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Impromptu Blitz #56 Results

Twenty-six people joined our latest “impromptu” blitz tournament, with several first-time and returning visitors participating in seven rounds of G/3+2 chess over 90 or so minutes. Hayden Brongersma once again emerged victorious with 5.5 points out of 7, his lone loss coming in the final round against second-place finisher Yoyo He. Yoyo tied for second at 5 points with Austin Chen and newcomer Thomas Allard, Lauren Goodkind and the club’s house patzer tied for fifth at 4.5 and there followed a raft of strong players in the 4.0 scrum. Full results are in the attached image, along with the latest blitz point totals and club blitz ratings — thank you, as always, to everyone who joined us for this event.

One particularly interesting game between two veteran if cheeky players saw a speculative double under-promotion to two bishops (of opposite colors, thankfully), leaving the king and two prelates against lone king. In the ensuing endgame it became a little unclear if the bishopmonger would garner the full point, given mutual time trouble and a protracted dance around the board by all the pieces, but in the end Hayden the bishops prevailed in a nice demonstration of that mating pattern.

We’ll hold one more impromptu blitz tournament February 26th before beginning our “March Quadness” event on the 5th of next month. If you have not yet registered for the quads please do so asap. Regards,

Mark Drury

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“March Quadness” Registration Opens

With apologies to fans of NCAA Basketball, our next dual-rated quads tournament begins March 5th and runs three consecutive weeks, with a possible makeup round scheduled for March 26th if needed. More details and a registration link may be found here — please register asap if you wish to play in this event as we’re limiting the field to 28 players this time around (7 quads).

Relatedly, the results of our recently-concluded club survey may be seen below and made clear people prefer that our next rated event have a longer time control, so the quads will be played at G/45;d5, one game per evening. In addition to the data shared below we received a large number of helpful comments and suggestions so we’ll try to incorporate all that we can in upcoming events — thank you to those who took the time to complete the survey! Regards,

Mark Drury

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Impromptu Blitz #55 Results

Pranav Jindal found his usual excellent form over the past two weeks, given he won clear first in both of our blitz events during that time, this week with 6.5 points in seven rounds of G/3+2 action, arguably the most popular blitz time control at the club. Twenty-nine people joined the fray, including first-time visitors Carlos Alva, Mert Unsal, Soham Gurjar and Ruperto Guirnela.

Right behind Pranav at 6.0 points and in second place was David Flores, a very strong blitz player who returned to the club after having been away for some time, while Breakwell Loyalka, Cesar Tamondong and Carlos Alva shared third at 5.0 points. Austin Chen managed to remain a half point ahead of the throng at 4.0 points, claiming sole sixth with 4.5, another excellent showing for this talented young player. Last Thursday also saw the return of Nicholas Tan, a longtime member who moved away but has since returned to the Bay Area, so hopefully we’ll see more of him in the future.

Full results for Thursday’s event as well as the latest blitz club ratings and blitz points totals may be viewed in the attached images and thank you once again to everyone who joins us for these free, fun, informal tournaments. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Impromptu Blitz #54 Results

Another twenty-eight players took part in our impromptu blitz tournament Thursday and Pranav Jindal showed once again why he is a perennial threat in these events, cruising to a perfect 7 points in this seven-round G/4;d2 affair. Yoyo He had another strong showing in sole second place with 5.5 points, Breakwell Loyalka was alone in third with 5.0 points and there followed a large number of the usual claimants to the throne at 4.5 and 4.0 points. Full results are in the accompanying table and thank you to everyone who played in this tournament.

I’m also sharing the latest standings in our club blitz ratings ladder/experiment/what have you as well as the point totals for the past three weeks. I’m still pondering exactly where this is headed but a number of ideas are rattling around in the ol’ noggin — please let me know if you have any suggestions, as always.

We have about 30 responses to the club tournament survey I sent a week or so ago and a couple clear preferences are emerging but there’s still time to voice your opinion if you are interested in our next rated or unrated event: https://menloparkchess.club/surveys/survey-three/. I also plan to contact the Kolty Chess Club once again about the possibility of a friendly match with their club, given there were a few requests for that in the survey — more to come soon on that front. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Impromptu Blitz #53 Results

Continuing last week’s free, unrated blitz tournament with a focus on establishing relative club member ratings, we held six rounds of the slightly slower G4;d4 this week and Hayden Brongersma prevailed over 24 other players with 5 points out of six, followed by three very strong players in a tie for second: Pranav Jindal, Breakwell Loyalka and Lauren Goodkind. Full results for the tournament and the updated club ratings follow in the attached images.

