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Hart House Chess Club’s Fall Blitz Tournament took place on October 20th, at the HH Reading Room. Leslie Tang, who recently qualified to HH Chess Club’s Pan-Am Team, finished clear first, scoring a formidable 7½ out of 10 and rightfully claiming the gold medal and the $50 gift-award.

With 6 out of 10, Vignesh Kumar and Adie Todd tied for 2nd place but, in the end, it was Vignesh who claimed 2nd place (and a $25 gift-award), whereas Adie got bronze and a $10 gift-card.

The 2017 Pan-Am Qualifier is marked one of our Club’s greatest successes in recent years as 22 players seized the opportunity to experience an enjoyable and friendly chess competition! After five rounds of tough battles on the board, the top 8 finishers who will get to represent U of T are:

1-2. Mike Ivanov, Zhen Nasir (4 points)
3-4. Nikita Gusev, Jim Zhao (3.5 points)
5-7. Aidan Sowa, Panayoti Tsialas, Leslie Tang (3 points)
8. Andy Liao (2.5 points)

We would like to congratulate the top-8 finishers on their performance and we wish them good luck in the 2017 Pan-Am Intercollegiate Championship in Columbus, Ohio.

We would also like to extend our thanks to each and every chess enthusiast who participated in the tournament, either as a player or as a spectator! This event would not have been so magical without your amazing support and active involvement! Special thanks are owed to Mr. Alex Ferreira, the Chief Arbiter of the tourament, who volunteered so much of his time and energy to make sure that this tournament would be a success. He conducted the entire event superbly!

Most importantly, however, we would like to thank all the less experienced chess players who were courageous and enthusiastic enough to compete against some of HH Chess Club’s finest! You all did a great job and we were so lucky to have you play in the tournament! Keep practicing, keep playing, keep enjoying the Royal Game whenever and wherever you get the chance!

Here are all the pairings and results per Round:

Round 1

1. Jack Moore – Nikita Gusev 0-1

2. Mike Ivanov – Vikram Venkataramanan 1-0

3. BenJohn Libardo – Jim Zhao 0-1

4. Aidan Sowa – Aflah Zul 1-0

5. Leon Yao – Juliaan Posaratnanathan 0-1

6. Leslie Tang – Morris Chen 1-0

7. Andy Liao – Seiji Nakagawa 1/2

8. Kevin Chen – Su Sanne Tan 1-0

9. Alexandra Yao – Ruonan Cao 0-1

Round 2

1. Nikita Gusev – Aidan Sowa 1-0

2. Ruonan Cao – Mike Ivanov 0-1

3. Jim Zhao – Leslie Tang 1-0

4. Seiji Nakagawa – Kevin Chen 1-0

5. Zehn Nasir – Andy Liao 1-0

6. Morris Chen -Jack Moore 0-1

7. Aflah Zul – John Chen 0-1

8. Vikram Venkataramanan – Raeid Saqur 0-1

9. Su Sanne Tan – BenJohn Libardo 1-0

Bye: Alexandra Yao (1/2)

Round 3

1. Mike Ivanov – Nikita Gusev 1-0

2. Seiji Nakagawa – Jim Zhao 0-1

3. John Chen – Zhen Nasir 0-1

4. Aidan Sowa – Jack Moore 1-0

5. Leslie Tang – Su Sanne Tan 1-0

6. Raeid Saqur – Ruonan Cao 0-1

7. Andy Liao – Alexandra Yao 1-0

8. Panayoti Tsialas – Aflah Zul 1-0

9. BenJohn Libardo – Vikram Venkataramanan 0-1

Bye: Morris Chen (1/2)

Round 4

1. Jim Zhao – Mike Ivanov 0-1

2. Nikita Gusev – Leslie Tang 1-0

3. Zehn Nasir – Aidan Sowa 1-0

4. Ruonan Cao – Seiji Nakagawa 0-1

5. Andy Liao – Panayoti Tsialas 0-1

6. Jack Moore – John Chen 1-0

7. Alexandra Yao – BenJohn Libardo 0-1

Round 5

1. Jim Zhao – Nikita Gusev 1/2

2. Seiji Nakagawa – Zehn Nasir 0-1

3. Aidan Sowa – Ruonan Cao 1-0

4. Panayoti Tsialas – Jack Moore 1-0

5. Leslie Tang – BenJohn Libardo 1-0

6. John Chen – Andy Liao 0-1

Final Crosstable

The qualifying tournament was held on Oct. 7-8th at the Hart House Committees Room and, once again, we would like to thank everyone who contributed to an unforgettable 2017 Pan-Am Qualifier!

 

 

A very interesting chess event took place this Fall, starting on October 14th and lasting for an entire week, up until October 20th! Students were invited to participate in a chess-puzzle solving competition, in which the 17 puzzles had been drawn from actual positions, which had arisen in the games of the 5-round Pan-Am qualifying Tournament!

