Canadian Zonal Chess Championship 2024

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The Hart House Chess Club, the official Chess Club of the University of Toronto, announced that they have won the bid to host the 2024 Canadian Zonal Championship and the 2024 Canadian Women’s Zonal Championship. Also known as the Canadian Chess Championship, the tournament is the most important chess tournament for Canadian Chess in 2024.

The event will take place over Easter Long Weekend from 27th March to 2nd April at the Great Hall, Music Room, Debates Room, Hart House, University of Toronto, 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto ON.

The 2024 Canadian Zonal will crown Canadian Champions and select players to compete for Canada in the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest and the 2025 World Cup, two of the most important chess tournaments in the world.

Already more than 50 players registered for the event, including World U18 Chess Champion GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux (Canada, 2493), GM Bator Sambuev (Canada, 2474), and GM Razvan Preotu (Canada, 2462) who currently headline the field in the Open tournament. WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet (Canada, 2283), WIM Yunshan Li (Canada, 2262) and WIM Bich Ngoc Pham (Canada, 2206) are the top-seeds in the Women’s section based on the arrived entries. (Complete starting lists of players can be found at the bottom of the article)

In addition to providing the best possible experience for the elite of Canadian Chess, the tournament aims to attract a new audience of players to the Zonal Championships and Zonals weekend. The 4-day Swiss tournament, is open to up to 200 public members.

The tournament format is 10 Round Swiss for Open Zonals, 9 Round Swiss for Women’s Section, 7 Round Swiss for General Section. Time control will be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. All sections will be CFC rated. Open Zonal, Women Zonal, Premier, U1800, sections will also be FIDE rated.

Prizes
Zonals: $9500 based on 200 entries into all Sections
General: $4000 based on 200 entries into all Sections

Prizes for Premier/U1800/U1400
Minimum $4000 guaranteed based on 200 entries in all sections

Hart House is also hosting the Reading Week Open Chess Tournament this weekend from 17-19th February. Detailed information about events can be found on the official webpage.

Starting list of players – Canadian Zonal Chess Championship 2024 (As of 13th of February, 2024):