Chess Federation of Canada


The Chess Federation of Canada or CFC is Canada's national chess organization. The Canadian Chess Association, founded in 1872, was replaced in 1932 by the Canadian Chess Federation, which for the first time included representation from all major cities in Canada. In 1945, the name was changed to avoid confusion with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. The CFC organizes tournaments and publishes national ratings. The highest rated player in Canada by peak rating is GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux of Quebec.
WWW Official Site

Activities

From 1974 to 2008 the CFC published a bi-monthly magazine called Chess Canada. Its former titles were En Passant and CFC Bulletin. The magazine reported on the latest important tournaments in Canada, especially those with Grandmaster-strength players, including many game scores. The magazine also printed the top ratings of several age groups and top overall in Canada. Chess Canada also posted notices of upcoming tournaments across Canada. It has since been replaced with an online magazine, which contains many of the same functions. The editor is John Upper.
The CFC organizes the Canadian Open every July. The first Canadian Open was held in Montreal in 1956 and saw the participation of Bobby Fischer. In recent years, the tournament has increased in prestige, becoming a part of the ACP Tour in 2007. Previous editions attracted Boris Spassky, Paul Keres, Bent Larsen, Ljubomir Ljubojević, Alexei Shirov, Vasily Ivanchuk and Nigel Short. The Canadian Youth Chess Championships are usually held just prior to the Canadian Open at the same location.
The CFC organizes a national championship every one or two years. As Canada is a FIDE Zone, many players earn their International Master or FIDE Master title in the Canadian Chess Championship. In addition, the CFC runs the Canadian Women's and Canadian Junior Championship. It also sends men's and women's teams to Chess Olympiads held every other year.

Ratings system

The CFC uses the Elo rating system. CFC ratings for a player tend to be around fifty points higher than United States Chess Federation ratings and ninety points higher than FIDE ratings.

CFC Titles

The CFC awards National Master titles to players who perform at a high level. They are awarded to players with a published, non-provisional CFC rating of 2200, and three "norms", which are performances of 2300, comprising at least five games each. The other option is getting a non-provisional CFC rating of 2300 at any point.

Current Champions

as of 2026