The Kingston Chess Club is located in the picturesque City of Kingston, Ontario, Canada on the north shore of Lake Ontario at the head of the St. Lawrence River. Toronto is approximately 260 km to the west, Montreal is about 290 km to the east and Ottawa is about 175 km to the northeast. Enjoy your visit.
What's New
STOP! This page and the Tournaments page change frequently. Please refresh your page\cache to ensure that you have the most recent posted information.
Check out our new blog at http://kingstonchessclub.blogspot.com
February 14, 2012:
The Kingston Chess Club Championship has concluded with Peter Sibbald winning the top prize with a perfect score of 6/6. Final crosstables have been posted. Remember, there is NO CLUB MEETING NEXT WEEK, due to Family Day. We resume on Monday February 27, 2012. Have a great weekend!
February 8, 2012:
Round 5 results of the Kingston Chess Club Championship have been posted, along with the FINAL round pairings. Finish strong, everyone!
February 1, 2012:
Round 4 saw many wins by White. Results have been posted, along with the 5th round pairings. There is a final 6th Round on February 13th, before we break on the 20th for a statutory holiday. Good luck on Monday!
January 26, 2012:
Hello all. We're thinking of changing the website into a blog. There are a few benefits:
- Blogs are easier to update (via a blog post, instead of HTML)
- Blog entries are archived automatically
- Blog updates can be accessed via RSS Feeds
- You can have multiple contributors who need not be HTML experts
- People can interact with the site by leaving comments
What do you guys think? Would anybody want to contribute to a blog-style website, on blogspot perhaps? - Azroy Kandan
January 24, 2012:
For those who are interested, I have posted some of my games with commentary on my website here - Azroy Kandan
January 24, 2012:
Round 3 results have been posted, along with the 4th round pairings. See you guys on Monday!
January 18, 2012:
The results of a decisive round 2 (with no draws) and the 3rd round pairings are now posted. Good luck on Monday!
January 11, 2012:
We have made a small change to the pairings of the tournament. Please check your your pairing again to ensure that you have the most current information. You will probably have to refresh the page.
January 10, 2012:
The 2012 Club Championship has kicked off. It is a 6 round event. Azroy Kandan is handling the T.D.'s results\pairings responsibilities this time. Brian Murray is getting a well deserved break. Please email Azroy with any questions you may have on the Club Championship. It is not too late to request a 1st round bye and enter the event. Good luck to all participants.
December 22, 2011:
Congratulations to Azroy Kandan who has won the President's Challenge with a perfect 5/5 score. Azroy defeated Brian Murray in a last round hard fought, take no prisoners, must win game, to secure the championship.
The Club Championship Tournament will begin Jan 9 2012.
Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season to all. - TD Brian Murray
December 9, 2011:
We incorrectly posted that Monday December 12 would be a Christmas party and awards night. THE PARTY HAS BEEN CANCELLED! Unfortunately, we will not have use of the gym on that night. Sorry for any confusion.
IMPORTANT NOTE: ROUND 5 WILL BE PLAYED DECEMBER 19, 2011.
Note: Monday December 19 is the final round - no byes for this round will be entertained. Normally 0 point byes would be considered, however there is a two week span between games and as a result everyone should be able to keep the final round clear for chess. As usual emergencies are dealt with case by case. - TD Brian Murray
The results of round 4th round and the final round pairings are now posted.
December 1, 2011:
The results of round 3 and the 4th round pairings are now posted. Check it out, Mate!
November 24, 2011:
The results of a strange round 2 and the round 3 pairings have been received and posted. Anything really can happen, folks! Play well.
November 17, 2011:
We have posted the results of Round 1 of the President's Challenge Swiss along with the pairings for Round 2. Good luck to all participants.
November 12, 2011:
We received the following request from the Principal of Winston Churchill P.S.:
We are looking to start a chess club at Winston Churchill P.S. and wondered if there was anyone from the Kingston Chess Club who would be interested in volunteering their time at our school?
The club would run from 12:15 to 12:55 one day a week. As well, anyone volunteering at our school would need to hand in a CPIC (police check) ahead of time.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Sincerely,
Jacqueline Prenevost
Principal,
Winston Churchill P.S.
If you have an hour or two to spare once per week and would like to add this feather to your resume cap, either contact Ms. Prenevost directly at 613-542-6441 or send us an email and we will provide you with her email address.
Personal note: I did exactly that almost 30 years ago in Northumberland County and can assure you that the experience was worth every second. The youngsters were enthusastic and some are still involved in the Royal Game to this day! You will not regret it!! - Wayne
November 9, 2011:
Congratulations to co-champions Azroy Kandan and Jay Serdula who both finished with 5/6 in the first Dr James Cairns Memorial.
