Toronto is king of the CUCC

by Qiyu Zhou
1/16/2019 – We recently covered the larger Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship, now our Canadian contributor QIYU ZHOU reports on the Canadian University Chess Championship (CUCC) which was won by the University of Toronto last weekend. | Pictured: Toronto A team: Joseph Bellissimo, Qiyu Zhou, Mark Plotkin, James Fu (not pictured: Zehn Nasir) | Photo: Adrian Santhakumar

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Held in the beautiful Convocation Hall at McMasters University in Hamilton, the 2019 Canadian University Chess Championships provided a fun weekend of chess. The university itself is famous for studies in engineering and life sciences, and participating universities included favourites such as the University of Toronto, Waterloo University and McGill University. 

A short note on the participants: though called the “Canadian University Championships”, of the 23 teams, 22 were from Ontario and one was from Quebec. As explained by the organizer and co-president of the McMaster chess club, Andrew Leber, an attempt was made to promote chess among Canadian universities by inviting teams from different provinces, but due to the lack of funding, many universities couldn’t send a team.

playing hall

The lovely playing hall | Photo: Changrong Yu

Female players

The three young women: Qiyu Zhou (Toronto A), Rymn Wadhwa (Ryerson University, board 3), Alyssa Rusonik (University of Toronto, team C, board 3) | Photos: Changrong Yu

trophyThis annual event has become a Canadian university chess tradition since the first trophy was awarded in 2003. The universities dream of engraving their names onto the Queen’s Cup for Chess'

The tournament favourites were the teams from the University of Toronto (team A) and Waterloo University, with the latter also the defending champions. There was some fierce competition among the players, as proven by titled ones such as IM Michael Song (FIDE: 2437), FM Mark Plotkin (FIDE: 2326), myself (WGM Qiyu Zhou [FIDE: 2246]) and FM Terry Song (FIDE: 2124).

Apart from the “Champions” section, which was a round-robin between the best six teams by rating, there was also a “Reserve” section, which hosted the other 27 teams.

A considerably more “fun” tournament than “serious”, many players spent a lot of time catching up with old friends rather than playing long chess. For instance, the first round, which was supposed to start at 9 AM, didn’t actually kick off until 10:40! 

first round

Joey Qin and I used to play in the same chess club in Ottawa before going to different universities | Photo: Changrong Yu

studying

With the stress about university assignments, it is only natural some would start doing schoolwork | Photo: Changrong Yu

The best part about the Canadian University Championships is that it is not restricted to just undergraduates! Graduate students can also compete.

Board one from University of Toronto Team B, Tanner McNamara, is a physics graduate | Photo: Leslie Tang

Drawing

Not all fun and sunshine after realizing I was about to draw what was a completely winning endgame in round 2 | Photo: Changrong Yu

Many interesting games were played over the board, which tended to include Mark Plotkin of University Toronto (team A), who started his round three game in style with 1.a3! (third game below). The round one win by Terry Song was particularly beautiful (first game below).

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 Ne4 3.Bf4 c5 4.f3 Qa5+ 5.c3 Nf6 6.d5 Qb6 7.e4 d6 8.Nd2 e5 9.dxe6 Bxe6 10.Nc4 Bxc4 11.Bxc4± Be7 12.Ne2 0-0 13.0-0 Nc6 14.Ng3 g6 15.Bh6 Rfd8 16.f4 Qxb2 17.Qf3 Nd4? 17...Rab8 18.Rab1 Qa3 19.e5± 18.Bxf7+‼± Kxf7 19.cxd4 Qxd4+ 20.Kh1 Ng8+- 20...Kg8 21.e5± 21.Nf5 Qa4 22.Nxe7 Nxh6 23.Qh3 Kxe7 24.Qxh6 Qc4 25.e5 Qf7 26.Rae1 Re8 27.e6 Qf5 28.Qg7+ A beautifully played game by Terry Song! 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Song,T2211Qin,Z25141–02019A45CUCC 20191
Dukic,Z2350Song,T22111–02019B98CUCC 20195
Plotkin,M-Song,T-1–02019A00CUCC 20193

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1.a3

Round 3: FM Mark Plotkin – FM Terry Song, with Mark pondering 1. a3 | Photo: Changrong Yu

The showdown for the Queen’s Cup going into the last round was dramatic. A win from either team in the match between Western and Ottawa University would mean their team wins first place. However, the result between the two teams was a draw, leaving the door open for my team.

