Junior/Rapid Tournaments

Hamilton Chess Club has recently started to offer weekly rapid CFC-rated tournaments (quick rating), every Friday night starting at 8:15 PM and ending by 9:00 PM. Simultaneous with the classical tournaments, we play one round of a 5-round rapid tournament every Friday night. After each rapid 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 rapid tournament the following week. While children and adults are welcome for our classical tournaments, these rapid tournaments are open only to children (under 18).

Rapid 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 these tournaments.
  • Use Swiss format (5 rounds, one round every Friday)
  • Use a 15 mins + 10 sec increment time control
  • 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 (for 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.
  • Notation: Notation (writing down the moves) is optional but highly recommended. It is important to note that the primary way that disputes are addressed is through referring to each player's notation. In the event that only one player writes down the moves, that player's notation would be used for judging the results. If none of the players write down the moves, the result of the game is decided at the arbiter's discretion.

The fees for these tournaments include:
  • Chess Federation of Canada (CFC) Membership
    • If a child decides to attend this tournament and/or only junior tournaments across Ontario, they wouldn't need to complete any payments for CFC membership; but they are required to get a CFC membership and a CFC number, which would be free of charge. In case a child plans to also participate in regular adult tournaments, a CFC membership payment would also need to be completed. You can find more info at chess.ca
  • 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 children: $80/year OR $40/6 months OR $2/night
To join the club:
  • You can simply drop in on a Friday night before the tournament starts and join our tournaments. Note that our maximum capacity for junior tournaments is 24 children.
  • 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.