Some news

Hi all,

our annual Spring Open tournament has started. Juraj Pivovarov is directing and still accepting players so that means that you can join us from round 2, which is next Tuesday, June 2nd.

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Our club will be open this coming Saturday for all juniors who wish to play and learn. I will be there and Roy Yearwood will be there as usual. 

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I have also created an ICC account for our juniors. If you feel like playing or maybe observing some of the major tournaments troughout the world that are being broadcasted there... but don't wanna pay the annual fee :) then this account is for you! 

Just download the ICC Dasher version(http://www.chessclub.com/helpcenter/interface/Dasher.html) on your computer and then login with 

Username: CJCC 

and 

password: calgary

It'e easy and is fun! I already played two 5min-games and from provisional 1600 made our rating 2190. But let that not put you off! Just play and enjoy. If you are too worried about bringing the club rating down than simply select non-rated games when you seek a game. 

Have fun!

Stephan V.

2009 Canadian Chess Challenge

To briefly sum up the performance of the team, because we have had the strongest team we ever had generally speaking, it was a bit disappointing to see that we got 64 game points out of 108 games against the 9 provinces repeating our previous score before. We still haven't beaten our highest score of 65 game points. Some of our players had done and experienced upsets in their games. We have five players that placed in their grade: Patrick Tolentino for 3rd place, Jamil Kassam for 3rd place, Yuekai Wang for 3rd place, David Zhang for 2nd place, and yours truly for 2nd place (1st if not blew up his game against Calugar). Despite this, all we're happy to have joined the tournament and had fun during their stay in Toronto. Players not only played normal chess but also played card games, bughouse, etc., went to the baseball game, museum, etc. and all sorts of things to maximize their time. Thanks to Bruce, Patricia, Richard, Roy, and all parents who came with their children to support them in the nationals. I would say that this was indeed truly a memorable experience for some if not all.

-CJCC President Jan Edmund Lazo

P.S. About the game to show its importance, I will show my games in the nationals especially the Lazo-Calugar game and other games in my lecture in the chess club on Friday.

Calgary Junior Chess Club AGM and Club Championship

Hello All,

Before our club championship, the Calgary Junior Chess Club (CJCC) had its own Annual General Meeting (AGM). More than 20 people attended the CJCC's AGM on May 10th. This is the first time that the CJCC has players attended our AGM. In the past, we organized the AGM at the same time as our tournament and thus players could not attend the meeting and play in the tournament at the same time. However, I decided that the juniors should have a "say" in things running in their chess club and should have an opportunity to run for board position.

There were three CJCC executives who attended the meeting: Seng Ting (VP), Hubert Shi (Treasurer), and yours truly. Seng came to the meeting to ask for the approval of the minutes from last AGM. After the approval, we proceeded to the President's annual report. I mentioned how the CJCC had a very successful year. Some of the highlights were the winning of the bid to host Canadian Junior Chess Championship, and our players winning in the Junior Battle of Alberta and Alberta Chess Challenge. Also, I mentioned how the Calgary Chess Club has offered help to the CJCC, including providing free coaching and fundings to our players. Lastly, I thanked resigning board members John Piera, Seng Ting, and Hubert Shi for the work they did, and Paul Gagne for offering assistance in directing our regular and special tournaments this year.

Hubert Shi presented our financial report. He mentioned how the junior chess club are currently low in money after paying for lap top repair, trophies, and other expenses.

Then, we have our election of board members. I am suprise and happy to see so many of our players willing to help their chess club even at young age. Our board of directors for next year are:

Past President and Executive Director: Simon Ong
President: Jan Edmund Lazo
Vice-President: Hemant Persaud
Treasurer: Stephan Vasilev
Secretary: Roy Yearwood
Director: Angelo Tolentino
Director: Raymond Ong
Director: David Zhang
Webmaster: Tony Cai
Other Volunteers: Diwen Shi, Krishneel Singh, and Bill Xu

Thanks to all who attended our meeting.

We then adjourned to play in the club championship.

