Category: Chess

The top 6 boards of the championship were played on digital boards with a live broadcast of the moves, both to an on-site spectators’ lounge and to the Internet and whatever posterity they might find. When I began the tournament seeded 6th and playing on the bottom-most of those 6 boards, I made it my…

Entering the 7th round, I was even in the standings with Li Yunshan and Svitlana Demchenko, both very strong players and members of our National team, and half a point behind Ashley Qian. Ashley had already beaten me and drawn Yunshan, so she was paired with Svitlana. For my own matchup with Yunshan on the…

In the 6th round, I faced another young preteen prodigy, this time with the White pieces. I didn’t know what to expect, so I decided not to let my Round 5 loss to Ashley Qian change my overall strategy. I would keep things simple and try to avoid too much intricate calculation, while building up…

The going got harder after my first 3 rounds. The third day of play had two more games, meaning that I could expect another 8 hours of chess. I actually wound up still being the rating favourite in both games, because of a bunch of upsets on other boards, but never fear; I went on…

The first three rounds of the 2025 Canadian women’s championship went smoothly for me, but the chess was not one-sided. Rounds 2 and 3, in particular, were very closely contested, and I only managed to win those games by maintaining my focus for a bit longer than my two teenage opponents could. In general, my…

My first chess tournament as a 40-year-old was the 2025 Canadian Women’s Closed. I also played in last year’s event, which was hosted in Toronto by the Hart House Chess Club. I was seeded 6th of 49 players and actually finished at that same rank, with 6 of 9 possible points. This year’s tournament was…

What an event, what a performance, what a finish! No matter how you slice it, 7 wins against 1 draw and 3 losses is an excellent result. Maili-Jade, Yunshan, Bich Ngoc, Svitlana, and Oksana represented Canada extremely well. They finished 20th out of 169 teams, which places them in the 12th percentile of all countries.…

Canada vs. Lithuania: Canada faced Lithuania in the final round, a somewhat lucky pairing given that of the 15 teams with 13 points, Lithuania was the second-lowest seed at 45th, and we had already faced 46th-seeded Australia, so could not play them again. Other possible opponents could have included France or the Netherlands! Still, one…

Colombia vs. Canada: I am posting this after the event has finished, because I spent the weekend travelling, but hey, better late than never! And the team finished so strongly that it would be a true shame to abandon reporting on them now. In fact, Saturday may have their best overall performance of the Olympiad,…

Canada vs. Hungary: Today Canada faced the hosts, and it was a banner day for the white pieces. Yunshan and Svitlana both found themselves in serious trouble with Black, from the early middlegame. GM Hoàng Thanh Trang has played for Hungary since 2006, and has been a grandmaster roughly as long as some of our…

Australia vs. Canada: A great win today! Maili-Jade and Svitlana won, and Bich Ngoc drew. Oksana seems to have forced a draw by repetition in a winning position, meaning that Canada takes the match 3-1. The final position on Board 4 is a case where each side has an open king menaced by a queen…

Canada vs. Bulgaria: The team had a tough draw today in Bulgaria, but they proved up to the challenge. To change things up, this time I’ll go over the results board by board: On Board 1, Maili-Jade had the white pieces against a former Women’s World Champion (and also an elected member of the Bulgarian…

Belgium vs. Canada: A hard-fought team win today, of my very favourite kind! Two instructive bishop endgames sealed the deal, and in both cases the outcome was brought about by relentless pressure finally inducing the opponent to make a critical mistake. Bich Ngoc was the first to finish today, with an uneventful draw. The position…

Canada vs. Monaco: Monaco’s team is a lot mightier than I realized, considering the nation’s population base, but Canada got the better of them today. Bich Ngoc and Yunshan won on the middle boards to stake an early 2-0 lead in the match. Bich Ngoc’s win was convincing all the way through, but her opponent…

Scotland vs. Canada: Chess is high drama. Maybe it moves a bit more slowly than many other spectator sports (unless we’re talking about blitz), but the payoff is worth it, especially when you’re following team matches with four games in progress simultaneously, and the players are thinking about the overall match score as well as…

Canada vs. USA: A match against the USA is never easy, almost no matter what the sport. Today our side faced three international masters (IMs) and a grandmaster (GM), and their lowest-rated player outrated our highest by 60 points. Speaking of Maili-Jade, today she initiated a long sequence of exchanges straight out of the opening…

Canada vs. Chile: Today’s match-up was a closer one, both on paper and in practice, but as the 27th seed facing the 67th, Canada was still heavily favoured to come out on top. Oksana had by far the smoothest game of the round, with clinical positional play on the Black side of a French Tarrasch.…

Taiwan vs. Canada: We were highly favoured today, as usual in the opening round. Oksana sat, and our top four boards took care of business for a 4-0 sweep. None of the games ever looked dangerous for our side, but they weren’t all rollovers either. It’s not always easy to face players whom you outrate…

The 45th Chess Olympiad starts in Budapest next week. If you doubt that it merits the title of “coolest international competition in sports,” then answer this: does any other single sport (or game) have the national teams of 198 countries come together in one place for a single tournament? That’s how many national federations have…