: Hart House (7 Hart House Cir, Toronto) – Reading Room.
• WHAT: 7 double-round Bullet Event (Swiss), with a 1 minute + 1 second time control.
• RATED: Unrated
• ENTRY FEE: Free for members, $10 for non-members, free for titled players. Register onsite before 7pm.
• PRIZE FUND: Guaranteed $150. Distribution announced onsite.
• MAXIMUM CAPACITY: 50 players.
• NOTE: chess sets and boards provided

CONTACT:

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

Arbiter/Organizer: NA Victor Zheng

REPORT

On June 30th, the Canada Day Eve Bullet took place at Hart House chess club in order to rejoice in the statutory holiday.

Serving as the prelude of the national celebration for the anniversary of the confederation, the tournament was made up of 7 double-round bullet games with a time control of 1min+1s. A total of 21 players of various skill levels participated in this event.

The top place was gained by IM Alexander Reprintsev with scores of 12/14 followed by CM Koosha Jaferian with 11/14 and IM Mark Plotkin 10.5/14.

Join the Hart House Chess Club for the first blitz tournament of the summer this Friday, June 16th at Hart House! We’re playing 5 rounds of 5 minutes + 2 seconds blitz starting at 7 pm! We hope to see you there!

FORMAT AND EVENT DETAILS

• WHEN: Friday, June 16th, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm.
• WHERE: Hart House (7 Hart House Cir, Toronto) – Reading Room.
• WHAT: 5-round Blitz Event (Swiss), with a 5 minute + 2 second time control.
• RATED: Unrated
• ENTRY FEE: Free for members, $10 for non-members, free for titled players. Register onsite before 7pm.
• PRIZE FUND: Guaranteed $150. Distribution announced onsite.
• MAXIMUM CAPACITY: 50 players.
• NOTE: chess sets and boards provided
• Report Available

CONTACT:

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

Arbiter/Organizer: NA Victor Zheng

Photo Credits: Jiduo An, Hart House

Congrats to Ethan, Fengxi, Yunshan, Nicholas, Bingfei, Isabelle, and Cindy for qualifying to the PanAms to represent the Club!

See below for original event post:

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The Club will be holding a qualifying tournament from September 9th-10th to select players to represent the University of Toronto at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championships to be held next year in McAllen, Texas, Jan 4th – 7th, 2024. Travel and accommodation will be covered partially by HHCC.

PANAM INFO:

The annual Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship is the pinnacle of international collegiate chess. Dubbed the “World Series of College Chess”, the Club had fundraised and fielded teams to the tournament every year since 1965 (less COVID restricted years). The storied championship pits the best collegiate chess teams against one another from the North and South Americas. The Hart House Chess Club, representing the University of Toronto, has won the championship 6 times, the most from any non-American school.

Pan-Am-Qualifiers SCHEDULE:

Time Control:  60 minutes + 30 seconds increment

Check-in: 9:00 am – 9:30 am
Round 1:  9:30 am September 9th
Round 2:  12:45 pm September 9th
Round 3:  4 pm September 9th
Round 4:  9:30 am September 10th
Round 5:  12:45 pm September 10th
Tiebreaks (if needed)  4pm September 10th

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

Players are required to check-in by 9:30 am to be paired for Round 1.

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

REGISTRATION: available online here, or in-person at the Hart House Info Desk. Also available in-person before 9:20 am day of the event. With valid proof of student enrollment.
WHAT: Unrated 5 Round Swiss Tournament with a 60 min + 30 sec increment time control.
COST: Free
WHERE: Hart House Debates Room, Committees Room for analysis/skittles
ELIGIBILITY: Current U of T students.

Pairings and Standings

Swiss: https://chess-results.com/tnr817381.aspx?lan=1

Tie-breaks: https://chess-results.com/tnr818093.aspx?lan=1

For more info, see the 2023 PanAm Qualifiers and the event report from last year’s PanAms in Seattle.

