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Thread: 2018 Ontario Girls U-19 Championship: qualifier for the SPFGI and the CYCC Feb 24-25

  1. #1
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    Default 2018 Ontario Girls U-19 Championship: qualifier for the SPFGI and the CYCC Feb 24-25

    For the third year in a row, GM Susan Polgar and Webster University kindly invite Canadian girls to take part in “The Annual Susan Polgar Foundation Girls’ Invitational” scheduled to take place in Saint Louis, Missouri. The 15th edition of this tournament will be held in July 2018 (exact dates TBA). That event will offer more than $200K in prizes and scholarships.




    The annual Susan Polgar Foundation Girls’ Invitational is the most prestigious All-Girls event in the United States. An agreement to invite Canadian girls has been negotiated and is kept alive by FA Andrei Botez who is the SPF plenipotentiary representative for Canada. Andrei is also the perennial captain of Team Canada at the SPFGI! Qualification process in Ontario and Quebec is the responsibility of FA Vadim Tsypin. In the past, these two provinces have sent to the SPFGI such distinguished representatives as Linda Shi, Yi Lin Li, WIM Maïli-Jade Ouellet, Rebecca Giblon, WGM Qiyu Zhou, WFM Svitlana Demchenko, all of whom created big splash at Webster.

    Elevate My Chess Canada is thrilled to announce that in 2018 it will be organizing a new FIDE-rated tournament, the 2018 Ontario Girls U-19 Championship, which would serve as a qualifier both for the SPFGI and the CYCC.



    That’s right! All girls resident in Ontario who are under 19 years old on January 01, 2018, and have never attended traditional college on a full-time basis are eligible to play. The winner will be crowned the Ontario U-19 Girls Champion and becomes an official representative of Ontario to the SPFGI, to whom Webster University graciously extends free accommodation on campus. In addition, we, the organizers, will provide the winner with a transportation grant of up to $500 to attend the SPFGI (please see the flyer for terms and conditions).

    Is your daughter in a younger age group? Not sure whether you will succeed against older, more experiences girls? No need to worry, enroll her to play. Every girl who achieves at least the 50% score will qualify - upon approval by the Canadian Chess Federation (CFC) - for the Canadian Youth Chess Championship (CYCC) that will take place in Québec City on July 01-05, 2018. This is a unique opportunity for Ontario girls of all ages to qualify in a safe, secure, welcoming environment and to boost their FIDE and CFC ratings ahead of the CYCC! Plus, there are beautiful trophies for the first three places, and water / coffee / snacks on-site.

    This tournament is yet another example of a successful cooperation between chess professionals in Ontario and Quebec. We’re looking forward to combine the best elements of chess culture in the two largest provinces, and to provide a unique comfortable experience for all participants, especially for the younger ones.

    The Championship will take place in Mississauga, ON on February 24-25, 2018. Register online at
    https://elevatemychess.com/ontariopolgar/

    Please see all details in the tournament flyer as well as reproduced below.

    Format: Regular Swiss, 5 rounds. Rated: FIDE / CFC / CMA.
    Tiebreaks: For the 1st place: Armageddon W6’- B5’. Other: Direct Encounter, then Median Buchholz.

    Time control: 60'/end + 30" incr. Clocks and chess sets supplied. Bring your own if you prefer.

    Organizer: Elevate My Chess Canada Inc.

    Chief Arbiter: Vadim Tsypin, FIDE Arbiter.

    When: February 24-25, 2018.
    Late registration Saturday, February 24 from 9 am to 9:30 am.
    Rounds 1, 2, 3 Saturday, February 24 @ 10 am, 1:30 pm, 5 pm.
    Rounds 4, 5 Sunday, February 25 @ 1 pm and 4:30 pm.

    Where: Erindale United Church, 1444 Dundas Crescent, Mississauga, Ontario L5C 1E7

    Entry fees: Best price: $60 if registered and paid before 2018-Jan-15. Add $15 afterwards. Add $25 on site. No reimbursement after 2018-Jan-15. Cancellation fee of $20 prior to Jan 15.

