On the occasion of Raja Panjwani achieving another GM norm I thought back to what John Upper the editor of our magazine wrote me in an email recently which discussed some of the highlights of the recent four and a half years of Canadian Chess. The following is an excerpt:

I didn't pay close attention to Canadian chess before I became the CFC newsletter editor, but since then, off the top of my head, I can recall:
WYCC gold - Harmony Zhu


WYCC gold - Qiyu Zhou


IM titles:


Aman Hambleton,
Razvan Preotu,
Michael Barron,
Michael Song,
Michael Kleinman,
Shiyam Thavandiran
GM title: Razvan Preotu
first ever WGM title for a Canadian: Qiyu Zhou


FIDE IA titles: both Danny Goldenberg and Vadim Tsypin




Results:


Best ever Canadian Olympiad Result: 2016 Baku Men's team


Anton Kovalyov qualifying for the World Cup twice, and winning three rounds in 2015 and two in 2017, defeating former FIDE Champions Kasimdzhanov and Anand along the way, and losing only to Caruana and the Testicle who Walks Like a Man.


Several North American YCC champions


Hal Bond working the Carlsen-Anand WC match and the Kamsky-Topalov Candidates Final


Aris Marghettis working the top board at both the 2014 and 2016 Olympiads




Other:


multiple records set for attendance at the CYCC


THREE chess books published by Canadian authors:


David Cumming's The English (Everyman);0
Raja Panjwani's The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon (Thinker's Press);
Razvan and Michael Song's The Chess Attacker's Handbook (Gambit)


Has there EVER been 4.5 year stretch where Canadian Chess has seen so many good things?




John Upper