Classical Tournaments

Hamilton Chess Club offers weekly classical CFC-rated tournaments, every Friday night starting at 8:00 PM. We play one round of a 5-round tournament every Friday night. After each classical tournament ends, we play an unrated 5-round blitz tournament (5 minutes flat per side), after which we start a new 5-round CFC-rated classical tournament the following week. Children and adults of any skill level are welcome to join!

Classical Tournaments:

  • Are rated by the Chess Federation of Canada (CFC) and therefore, you must get a CFC membership at chess.ca to be able to participate in our rated tournaments.
  • Use Swiss format (5 rounds, one round every Friday)
  • Use 90-minutes flat time control
  • Require notation of all moves by both players (standard paper and pens will be provided)
  • And require all players to follow standard tournament rules (touch-move, using clocks properly, etc.)
  • Bye rules: "Byes" refer to rounds you are not playing in a tournament for any reason. In our tournaments, you can get a maximum of 2 half-point byes for a 5-round tournament and 3 half-point byes for an 8-round tournament (e.g. club championships held once a year). You cannot get any bye points for the final round of a tournament, nor can you get any bye points before you join a tournament. All byes are unrated regardless of receiving a point for them or not.
The fees to join our club games include:
  • Canadian Japanese Cultural Center Membership (for casual and rated participation)
    • $30/year for individuals, $50/year for families, $20/year for seniors (above 65 years old)
    • This membership fee is mandatory for all club participants.
  • Hamilton City Chess Club Membership (for rated games only)
    • For adults: $120/year OR $60/6 months OR $3/night
    • For children: $80/year OR $40/6 months OR $2/night
  • Rated tournament rating fees (for rated games only)
    • A total of $4 for every 5-round rated tournament; this fee is needed to be paid once every ~6 weeks when we start a new rated tournament and will be ultimately sent to the Chess Federation of Canada by the tournament director.
To join the club:
  • You can simply drop in on a Friday night before the tournament starts and join our tournaments. The first day of participation in our club is free of charge (except for the $4 rating fee, if you choose to participate in a rated game - see fees above).
  • You do not have to join our club tournaments from the first round; you are more than welcome to join us starting any round. In addition, we understand that some people might not be able commit to attend all 5 rounds of a tournament; as such, please note that you are not required to attend all rounds once you join the tournament. You can request a bye for rounds that you are not playing, by contacting us via email (chesshamilton@gmail.com) or messaging us on Facebook.