 
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A bit of background information on going into the final round: we knew that we had to win the match, and then see how the teams on board 1 do. The pressure is on... 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Qe2 Almost 3 months of no play meant I was out of theory at this point. Balancing university and chess can be difficult! :) b5 6.Bb3 Be7 I believe 6...Bc5 7.c3 0-0 8.0-0 d6 9.Rd1 Bb6 10.h3 h6 11.d3 would have offered me a more preferable position. 7.a4 Rb8 8.axb5 axb5 9.Nc3 b4 10.Nd5 0-0 11.d3 h6 12.0-0 d6 13.Be3 Bd7 14.h3 Re8 15.Qd2 More pressing was 15.Ra6 Qc8 16.Rfa1 where black is looking for moves. Nd8 16...Nxd5 17.Bxd5 Nd8 18.Ba7 Rb5 19.d4 exd4 20.Nxd4 Rb7 21.Bxb7 Qxb7± 16...Bd8 17.Qd2 Nxd5 18.Bxd5 Ne7 19.Ba7 Rb5 20.Bc4 and white is better 17.Nxe7+ Rxe7 18.Nh4 Be6 19.Bxe6 Rxe6 20.Nf5 and black has to be careful to not blunder the position. 15...Bf8 16.Ra6 Nxd5 17.Bxd5 Ne7 18.Bc4 c6 19.Ra7 I believe easiest was 19.Bb3 Qc8 20.Rfa1 Be6 21.Bxe6 Qxe6 22.R1a5 22.b3 d5 22...d5 where white is still slightly better 19...Nc8 20.Ra6 d5 21.exd5 cxd5 22.Bb3 On 22.Bxd5 I had planned Bb5 but during the game I saw 22...Bxh3 doesn't work either due to 23.Bxf7+ Kxf7 24.gxh3± 23.Ra8! Rxa8 24.Bxa8 Qa5 25.Be4 22...Bb5 23.Ra2 d4 24.Bxd4 exd4 25.Bxf7+ Kxf7 26.Qf4+ Kg8 27.Qxb8 Bc6 28.Qg3 Qd5 I thought I had good chances for a win here because of my queen activity and the pair bishops, not realizing that the position is in fact quite equal... Better was to just get the black pieces off the back rank... 28...Bd6 29.Qg4 Qf6 29...Bd5 30.Ra6 Qf6 31.Qxd4 Qe6 30.Re1 30.Qxd4 Qe6 31.Ra6 31.Rfa1? Bxf3 32.gxf3 Qxh3-+ 31...Bxf3 30...Rxe1+ 31.Nxe1 Ne7 32.Nf3 Bxf3 33.gxf3 Nd5 is complicated, but roughly equal. 29.Rfa1 Nd6 30.Ra5 Nb5 31.Re1 Rxe1+ 32.Nxe1 Bd6 33.Qg4 I lost all objectivity at this point, as I was getting into time trouble. I should have started playing for a draw, but was still trying to win. Bd7 34.Qg6 b3 35.cxb3 Bb4 36.Ra1 Qxb3? 36...Bd6= 37.Ra8+ Bf8 black's position is just too difficult to hold. 38.Nf3 Nc7 39.Rd8 39.Rxf8+! Kxf8 40.Qd6+ Ke8 41.Qxc7 is immediately winning. 39...Qd5 40.Qe4 Qxe4 41.dxe4 Bc6 42.Nxd4 Bxe4 43.b4+- and black lost on time in a losing position. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Singh,M-Zhou,Q-1–02019C77CUCC5

Despite this terrible loss on board 2, University of Toronto (team A) won 3-1 against University of Toronto (team B). The top board win by Ottawa's Zachary Dukic over Western's Terry Song was a key result in the match draw that allowed us to narrowly clinch the championship title.

Final Standings

 

Code

Name

Score

1

UTOR-A

UTOR-A W5 W3 D2 D4 W6

4.0

2

WESTRN-A

WESTRN-A W4 W5 D1 W6 D3

4.0

3

OTTAWA-A

OTTAWA-A W6 L1 W4 W5 D2

3.5

4

WATLOO-A

WATLOO-A L2 W6 L3 D1 W5

2.5

5

MCGILL-A

MCGILL-A L1 L2 D6 L3 L4

0.5

6

UTOR-B

UTOR-B L3 L4 D5 L2 L1

0.5

Personally, I want to thank everyone on the University of Toronto chess team for making it possible.

Toronto Teams

Team University of Toronto! A mix of most of the people from the four teams

Also, a huge round of applause to the runner-ups, Western University, as well as everyone else who participated!

Western University

(L to R) Tony Huang, FM Terry Song, Brendan Adamo, Adam Cormier, who scored a perfect 5/5 in this tournament! | Photo: Adrian Santhakumar

The “Reserve” section was won by Queens University (team A) with a perfect team score of 5/5. Second place went to Ryerson University (team A) with 4/5 and third to Western University (team B) with 3½/5.

Ryerson University

The second place winners in the reserve section: Ryerson University | Photo: Adrian Santhakumar

organisers

A final thank you to the organizers for hosting the tournament! | Photo: Adrian Santhakumar

Links


WGM Qiyu Zhou [pronounced Chee-you Jo], born in 2000, is a Canadian chess player who has competed for team Canada at the Women's Chess Olympiad since 2014 and who won the Canadian women's championship in 2016.

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