The rules of the competition were very simple:  If you solve one puzzle you get one lot in the raffle for a $20-worth New In Chess magazine. If you solve two problems, you get two lots. We were accepting answers until Friday, Oct. 20th, 12 p.m. and the winner would be announced in the evening of that same day.

More than 20 students took part in this competition but, in the end, it was Alexandra Yao who solved two problems correctly and won the big prize! Congratulations to her on a remarkable success!

Below are the 17 chess puzzles, which the participants in the contest were asked to solve!

 

 

Some consider chess a complicated, largely inaccessible and even unpopular game. Despite its celebrated ability to improve people’s focus and develop their creative and strategic thinking, chess is still seen by many as a recreational activity that appeals to only a narrow group of people, leaving large crowds unmoved.

But here comes Hart House Chess Club (HHCC) to break this stereotype and restore the Royal Game to its rightful place, at the top rank of student preferences!

In its initial week of activity, almost 200 students from UTSG, UTM and UTS have joined together with alumni and staff to celebrate the return of the Hart House Chess Club for the new school year!

“When I saw that almost 150 students signed up for the chess club on Clubs Day I knew that that was a very good omen for the days to come!” says Jimmy Bartha, the Treasurer of the chess club.

His prediction proved well-founded as the club’s welcome event, which took place at the Hart House Reading Room on Sept. 15^th, was a huge success with a record-breaking crowd of more than 100 students gathering to hear the introductory presentation, meet the club’s execs, become members and play lots of casual chess!

“This was an unprecedented turnout in recent years,” says Ben Hahn, the Alumni Chair of the club.

“I don’t know the exact numbers, but the Reading Room was so full it seemed as if we almost doubled in size since last year!” adds Chris Knox, the Secretary of the HHCC and a national chess master.

So many were the chess enthusiasts who attended the inaugural event that around 6 p.m. the hosts were forced to seek reinforcements, asking the Hart House staff to bring in more tables and a huge cart of extra chairs.

The attendees were treated to delicious pizza and light beverages and many of them participated in the special event of the evening: a raffle for a gift-card, awarded to the student who could write the correct solution to chess puzzle and place her answer in the lottery box! Fardin Syed ’21, a freshman in Physical and Mathematical Sciences, was the winner, and was awarded his prize amid the audience’s applause!

And though the welcome event marked an incredible success, there was curiosity among the execs as to whether this promising turnout would prove sustainable in the long run.

It turned out that it was!

A week after the inaugural meeting, another record crowd turned out at Hart House showing that the chess club is not, after all, a one-trick pony! Figures recorded by club execs reveal that more than 100 students showed up at the Hart House Reading Room during the course of the evening, either to play chess or to attend the newly-introduced chess classes for beginners and intermediate level players! An unprecedented 50 students joined the chess club in just two days and more than 25 people attended the chess classes.

“Every year, the chess club hosts a number of social, recreational and competitive events. But this year we took the extra step of offering free chess lessons to our members who want to learn chess or improve their game,” says Chris. “Our club is currently the proud back-to-back Canadian Universities Chess Champion so we do have a very competitive team. At the same time, however, we strive to transfer our knowledge and spread our passion for chess among the broader U of T community. It is to students who are making their first steps in chess that these weekly classes are principally directed!”

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The record numbers confirm just how much chess can capture students’ imagination. Such was the enthusiasm of the new members that, on both Fridays, the chess club remained open until midnight with more than 20 students still playing chess after 11 p.m.!

“It’s my second year as a member of the chess club and I am amazed by the incredible passion of the massive crowd, which came twice to Hart House this year from all corners of the campus!” said Amar Singh, a third-year undergraduate student at UTSG.

“This passion is a great incentive for us to work harder still to put on an even better calendar of events for the many enthusiasts who follow the game,” added Peter Vuong, the External Events executive of the club.

Of course, this would not have been possible without the hard work of the team of execs, the kind support from the Hart House Administration and the invaluable voluntary service provided to the club by its longtime friends, Edward Chan, Alex Ferreira and Andrew MacMillan. We are really looking forward to making this year the best experience for our new and returning members!

 

One day before our big welcome event, we set-up our chess boards at the Hart House Reading Room and we had lots of fun, playing chess with incoming U of T students, who were exploring the four corners of the beautiful Hart House Building!

And knowing how sweet the word “barbecue” sounds, especially when it is combined with the word “free”, this year, our club was giving out a blue stamp for a free barbecue lunch to every student who stopped by our tables and played a chess game with a friend or a member of the Club!

Such a wonderful orientation event!

The 2017 UTSU Clubs Day is over and we are delighted, indeed excited, to announce that it was one of the best results for Hart House Chess Club in recent years! Nearly 150 new people signed up to our chess club and even more stopped by our booth to play a game of chess! On this beautiful and sunny day, it is no exaggeration to say that Hart House Chess Club’s table became one of the hottest spots of the entire event!

Meanwhile, our club’s amazing execs, Chris Knox and Peter Vuong, have an important message for you!

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