2014 Annual Festival

Another year, another Annual Festival. On June 28,2014, we continued our tradition of celebrating fun and chess with our 5th Annual Festival at the North York Central Library. There were a ton of things to do! We had chess puzzles for chess players of all skill levels, simul with National Master Geordie Derraugh, a GIANT chessboard, and an exciting and competitive tournament. 

This year we also introduced "How Many Queens Are There?", where you (surprise) guess how many queens there are in a box. By a guess of only 2 queens off, Cindy Qiao won the prize for that activity, a chess book! With such a diverse mix of activities, there was something for everyone. 

This year's Volunteer of the Year was awarded to Ming Chan Zhang! Ming Chan has shown marvelous dedication to the program, always making it for every session on time, and ready to help out the kids. Ming Chan always ensures that all participants are both quiet but also having fun and is always eager to teach new participants how to play chess.

Of course, all of our other volunteers were amazing too, and without them we would not have had yet another successful Annual Festival!

At the end of the 4 rounds of playing, the closing ceremony for the 5th annual festival began. Before any awards were handed out, one of Chess in the Library's most supportive sponsors, Graeme Knight from Cool Chess Canada gave a few wise words about the importance of volunteering. The highlight of the speech is Graeme's quote from a 9 year old girl, "If everyone takes and no one gives, the world doesn't work." Chess in the Library is very thankful to not only have such supporting sponsors, but wise ones too! 

After Graeme's speech, it was time to give out the awards. Here is a full list of all of the winners along with some pictures. Medals were given to the top 3 players for the top 3 libraries in each respective section. Trophies were given to the top 3 players in each respective section. 

Libraries (Medals):

Grade 3 and Under             
1. North York Central Library
 1. David Yang
 2. Joey Qiao
 3. Ben Cheng
2. Bridlewood
 1. Sivan Xu
 2. Austin Xie
3. Downsview
 1. Jorge Jorda
 2. Kevin Maher
 3. Matthew Morales
Grade 6 and Under
1. Humberwood
 1. Tawsif Kamal
 2. Julia Rodrigues
 3. Diana Lin 
2. Downsview
 1. Julianne Jorda
 2. Joyce Jorda
 3. Julian Grande
3. North York Central Library
 1. Daniel Yang
 2. Kevin Li
3. Ruotai Yuan
Open
1. North York Central Library
 1. Arhant Washimkar
 2. Cindy Qiao
 3. Philip Tsang
2. Humberwood
 1. Raymond Quan
 2. Mantr Dixit
 3. Darryl Mohabeer
3. Brookbanks
 1. Benjamin Lin
Players (Trophies):

Grade 3 And Under

1. Charles Ran
2. David Yang
3. Sivan Xu

Grade 6 and Under

1. Tawsif Kamal
2. Julianne Jorda
3. Diana Lin

Open

1. Arhant Washimkar
2. Benjamin Lin
3. Cindy Qiao

There was one last award to give at the end of the day: the Annual festival champion. The giant trophy is awarded to the most successful library, who keeps the trophy to display for a year. This year, the library that won the trophy had never previously won it, so congratulations to... Downsview library. Here's a picture of the happy winners!

It was clearly a fun day for everyone. If you like to see more pictures of all of the excitement, check out the album on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chess-in-the-Library/201842119898047?ref=hl). At the same time, don't be afraid to give us a like! Also, if you have any questions about anything, feel free to e-mail us at info@chessinthelibrary.com.

Lastly, although the tournament was completely free, we always appreciate if you could donate in order to allow our organization to continue to promote chess across Canada. We accept both monetary and physical donations, if you're interested in donating, please contact us at sponsors@chessinthelibrary.com. Every little bit counts and we strongly appreciate any donation. Thank you for continuing to support Chess in the Library! We are looking forward to another great year.