Our next event, "The President's Challenge", starts next Monday November 14. It will be a 5 round Swiss. All games start at 7:15 pm. Each player is allowed two 1/2 point byes. There are no points given for any byes taken in the last round. Games are 100 minutes sudden death. Good Sportsmanship towards your opponent is of course expected. - TD Brian Murray
Brian Murray has also announced a new trophy which he has called the "GRAND AGGREGATE". The details are posted on the Tournament page.
November 6, 2011:
A unique opportunity has just hit our inbox:
All,
The Kingston Chess Club has just received a match challenge from another CXR chess club. They are looking for an online match with a 1700+ rated player. Any interested individuals are requested to contact the TD.
There may be an opportunity for lower rated players to play match games against other opponents in the future as well.
These games will be CXR rated.
For more information: email TD Brian Murray.
November 5, 2011:
Remember, remember the 5th of November.
A tip of the hat to TD Brian Murray who sends us the following link:
"Ideachess is a free chess tactics training server that aims to help chess-lovers improve their game by solving online interactive checkmate and chess tactics puzzles."
Registration is free. It looks to be an outstanding training resource for the developing player and for those of us seeking to shake off a little rust or sharpen our jaded skills. Highly recommended.
October 31, 2011:
We have posted the pairings for the final round of the Dr. James Cairns Memorial on the tournament page. Be sure to refresh your browser cache.
Boo! Monday October 31 is Hallowe'en and the club will not be meeting that scary evening. Enjoy the break. The final round of the 2011 Dr. James Cairns Memorial Swiss will be played on Monday Nov. 7. Good luck to all.
October 27, 2011:
We have posted MOST of the results of the 5th round of the tournament. There is one game yet to be played. It is scheduled for Sat. October 29. Meanwhile you will have plenty of time to speculate on the result of the unplayed game and the effect it will have on the final round pairings because ...
October 18, 2011:
We have posted the results of the 4th round of the 2011 James Cairns Memorial Swiss. The Rd. 5 pairings are also up. It is all on the Tournament page.
October 6, 2011:
The tournament co-leaders played to a careful draw in rd. 3 while all other boards featured decisive results. We have now posted the details of rd. 3 along with the rd. 4 pairings.
REMEMBER: Monday October 10 is THANKSGIVING. There will be no chess that week. Round 4 resumes on October 17. Enjoy the holiday.
September 28, 2011:
We have posted the results of the 2nd round of the 2011 James Cairns Memorial Swiss. The Rd. 3 pairings are also up. It is all on the Tournament page.
September 28, 2011:
GM Kevin Spraggett has been exposing the fraud, corruption and greed of the CFC with a vengance lately. If you have not yet seen his sometimes risque blog, do a search for it. CAUTION: some pics and content are not safe for work or school or just about anywhere else. Caveat emptor.
Frankly, your webmaster will be quite happy to see the ethically challenged CFC go the way of the dinosaurs and the dodo. We don't need them. We no longer care about them. Worst of all, they are affiliated with FIDE which has floated some ridiculous additional fees for their tournament organizers and participants.
Quick note to current CFC\OCF members: do you know where the Trillium Foundation grant of $120,000.00 went? No? Short memory? Don't care? Then try this: do you know where the $100,000.00 of Canadian Youth funds went this year? That was money intended for our Juniors. No? Care to guess? If you are still supporting these alleged unethical and\or incompetent crooks, then frankly you deserve exactly what you are getting. We tried to warn you years ago. Time to wake up and smell the coffee, methinks.
Oh - if the CFC doesn't like this post - too bad. No - seriously, tough noogies. The CFC can contact me directly Wayne A. Coppin. Make my day. We have another outstanding ethical issue that we would LOVE to discuss with the current administration. Meanwhile, we call on all of them to resign and the last one out of the building can turn out the lights - oh, I forgot, they sold the building at firesale prices and presumably used the money to NOT pay their original web site (re)redesigners. Typical.
September 23, 2011:
We have posted the results of the opening round of the 2011 James Cairns Memorial Swiss. The Rd. 2 pairings are also up. Good luck to all participants.
August 27, 2011:
We fixed a couple of typos in the August 26, 2011 update.
