Information for the Schleinich Memorial Sectional, January 10-12, is available on the Calgary Chess Club website, and can be viewed here.

Players are welcome to wear jeans at ACA events.

The 2025 Schedule has been posted, and can be found in the top menu.

Note the one big change is that the Banff Centre did not offer the same November dates for 2025, so the ACA Board is investigating alternatives, which may include holding the Banff Open in October, which would then move the Alberta Open to the Labour Day weekend.

The CBC has written an article on the University of Lethbridge’s “Chess for Life” program, founded by Dr. Lance Grigg. Read about it here. Thanks to Len Steele for sharing.

Congratulations to Anand Rishi Chandra, who won the Southern Alberta Open with a 4.5/5 score, half a point ahead of runners-up Hemant Srinivasan, Jonathan Wu, and Brooks Jiang.

Thanks to Zeeshan Munir for organizing and Maxim Vasic for directing. The CFC crosstable can be viewed here.

Registration is open for the WBX Team Tournament, December 14-15 in Edmonton. This event involves three-player teams with an average rating of no more than 2000. Full rules and details here.

Reminder also for the Southern Alberta Open next weekend, November 23-24 in Calgary, full info here.

This years 8th Banff Open resulted in a four way tie for first. Chandra, Anand Rishi, IM Chiku-Ratte, Olivier Kenta, IM Hébert, Jean, and FM Keleberda, Tymur with 4.5 points out of 6. In the Armageddon playoff (white gives draw odds, but gets 5 minutes to 4 minutes with no increment till move 60), Anand as white checkmated Tymur with a nice combination. Olivier played very accurately as black to draw with Jean to advance to the final. In the final game, Anand chose white and in a very sharp Guico Piano, Olivier was able to force a repetition of moves to win the tournament. Congrats to everyone. Results of all sections can be seen at Chess Results website. A link to the videos of the Armageddon games to follow.

I would like to thank Sean Wu and Bhavik Dave for directing. The generous support of the Banff Centre, the Alberta Chess Association and last but not least, the Calgary Chess Club for supplying the very expensive 10 digital boards, sets and clocks, 28 wooden sets and 30 plastic sets and 58 clocks. Special thanks to Gordon Campbell and Michael Anderson who packed the equipment and also made our board numbers and scoresheets!

Sadly this is my (Ian Findlay’s) last year of organizing this fabulous tournament. Hopefully it can continue in some manner.

The Southern Alberta Open is in two weeks. This is one of the qualifying events for the 2025 Alberta Closed. Tournament details and registration info here.

Congratulations to Alberta Junior Champion Tymur Keleberda, who won with a perfect 5/5 score. Second place went to Michael Prianichnikov at 3/5, and third to Jonathan Wu at 2.5/5.

Congratulations also to the other top finishers:

OPEN
1st – Stephen Gan (5/5)
2nd – Zhihui Lai (3.5/5)
3rd – Zlata Butenko, Jake Li, Lucas Wang (3/5)

U1300
1st – Dominic Martin (5.5/7 – settled on tiebreak)
2nd – Rhys Andrew (5.5/7)
3rd – Aryan Ranjan-Kumar (5.5/7)

U800
1st – Ethan Zhang (7/7)
2nd – Maxwell Wang (6/7)
3rd – Matviy Kostyuk (5/7)

Big thank you to the directing team of Terry Seehagen, Rob Brazeau, and Sam Hoekman.

Congratulations to the winners of the Edmonton Fall Sectional:

Section A – 1st: Rafael Arruebarrena (4.5/5); 2nd: Samuel Hoekman (3.5/5)
Section B – T-1st: Jason Green & Siva Nandipati (3.5/5)
Section C – 1st: Tynan Boyd (4.5/5); 2nd: Mike McKenzie (4.0/5)
Section D – 1st: Nenad Lilic (5/5); 2nd: Mark Shopland (4/5)

Thanks to Mike Zeggelaar for running the event.

Congratulations to the winners:

Women’s Championship – 1st: Zlata Butenko (5/5); 2nd: Liubov Shtepa (4/5)
Senior’s Championship – 1st: Brad Booker (4/5); 2nd: Dale Haessel & Ihor Netesin (3.5/5)

Thanks to Mahan Eshraghi for directing.