Reminder that the Edmonton Summer Split (over/under 1800) takes place this weekend, June 16-18. Full info and registration here.

This is the last scheduled ACA event before the Canadian Open in July!

Congratulations to Hemant Srinivasan on a spectacular and improbable 6/6 performance. He defeated all four of the top seeds in a row to earn the tournament victory.

Emil Soberov and Jonathan Wu tied for second place with 4.5/6, while Talha Lodhi and Jarret Diep tied for first in the U1500 section with 5.5/6. Full results can be found here.

Thanks to Sean Wu for organizing and directing.

Congratulations to Team Alberta’s top performers at the Canadian Chess Challenge this weekend! Five players earned top three finishes in Montreal:

Grade 4 — Ryan Li, 3rd Place (7/9)
Grade 6 — Matthew Ivanescu, 3rd Place (6/9)
Grade 7 — Jonathan Wu, 1st Place (8.5/9)
Grade 9 — Anand Rishi Chandra, 1st Place (8/9)
Grade 11 — Sam Hoekman, 3rd Place (6.5/9)

Team Alberta finished in fourth place and impressively played the big three very tight, dropping matchups with Quebec (8-4), Ontario, (7-5), and BC (7-5) while putting up one of their best total scores ever at 72 points.

Full results

The Edmonton Summer Split takes place June 16-18, and registration is now open. This will be an over/under 1800 event, with two distinct sections. Find full information here.

Also upcoming are the Steinitz-Menchik Chess Classic in Calgary, next weekend (May 26-28) and the Trumpeter Classic in Grande Prairie (June 3-4). Register via the tournament pages, through the Schedule tab.

The Steinitz-Menchik takes place in Calgary on May 26-28. You can register for the six round event and find full information here or through the Schedule page.

The 38th Trumpeter Classic takes place June 3-4 in Grande Prairie and has a guaranteed $1000 prize fund.

Registration is open — see the tournament page to join and for full information.

Congratulations to the winners of the Alberta Youth Championship:

U8 — Maikl Prianichnikov (4.5/5)
U10 — Ryan Li (4.5/5)
U12 — Felix Zhang (4.5/5)
U14 — Emil Soberov (5/5)
U16 — Hemant Srinivasan (4.5/5)
U18 — Tymur Keleberda (6/6)

Good luck to everyone who will be competing in the Canadian Youth Championship this Summer.

Thanks to the CJCC for running this event.

The Edmonton International Qualifier will not be running this year, nor will the Edmonton International and Open. In place of the Qualifier, a sectional event will be held the at the Edmonton Chess Club — details and registration on the facebook page.

There will also be an ACA tournament in place of the International in June (details TBD).

A significant group of Albertans travelled to Victoria, BC, to play in the Grand Pacific Open last week, including several of our top players. Huge congrats to NM Omid Malek on winning the event over fellow Albertan FM Tymur Keleberda, and IM Quang Long Le, all with scores of 5/6.

Malek and Keleberda drew in the last round, and Malek beat both Le and IM Raymond Kaufman along the way, which was good for a performance rating of 2510 in the six-round event.

Meanwhile, NM Butch Villavieja tied for fifth place with a 4/6 score. Well done to him and also to Dustin Koperski, who was the top finisher from Alberta in the U2000 section at 4/6.

Congratulations to the twelve grade winners:

Grade 1: Kaiser Nguyen
Grade 2: Saanvi Shamanth
Grade 3: Lucas Wang
Grade 4: Ryan Li
Grade 5: Bryan Chan
Grade 6: Matthew Ivanescu
Grade 7: Jonathan Wu
Grade 8: Rostyslav Spiian
Grade 9: Anand Rishi Chandra
Grade 10: Hemant Srinivasan
Grade 11: Samuel Hoekman
Grade 12: Andi Superceanu

Good luck to those travelling to Montreal for the Canadian Chess Challenge in May.

Big thanks to Sean Wu for organizing and running the event.