August 26, 2011:
2011 Summer Executive Meeting
Harry has graciously provided us with the minutes of our annual summer Executive meeting. Since those minutes are potentially of interest to all our members, we are summarizing them here. Hopefully most members and potential members will find most of your questions answered. Of course, please feel free to email the webmaster with any other questions you may have. - Wayne, K.C.C. webmaster
The Kingston Chess Club will resume meeting for our 2011 Fall-Winter session on September 12, 2011. For all the details regarding where and when we meet, club fees and so on, please refer to our Info - FAQ page.
Our yearly K.C.C. General Meeting will be help on September 19, 2011.
At this year's General Meeting we will be voting in our new Executive team. We will elect a Club President, currently Roman Polywkan; a Junior Club Coordinator, currently Harry Jordan; a Tournament Director, currently Brain Murray; a Webmaster, currently Wayne Coppin; and a Treasurer-Finances officer, currently John Lukezich. If you wish to stand for election to any of those positions, please make your intent known in our September 19, 2011 meeting.
We are also looking for people to fill these new positions:
- Junior Club Assistant: An individual to assist Harry with the Junior Club and provide occasional relief.
- Administrative Assistant: This is not a secretarial position but rather is the individual who will formally represent the K.C.C. to the CXR Rating Service. We actually need two people one this year to be trained and one next year. The duties will be to submit tournament reports and membership fees to the CXR.
- Back-up Tournament Director: You will work with the current TD and provide occasional relief as necessary. If you ever wondered how those tournament pairings are made, this is your chance.
- Back-up Treasurer-Finances officer: Basically we need a back-up person with cheque writing privileges.
Also at the General Meeting we will be discussing various fund raising ideas.
Anyone wishing to purchase the battery operated clocks may do so at $40.00 per clock. The sale of these clocks will end on September 26, 2011. After which, tickets will be sold to raffle off any remaining clocks.
Raffle tickets will be sold for $5.00 each and a minimum number of 8 tickets must be sold in order to have a draw. The draws will be held one at a time and 8 tickets must be sold for each draw. This means you will have to purchase a ticket for each new draw in order to try and win a clock.
Starting November 7, 2011 we will be selling 50/50 tickets at a rate of 1 ticket for $2.00 or 3 tickets for $5.00.
Ticket sales will run until December 12, 2011 and the winner of the 50/50 we be drawn that night… The amount you win will be determined by the number of tickets sold.
Roman will be looking after preparing all tickets. We will need everyone to help sell these tickets… Yes, all members will be encouraged to take at least one booklet of tickets. Thank you in advance for your enthusiastic response and good luck in the raffle to everyone.
The Executive, subject to the approval of the Club members, has decided to finally retire the Whig Standard Trophy. It has been some time since the newspaper actually sponsored the event and the tournament itself was renamed back in 2007. The Executive proposes that we move forward by changing the name of our initial fall tournament event to the Jim Cairns Memorial. Brian has graciously volunteered to provide the club with a brand new trophy for the event.
If you have any thoughts or comments on any of these agenda items, or wish to add an item to the agenda for discussion, we encourage you to do so. New business is always welcomed. Your Executive team reminds you that the Kingston Chess Club is stronger when all of our members are actively contributing to the organization and decision making processes.The 2011-2012 Calendar of Events
The club will start back on September 12, 2011.
Our first tournament will be 6 rounds and will start on September 19, 2011 after the Annual General Meeting.
The final round of the 1st tournament will end on November 7, 2011.
There will be NO CHESS on the night of October 10, 2011. This is Thanksgiving Monday. There is NO CHESS on October 31, 2011. This is Halloween Night.
Our second tournament event is 5 rounds and will be starting on November 14, 2011 and will end on December 19, 2011.
On December 12, 2011, we will be holding our annual Christmas Pot Luck Dinner. There will be NO CHESS TOURNAMENT GAME this night. Fun chess between the Junior and Senior clubs we be encouraged. We would like everyone to bring in their weirdest chess set to showcase. Please don’t bring anything that is breakable. Don’t forget we will also be drawing the winner of the 50/50 draw. The amount you win will be determined by the number of tickets sold.
There is NO CHESS club meeting on December 26, 2011.
There is NO CHESS club meeting on January 2, 2012. School is out.
On January 9, 2012, we return from the holiday break and will be starting our third tournament right away. This we be a 6 round tournament and will end on February 13, 2012.
February 20, 2012 is Family Day and therefore NO CHESS CLUB that night.
February 27, 2012 will be the 'Meeting of the Minds' night. Interaction between the two clubs, juniors please plan to stay later then normal.