We’re still contemplating what we plan to do with this ratings experiment and perhaps that will become more clear as the weeks progress though, again, if you have any bright ideas about what we should be doing please let me know. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Impromptu Blitz #52 Results

We tried something a little different beginning with this week’s free, unrated blitz tournament — we gave all thirty players the same beginning rating with the thought that, over the course of 4-5 such blitz events, we’d come to better understand the relative strengths of club members’ blitz play. That, and there’s still some vague idea floating around that we’ll create a ladder, tournament and/or related prize structure based on ratings accrual and other factors over that time. More information will be shared as the idea crystalizes and please let me know if you have any opinions or ideas, of course.

Triet Vo had an excellent result in this large first event with a perfect 7 out of 7 score, while Hayden Brongersma sat alone in second a point behind. Pranav Jindal and Caleb Leong shared third with 5 points, Austin Chen was sole fifth at 4.5 and a swarm of strong players settled for T6 honors at 4 points. Full results are in the attached image and the SwissSys ratings report is also attached (it includes a couple anomalies that I’ll need to investigate). We will continue the blitz ratings folly in the coming weeks and hopefully it will be modestly entertaining as we figure out what we’re actually doing with this experiment. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Impromptu Blitz #51 Results

We had a smaller turnout for last week’s lecture and blitz tournament but there was no lack of appetite for the usual seven rounds of G/4;d2 chess. There were quite a few upsets over those seven rounds but Pranav Jindal still prevailed with 5.5 points and sole first place. Jason Wright and young Austin Chen tied for second with 5.0 out of 7 while Hayden Brongersma was alone in fourth with 4.5 points. Full results are in the attached image, congratulations to our winners and thanks to everyone who played in this free, unrated event.

Tonight will be much the same as last week, with a lecture beginning at 6:30pm followed by another free, unrated blitz tournament round 7pm, this time with a G/3+2 time control. I hope to see many of you then! Regards,

Mark Drury

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Impromptu Blitz #50 Results

Our first meeting of 2026 was a success with 24 players partaking of seven rounds of G/5+0 blitz action, including many first-time visitors to the club. A hearty welcome to Scott Stoll, Billy and Ketch Allen, Tushar Janefalkar and Nicholas Zhu and thank you again for joining us at the club!

Breakwell Loyalka added an exclamation point to his club championship win last month with a convincing 7/7 score in this event, a full point and a half ahead of second place finisher Hayden Brongersma. NM Gabe Sanchez claimed sole third at 5.0 out of 7 while young Austin Chen was alone in fourth at 4.5 points. There followed a raft of strong players at 4.0 who were left wondering what might have been, though mention should be made of Lua Loyalka’s performance in that group–she is quietly making her way up these wall charts week after week and I won’t be surprised to find her nearer the top by year’s end.

The full results for this blitz tournament are in the attached image and we will do the same thing this coming Thursday, though perhaps with a G/4;d2 time control this time around–I hope to see many of you then. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Club Championship Final Results & Prizes

Attached are two views of the final results of our Fourth Menlo Park Chess Club Championship, one showing the usual wall chart and another the standings, in case some of you prefer either or both. Congratulations to Breakwell Loyalka, who went undefeated to claim sole first and the title of club champion, and that despite a wild endgame with Frisco in the final round which could have gone either way. I believe Breakwell is our youngest champion to date and his victory is none too surprising given the way he has performed in other recent events. Frisco was also undefeated with three wins and two draws for four points out of five, tying with Vedant Verma for overall second place—congratulations to both of you! Andrew Yu and Steven Swick also deserve mention for claiming sole first and $80 in their prize groups, while Josen Kalra, Di Lin and I tied for first in the second prize group to split the three prizes therein.

Kabir Jain won our cumulative upset prize, despite late surges by Vinayak Vikram and Caleb Leong, and will claim the Pixel Earbuds donated by the Pu family — congratulations to Kabir and thank you once again, Dennis, Helena and Hugo Pu for your generous donation to our club. I also wanted to thank Hugo Pu for ably directing this tournament, which allowed me to play without interruption — I very much appreciate your help, Hugo!

Thank you again to everyone who played in or spectated our final tournament of the year and we’ll do something similar in February or early March of next year. Regards,

Mark Drury