Posts

Posted on

Impromptu Blitz #36 Results & Casual Play/Blitz Evening Tonight

Twenty-two people played in our Impromptu Blitz #36 last week, a G/5;d2 affair over six rounds and, when the final flag fell, Pranav Jindal and David Flores tied for first place with five points each out of six. Breakwell Loyalka had another good result and sat alone in third with 4.5 points, followed by three of the club’s typically strong blitz players at 4.0 points. Full results are in the attached image, congratulations to all of our top finishers and thank you to everyone who joined us for this fun, free event.

Tonight is another casual evening with a free lecture beginning at 6:30pm followed by another free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm. Next week we commence our four-week rated Swiss event with the G/45;d5 time control and four rounds over four consecutive weeks in two sections. A couple spots remain if you’d like to join us for this event:

https://menloparkchess.club/event/may-dual-rated-g-45d5-swiss-in-two-sections-round-one/

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions and I hope to see many of you at the club this evening. Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

Lecture & Blitz Tournament Tonight

Just a quick update to let you know we will hold a typical “casual” chess evening tonight, with a lecture beginning at 6:30pm followed by a free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm. Also, if you haven’t yet registered for our rated tournament beginning May 8th please do so asap at https://menloparkchess.club/event/may-dual-rated-g-45d5-swiss-in-two-sections-round-one/. I look forward to seeing many of you this evening! Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

More Schedule Changes & Impromptu Blitz #35 Results


Apologies for the short notice (and the long message) but I am out of town today and next Thursday and will not be at the club either evening, regrettably, but we still plan to meet for casual play and Frisco’s lecture beginning at 6:30pm. If some of you are able to arrive early, round 6:15pm or so, to help set up the room that would be great. Having a few people help put away all the chess sets and boards round 8:45pm or earlier is also important, given the desk attendant, Harold, is typically ready to march out the door at 9pm sharp.

The chess equipment (boards and pieces) are in the usual cabinet in the Willow Room–Harold and several members know where it is stored. Note that the club chess clocks won’t be available this evening given they are at my home so please bring your clock or download one of the free apps onto your phone if you would like to play timed games tonight. Next week the club clocks will again be available.

Another scheduling change is that for our dual-rated G/45;d5 event, which will now begin May 8th and not next week. Sriram and I were looking at our calendars and it simply makes more sense to run that event in May, when we wouldn’t need a protracted break between rounds. I’ll follow up with everyone who has registered thus far with more details and will ask about continued interest in participating, bye requests, possible entry fee refunds and the like.

Lastly, we held one of our oddest impromptu blitz tournaments last week with a double-round G/1+5 (game in 1 minute with a 5-second increment) affair and, suffice to say, reviews were mixed on the time control. It was too short for an enjoyable blitz experience yet too long to warrant the double-round format, with sentiment seeming that most were glad to have tried it but don’t wish to do so again. When all eight rounds were finished Hayden Brongersma stood atop the field of 22 with 7 out of 8 points, followed a half point back by perennial wall chart-topper Pranav Jindal. Yash Shah and Liam Liu shared third at 6 points while relative newcomer Di Lin was alone in fifth at 5.0. Full results are in the attached image, thank you to everyone who slogged through this event with us and know that we’ll stick to more conventional blitz formats in the future. Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

Schedule Updates

As some of you know, we were not able to play chess at the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center last week due, in the end, to a simple clerical error: the facility director didn’t have us “on the schedule” for the night and, thus, we couldn’t use their room for legal/liability reasons. A number of adults made the best of things by walking the two blocks to Barebottle Brewing Co. for chess and libations, but I do sincerely apologize to those of you who made the trek to the club and played no chess for your pains. I remained at the center until 7:20pm so hopefully I was able to get word of the cancelation to everyone who showed up that evening.

On the bright side, we are once again “on the schedule” and will meet this Thursday, April 3rd, for another casual evening with a lecture at 6:30 followed by a free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm. Round one of the dual-rated tournament originally scheduled for tomorrow will now start on April 17th and the event will run over five weeks with rounds 2, 3 and 4 occurring April 24th, May 8th and May 15th, respectively (the week of May 1st will be another casual evening with a lecture and blitz tournament).