On March 5, 2012 we are hoping to arrange for an International Chess Master to come forward to give a simultaneous exhibition. We are hoping to keep the cost down for club members to between $5.00 - $10.00 each. Remember the 50/50 draw? That will be held to help raise the money we need to help get him here. The cost for non-members of the chess club will be $25.00 each and the seat will only be sold after all club members that wish to play are seated. Details will be announced on this page as they become available.
March 12, 2012 is March Break, NO CHESS CLUB MEETING.
Attention Juniors: You can sign up today for the March Break Wednesday Chess Tournament. From 10am – 4pm… Cost $20.00 each
Our last tournament will be starting on March 19, 2012 and will run through April 23, 2012… This will be 5 rounds.
On April 7, 2012 there will be NO CHESS CLUB. It is Easter Monday.
Chris is hoping to hold the Eastern Ontario Regional Tournament on Sunday April 15th.
April 30, 2012 will be our last night of the season and it also happens to be Pizza Party night… The club will supply everything we need for this one.
This will work out well for the Junior Members interested in the Ontario Chess Challenge: The Provincial Championship in Toronto is going to be held on Sunday April 22nd.
June 1, 2011:
First the good news: we have recently learned that Jayson Hunag has qualified for the Canadian Youth Chess Championship finals in the under 14 section. Congratulations, Jayson!
Now the bad news for those still stubbornly hanging on to their support of the CFC. It seems that the so-called "revenue neutral" Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is apparently not revenue neutral for CFC members. The following new price structure has just been announced by the CFC Executive... effective June 1 for tournaments and June 7 for individuals. Here is what CFC Prez Bob Gillanders had to say:
"As a consequence of the loss of our charitable tax status, we are now required to charge HST/GST on our membership dues and rating fees. This change took place effective February 1, 2011. We have absorbed this cost to date, but it is now time to adjust our dues accordingly. The governors were advised of this pending change at the April 2011 quarterly meeting."
Uh sorry - we didn't bother to report on the loss of their charitable tax status at the time... too many shady things going on behind the scenes and, frankly we long ago lost interest in the soap opera. At some point, the train wreck is simply too painful to watch.
The following table contrasts the CFC fee structure with the international Chess eXpress Rating service now used exclusively by the KCC:
| Province | Adult | Junior | Adult Tax | Junior Tax | CXR | |||||||||
| Ontario: | $48 | $30 | $3.39 | $0.57 | $7.00 | |||||||||
We believe that $48+ includes the Ontario Chess Federation portion of the membership fee - maybe ... try finding that info on the web! - but the issue of whether the OCA fees will also be subject to an HST bump is apparently not yet clear to the folks running the embattled CFC circus.
And for those keeping score, the CXR rates have not increased in the two years we have used it.
Did we mention that the following players are members of the CXR:
- 2832 GM Hikaru Nakamura
- 2773 GM Leonid Yudasin
- 2771 GM Gata Kamsky
- 2753 GM Julio Becerra
- 2702 GM Jaan Ehlvest
- 2685 GM Varuzhan Akobian
- 2665 GM Boris Gulko
- 2636 GM Pascal Charbonneau
Just to name a few international stars...
So let me see - you can join the KCC (see the Info-FAQ page for our club fees) and play in four competitive rated Kingston events for an annual rating fee of $7.00 ($US) with no additional game or tournament fees or you can travel (probably overnight at least) to play in a CFC event, drop an hefty entry fee and then cough up an additional rating fee of $48.00 + $who knows$? Doesn't seem like a difficult choice to us. Oh - and how is that magazine thing is working out for you CFC members?
The Kingston Chess Club is on the record in its request that the CFC deal with the still outstanding libel perpetrated years ago by a disgruntled CFC member. A number of new Executives have come and gone, but so far, the CFC has simply refused to condemn acts of libel by its members against other members. It would cost them nothing and is the RIGHT THING TO DO. If the CFC thought that the matter would eventually go away, they were mistaken... again. In response, a few of us have refused to renew our CFC memberships and will continue to refuse to do so until the CFC wakes up and joins the rest of the world's sporting community in refusing to tolerate unsubstantiated public allegations from its members. While none of us are "holding our breath" for that to happen any time soon, the KCC also no longer offers CFC rated events.
We think that saving our members over $40 per year while not supporting an organization that seems unable (or more to the point - unwilling) to act on behalf of its own membership makes both economic and ethical sense to our club members. And fret not - those who choose to continue to play in CFC rated events will always be welcomed at the KCC - we are both $ympathetic and non-di$criminatory here at the KCC.
Copyright 2009 -2010 by the Kingston Chess Club. More than 6 billion served. Borrow what you need. 
