Congratulations to the 2025 Alberta Closed champion, Tymur Keleberda! He and fellow Edmontonian Amir Mohammad Bahmani were both at 4/4 going into a 5th round showdown, which Keleberda won to finish with a perfect 5/5, as Bahmani had to take a risk to avoid a draw and the tiebreak. Sherzod Khodjimatov took third with 3/5. Games and standings can be viewed on Lichess.

Well done also to Eric Jin, who won the Alberta Reserves with 4.5/5, ahead of Tri Tran at 4/5 and a four-way tie at 3.5/5.

Thanks to Lars Lowther for organizing the Closed, the CCC for hosting, and Maxim Vasic for directing.

The Alberta Closed is underway, and games are available live on Lichess. Round 3 is in progress, as of 4:00 p.m. Results can also be viewed on chess-results.

Registration is open for the Alberta Youth Championship, April 26-27 in Calgary. This leads into the Canadian Youth Championship in Surrey, BC in July. Full information here.

Remember also the Alberta Chess Challenge on April 12 in Red Deer.

Congratulations to the top finishers at the Alberta Blitz & Rapid:

Blitz
1 – Amir Mohammad Bahmani, 9.5/11
2 – Jonathan Wu, 9/11
3 – Michael Ludwig, 8.5/11

Rapid
T1 – Tymur Keleberda, 5/6
T1 – Jonathan Wu, 5/6
T3 – Yanchen Zheng & Eric Jin, 4.5/6

Regrettably, the directors decided to only have prizes for the top two in the blitz, so the only reward for third place was a sense of accomplishment at being the only one to beat the winner. Thanks nevertheless to Siva Chowdeswar Nandipati and co. for running the events.

Registration is open for the Alberta Reserves, March 28-30. This event is played alongside the Alberta Closed at the Calgary Chess Club. Full info here.

Reminder that the Lethbridge Open is the following week, April 5-6.

Registration is open for the Alberta Chess Challenge, in Red Deer on April 12th. Winners of each grade will earn the right to represent Alberta at the Canadian Chess Challenge in Ottawa, May 18-19.

Information and registration here. Please note that capacity is 90 players.

Registration is open for the Lethbridge Open, on April 5-6. Full information here.

Congratulations to the grade winners:

Grade 1: Cormac Tarnasky  
Grade 2: Platon Bilyk
Grade 3: Zaid Kassas
Grade 4: Vienna Hughey
Grade 5: Loki Lai
Grade 6: Jonah Wong
Grade 7: Zongyan Yu
Grade 8: Matthew Ivanescu
Grade 9: Steven Gun
Grade 10: Aryan Ranjan-Kumar
Grade 11: Richard Bocan
Grade 12: Arshia Jafarmadar

Thanks to Cristian Ivanescu and Dustin Koperski for running the event.

Congratulations to Tymur Keleberda, who won the Northern Alberta Open with a perfect 5/5 score! He secured the win with a final round victory over Omid Malek, who was also contending. Second place was shared by Amir Mohammad Bahmani, Jonathan Wu, and Rafael Arruebarrena at 4/5.

Thanks to Mike Zeggelaar for directing.

Information is posted for the Alberta Blitz Championship and Alberta Rapid Championship, on March 8th and 9th. Registration will be done on-site.