01/05/2026
We would like to announce that the next CFC- and FIDE-rated tournaments will be starting soon.
The Edmonton Reserves tournament will start this Thursday, January 8 (registration from 6:30 - 7:00 p.m.), continuing through February 26. More on that near the end of this message.
The 2026 Edmonton Championship will start the following Thursday, January 15. The format and prizes of the Championship are the same as in 2025. The 16 highest-rated people who are there on January 15, and want to play, will be in the Championship section. They will play 2-game matches, which will reduce the field, every two weeks, from 16, to 8, to 4, to the final 2. (The pairings for the first round of matches will be : #1 vs #16 , #2 vs #15 , #3 vs #14 , and so on to #8 vs #9 .) The time-control for the games will be 90 minutes/player, with 30-second increment from move 1, plus an additional 30 minutes/player added after move 40.
The cash prizes for the Championship tournament will be as follows : Champion - $900 , Runner-Up - $500 , Losers of Semi-finals (winners of two matches) - $200 each , Losers of Quarter-finals (winners of one match) - $50 each.
The higher of your CFC and FIDE ratings will be used to determine who makes the top 16. Registration will be from 6:30 - 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 15. (If you cannot get there by 7:00, then phone the Club at 780-424-0283 and leave a message before 6:55 p.m. that night.) Entry fee is $20, except free for players with an official FIDE title (GM , IM , FM , CM, and W titles). (Also, Amir Bahmani and Yash Darvekar, who tied for 1st in our last Thursday night tournament, the Daniel Naroditsky Memorial, get free entry.) CFC membership is required, which can be purchased at the Club.
There are two additional regulations to be eligible to enter the Championship Section. Firstly, you must have played in at least one CFC-rated or FIDE-rated tournament in 2025 to be eligible (or be a former Edmonton Champion), and secondly, someone with a CFC rating that is 'provisional' (less than 20 total games played) would not be eligible for the Championship, unless they have a FIDE rating which is high enough to qualify.
(It should be mentioned that if someone knows that they will not be able to play on two or more Thursdays during January + February, then they should not enter the Championship. If you can not play on one Thursday, an arrangement can usually be made with the opponent, in consultation with the Tournament Director, to play on another day. However, if no arrangement can be made, the player who could not play on Thursday would have to forfeit that game. People who cannot play on two or more Thursdays are welcome to enter the Reserves tournament, in which unlimited byes can be taken.)
Players in the Championship who lose matches can, if they wish, then join the Edmonton Reserves tournament with no additional entry fee. The Reserves is a regular Swiss tournament which includes all the players who are not in the top 16. There are also cash prizes in the Reserves ; 8 prizes with values of - $120 , 100 , 80 , 60 , 50 , 40 , 30 , 20 . Both the Championship and Reserves will be CFC and FIDE rated.
As mentioned earlier, the Reserves tournament will begin January 8, while the Championship begins January 15. We are doing this because, in the past, sometimes players are not in town on the first Thursday of January, due to holiday travel. While this is not an issue for the Reserves tournament, where unlimited byes can be taken, to enter the Championship you must be there on the opening night.
Higher-rated players are welcome to play one game in the Reserves on January 8 if they wish, then switch over to the Championship on January 15, with no additional entry fee. And, as already mentioned, you can then return to the Reserves if you lose a match in the Championship.
