Canadian Chess Challenge

Halifax Team

Each year, Saskatchewan is invited to send a team of 12 players (one player per grade) to the Canadian Chess Challenge, sponsored by the Chess'n Math Association. The tournament is hosted around the country and every attempt is made to host the tournament in Western Canada every second year.

Saskatchewan vs Alberta - 2012

The Canadian Chess Challenge has both team and individual awards. Each province plays every other province (9 rounds in total over two days) as a team. For each round, the team with the most wins in each match gets 1 point (so if Saskatchewan was playing Manitoba and Saskatchewan and 7 wins then Saskatchewan would win that round and be awarded 1 point). Trophies are given out to the top 3 provinces. Additionally, the top three players in each grade are awarded trophies.

The format of the Canadian Chess Challenge is intentionally designed to give kids at all grade levels a chance to participate in a national tournament (most national junior tournaments are only attended by top rated players and thus are skewed to older kids). This tournament is very challenging because kids play 9 games over a day and a half. It is also a lot of fun because most kids stay in university dorms and spend a lot of time having fun with kids from across the country. To see what one of these tournaments looks like, see this report on Chess Challenge 2013.

Each province hosts a Provincial Chess Challenge. First place finisher in each grade is given first refusal to attending the CCC. If the first place player cannot attend, the second place player will be invited. Generally we host the Saskatchewan Chess Challenge in early to mid April. Attendance at provincials is usually by invitation only and players must finish in the top four for their grade at a regional tournament in order to be invited (regional tournaments are held in Saskatoon, Yorkton and Regina during the month of March).

Like the Canadian Chess Challenge, regional and provincial tournaments are organized by grade so if you are in grade 3, while you may play other grades depending on attendance, only games played against other grade 3s would count for your placing.