Three ways to play chess over the board Oct 22 and 23

We’re pleased to share that the weekend of Saturday October 22 and October 23 will be a super weekend for chess in Manitoba.

Saturday 5 round open rapid

The highlight of Saturday October 23rd will be a 5 round open rapid tournament held by Al MacPherson and the Manitoba Chess Association at St. Mary’s Road United Church, 613 St. Mary’s Road near the junction with St. Anne’s road.

Please follow the link for up to date details on the Manitoba Chess Association site. The details we most want to highlight most are:

  • Pre-register by texting Al MacPherson, 204-898-8485. Recommended because capacity at this venue is limited
  • $20 entry fee, no membership required
  • Doors and on site registration at 9:30am, round 1 to start at 10am (don’t show up at 9:55 and expect everything to be fine!)

If you’ve never played an over the board tournament before but are ready to try, we would highly recommend this particular 1 day rapid tournament format as your entry point into the world of tournament chess.

A tournament like this will typically have prizes reserved for players under a certain rating and new unrated players. The swiss format ensures you play all 5 rounds and as it goes on you are playing people who have done as well as you so far. So if your first few rounds aren’t going well, look forward to the opponents you’ll have in the later rounds, your performance in later rounds may be enough to get you an underprize!

Saturday Casual meetup

Though we’d encourage you to check out the above tournament, we know that not everyone is up for a full day of tournament play, so we’re also pleased to share that the tradition of casual meetups on Saturday afternoons at the Millennium Library also continues.

Since we rebooted casual meetups at the library in April, folks have been meeting up for casual chess on Saturday afternoons week in, week out regardless of our announcements.

We’re pleased to recognize Stefan (who has been there every week) as an Rudolf Rocker Chess Club host and co-organizer. Saturday October 22, noon-4pm will be the first casual meetup where we announce him as host.

We’ve equipped Stefan with with some extra chess sets, so you don’t need one to enjoy our meetup, but feel free to bring a set if you have.

The Millennium Library hours on Saturday are now 10am to 5pm. It’s common to see the chess meetups go past 4pm. It’s a casual meetup, come and go as you please.

If you’re really pumped about casual chess in the library, feel free to also show up early, set up a set, study a chess book of your own or from the library’s collection, and you never know if somebody else will take notice and want to play or join the study session.

Renovations on the second floor are nearly done. This past Saturday, staff were setting up shelves again and mentioning the 2nd floor may re-open as early as Wednesday.

So, the wood grain round tables on the the second floor will probably be the best spot for chess meetups again, as was the case for many years.

Sunday — Sectioned K-12 5-round tournament

The Manitoba Scholastic Chess Association has their 2nd five-round sectioned K-12 tournament exclusively for school age kids. Location is the Belltower Café in St. Paul’s College at the University of Manitoba.

Registration with a $15 entry free between 12:15 and 12:45pm. Tournament is run by Jeremie Piche email: jeremie.piche@scholasticchess.mb.ca.

These tournaments are really kid friendly. Players are grouped into groups of 6 players by ability and guaranteed 5 games. Only the top group has to play with clocks from the start, games in the lower groups only have clocks added to them if they’re going slow. Prizes are medals and ribbons for everyone.

The University of Manitoba has COVID-19 heath and safety protocols which includes mandatory mask use. This applies to all students, parents and guardians at the tournament.

Sunday Casual meetup?

Nobody has announced a open casual meetup for Sunday October 23rd, but we’ll gladly post it here if they do. Millennium Library once again has Sunday hours, 1pm-5pm… so make it happen folks.

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