    Payment: Online at http://elevatemychess.com/ontariopolgar/

    Prizes: The winner becomes the 2018 Ontario U-19 Girls Champion and the official Ontario representative for the SPFGI. Beautiful trophies for the Top-3 players. Certificates of Qualification for the 2018 CYCC in a corresponding age group. The winner will receive a transportation grant of up to $500 (based on 20 paid registrations) to attend the SPFGI in St. Louis, Missouri, in July 2018. This money is payable upon successful completion of all rounds of the SPFGI.

    Information: Via e-mail to info@elevatemychess.com

    Come one, come all! Let’s show what Ontario girls are capable of!
    Last edited by Gary Hua; 11-07-2017 at 08:12 AM.

  2. #2
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    Are you a junior female chess player? Did you already participate in the competitions organized by the Chess Federation of Canada (CFC), the Chess n' Math Association (CMA) and your local chess professionals? Here’s a unique opportunity for 2018!

    The 2018 Ontario Girls U-19 Championship will serve as a ​​provincial qualification tournament not for one but for two spectacular chess competitions. Play in the Championnat and get a chance to go to Quebec City and to St.Louis, Missouri, to take part in those magnificent tournaments.

    Grandmaster Susan Polgar and Webster University kindly invite Canadian girls to take part in “The 15th Annual Susan Polgar Foundation Girls’ Invitational (SPFGI)” scheduled to take place in Saint Louis, Missouri (July 2018, exact dates TBA). The event will offer more than $200,000 in prizes and scholarships. The annual Susan Polgar Foundation Girls’ Invitational is the most prestigious All-Girls event in the United States. Every province will have an official representative receives free lodging and meals from the Webster University.



    In the previous years, Ontario sent to the SPFGI many young stars, including ​WCM Rachel Tao, Rebecca Giblon, and ​WGM Qiyu Zhou. Will it be your turn in 2018?! Here are several reports about Team Canada 2017 :
    http://forum.chesstalk.com/printthre...6&pp=20&page=1
    http://www.webster.edu/spice/spfgi/spfgi-reg.html
    http://web.chessdailynews.com/tag/sp...-invitational/

    An important thing to know: oftentimes, the Canadian provinces where junior chess is less developed are unable to send their girls to the SPFGI. In these cases, the managers of Team Canada invite more girls from Ontario, Quebec and B.C. In the past, a young rising star WFM Svitlana Demchenko from Ottawa was invited according to this practice; Svitlana had a fantastic time in St.Louis. It can certainly happen in 2018 that, in addition to the Ontario Girls Champion, other girls from Ontario would be invited. Only those who take part in the Girls U-19 Championship will be considered for inclusion to Team Canada, so it is absolutely crucial that you play. – Register now!

    In addition, exceptionally for the coming year, the Ontario Girls U-19 Championship will serve as a qualifier for the Canadian Youth Chess Championship (CYCC) that will take place in Québec City on July 01-05, 2018. This is a unique opportunity for Ontario girls to qualify in a safe and secure environment! Every player who achieves at least the 50% score will qualify, upon approval by the Canadian Chess Federation (CFC). This is yet another reason to register, especially for the girls in younger age categories. Qualify for the CYCC in comfort, safety and security of an all-girls event, without loud boys running around everywhere.

    In 2018, the Ontario Girls U-19 Championship returns to the familiar location in Mississauga. Use this extraordinary opportunity to play against other girls and qualify for the SPFGI and CYCC. Take advantage of a special “early bird” price before January 15. Register now! All the details are in an attached flyer and on the Elevate My Chess site:
    ​​ https://elevatemychess.com/ontariopolgar/

    We’re looking forward to see you!
    Last edited by Vadim Tsypin; 01-18-2018 at 09:35 PM. Reason: New image URL.

  3. #3
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    GM Susan Polgar has recorded a special video address to all Canadian girls who take part in the regional qualifying events.

    This video clip is courtesy of FA Andrei Botez, the Team Canada captain at the SPFGI.

    I am overwhelmed with gratitude to Corinna Wan and two other sponsors, to Ontario chess clubs, coaches and parents. This Girls U-19 Championship has become a community effort, a real festival of girls' chess.

