Category: Uncategorized

2017 Hart House Holiday Open
Starting List of Players 

– Crown Section
– U-2200 Section
– U-1900 Section
– U-1600 Section
– U-1300 Section
– U-1000 Section

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

On Sunday, December 10th 2017, Hart House Chess Club hosted a Greco-Messinian Chess Event, in which Messinian-born, Panayoti Tsialas, faced multiple opponents at the same time!

Fifteen chess enthusiasts, aged 12-65 years of age, sat down and challenged Panayoti in a simultaneous chess exhibition and more that 30 people stopped by to watch the games and have a taste of the delicious greek menu, kindly prepared by the Pan-Messinian Association and the Greek Students of U of T Association. The event took place at the beautiful Hart House East Common Room and the attendees had a chance to try some original Kalamata olive oil and watch some beautiful drone footage from the breathtaking beaches, islands and archeological sites of Greece!

After 3.5 hours of intense play, Panayoti managed to defeat Leslie Tang, the last player standing, thereby ending the event with a 15-0 score. However, the event was not over yet! Six UofT students, proved how much they loved chess by staying at Hart House for another 5 hours for post-mortem analysis of their games with Panayoti! A fullest Sunday evening indeed!

Panayoti, who is a graduate student at U of T’s School of Law, is coach, player and captain at the University’s Varsity Chess Team. He is former junior National Champion and has represented Greece in the 2005 World School Championships. We would like to thank him for leading this exhibition.

The event was co-hosted by the Pan-Messinian Association, the University of Toronto Greek Students Association and Hart House Chess Club, and we are hoping that our paths will cross again in the future!

 

On Friday, December 8th, the Hart House Chess Club had the unique honor and privilege to host an elite chess lecture by Canada’s most recent International Master, Shiyam Thavandiran!

In the South Dining Room, which was full of U of T students and other chess enthusiasts, IM Thavandiran made a presentation on “Prophylactic Thinking”, introducing the concept of prophylaxis by showing examples from the classics and his own games. Rich in valuable chess advice and garnished with delicious world chess championship stories, Shiyam’s lecture lasted for a good 2 filling hours, teaching the audience effective ways for recognizing their opponent’s resources and developing preventive thinking.

 

Shiyam’s record of achievements is long and impressive! He has won 11 Canadian School and Junior Chess Championships and he has represented Canada in the World Youth Chess Championships four times. He was awarded the FIDE Master title in 2006 and he became an International Master in October 2017! He has been voted Canada’s Chess Player of the Year twice (Fan Ballot: 2008 and 2009).

Our club’s Director of Communications, Panayoti Tsialas, joined Shiyam after his lecture and had a brief interview with him about the evolution of AI, the importance of classical time control and the ability of chess to make you a better student!

We are delighted to have had Shiyam as our guest lecturer at Hart House Chess Club and we are looking forward to host more events with him in the future!

Panayoti Tsialas 
Current FIDE Rating: 2020

Panayoti learned chess when he was a little kid and he’s been in love with the Royal Game ever since! Born in 1990 in a small town in the South of Greece, he was first introduced to chess when he was 5 years-old and he gradually developed his skills to become a competitive chess player.

He loves teaching kids as well as adults and he enjoys watching his students evolve as chess players. He specializes in middle-game strategy and chess history and he is best known for his efforts to combine teaching tactics, strategy and the like touching on more general topics and stories pertaining to chess (e.g. chess and psychology, chess and engines, chess history etc).

Panayoti believes that chess provides a unique tool for developing certain life skills (e.g. improve focus, gain discipline, sharpen judgment) as well as for inculcating important values (e.g. respect, self-restraint). He regards and teaches chess not just as a set of rules and principles but as a part of general human culture.

He is currently teaching the Weekly Workshops on Chess Tactics at Hart House Chess Club (students) and he is also a coach for juniors at Canada’s Chess Youth Club.

Panayoti played his last chess tournament in 2009, after which he retired in order to study law. He now considers himself a developing coach and an avid chess enthusiast. He holds an LL.B. (2013) and an LL.M. (2014) from the University of Athens and he earned his second LL.M. from Harvard Law School (2015). He is currently a first-year PhD student at U of T’s Law School and a former Captain at UofT’s Varsity chess team.