The club Events page (https://menloparkchess.club/events/) includes the full schedule through the end of May and if you wish to play in the dual-rated tournament now beginning on April 17th please register asap at:

https://menloparkchess.club/event/april-dual-rated-g-45d5-swiss-in-two-sections-round-one

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments and I look forward to seeing many of you at the club soon. Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

Freestyle #1 w/Draft Results

We had our first Freestyle Chess/Chess960 event in some time this past Thursday and decided to make it a draft event, where 26 players took turns placing pieces on the back rank to effectively choose their own shared starting position. The time control was G/5;d3 and play proceeded a little slower than expected, constraining us to just four total rounds when all was said and done. That was sufficient to arrive at a single winner with a score of 4 out of 4 points, however, and it may come as little surprise to learn that winner was once again Pranav Jindal. No fewer than five players tied for second with 3 points: Zelin Fang, Hayden Brongersma, Evan Sobel, Hugo Pu and Sushant Shankar, yet another strong showing from our junior players, who seem to be getting markedly better with each passing week. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who joined us for this interesting and important chess “variant”!

#PlayerRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Total
1Pranav JindalB 13W 4B 3W 2
1.02.03.04.04.0
2Zelin FangB 20W 5B 10B 1
1.02.03.03.03.0
3Hayden BrongersmaB 22W 12W 1B 7
1.02.02.03.03.0
4Evan SobelW 24B 1W 20B 15
1.01.02.03.03.0
5Hugo PuW 18B 2W 23B 11
1.01.02.03.03.0
6Sushant ShankarB 15W 22B 18W 10
0.01.02.03.03.0
7Frisco Del RosarioW 14B 11W 8W 3
1.01.52.52.52.5
8Josen KalraW 21B 17B 7W 16
1.01.51.52.52.5
9Mark Drurybyebyebyebye
0.51.01.52.02.0
10Venugopal ManiB 23W 15W 2B 6
1.02.02.02.02.0
11Austin ChenB 25W 7B 16W 5
1.01.52.02.02.0
12Jeff McGinnisW 27B 3W 15B 20
1.01.01.02.02.0
13Cameron TroyW 1B 18W 26B 23
0.00.01.02.02.0
14Vinayak VikramB 7W 23B 24W 22
0.00.01.02.02.0
15Michael FineW 6B 10B 12W 4
1.01.02.02.02.0
16Di LinW 17B 24W 11B 8
0.01.01.51.51.5
17Sam BB 16W 8—-—-
1.01.5U1.5U1.51.5
18Brian ChenB 5W 13W 6B 21
0.01.01.01.51.5
19Lucas Charrette—-—-W 21B 26
U0.0U0.00.51.51.5
20Michael SherrardW 2B 27B 4W 12
0.01.01.01.01.0
21Asher SekharB 8W 25B 19W 18
0.00.00.51.01.0
22Alfred DavisW 3B 6W 27B 14
0.00.01.01.01.0
23Carolyn TravisW 10B 14B 5W 13
0.01.01.01.01.0
24Lucian LiuB 4W 16W 14B 27
0.00.00.01.01.0
25Sean LangleyW 11B 21—-—-
0.01.0U1.0U1.01.0
26Allen Liu—-byeB 13W 19
U0.00.50.50.50.5
27Arjun ThathooB 12W 20B 22W 24
0.00.00.00.00.0
Posted on

Recent Tournament Results & Upcoming Tournaments

Our February Small Swisses concluded March 13th with a couple make-up games and the full results with prize distributions are available on the following page:

https://menloparkchess.club/tournaments/february-small-swisses-final-results-prizes/

Congratulations to Pranav Jindal, Breakwell Loyalka, Amogh Rao and Evan Sobel for winning clear first in their respective sections, with a special shout out to Pranav for the perfect score in his group–well played, all of you! I should also point out that 8 out of 11 of our prize winners were junior players, proving once again the old maxim that “youth will be served!” The full US Chess rating report for this quick-rated event may be viewed here, and thank you to everyone who joined us for this tournament.

Speaking of youth served, the top four finishers in last week’s Impromptu Blitz #34 were all juniors, perhaps for the first time ever in our club but certainly not the last. Breakwell Loyalka secured first alone with 5 out of 6 points after a tough last-round win over Hugo Pu, who tied with Zelin Fang and Austin Chen for second at 4.5 points. Zelin ground me down in the final round and Austin did the same to newcomer (and another strong junior) Cameron Troy. Full results for #34 are in the attached image.

