Chess in Canada

Organized gameplay of chess in Canada began in 1844, when the country's first club was founded in Montreal, Quebec.^[1] The Canadian Chess Association was founded in Hamilton, Ontario in 1872, which was later renamed to the Canadian Chess Federation in 1932 and later in 1945 the Chess Federation of Canada (French: Fédération canadienne des échecs). As of 2024, the CFC has over 2,500 members.^[2]

Notable tournaments hosted regularly in Canada include the Canadian Open, which has seen various non-Canadian players play including Boris Spassky, Paul Keres, Bobby Fischer, Bent Larsen, Alexei Shirov, and Vasyl Ivanchuk.^[3] The Canadian Chess Championship and the Canadian Women's Chess Championship are closed to only Canadian players, unlike the Canadian Open, and winners advance to the FIDE Chess World Cup. Canada has regularly sent men's and women's teams to Chess Olympiads. The Chess'n Math Association is a non-profit aimed to further the representation of chess within Canadian schools.^[4]

Canada has also hosted various one-off tournaments of global relevance. The World Chess Championship 1894 between Wilhelm Steinitz and Emanuel Lasker was contested in Montreal from games 12 to 19. In 1957, Toronto hosted the World Junior Chess Championship, which was won by William Lombardy. In 1971, Fischer defeated Mark Taimanov 6-0 in a Candidates qualification match in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1975, Keres won the Vancouver Open, and while flying home, died during a stopover in Helsinki, Finland. The Paul Keres Memorial is hosted in both Vancouver and Keres' home country Estonia. Most recently, Toronto hosted the Candidates Tournament 2024, with eight competitors of five nationalities, resulting in its winner Gukesh D qualifying to play the World Chess Championship 2024.