Status Report on the Canadian Youth Chess Championships 2007

From the Organizing Committee, a status report on the 2007 Canadian Youth Chess Championship:

Participants in this year's Canadian Youth Chess Championships are in for a treat. The event will be held in the storied Fairmont Chateau Laurier in the heart of downtown Ottawa following the Canada Day celebrations. After registering on the holiday Monday at Ottawa's City Hall (just steps away from the Chateau Laurier), competitors will be welcomed with hospitality by Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien and introduced to the CYCC's Honorary Chair, GM Susan Polgar, four-time women's world champion and renowned advocate for chess for kids.

The next morning, Polgar will make the ceremonial first move as the tournament begins and some 200 of the best young players in the country compete for the right to proclaim themselves Canada’s best for their age groups. Games will be broadcast in the skittles room, across Canada and around the world over the Internet using the MonRoi system. After each round, the young players may analyze their games with the tournament's Master-in-Residence, Thomas Roussel-Roozmon, himself a former Canadian youth champion. All registrants will also receive a one-year subscription to the World Chess Network online chess club.

On Friday afternoon, the winners will be determined. That evening, they and their parents will be transported to the residence of Turkey's Ambassador to Canada to be briefed on what awaits the qualified players this November in Antalya and be presented by the Chess Federation of Canada with their "Passports to Turkey." Super-GM Nigel Short, a former prodigy, will share his experiences with these leaders of a new generation of chessplayers.

In all, it should be a week to remember for these remarkable young Canadians and their supportive parents. The event has been organized by a team of unpaid volunteers and made possible by the generous support of corporate sponsors including a number of chartered banks and leading law firms, private donors and, above all, TELUS Inc. as the major sponsor for the championships.

The event will be covered in the electronic and print media, including The Ottawa Citizen, media sponsor for the event, and broadcast over the Internet.

We would also like to remind prospective CYCC registrants that the registration fee is $150 until June 29, 2007 (after which a $50 late fee will apply). However to encourage early bird registrations, we will be holding a draw for those registering on or before May 31 and another draw on June 15, 2007. The draw winners will receive two museum admission vouchers for the Museum of Civilization, Canadian War Museum and Museum of Nature.

We expect that the 2007 Canadian Youth Chess Championship will be a thrill of a lifetime for all of the kids participating in this event. We look forward to seeing you in Ottawa this July.

More information about the Canadian Youth Chess Championship can be found at http://canchess.ca/.

To learn more about TELUS, please visit http://www.telus.com/

Visit Susan Polgar online at http://www.susanpolgar.com/ and http://www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com/