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The tournament will select 7 players based on final standings to represent the Hart House Chess Club and the University of Toronto at this year’s Pan-Ams. A mandatory fee of $250 for all participants is required and paid before end-of-September, however, the Club will cover the rest of fundraising costs. We ask that you only play in the tournament if you want to play in the Pan-Ams. Note that one spot was given out last year to Eilia Zomorrodian due to visa timelines.

It’s another semester, which means lessons are starting up again! For 12-weeks this Summer, the Club is hosting free lessons for all members of the Club. Students can become members for free.

Summer semester lessons begin this Friday, June 9th, 2023 and run until September 1st, 2023! 13-weeks of free chess classes for everyone interested in learning and being in a chess environment! Students can get their free membership and show up day-of! No need to commit to all lessons – you can show up to one, some, or all of them! Community members can become a Hart House Chess Club member for the summer to take part in lessons.  The lessons are structured in a way that missing lessons due to midterms, assignments, and exams will not affect learning outcomes.

Beginner Lessons: Fridays, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM will be taught by Victor Zheng (CFC: 2079) and Bowen Zhang (CFC 1348). Victor is a 3rd year CS Specialist student, a Varsity Chess Team player, and Secretary/President of the Club this year. Bowen is a 4th year Medical Biophysics PHD student and Events Director of the Club who also has lots of experience coaching beginners on playing chess! Both are looking forward to sharing their knowledge with everyone this summer!

Format: (Note: this format may change) The first 45 minutes will be a prepared lesson conducted on the weekly selected topic. Then, the second 45 minutes will be a mixture of activities such as playing out a positions, blindfold chess, hand and brain, blitz tournaments, or other interactive chess activities. 

Beginner Lesson Plan for Summer 2023: (subject to change) 

1. The rules of chess/mate in one, piece value, piece value in relation to pawn structure
2. Basic Checkmates/more complicated piece checkmates
3. Double attack, discovered check, double check, forks and windmills
4. Skewers, pins
5. Overloading (golden rule of attacking) deflection, attraction, clearance
6. Zugzwang (in the middle game and in the endgame – pawn promotion)
7. Checkmate patterns (backrank etc.)
8. Pawn endgames (majority v minority etc.)
9. Rook endgames
10. Openings (opening trees, differences in pawn structures etc.)
11. Middle game strategy 
12. Course Recap and Review
13. Guest Lecture by GM Vinay Bhat (East Common Room)

Location: All lessons will be held in the Bickersteth Room of Hart House. 

For all details on lessons, please visit our main Lessons page. See you there!

On May 14^th a special Mother’s Day was celebrated in Toronto as 60 women and girls came together at Hart House for a Chess Festival. Dana Reizniece-Ozola, managing director of FIDE (the international chess federation), spent the whole day with these women and girls, some of whom traveled from Waterloo or even as far away as Thunder Bay. A strong woman grandmaster herself who has made a successful career in politics in her home country of Latvia, Dana was joined by well-known titled women from the Toronto area, Anna Burtasova and Oksana Golubeva, in giving talks during the morning. Alla Mischanka spoke briefly as well, on FIDE’s INFINITE Chess Project, an initiative to engage children with autism spectrum disorder with chess.

Following the morning talks, the participants went upstairs for a pizza lunch while the volunteers worked hard to reset the room for a simul. Dana and Anna gave large simuls in the Debates Room while several participants spilled over into the Committees Room where Cindy Qiao, UofT’s strongest woman in attendance, gave a third simul. To ensure the subsequent rapid tournament could start on time, a clock was put on each board, giving 45 minutes to the simul giver and 15 minutes to the participants. With the number of games to be played, that edge on the clock was not enough to give Dana, Anna, and Cindy an easy time, and many games came down to the wire in serious time pressure. It was a great experience for the participants to play these games, and some of them even scored memorable points.

