The Annual West Region Swiss was held in the Downsview Library on Saturday, December 1st. The annual tournament provides a chance for kids from the west region branches to play against one another, to experience competition play.
This year, the WRS was a great success. Compared to last year’s event, where around 20 kids participated, there were over 40 young minds playing on Saturday! So, in a year, the amount of kids playing in this tournament doubled. The exponential growth in participants no doubt reflects the promising possibilities of the chess events like this in the future. I’m confident next year’s WRS will be even bigger and better.
The tournament was split into 3 sections: Grade 3 and under, Grade 6 and under, and Grade 7 and up. Four rounds of Swiss determined the top three players from each category, who go on to receive medals. With the newly added categories (there was only one large section last year), we had a lot more prizes to hand out. Of course, everyone loves prizes.
A photographer from North York Mirror, Peter McCusker, captured some great shots. Make sure to check out Peter’s (as well as CITL's own) pictures from the tournament!
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| What are you going to do about my next move? |
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| The chess game, in a different perspective. |
Here are the winners of the tournament (in order from first to third):
Grade 3 and under: Jorge Jorda, Easshan Sumbli, Julia Rodriguez
Grade 6 and under: Julianne Jorda, Joyce Jorda, Darryl Mohabeer
Grade 7 and over: Raymond Quan, Joshua Jorda, Melalee Gordon
Aside from the main tournament, there was also a room just for chess puzzles! Sound familiar? Yep, we took the idea from the awesome Chess in the Library festival. Kids not only put their bright minds into use on the board, they also engage in solving challenging puzzles. Those who came up with the most correct solutions in the quickest time won book prizes. The addition of puzzles added a fun dimension to the tournament, making it more chess-y. Speaking of the chess-i-ness of the event, what if you want to play chess outside of CITL and tournaments? We got you covered- we had chess sets for sell. How convenient!
Puzzle Contest Book Prize Winners:
Grade 3 and under: Easshan Sumbli
Grade 6 and under: Aarabhi Krishnakumar
Grade 7 and over: Jaanani Sivarasacumar
Despite the abundance of prizes, admission was free of charge. The generous donations we have received enabled us, a student-run non-profit organization, to give out prizes and host the West Region Swiss. If you wish to support chess and tournaments like this, please click here. Every little bit helps, as it sure adds up to make events such as this possible.
We (the executives) had a lot of fun at the tournament, and we hope you did too! Stay tuned for future events: “like” us on Facebook, and follow our updates on our website and blog.