    We have twenty-five (!) participants now [the latest list is in the EMC mailings] including two highly rated WFMs but the most wonderful thing is that more than half of all players are girls younger than eleven and rated lower than 1000. This is the future of Ontario chess and of Canadian chess in general. Those girls will get FIDE-rated games, will earn invaluable experience, will get a real shot at qualifying for the CYCC and winning their own special prize.

    Bravo to everyone in Ontario chess! GM Susan Polgar noticed your effort. Consider this video clip an endorsement and appreciation of your efforts.

    There is still a month left. Each and every bright and curious girl is warmly welcome to play in a friendly, safe, stress-free environment against girls only. Register now!

  4. #4
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    Thanks to the generosity of the Ontario chess community, there are now twenty-five (25) paid registrations to this unique all-girls event.
    https://elevatemychess.com/wp-conten...rON-Jan-24.pdf

    It means that the prizes are fully funded. The winner will receive a transportation grant to attend the SPFGI in St. Louis, Missouri, in July 2018. There are trophies for the Top-3 players. As you know, EMC Canada has graciously established additional special prizes for girls born in 2009 or after! That's right, a beautiful trophy and two medals await the top-3 finishers who are younger than nine years old as of January 01, 2018. It is like having their own section, at the same time reaping all benefits of playing in a FIDE-rated event and learning from strong role models. Isn't it great?! In addition, every girl who passes the 50% threshold will receive a personalized Certificate of Qualification for the 2018 CYCC in a corresponding age group.

    GM Susan Polgar follows our joint efforts closely. This video clip, courtesy of Team Canada captain FA Andrei Botez, is her warm welcome to all Canadian girls who dare to try serious, classical, FIDE-rated chess.

    Register now! Parents and coaches, give your young charges a shot at two amazing events.

    Remember, there is an official thread for all things CYCC that leads to a Web site where qualified players can register at low introductory prices, as well as select accommodations.

    Come one, come all! Mississauga, Quebec City and Saint Louis are waiting for you!

  5. #5
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    The first-ever slow-chess Ontario U-19 Girls' Championship was held in Mississauga, ON, on February 24-25, 2018. The girls played five rounds of FIDE-rated classical chess (60' + 30" incr.) in order to determine the champion and the official representative from Ontario to the Susan Polgar Foundation Girls' Invitational, held annually at Webster University in St-Louis, MO. The project came into being due to a close collaboration between Team Canada captain, the SPF representative in Canada, FA Andrei Botez, the Eastern Canada SPF delegate, FA Vadim Tsypin, and a dynamic local Ontario company, Elevate My Chess Canada (EMC), founded by Gary Hua and Ken Green. In addition to beautiful trophies, the main prize made available by EMC was a transportation subsidy for the winner to attend the SPFGI this summer.

    Thanks to support and encouragement from the Chess Federation of Canada (CFC), the Championship was also awarded the status of a qualification event for the 2018 Canadian Youth Chess Championships (CYCC) that will be held in Quebec City, QC. Every girl who scored 50% or more qualified for the CYCC in her age group. Recognizing an inherent difficulty for the youngest girls to play against their much older counterparts, the organizers also established a an additional set of prizes, awarding a trophy and medals to the three best finishers born in 2009 or later.

    Many families with chess-playing siblings expressed interest in having their boys play FIDE-rated chess, too. Thus, a parallel event called Elevate My Chess Mississauga CYCC Open Qualifier came into being and was run in the same venue on the same five-round schedule, making it extremely convenient for parents. Fifty-five (55) players competed in five sections (Open U-08, Open U-10, Open U-12, Open U-14 and Open U-16/U-18 Combined) for the right to qualify to the CYCC, trophies, medals, and the top prize in every section - a transportation subsidy to attend the 2018 CYCC. A spacious and comfortable venue at the Erindale United Church, with lots of natural light and good airflow, was made available through good offices of the Mississauga Chess Club (Paul Roschman, Bob Gillanders).

