11-Year-Old Prodigy Aaron Mendes of Canada, Claims Victory in III Open International Chess Menorca BLITZ

In an astonishing turn of events at the III Open International Chess Menorca BLITZ held on April 4th in Menorca, Spain, 11-year-old Aaron Reeve Mendes emerged as the champion. Despite facing off against seasoned Grandmasters (GMs) and International Masters (IMs), Aaron showcased unparalleled skill and strategic acumen, securing a remarkable 8 out of 9 wins in the blitz tournament. More than 160 players around the world partook in this event.

The Chess Federation of Canada disagrees with and is disappointed by the FIDE decision to ban transgender women from competing in women’s chess events. We disagree with the way it was implemented, involving the banning of transgender women and subsequently studying the issue to arrive at a final decision. This decision came as a surprise, with no prior discussion or indication that this action was being considered. There were no exigent circumstances that we are aware of that would require such a drastic action.

Carina D’Souza gave a TEDx talk at Havergal College on “Checkmating Bias: Increasing Women’s Particiation in Chess”.

Watch the talk on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-WQQm69-jU

(Original was posted on chess.com)

It has been a spectacular year for Montreal’s Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux. He steamrolled his competition in an international tournament with a 3037 performance rating, then in September he won the World Youth Chess Championship in Romania. In this question-and-answer session, the International Master shares his thoughts on his career, his ambition to become a grandmaster, and his approach to chess studies - from the intriguing a-pawn thrust on the first move to his games with Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.

The ratings incentives have been extended (again) to July 1, 2022. The updated policy is as follows:

Extension - Internet Rated Games and COVID-19 Rating Incentive

The CFC is extending to July 1, 2022 the interim policy to accept internet events for Quick (Active).

The COVID-19 rating incentive will also be extended until July 1, 2022. Players who play a minimum of 10 CFC rated games between October 1st, 2020 and July 1, 2022 and who attain a Quick rating that is 200 points higher than their Regular rating will have their Regular rating increased by 200 points.

(Originally posted HERE on the CFC Forums)

The Chess Federation of Canada condemns the Russian Federation invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine. We reject the stated pretexts and justifications advanced for this evil and illegal act and urge the Russian Federation to leave Ukraine immediately and cease waging war against the Ukrainian people. All parties should work together to reach a resolution that respects Ukrainian sovereignty and their democratic right of self determination. We applaud the courage that the Ukrainian people have shown in this difficult time.

The ratings incentives have been extended (again) to April 1, 2022. The updated policy is as follows:

Extension - Internet Rated Games and COVID-19 Rating Incentive

The CFC is extending to April 1, 2022 the interim policy to accept internet events for Quick (Active).

The COVID-19 rating incentive will also be extended until April 1, 2022. Players who play a minimum of 10 CFC rated games between October 1st, 2020 and April 1, 2022 and who attain a Quick rating that is 200 points higher than their Regular rating will have their Regular rating increased by 200 points.

(Original announcement: ChessTalk)

The Kalev Pugi Fund Committee announces the recipients for 2021:

• The Kalev Pugi Fund

  • Anthony Atanasov ($461)
  • Svitlana Demchenko ($461)

• The Women’s Post-Secondary Scholarship

  • Maili-Jade Ouellet ($450)

Congratulations to the winners and to the strong field of applicants again this year!

For the Kalev Pugi Fund grants, the committee decided to award two larger grants instead of the usual three smaller grants due to higher travel costs.

For the Woment’s Post-Secondary Scholarship, the fund received only a partial year of income from Andres Pugi’s recent $10,000 donation. Therefore, the Women’s Post-Secondary Scholarship was partially funded by the youth fund.

The ratings incentives have been extended (again) to January 1, 2022 and to four bonuses for under 1200 players. The updated policy is as follows:

Extension - Internet Rated Games and COVID-19 Rating Incentive

The CFC is extending to January 1, 2022 the interim policy to accept internet events for Quick (Active).

The COVID-19 rating incentive will also be extended until January 1, 2022. Players who play a minimum of 10 CFC rated games between October 1st, 2020 and January 1, 2022 and who attain a Quick rating that is 200 points higher than their Regular rating will have their Regular rating increased by 200 points.

