Canadian Game of the Week

FM Shiyam Thavandiran had his second strong performance this fall to push his FIDE rating over 2400 at the 2017 SPICE Cup, thereby filling the last of his qualifications for the IM title! Our Game of the Week is FM Shiyam's win over Philippine GM Rogelio Barcenilla in the 8th round of the 2017 SPICE Cup Open.

Phil Haley, long-time Canadian chess organizer, International Arbiter, Olympiad official, and chess player, has died at the age of 94.
Links to his obituary, and analysis of six of Phil Haley's games played against top Canadians between 1945 and 2005...

Anton Kovalyov won his round 2 match against Vishy Anand by drawing their second game. This is a huge upset both in terms of experience and rating: Anand is the five time World Champion, and outrated Kovalyov by 245 points. Game with notes below...

The round 1 rapid tiebreaks were played today in Tibilisi. Most of the rating favourites advanced, including Wei Yi, who eliminated Canadian GM Bator Sambuev.
Games and links below...