After the simul, the volunteers reset the room slightly for the rapid tournament as we finalized the starting list for that event. Pairings were up to start the first round at 2:45pm, and that kicked off a 6-round tournament with 54 participants, surely the largest tournament for women and girls to be held at Hart House, and one of the biggest such events in Canada. Players had 10 minutes per game, gaining 2 seconds on the clock with each move they made. The first 6 boards were DGT boards with moves relayed live and broadcast on lichess. The tournament was so strong that each of these boards featured a titled player in round 1: WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola, WFM Oksana Golubeva, WGM Anna Burtasova, WCM Olena Kucherenko, WFM Cindy Qiao, and WIM Gabriella Johnson were the top six seeds. At the other end, we saw a lot of new faces in chess with 17 unrated players starting the tournament.

Players were fighting for a generous prize fund, with the Chess Federation of Canada and Ontario Chess Association sponsoring the event with prize fund contributions, while FIDE’s support included contributions to trophies.  Prizes were available to the top three finishers, as well as top finishers by rating category (U2000, U1600, U1200, U800 and unrated). Trophies went to the top three and then by age category (U18, U15, U12, U9) with prizes as well for the top UofT student and youngest participant.

The top seeds made it unscathed through three rounds, with the exception of Gabriella’s defeat to Ingrid Wu in round 3. Round 4 saw the start of titled players being matched against each other, with Dana getting the best of Olena on board 1 and Cindy defeating Oksana on board 2. Such fighting chess characterized the tournament across all boards – after 4 rounds of play and over 100 games of chess, still, no draws had been made. Three undefeated players started round 5 – Dana gave up her queen in a nice fashion to defeat Anna while Cindy matched Dana’s 5/5 when she delivered a checkmate against Olena after breaking through with a rook sacrifice.

In round 6, the board one clash featured the two remaining undefeated players. In a long game with some ups and downs, but one that was roughly balanced throughout, Dana emerged victorious against Cindy with the clock playing a big role. Several players took the opportunity to catch Cindy in second place, as the tournament finished without a single draw occurring on the top 6 DGT boards.

Dana took clear first place for her efforts, recording the only perfect score. Joining Cindy in a tie for second place were Oksana, Anna, Lucy Gao, and April Zhong. The five players shared the prizes for 2^nd and 3^rd place while each was awarded their own trophy: Anna took 2nd place on tiebreaks, Oksana took 3^rd, Cindy (4^th) was awarded Top UofT Student, Lucy (5^th) won Top U15 and April (6^th) won Top U18. Lucy and April also shared the top U2000 prize.

Top U1600 was split 5 ways among players finishing at 4/6: Ingrid Wu, Chloe Duong, Shabnam Abbarin, Adie Todd, and Anna Gavrileva. Top U1200 was shared by 2 players finishing at 4/6: Emily Robinson and Chloe Huang. Four players at 3/6 shared Top U800: Victoria Lai, Katherine Leung, Angela Wang, and Tiffany Chen. Liza Augistin took top unrated alone, scoring 3.5/6 (after making one of just 3 draws in the whole tournament).

The final trophies were awarded to Laksshana Deepak (Top U12 at 4/6) and Chloe Huang (Top U9 at 4/6). Carter Payne was recognized as the youngest participant, at just 6 years old. All attendees were awarded certificates recognizing their participation.

At the end of the awards ceremony, Dana presented certificates recognizing the efforts of Anna, Oksana, and the Hart House Chess Club in making this event possible.

Special thank you again to the generous sponsors, to FIDE and the Commission for Women’s Chess, the Chess Federation of Canada, and the Ontario Chess Association. To Hart House for hosting and to the volunteers from the club who helped arrange everything on the day – Victor, Bowen, Ahmed, and Alex. Thanks to the participants as well who took time to help set up boards and clocks. Thank you to all the special guests Dana, Anna, Oksana, and Alla. Thank you to Sahan, who recorded all the morning lectures. Thank you to all the mothers who spent their day with us. The feedback received from participants has been overwhelmingly positive, and we can only hope that there can be more such events to promote the participation of women and girls in chess.

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The above report was written by Tanner McNamara, outgoing Secretary of the Hart House Chess Club and the lead organizer! A big shoutout should go to Tanner for his vision and expertise running the event.