ACROSS

• 2: A great player who had a large number of tournament and match withdrawals highlighed especially by being on the wrong end of a Steinitz brilliancy, Hastings 1895.
• 4: Several times a candidate for the world chess championship, in 1970 he ceded his candidate position to Bobby Fischer.
• 6: A bad move which is usually a decisive error.
• 9: For more than 20 years he was one of the top six players in the chess world. His ferocious K side attacks earned him the nickname Black Death.
• 11: Chess played without sight of the board
• 12: Another name for the Paris Gambit
• 15: The first name of the duo used to identify 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.f3
• 17: Sometimes called the Goteborg Variation, it was prepared by Najdorf, Panno, and Pilnik and then used in the Goteborg Interzonal, 1955. It was a line used in the 7th match game between Alekhine and Capablanca
• 19: A bishop that is obstructed by its own pawns
• 20: The only man to die while holding the world chess championship
• 21: A chess situation in which a player sets up a defensive position in the center of the board which is hard to break
• 22: A checkmate given by R and N unaided by other chess pieces

DOWN

• 1: A rich man who lost his fortune in the Russian Revolution 1917, he was one of the strongest players of his time. He won the Moscow Championship of 1911.
• 3: He won the USSR Championship 1924 and 1925, was one of the 6 best players in the world in the 1920s, and contested the world championship with Alekhine, 1929, unsuccessfully.
• 5: A mate given on the edge of the board by a crossfire of two bishops or a Q and B
• 6: He was a active member of a London coffee house, called Simson’s Divan, for over fifty years. Today he is remembered for his offbeat opening 1.f4
• 7: This distinguished English mathematician, who invented an gravity apparatus, played Philidor many times and recorded Philidor’s games for posterity.
• 8: Winner of three great international tournaments: London 1851, London 1862, Baden Baden 1870
• 9: A Finnish IM who won his national championship 5 times and played in 6 Olympiads, the last one being 1960.
• 10: Variation name 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5
• 13: Soviet player whose greatest contribution to chess was his series of endgame books, one of which was Bishop Endings 1977
• 14: A checkmate that occurs on the 1st or 8th rank
• 15: Chess played at a high number of moves per minute
• 16: He won the 5th World Correspondence Chess Championship and wrote a chess book called The System
• 18: Though he defeated Albin and Marco in a 3-person match, he is most famous for losing to Lasker playing the Black pieces in a Bird’s Opening in Amsterdam, 1889

Solution

▶ 2021-09-08: See update.

Extension - Internet Rated Games and COVID-19 Rating Incentive

The CFC is extending to October 1st, 2021 the interim policy to accept internet events for Quick (Active).

The COVID-19 rating incentive will also be extended until October 1st, 2021. Players who play a minimum of 10 CFC rated games between October 1st, 2020 and October 1st, 2021 and who attain a Quick rating that is 200 points higher than their Regular rating will have their Regular rating increased by 200 points.

We are pleased to announce that Andres Pugi, son of the late Kalev Pugi, has made a milestone donation to the fund created by his father in 1986.

The mission of the Kalev Pugi Fund, administered within the Chess Foundation of Canada, is to generate funds to assist promising juniors to compete in major tournaments in order to advance their chess progress. Three elected trustees receive applications and award grants every year.

Read the official announcement HERE.

In summary, …

As previously announced, the CFC was automatically extending memberships that expired on or after March 1, 2020. This was done due the drastically reduced number of CFC-rated events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On November 1, after 8 months, the CFC ended the automatic extension of memberships. This was due to the increasing number of CFC-rated events available online to all members across Canada as well as the return of some over the board events.

The 2020 MCF was held on Thanksgiving weekend at Credit Union Place in Summerside, PEI. Because of Covid-19 certain precautions had to be put in place to comply with Facility and Provincial standards.

A roped off playing area was used where anyone present inside were required to wear masks. Plenty of Hand Sanitizer was available and players were recommended to use it when coming and going from the playing area. Wipes were used on the pieces and boards between playing sessions. While masks were not required in the rest of the building a majority of players and parents kept them on all of the time. Please feel free to contact me if you are looking for any advice on putting on an event.

Paul Leblanc, the CFC Ratings Auditor, is announcing a change to how CFC events are rated:

When rating events containing new players with FIDE ratings, the CFC will assign to such players an initial CFC rating of FIDE + 125. This will replace the current practice of accepting FIDE ratings at par.

Arbiters and organizers of CFC rated events may use this conversion rate for pairings and prize eligibility if in their judgment it is considered appropriate.

FIDE’s Olympiad has moved online due to COVID-19. Its main website is HERE.

Canada’s team can be seen HERE.

We are well represented by Nikolay Noritsyn, Kaiqi Yang, Agnieszka Matras-Clement, Anna Burtasova, Rohan Talukdar, Maili-Jade Ouellet. Reserve players: Raja Panjwani, Mark Plotkin, Qiyu Zhou, Oksana Golubeva, Eugene Hua, and Svitlana Demchenko. Team captain: Victor Plotkin.

