Dear Canadian Chess Community,

On behalf of the Chess Federation of Canada, I wish to extend season’s greetings to all our members, supporters, volunteers, families and everyone close to you. I wish you all the best of health and prosperity in the new year.

Please be aware that the CFC office will be closed on Dec 25, Dec 26, and Jan 1. Which just means that I won’t be home those days to answer the phone or email.

I anticipated this past week would be relatively quiet with the upcoming holidays. I was so wrong. The weekly rating update stretched into Friday afternoon. It seemed like every chess club decided to squeeze in just one more event for 2019. We will have one more update for 2019 on Dec 27. The first for the new year will be January 2. Then it will be back to normal schedule on Wednesday after that.

Membership growth has been strong and organic over the past 5 years. Memberships stand at 2,637 as of today up from 1,861 as of May 1, 2015. That’s up 42% in 4 years and 8 months, but that even fails to capture the swelling junior ranks who have yet to buy their first CFC membership.

I look forward to a great 2020 for Canadian Chess.

Warmest regards,

Robert Gillanders
Executive Director
Chess Federation of Canada