Our club championship on May 10th was by far the strongest club championship in CJCC history with two expert level players: David Zhang and Jan Edmund Lazo. There were many interesting games and suprising upsets. Here are the crosstable of the Calgary Junior Open Chess Championship:
No Name 1 2 3 4 5
1 Lazo, Jan Edmund D. 16:1.0 12:1.0 7:1.0 2:1.0 3:0.5
2 Cai, Tony 18:1.0 15:1.0 4:1.0 7:1.0 1:0.5
3. Wang, Yuekai 10:1.0 13:1.0 6:1.0 1:0.0 9:1.0
4 Zhang, David 14:1.0 9:1.0 3:0.0 13:1.0 8:1.0
5 Babich, Yaroslav 26:1.0 7:0.0 17:1.0 16:1.0 12:1.0
6 Akhverdiev, Artyom 25:1.0 8:1.0 2:0.0 12:.5 15:1.0
7 Kalaydina, Regina-Veronicka 11:1.0 5:1.0 1:0.0 3:0.0 18:1.0
8 Persaud, Hemant 17:1.0 6:0.0 14:1.0 15:1.0 4:0.0
9 Piera, Johan 21:1.0 4:0.0 16:1.0 19:1.0 2:0.0
10 Tolentino, Andre Angelo 2:0.0 21:1.0 12:0.0 17:1.0 20:1.0
11 Tolentino, Patrick Angelo 7:0.0 20:1.0 15:0.0 21:1.0 19:1.0
12 Shi, Diwen 22:1.0 1:0.0 10:1.0 6:.5 5:0.0
13 Wang, Stanley 20:1.0 2:0.0 18:1.0 4:0.0 14:.5
14 Singh, Krishneel 4:0.0 19:1.0 8:0.0 22:1.0 13:.5
15 Ting, Aaron 23:1.0 3:0.0 11:1.0 8:0.0 6:0.0
16 Chen, Adrian 1:0.0 23:1.0 9:0.0 5:0.0 22:1.0
17 Zhang, Derek 8:0.0 27:1.0 5:0.0 10:0.0 23:1.0
18 Ma, Lee 3:0.0 25:1.0 13:0.0 23:1.0 7:0.0
19 Zhao, Kevin 27:1.0 14:0.0 22:1.0 9:0.0 11:0.0
20 Farkas, Sebastian 13:0.0 11:0.0 27:1.0 25:1.0 10:0.0
21 Xu, Bill 9:0.0 10:0.0 25:1.0 11:0.0 24:0.0
22 Li, Zeling 12:0.0 26:1.0 19:0.0 14:0.0 16:0.0
23 Farkas, Zachary 15:0.0 16:0.0 26:1.0 18:0.0 17:0.0
24 Ong, Raymond 0: 0: 0: 0: 21:1.0
25 Omotayo, John 6:0.0 18:0.0 21:0.0 20:0.0 0:
26 Omotayo, Samuel 5:0.0 22:0.0 23:0.0 0:0.0 0:
27 Silveira, Vinicius Ribeiro Da 19:0.0 17:0.0 20:0.0 0: 0:

We also improved the number of players showing up to our club championship from 14 players (last year) to 27 players (this year). The new CJCC champion was Jan Edmund Lazo who scored perfect. However, in the last round, his opponent Tony Cai could have claimed a quickplay draw because both players are "shuffling" pieces around and nothing was accomplished. So, the tournament report showed that Jan Edmund Lazo drew with Tony Cai.

Jan Edmund Lazo would defend his title sometime in August against the former champion Raymond Ong according to the CJCC's championship cycle. As a good sportmanship player, Jan decided to give Tony Cai a rematch after his match against Raymond Ong. So, stay tune for these exciting matches in August.

I would like to say "congratulation" to Jan Edmund Lazo and the runner ups David Zhang and Tony Cai. I would like to say "thank you" to everyone who came out to play in the event and volunteers including Stephan Vasilev, Roy Yearwood, and Seng Ting.

~Simon Ong

Tournament Organizer, Calgary Junior Open Chess Championship 2009

CCC Team Championship update

Hi all,

things are heating up and our next(and last) round is going to be very exciting! "The Dark Knights", "The Royals" and "The JuggerKnights" all lost and left the door open, so to speak, for everyone. Here is what happen:

"You Got Pawned!" – "The Royals" 3:1

Daniel Kazmaier(2266)(W) – Roy Yearwood(2055)(B) 1:0

Nicholas Moloney(2206)(B) – Paul Usselman(1890)(W) 0:1

Bernd Hahn(1626)(W) – Vladimir Lapiy(1790)(B) 1:0

Adie Todd(1370)(B) – Ted Borowski(1557)(W) 1:0

"Chessperados" – "The JuggerKnights" 2.5:1.5

Stephan Vasilev(2144)(W) – Hafiz Karmali(2073)(B) 1:0

Arthur Wojtas(1903)( B) – Chris Kuczaj(1937)(W) 0.5:0.5

Brian Miller(1866)(W) – Elmer Pasadilla(1863)(B) 1:0

David Crimmins(unrated)(B) – Brad Nielsen(1652)(W) 0:1

"The Dark Knights" - "Nimzovich of the West" 1.5:2.5

Raymond Ong(1596)(W) – Walter Watson(1952)(B) 0.5:0.5

Jan Lazo(1990)(B) – Art Milne(1878)(W) 0:1

Simon Ong(1655)(W) – Bob Macfie(1768)(B) 0:1

Yuekai Wang(1784)(B) – Tom McKay(1598)(W) 1:0

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Pairings for Round 5 (May 12th, 2009):

"Nimzovich of the West"* – "You Got Pawned!"

"The Royals"* – "Chessperados"

"The JuggerKnights"* - "The Dark Knights"

* board 1 and board 3 playing white

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Current Standings:

1. "The Dark Knights" 9.5 points

2. "You Got Pawned!" 8.5 points

3. "The JuggerKnights" 8.5 points

4. "Nimzovich of the West" 8 points

5. "The Royals" 7.5 points

6. "Chessperados" 6 points

Come in and observe the final round - on May 12th - and catch all the excitment... Play some casual games in our skittles room if you want. :)