Aug 21 to 23, Canada plays in the Top Division of Stage 1:

• Aug 21 at 1 PM - Argentina-Canada
• Aug 21 at 2 PM - Canada-Poland
• Aug 21 at 3 PM - Peru-Canada
• Aug 22 at 1 PM - Cuba-Canada
• Aug 22 at 2 PM - Canada-Greece
• Aug 22 at 3 PM - Paraguay-Canada
• Aug 23 at 1 PM - Canada-Italy
• Aug 23 at 2 PM - Brazil-Canada
• Aug 23 at 3 PM - Canada-USA

Watch live HERE and on chess.com (an official sponsor).

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) is now in progress. It is the meeting of the outgoing (2019/20) and incoming (2020/21) Directors, Officers, Trustees, and Voting Members of the CFC.

The annual meetings are online on the CFC Forums. You can read the proceedings using the links below. Only official attendees can post comments to these forums.

Outgoing Annual Meeting

You can read the proceedings of the outgoing meeting HERE.

The outgoing meeting is mainly about reports from the outgoing directors, officers, etc and some discussions. Highlights will be posted here later.

Because of viruses and malware, the old CFC website was being blocked by many browsers. Fixing it was too difficult. So an emergency re-write of the website was started.

The initial launch on July 23 had mostly the core requirements: For players, a list of upcoming tournaments. For organizers, the list of CFC members, membership expiry dates, and the latest ratings.

Additional function and content will be migrated from old to new website based in priority sequence. Ideally we would have migrated it all before the initial launch. But since the old site was 100% blocked, it was better to have a partial site early than a complete site much later.

((chess diagram))

Our Canadian Game of the Week comes from the online rapid match between Canadian and Romanian U18s, which Romania won by a narrow margin.

In the diagram we see a London System that has transposed into a kind of Stonewall attack. Find a good plan for Black.

((chess pgn))

See UPDATE.

Read the official announcement HERE

In summary, …

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CFC is temporarily changing its membership renewal policy:

• For annual memberships that expire on or after March 1, 2020

  • Your CFC membership is automatically extended until further notice.

  • Your CFC membership is valid for all types of CFC-rated tournaments: over the board, online, etc.

• For annual memberships that expire on or before February 29, 2020

  • Your CFC membership has expired.

Read the official announcement HERE and in this PDF.

To encourage participation in CFC-rated online tournaments and to recognize increases in ability gained by playing online during the COVID-19 shutdown, the CFC is offering an incentive.

The incentive is having 200 points added to your Regular rating if you meet the conditions in the official announcements. Members with an inital Quick/Active rating under 1000 may earn a 2nd 200 rating points. So, check HERE for online events and start playing!

Brighten up your winter by planning your big Canadian chess events of the year…

46th Mauricie Open Ch.

• March 20-22, 2020 | Trois-Rivières, QC
• 5-round Swiss; $12,000 BOE
• CANCELLED due to CoV19
• A Quebec government recommendation to cancel events involving more than 250 people.
• Contact organizers for full refunds.

Canadian Women’s Zonal, Canadaian Closed, and Easter Sectionals

• April 9-13, 2020 | Kingston, ON
• 2020-03-14: CANCELLED BY ORDER OF KINGSTON (KFL&A) PUBLIC HEALTH
• 9-round Swisses in multiple sections:
• Winner of the Women’s Zonal gets:
  • Entry to next stage of FIDE Women’s World Championship (+ $1000 travel)
  • Place on Olympiad Team
  • $1000
  • WIM title (or norms)
• Winner of Canadian Closed gets:
  • $2000
  • Entry to Continental Ch. in Santiago in May 2020 (+ $500 travel)
• LINK)

14th Grand Pacific Open

• April 10-13, 2020 | Victoria, BC
• CANCELLED due to CoV19
• 6 rounds, $6000 guaranteed, plus bughouse and blitz
• LINK

2020 CYCC

• July 11-14, 2020 | Mississauga, ON
• CANCELLED due to CoV19
• For the Canadian Championships in Open and Girls, ages U8 to U18. Early registration discounts.
• LINK

2020 Canadian Open

• July 15-22, 2020 | Mississauga, ON
• CANCELLED due to CoV19
• 9-round Swiss; $20,000; Blitz Championship; discounts for early entry
• LINK

Championnat Ouvert du Québec

• July 25 - 31, 2020 | Longueuil, QC
• 9 Round Swiss; 40/90 + G/30 + 30s; Rounds 5-9 at one game per day; $5000 guaranteed; location on Montreal Metro.
• LINK

