Posted on April 1st, 2020 by Keith
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…
Posted on March 9th, 2020 by Keith
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…
Posted on March 8th, 2020 by Keith
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…
Posted on February 22nd, 2020 by Keith
Today, the young Iranian Grandmaster, Alireza Firouzja, won his first major international tournament. Firouzja is sixteen. After regular play there were five players with a score of 5/9. Firouzja and Vidit Gujrathi topped the five on tiebreaks, and so faced each other in a speed playoff, which Firouzja won 2-0. You can read more about…
Posted on February 7th, 2020 by Keith
A terrific day filled with chess and other activities for young chess players from SK to Grade 8. We offer three programs: a day specially tailored for the youngest set; a casual section for young players who want to play a bit, learn a bit more, and have a lot of fun; a tournament…
Posted on February 3rd, 2020 by Keith
Our first P.A. Day chess event of 2020 was a great success, with 55 kids from beginners to experienced chess players participating in a wide variety of activities, including (of course) lots of chess instruction and play. Our tournament section (for more advanced players) had a field of twenty players who played seven rounds of…
Posted on January 25th, 2020 by Keith
Congrats to Fabiano Caruana for winning the 2020 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Caruana won with a round to spare, with six wins and no losses, leaving Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and others in the dust! This is the first time Caruana has ever won the Tata Steel Tournament, held annually in Wijk aan Zee. His…
Posted on January 18th, 2020 by Marcus Wilker
In-class programs, lunch and after-school clubs at TDSB and YRDSB schools likely cancelled on January 20.
Posted on January 17th, 2020 by Keith
“I learned chess in France, just before I turned four years old. It happened completely randomly, I was walking down a street to the beach and just happened to see a chess set. I was immediately …
Posted on May 27th, 2019 by Marcus Wilker
As part of Chessfest 2019, we are proud to present Caïssa, a chess clown play where a chess clown meets Caïssa, the goddess of chess.