Welcome! My name is Michael. I’m a certified National Candidate Master with a lifelong passion for the game, and St. Albert’s #1 chess player. I started teaching chess in the 2015-16 school year.
In December 2019 my peak CFC rating rose to 2187. At the same time I reached a high of #9 on the Edmonton-area top 20 players list. Also in 2019 I graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree in mathematics, and that October first became a director of the Alberta Chess Association. I’ve since become ACA Secretary.
In my time I was a strong junior player, and now my tournament accomplishments include reaching three straight Edmonton Championship quarterfinals, plus one adult tournament victory: the 2017 Edmonton International Open. More recently, I was invited to play in the 2024 Alberta Closed (the Alberta Chess Championship), and finished 3rd in the 2025 Alberta Blitz Championship.
I decided to start this enterprise partly because I think everyone should know how to play chess, but especially because I wanted every kid to have the same opportunity I did – in grades 5 and 6 I was in chess club at school too! At the time it was run by the Roving Chessnuts, with whom I started my chess coaching career a decade later.
Get in touch at stalbertchess@gmail.com.
St. Albert Chess 