Interestingly, in my third-round game with Breakwell he played some offbeat b4 line as white against my Sicilian and quietly encouraged me to take the pawn, that it was “perfectly safe.” I accepted and soon found my uncastled king and uncoordinated pieces in a world of hurt. Not two rounds later I was seated next to Breakwell and Vinayak Vikram during their game when the same b4 position in the Sicilian arose, and I’m certain I heard the same, now hollow-sounding “perfectly safe” assurances emanating from the white side of the board during that game, as well (with the same result, it seems). Just a heads-up in case you find yourself playing Breakwell and he offers you similar “safety.”

Note that tomorrow evening Frisco will give his lecture from 6:30pm to 7pm and then we will hold another free, informal Freestyle Swiss tournament of 4 or 5 rounds, with a draft format and G/5;d3 time control. More information about the tournament is here and you can register at the club Thursday beginning round 6:30pm. The following week we’ll hold a blind draw bughouse tournament and on April 3rd we’ll begin a four-week, four-round rated Swiss in two sections with a G/45;d5 time control. I’ll send more information about both tournaments in a day or two. As always, I hope to see many of you at the club soon! Regards,

Mark Drury

Posted on

February Small Swisses Rounds 3 & 4 Results

Below are the results from rounds 3 and 4 of our February Small Swisses event along with the tentative pairings for final rounds 5 and 6, to occur on March 6th. The prizes for each section are as follows:

Sections One & Four : $80, $50, $30
Section Two: $60, $40, $20
Section Three: $50, $30

Section One

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Pranav JindalB 6W 6W 3B 3W 4B 4
1965p 306288841.02.03.04.05.06.06.0$80
2Zelin FangW 5B 5B 8W 8W 7B 7
1851 170830430.00.01.02.03.04.04.0$50
3Chase WangB 7W 7B 1W 1W 5B 5
1788 150158521.02.02.02.03.03.53.5$30
4Vedant VermaW 8B 8B 5W 5B 1W 1
1733 169948320.01.02.03.03.03.03.0
5Jialin WuB 2W 2W 4B 4B 3W 3
1707 304102901.02.02.02.02.02.52.5
6Yash ShahW 1B 1W 7B 7B 8W 8
1717 306521910.00.00.00.01.02.02.0
7Cesar TamondongW 3B 3B 6W 6B 2W 2
1688 124390910.00.01.02.02.02.02.0
8Josen KalraB 4W 4W 2B 2W 6B 6
1639 126152101.01.01.01.01.01.01.0

Section Two

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Breakwell LoyalkaB 5W 5W 3B 3W 4B 4
1526 315695211.01.52.53.04.04.54.5$60
2Hayden BrongersmaW 3B 3B 6W 6W 5B 5
1562 312404410.00.01.02.03.04.04.0$30
3Venugopal ManiB 2W 2B 1W 1W 6B 6
1500 164197531.02.02.02.53.04.04.0$30
4Yaniv VinishW 6B 6W 5B 5B 1W 1
1516p 321056530.51.52.52.52.53.03.0
5Hugo PuW 1B 1B 4W 4B 2W 2
1439 310938600.00.50.51.51.51.51.5
6Justin DongB 4W 4W 2B 2B 3W 3
1598p 172122530.50.50.50.51.01.01.0

Section Three

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Amogh RaoB 3W 3W 2B 2B 4W 4
1295p 309493411.02.02.53.04.05.05.0$50
2Austin ChenB 4W 4B 1W 1B 3W 3
1373 312932491.02.02.53.04.04.54.5$30
3Jeffrey UngarW 1B 1W 4B 4W 2B 2
1202p 163967430.00.01.02.02.02.52.5
4Michael SherrardW 2B 2B 3W 3W 1B 1
1300 124473680.00.00.00.00.00.00.0

Section Four

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6TotalPrize
1Evan SobelB 7W 7W 5B 5W 2B 2
839p 318600441.01.02.03.04.04.54.5$80
2Zelan FangW 8B 8W 6B 6B 1W 1
882 306297641.02.03.03.53.54.04.0$50
3Lua LoyalkaW 5B 5W 7B 7B 6W 6
813 315695310.01.02.02.03.03.53.5$30
4Lucian LiuB 6W 6W 8B 8W 7B 7
unr. 322753270.00.01.01.02.03.03.0
5Alon DoitelB 3W 3B 1W 1B 8W 8
unr. 322523261.01.01.01.02.03.03.0
6Daniel JostW 4B 4B 2W 2W 3B 3
unr. 322923271.02.02.02.52.53.03.0
7Tyler MiddletonW 1B 1B 3W 3B 4W 4
unr. 323011630.01.01.02.02.02.02.0
8Alfred DavisB 2W 2B 4W 4W 5B 5
unr. 319392410.00.00.01.01.01.01.0
Posted on

