
Today was the final round of the tumultuous and exciting Airthings Masters online chess tournament, and in so doing became the first player guaranteed a place in the four-player Chess Champion Tour that will take place in September 2021. Radjabov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1987 and came to international prominence in the early…
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We’re very happy with this new video Ken Remark has made for us – and with great acting by Keenan Ash Bouman and CIC Chair Michael Sutton! Please like, share, and subscribe to our new YouTube channel!

Global News Consumer and Investigative Reporter Sean O’Shea recently spoke to Canadian GM Aman Hambleton and our own Nick Grachev, about the current surge of chess interest, and why chess is such a great game especially during a pandemic. Nick teaches a new Youth Club on Thursday nights, and will be hosting a Winter Break…
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Halloween 2020 may be a lot different, as trick-or-treating is not advised in Toronto and other hotspot areas. CIC is inviting all ghosts, zombies, mummies, and jack-o-lanterns to some special spooky online chess clubs this Saturday! Future Zombies 2 11:00 am ET with Nick for kids in grades 3-6 $15 Nick’s Future Masters 2 class…
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On Saturday June 27 at 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern, join us for our first chess tournament for young players across Canada!

Tigran Petrosian was nicknamed the “Iron Tiger.” Born in Armenia in 1929, he grew up in significant poverty, and saved money he earned sweeping streets to buy chess books by Nimzowitsch and Spielmann to study the game. He went on to dominate the chess world with four Soviet chess championships. Petrosian became the world champion…
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Chess Institute of Canada has moved all of its activities online as a result of COVID-19. Using a combination of video conferencing and online chess resources, we offer engaging, fun chess instruction for kids of all ages and all levels, along with online chess play, regular chess tournaments, and more! We’re excited to offer our…
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Fool’s Mate is the quickest possible checkmate in chess, taking only two moves! It is so named because the losing side has to make some incredibly bad opening moves, so you’d think that this line has no practical value to chess players. But you’d be wrong! There are a number of ways in which the…
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Robert James (Bobby) Fischer was born on this day in 1943, and is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. Fischer became the youngest grandmaster in the world at age 15, and in 1962 won the American Championship with a perfect 11/11 score. In 1972 he defeated Boris Spassky to…
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At CIC we’re always happy when girls join our clubs! While the professional chess world is still dominated by men, women have made fantastic strides in the game over the last century. Most notably, Judit Polgár emerged in the 1990s as the strongest female chess player of all time. At the height of her competitive…
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