    On the girls' side, there were twenty-six (26) players, which made it the biggest girls'/women's event ever held in Ontario, the most populated Canadian province. Parents and players were keen to pursue a chance to qualify for the SPFGI and to take part in a veritable worldwide festival of chess that GM Susan Polgar kindly organizes at Webster University every year. Many families and coaches took a realistic and healthful point of view that even if their young charges were not yet able to compete for the honour this year, playing in the 2018 Championship would give them invaluable experience that will position them well for future years. Everyone appreciated a chance to play in a friendly, safe and fun all-girls environment, where recent opponents laughed, danced and had snacks together between rounds. That's why the player pool featured such a healthy age distribution with birth years from 2001 through 2010. Remarkably, seven (7) girls, or more than 25%, were born in 2009 or later, making them just eight years old or younger. This cohort acquitted itself well and was a real factor in a tournament, heralding even brighter days ahead for girls' chess in Canada.

    Another factor that we appreciated very much was a groundswell of community support. Parents, coaches, chess professionals from Ontario cities big and small have embraced an idea of a tournament "for girls only" and came up with practical solutions to facilitate players' participation. Several remarkable individuals, who included parents of former junior chess players (girls and boys) and a chess club organizer, pledged their own money to sponsor transportation and/or entry fees for local players. It allowed a sizable contingent of players who would otherwise have had financial and logistics difficulties to come up from outside the Greater Toronto Area. The tournament had players from as far away as Ottawa, Windsor, and Kitchener. It was the first time that such a "targeted sponsorship" model was used in Ontario, and this made the Girls' Championship a common cause that was universally embraced in the province.

    The opening ceremony featured a very special guest. WCM Rachel Tao, an alumna of the SPFGI tournament and a first-year engineering student at the University of Waterloo, came all the way to Mississauga specifically to address a new generation of chess-playing girls. Rachel gave an eloquent, moving and inspiring speech where she explained how studying chess and playing competitively were crucial for her self-confidence and for her time management skills, how the top-level events she was privileged to take part in (including the SPFGI at Webster and several World Youth Championships) allowed her to expand her horizons,to learn about new cultures, and to start long-lasting friendships. Rachel was brutally honest when she spoke about inevitable upsets and disappointments during tournaments, about the need to apply all her willpower, to dig her heels and to persevere, all the while remembering the joy of playing. By the end of her speech, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Girls in the Susan Polgar Qualifier and boys in the Open thanked Rachel with thunderous applause, and this set a high note for the two days filled by emotions and competitive drama.

    The Girls and Open tournaments were directed by an arbiter team (FA Vadim Tsypin, Diana Tsypin) that came from Montreal specifically for the events. They enjoyed full support from the Elevate My Chess contingent on the ground (Gary Hua, Ken Green, Mikhail Egorov, FM Eugene Hua). Several Toronto-area families who knew the organizers and the arbiters from the common adventures at the World and North American Youth events dropped by to say hi, to help, and to cheer in on new players.

    The final rankings for the 2018 Ontario Girls' U19 Championship can be found here:
    http://chess-results.com/tnr319100.a...CAN&turdet=YES
    The tournament featured pleasant surprizes. Lucy Gao from Toronto, born in 2009 and playing against competitors twice her age, took 5th place overall (!) and won the class trophy (girls born in 2009 or later).

    Two players from the Seneca Hill Chess program ascended to the podium. Isamel Shen from Toronto took third place. Sarah Peng from Oakville triumphed in a hard-fought Rd 5 game against a much higher-rated opponent, and this success propelled her to the second place. The joy and excitement of those two teammates at the awards ceremony were palpable and delightful (photos are coming soon). In a show of force, with a perfect score of 5/5, WFM Svitlana Demchenko from Ottawa became the 2018 Ontario Girls U-19 Champion and the official representative of Ontario to the SPFGI.

    Congratulations to the deserving winners and a lot of thanks to the SPF, SPICE, the CFC, personally to Susan, Paul, Andrei and Vlad for believing that things can be done differently in Ontario and for supporting our effort in this first, the most difficult, year. The biggest thanks go to the Ontario chess community and all the teancious and highly motivated junior players. Let's continue!
    Last edited by Vadim Tsypin; 03-16-2018 at 03:06 PM.

  6. #6
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    Susan Polgar's Chess Daily News kindly published a big article on our efforts in Canada which includes a report about the 2018 Ontario qualifier and some photos from the 2018 Quebec qualifier. Thanks a lot Susan and Andrei!

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