February Small Swisses Round 1 & 2 Results

Below are the results from rounds 1 and 2 of our February Small Swisses event along with the tentative pairings for rounds 3 and 4, to occur on February 27th. The prizes for each section are as follows:

Sections One & Four : $80, $50, $30
Section Two: $60, $40, $20
Section Three: $50, $30

Section One

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Total
1Pranav JindalB 7W 7W 2B 2
1965p 306288841.02.02.0
2Chase WangB 8W 8B 1W 1
1788 150158521.02.02.0
3Jialin WuB 6W 6W 4B 4
1707 304102901.02.02.0
4Vedant VermaW 5B 5B 3W 3
1733 169948320.01.01.0
5Josen KalraB 4W 4W 6B 6
1639 126152101.01.01.0
6Zelin FangW 3B 3B 5W 5
1851 170830430.00.00.0
7Yash ShahW 1B 1W 8B 8
1717 306521910.00.00.0
8Cesar TamondongW 2B 2B 7W 7
1688 124390910.00.00.0

Section Two

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Total
1Venugopal ManiB 6W 6B 2W 2
1500 164197531.02.02.0
2Breakwell LoyalkaB 5W 5W 1B 1
1526 315695211.01.51.5
3Yaniv VinishW 4B 4W 5B 5
1516p 321056530.51.51.5
4Justin DongB 3W 3W 6B 6
1598p 172122530.50.50.5
5Hugo PuW 2B 2B 3W 3
1439 310938600.00.50.5
6Hayden BrongersmaW 1B 1B 4W 4
1562 312404410.00.00.0

Section Three

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Rd 5Rd 6Total
1Austin ChenB 2W 2B 3W 3B 2W 2
1373 312932491.02.02.0
2Michael SherrardW 1B 1B 4W 4W 1B 1
1300 124473680.00.00.0
3Amogh RaoB 4W 4W 1B 1B 4W 4
1295 309493410.0
4Jeffrey UngarW 3B 3W 2B 2W 3B 3
1202 163967430.0

Section Four

#Name/Rating/IDRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4Total
1Zelan FangW 8B 8W 2B 2
882 306297641.02.02.0
2Daniel JostW 7B 7B 1W 1
unr. 322923271.02.02.0
3Evan SobelB 5W 5W 6B 6
839p 318600441.01.01.0
4Lua LoyalkaW 6B 6W 5B 5
813 315695310.01.01.0
5Tyler MiddletonW 3B 3B 4W 4
unr. 323011630.01.01.0
6Alon DoitelB 4W 4B 3W 3
unr. 322523261.01.01.0
7Lucian LiuB 2W 2W 8B 8
unr. 322753270.00.00.0
8Alfred DavisB 1W 1B 7W 7
unr. 319392410.00.00.0
Posted on

February Small Swisses Round 1 & 2 Pairings

Below are the tentative round 1 and 2 pairings for our February double-round, quick-rated small Swisses in three sections (by rating). These pairings (or even groups) could change before the start of play Thursday, February 13th, but will be updated here if that is the case.

Section One

Section Two

Section Three

Posted on

Impromptu Blitz #32 Results

We enjoyed another full house at the club last Thursday, with 30 people participating in our free, unrated G/3+2 blitz tournament and with several first-time visitors to boot. Yash Shah proved his blitz mettle once again with 6.5 points out of 7 for clear first, followed a half point behind by Zelin Fang in sole second, while three others tied for third with five points: Alex Chin, Pranav Jindal and Venugopal Mani. Full results are in the attached image, congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone who joined us for this event!

Regarding our rated quads which begin this week, many people let me know that there is no school in some local districts the week of February 17-21, with many players (parents and/or kids) being out of town on the 20th, so I have rescheduled the quads to occur on February 13th, February 27th and March 6th, with the week of the 20th being another casual night with a lecture and informal blitz tournament. If you wish to play in our quads please register asap on the website: https://menloparkchess.club/event/february-double-round-quick-rated-quads-round-one/.