In his free time he likes playing volleyball, working out and watching lots of movies!

Chess Bio:

• National Greek School Chess Champion (2005)
• Represented Greece in the World School Chess Championship (2005)
• National Greek Team Chess Champion (2006)
• Fourth place in the World School Chess Championship (2007)
• Third place in the National Chess Championship U-20 (2008)
• First place in International Open Chess Tournament and Retirement (2009)
• Joins Harvard Law School’s Official Chess Club (2014)
• Joins Yale University’s Official Chess Club (2015)
• Founder and Coach at Athens Law School’s Official Chess Club (2016)
• Director of Communications (2017-18), Fundraiser (2018-19) and Coach at Hart House Chess Club (2017-19). Captain in U of T’s Varsity Chess Team (2017-18).

 

 

 

The members of U of T’s Varsity Chess Team qualify through a competitive 5-round chess tournament, held annually in late September or in early October. The 2018-19 Varsity Chess Team is made up of the following students (by order of CFC rating):

 

 

Joseph Bellissimo
CFC Rating: 2270
1st Year Student
Age: 18

 

 

 

James Fu
CFC Rating: 2214
4th Year Student
Age: 21

 

 

 

Tanner McNamara
Team Captain
CFC Rating: 2099
Graduate Student
Age: 24

 

 

Gary Huang 
CFC Rating: 1723
Graduate Student
Age: 30

 

Jonathan Yu – Chess Master
Current CFC Rating: 2225

Jonathan enjoys teaching all aspects of the game to HH chess club members of all levels. He applies his background in tournament chess to help students better understand the strategic and psychological subtleties of the game.

 

His favorite aspect of chess is the endgame. He has never taught chess professionally but believes living is learning and is never hesitant to kibitz on an ongoing blitz game! He is currently teaching a popular seminar on Middlegame Strategy!

Before volunteering at the Hart House Chess Club, Jonathan was Canadian Youth Champion U12 (2001) and U16 (2005). He likes to travel and mix in some chess tournaments in his spare time!

Jonathan is also an engineering alumni at University of Toronto and works in machine learning and app development. While a student he was a member of the HH Chess Club for 5 years and played on the UofT Pan-ams teams in  2011 and 2012.

In 2018, Jonathan, along with Hart House Chess Club’s former Secretary, Bill Kim, joined a team of volunteers who went to Ghana. As part of their mission to improve the science curriculum for the local High School, Jonathan and Bill founded a chess club for the junior’s of the village.

Recent selected tournament results:

Reykjavik Open 2017-  6/10 2238 Perf

Vienna Chess Open 2016 Group A  – 5/9 2213 Perf

Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2015 – Masters 5.5/10 2409 Perf

Alumni Chair: Ben Hahn

Program Supervisor: Tom Moss

The Executive Board is generously assisted in the discharge of its duties by the following dedicated volunteers:

• Alex Ferreira
• Andrew McMillan
• Edward Chan
• Haizhou Xu
• Jack Ding
• Jonathan Yu
• Jimmy Bartha
• Kit-Sun Ng
• Luc Leclair
• Panayoti Tsialas
• Robert Roller
• Zara Toyserkani

Hart House Chess Club is an open and inclusive environment. As a positive space, we welcome and encourage new 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! 

On Friday, November 24th, Hart House Chess Club welcomed back acclaimed International Master, Igor Zugic for an elite lecture, with a focus on “Competitive Play”.

IM Zugic, whose lecture was joined by 25 chess enthusiasts, covered themes such as approach to openings, preparation, psychology, and tips for maximizing results and enjoying the game. Such was the interest and the excitement in the audience that the lecture went on for almost 4 hours, instead of the originally scheduled 90 minutes!

Igor Zugic is a Canadian International Master of chess who was the 2006 Canadian Champion. He earned his International Master title in 2000, and was selected for the Canadian Chess Olympiad team three times. He studied computer engineering at the University of Toronto, graduating in 2004, and represented the school in the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Championship.

After his lecture, he gave a brief interview to HHCC Director of Communications Panayoti Tsialas, sharing his reflections as guest lecturer and as ex-member of HHCC Varsity Team!

It was a great pleasure and honor to have had IM Zugic at Hart House Chess Club as our guest lecturer and we are looking forward to hosting more chess lectures with him in the future!