Congratulations to IM Bitan Banerjee, who secured his sixth Alberta Championship victory with a 5-move draw in the final round! The draw ensured he would at worst finish tied at 4/5 with FM Tymur Keleberda, but having defeated Tymur in the first round Bitan was set to finish first on the head-to-head tiebreak.

Instead, however, Sherzod Khodjimatov survived a highly unpleasant position against Tymur in the last game and turned it around to win in 83 moves. Congratulations to him on solo second place (3.5/5).

You can review the games and standings on the Lichess broadcast, and pictures on the CCC facebook page.

One more congrats to Jinghui Bai, who scored 4.5/5 in the Alberta Reserves to win by half a point over Hemant Srinivasan and Yash Darvekar.

Many thanks to Bhavik Dave for organizing and directing.

Registration is open for the Alberta Youth Championship. Find full event information and sign up here.

Please note: discounted hotel rooms are only available until March 30th.

This year’s B.C. vs. Alberta match is scheduled for May 5-7 in Salmon Arm, B.C. Please see the following for event information:

2023 B.C. vs. Alberta Match

And please contact team captain Rafael Arruebarrena (rafael.arruebarrena@gmail.com) to enter.

Registration is open for the Lethbridge Open, April 1-2. Full information on the tournament is available here.

Registration is open for the Alberta Chess Challenge, held Saturday, April 8th in Red Deer. This is a grade-level scholastic event, and winners in each grade earn the right to represent Alberta at the Canadian Chess Challenge on the May long weekend. This year, Nationals will be in Montreal.

Full information can be found here.

Online registration is available for the Alberta Reserves, March 18-19 in Calgary. You can find full tournament information here or through the Schedule page.

We are in the midst of a very busy stretch of the ACA Schedule. The following tournaments are coming up:

• Calgary Youth Regional (February 26th)
• Alberta Blitz & Rapid Championships (Edmonton, March 4th/5th)
• Edmonton Chess Challenge (March 11th)
• Wood Buffalo Youth Regional (March 12th)
• Alberta Closed & Alberta Reserves (Calgary, March 17th-19th)

You can find further information on specific events through the Schedule tab.

Congratulations to Tymur Keleberda, who won the Northern Alberta Open with a perfect 5/5 score!

Well done also to Dale Haessel, Paris Dorn, Anand Rishi Chandra, Eric Jin, and Ricky McCoshen, who all tied for second place with 4/5.

Thanks to David Ludwig and Mike Zeggelaar for organizing and directing.