Pawn Wise: Atlantic Chess Festival

• July 31-Aug. 4 2020 | Saint Mary’s University, Halifax
• May 1st: Announcement about possible Covid19 cancellation
• Events include:
  • 11th Canadian Seniors Chess Championship
  • Nova Scotia Mayflower Open
• GM Evgeny Bareev plays in the Canadian Senior
• GM Hou Yifan attends
• LINK

2020 Canadian Junior Chess Championship

• Aug 6-9, 2020 | Humber College, Toronto
• NB: date and location pending CFC approval

90th Montréal Open Championship

• September 11-13, 2020 | Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, Montréal
• CANCELLED due to CoV19
• 5 round Swiss; TC: 40/90 + g/30 + 30s
• $10,200
• LINK

13th Canadian International Open

• October 8-12 | Longueuil, QC
• CANCELLED due to CoV19
• $18,000 guaranteed
• LINK

The old “News” on the old chess.ca website will be migrated to the new chess.ca.

Thanks for your patience.

The old “News” on the old chess.ca website will be migrated to the new chess.ca.

Thanks for your patience.

Nathan Divinsky (29 October 1925 ; 17 June 2012)

Last month Canada’s “Chess Renaissance Man” passed away at the age of 85. He was one of the initial inductees into the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame in 2001. I met Divinsky several times 25-30 years ago at CFC AGM’s. At the time he was simply a Governor from BC. It was only later that I learned of his prior contributions to Chess in Canada that led to him eventually being in the Hall of Fame. Those of us that have met him have probably seen him only in the role of a Chess politician. He was CFC President 1993-4 and served as Canada’s representative to FIDE (and consequently Zonal President) from 1987-1993and again from 2004-2008. I still remember him consoling me after I (as NBCA President) had failed to secure a 1989 Canadian Open bid for Edmundston at the 1988 meeting (even though he had voted against our bid!). Sure enough we were able to get approval for the 1990 event a few months later.

• Blocked: On July 3, 2020, most browsers started blocking chess.ca because of malware.

Benefits of Membership

What benefits do I get as a member of the CFC?

When you become a member of the CFC,

• You join a fraternity of chess players, enthusiasts, teachers, and organizers from across Canada devoted to promoting chess.
• The CFC represents Canada to the world as a member of FIDE, the international chess body.
• The CFC sends teams to the Chess Olympiad, World Youth Chess Championship, and other major international events.
• The CFC holds national championships (including the Canadian Open, Canadian Youth Chess Championship, Canadian Closed, Canadian Women’s Championship) to showcase Canadian talent.
• The CFC website keeps players informed on is what happening including tournament listings, tournament reports and news items, listings of local chess clubs, and so much more.
• Your membership dues support all these activities to help ensure chess prospers in Canada.
• As a member, you are welcomed at CFC events across Canada, including national tournaments, weekend swisses, and local club tournaments.

What if I’m not a very good player?

Unfortunately, the CFC membership discount at Choice Hotels was discontinued effective December 31, 2022.

Choice Hotels decided to discontinue our discount because the minimum number of room-nights per year required to remain in the program had not been met.

Jump to National Master, Woman National Master, National Candidate Master.

This list is from the old CFC website and is missing recent titleholders. It will be updated soon.

National Master (NM)

Woman National Master (WNM)

National Candidate Master (NCM)

(More names are coming. We are writing a program to scan the ratings database to collect more names.)

We tried to keep the old chess.ca website available at “old.chess.ca” while we migrated its content.

But when Google found it and its malware, they blocked all websites ending in “chess.ca”. Including the new chess.ca website, which did not have any viruses or malware.

So, unfortunately, the old chess.ca website will be unavailable from now on. If you have a strong need for info not yet migrated to the new website, Contact the CFC.

Provincial and Regional

• AB: Alberta Chess Association (ACA)
• BC: British Columbia Chess Federation (BCCF)
• MB: Manitoba Chess Association (MCA)
• NB: New Brunswick Chess Association (NBCA)
• NL: Newfoundland and Labrador Chess Association (NLCA)
• NS: Chess Nova Scotia
  • Nova Scotia Scholastic Chess Association
• ON: Ontario Chess Association (OCA)
  • Eastern Ontario Chess Association (EOCA)
  • Greater Toronto Chess League (GTCL)
  • Northern Ontario Chess League (NOCL)
  • South Western Ontario Chess League (SWOCL)
• PE: Chess PEI
• QC: Fédération québécoise des échecs (FQE)
  • List of regions
  • Outaouais Chess League
• SK: Saskatchewan Chess Association (SCA)
• NT/NU/YT: (no organization)

Other

• Canadian Correspondence Chess Association

The CFC handbook has all the rules and regulations associated with the organization before our transition to new Canada Not For Profit Act.

