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Dear ChessTalk readers,
The 2025 Ontario Youth Chess Championship (May 10 - 11, 2025) brought together some of the province’s most promising young players for a competitive two-day event at St. Robert Catholic High School (Thornhill). Hosted by the Toronto Chess Centre (co-host: Canada's Chess Youth Club), the OYCC served as Ontario’s official qualifier for the Canadian Youth Chess Championship, offering participants the opportunity to earn provincial titles and bursaries to represent Ontario on the national stage.
The tournament attracted 204 players from various cities and regions of Ontario and it was financially supported by the Ontario Chess Association and three corporate sponsors. Hart House Chess Club also contributed by providing 30 chess sets, 15 clocks and one demo board for our side events.
Two side events were offered to enhance the attendees' experience:
There was also a skittles room for kids to analyze their games and engage in entertaining and instructive activities, supervised by WFM Cindy Qiao and former provincial youth champion Eddie Lu.
A professional photo album, an event newsletter and a video of the tournament will be published in the following weeks on the organizers' website. Several other short videos and photos have already been published here (and choose OYCC 2025 at the top left) or here or here.
Tournament Staff (20 people): Alex Ferreira, Mark Plotkin, Panos Tsialas, Gordon Zeng, Amy Sun, Elizabeth Brown, Jasper Xie, Ricky Chen, Sijing Huang, Lingxuan Li, Yilin Wan, Cindy Ciao, Eddie Lu, Alercio Alves Faria, Anthony Paraskeva, Michael Corrie, Suen Chan, Christina Yan, Issa Shah, Lina Zolotarev.
John Upper from the CFC newsletter was kindly invited to come and take some photos.
The 2025 Ontario Youth Chess Champions are listed below:
Under 8
1st Open: Anagh Sahni (5.0)
2nd Open: Sanul Divadalage (4.0)
3rd Open: Justin D Wang & Janson Wang (4.0)
1st Girls: Anushka Brijith (4.5)
2nd Girls: Dhwani Sandeep (3.0)
3rd Girls: Sitong Li (2.0)
Under 10
1st Open: Karthikeya Reddy Kola (5.0)*
2nd Open: Vikram Chaarvik Madhu (5.0)
3rd Open: Adithya Sekaran (4.0)
1st Girls: Rucha Deshpande (4.0)
2nd Girls: Sanya Divadalage (3.0)
3rd Girls: Valerie Kit Lin Ho (2.0)
*Won on play-off tiebreaks
Under 12
1st Open: Nihad Mammadov (5.0)
2nd Open: Diganth Anish (4.0)
Congratulations to all winners and players and sincere thanks to all sponsors, helpers and participants. We are grateful to the OCA for the opportunity to host this remarkable event and we look forward to hosting more chess events in the future!
The Organizers
Toronto Chess Centre
The 2025 Ontario Youth Chess Championship (May 10 - 11, 2025) brought together some of the province’s most promising young players for a competitive two-day event at St. Robert Catholic High School (Thornhill). Hosted by the Toronto Chess Centre (co-host: Canada's Chess Youth Club), the OYCC served as Ontario’s official qualifier for the Canadian Youth Chess Championship, offering participants the opportunity to earn provincial titles and bursaries to represent Ontario on the national stage.
The tournament attracted 204 players from various cities and regions of Ontario and it was financially supported by the Ontario Chess Association and three corporate sponsors. Hart House Chess Club also contributed by providing 30 chess sets, 15 clocks and one demo board for our side events.
Two side events were offered to enhance the attendees' experience:
- a rapid Chess960 tournament, held on May 10, and sponsored by IM Mike Ivanov (20 participants - Arbiter: Michael Corie)
- an Informative Lecture for Parents on "The Educational Value and Impact of Chess on the shaping of Childrens' Character", delivered by Panos Tsialas on May 11
There was also a skittles room for kids to analyze their games and engage in entertaining and instructive activities, supervised by WFM Cindy Qiao and former provincial youth champion Eddie Lu.
A professional photo album, an event newsletter and a video of the tournament will be published in the following weeks on the organizers' website. Several other short videos and photos have already been published here (and choose OYCC 2025 at the top left) or here or here.
Tournament Staff (20 people): Alex Ferreira, Mark Plotkin, Panos Tsialas, Gordon Zeng, Amy Sun, Elizabeth Brown, Jasper Xie, Ricky Chen, Sijing Huang, Lingxuan Li, Yilin Wan, Cindy Ciao, Eddie Lu, Alercio Alves Faria, Anthony Paraskeva, Michael Corrie, Suen Chan, Christina Yan, Issa Shah, Lina Zolotarev.
John Upper from the CFC newsletter was kindly invited to come and take some photos.
The 2025 Ontario Youth Chess Champions are listed below:
Under 8
1st Open: Anagh Sahni (5.0)
2nd Open: Sanul Divadalage (4.0)
3rd Open: Justin D Wang & Janson Wang (4.0)
1st Girls: Anushka Brijith (4.5)
2nd Girls: Dhwani Sandeep (3.0)
3rd Girls: Sitong Li (2.0)
Under 10
1st Open: Karthikeya Reddy Kola (5.0)*
2nd Open: Vikram Chaarvik Madhu (5.0)
3rd Open: Adithya Sekaran (4.0)
1st Girls: Rucha Deshpande (4.0)
2nd Girls: Sanya Divadalage (3.0)
3rd Girls: Valerie Kit Lin Ho (2.0)
*Won on play-off tiebreaks
Under 12
1st Open: Nihad Mammadov (5.0)
2nd Open: Diganth Anish (4.0)
3rd Open: Julian Pan (4.0)
1st Girls: Arianna Yuan (4.0)
2nd Girls: Shannon Zhao (4.0)
3rd Girls: Alyssa (Zhuojing) Li (3.5)
Under 14
1st Open: Umid Allahverdi (4.5)*
2nd Open: Aarush Ajith (4.5)
3rd Open: Yuming (Jerry) Li (4.0)
1st Girls: Laksshana Deepak (4.5)
2nd Girls: Isabelle Guan (4.0)
3rd Girls: Shuang Chen (3.5)
*Won on play-off tiebreaks
Under 16
1st Open: Andy Zixin Wang (4.5)
2nd Open: Dharsan Satish Alwar (3.5)
3rd Open: Larry Zhou Chen (3.0)
1st Girls: Irene Xie (4.0)
2nd Girls: Ariana Ghasempour (1.0)
Under 18
1st Open: Ryan Zhuang (3.5)
Honourable Mentions
Players who tied for a medal winning position but were not favoured by the tie-breaking criteria
U8: Alexander Brudno, Lebron Liu, Raksha Suresh
U10: Allen Cao, Jasper Yunjie Jia, Gregory Romanov, Michael Jivin, Lixi Bai, Si Han (Isabella) Liu, Nava Manbachi
U12: Warren Feng, Ocean Wang
U16: Chetan Reddy Sama, Andrew Li, Sichang Huang
Congratulations to all winners and players and sincere thanks to all sponsors, helpers and participants. We are grateful to the OCA for the opportunity to host this remarkable event and we look forward to hosting more chess events in the future!
The Organizers
Toronto Chess Centre