The sections are broken down as follows: (see the table of contents)

You can download in French: Règles de pratique de tournoi.doc (rules of tournament play in Windows Word format).

You can also download the rules of FIDE (the international chess organizer) at their website: http://www.fide.com/. General information on FIDE can be found here.

• Membership Statistics

The chart is created from a Google Sheet belonging to webmaster@chess.ca at this link: LINK

WARNING: Leave this website immediately if you are a citizen of the European Union (EU) and/or covered by the EU’s GDPR regulations. This website may or may not comply with GDPR. We simply do not know as the GDPR regulations are too confusing, time consuming, and/or silly for us to comprehend.

Informational Website

www.chess.ca is the informational website of the CFC.

• It uses Google Analytics to gather statistics on vistors to our website. Google Analytics will use cookies and other means to track your usage of our website. No personally identifiable info is collected.

GoMembership Website

cfc.justgo.com is the membership management website of the CFC.

Jump to Grandmasters, Woman Grandmaster, International Masters, Woman International Masters, FIDE Masters, Woman FIDE Masters, Candidate Masters, Woman Candidate Masters.

Grandmaster (GM)

Woman Grandmaster (WGM)

International Master (IM)

Woman International Master (WIM)

FIDE Master (FM)

Woman FIDE Master (WFM)

Candidate Master (CM)

(coming soon)

The CFC has several membership types. Fees depend on the province in which the member resides (not the province in which a tournament is held).

The fees for memberships are different by province because 1) each province calculates taxes differently and 2) some provinces have a chess association that receive a portion of the fee.

Annual Memberships

Most CFC members have Annual memberships.

A “Junior” is anyone whose year of birth is ____ or later.

IOC - International Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes the FIDE as the world-wide governing body for the sport of chess.

The IOC also recognizes the COC as the National Olympic Committee (NOC) for Canada.

FIDE - International Chess Federation

The International Chess Federation, also know by its French name Fédération Internationale des Échecs and acronym FIDE (pronounced “fee-day”), is the world-wide governing body for the sport of chess.

Special Resolution of Members

Continuing the Corporation under the provisions of the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act and authorizing the directors to apply for a Certificate of Continuance.

WHEREAS the Corporation was incorporated under Part II of the Canada Corporations Act by Letters Patent dated the 20th of September, 1976; and

WHEREAS it is considered to be in the best interests of the Corporation that it be continued under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (NFP Act) pursuant to section 297 of the NFP Act;

In 1945, the Canadian Chess Federation (CCF) is renamed to the Chess Federation of Canada (CFC).

The CCF was renamed to avoid confusion with a Canadian political party also known as the CCF, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. The CCF party was founded in 1932. In 1961, it was succeeded by the New Democratic Party.

The Canadian Chess Federation (CCF) replaces the Canadian Chess Association (CCA) that was founded in 1872. For the first time, the CCF includes representation from all major cities in Canada.

See wikipedia.

After holding the title for 6 years, José Raúl Capablanca loses the match and title to Alexander Alekhine.

See article.

The International Chess Federation, known by its French name Fédération Internationale des Échecs or FIDE, was founded July 20, 1924 in Paris, France at the Town Hall of the 9th arrondissement (map).

Paris was hosting the Summer Olympics in 1924. In the spirit of the athletic Olympics, the first international team chess tournament was organized, considered the first “unofficial” Chess Olympiad. This brought together representatives from many countries and so was an opportunity to found an international organization for chess.

See wikipedia.

After holding the title for 27 years, Emanuel Lasker loses the match and title to José Raúl Capablanca.

The match was to last 24 games, 12.5 points, or 8 wins whichever came first. However, Lasker resigned the match after 14 games. Capablanca’s score was zero losses, 4 wins, 10 draws or 9/14 (64%).

See wikipedia.

Games 12 to 19 of 19 were played in Montreal.

See wikipedia.

The match would last until a player had 10 wins. Steinitz won the match and title with a score of +10-5=5 or 12.5/20.

See History of Chess

See wikipedia.

The castling rules of the modern game of chess were introduced in 1620 in France and 1640 in England.

See wikipedia and queens.

During the 15th century in Europe, the rules for chess continued their evolution toward the modern game we now today:

• Pawns could now move two squares on its first move.

• This change necessitated the en passant rule. Without en passant, a pawn could unfairly scoot past an advanced enemy pawn by moving two squares, jumping over the square on which the enemy pawn could have captured it.

• Queens could now move like a rook and a bishop. Prior to this change, the queen could move only 1 or 2 squares and was relatively weak.