Month: June 2022

Below are the round 3 results/game studies and tentative round 4 pairings for our June Mini-Marathon, along with the results for three extra rated games from six newer visitors to the club. We’re definitely growing and may need to occupy two tournament rooms for future events to continue our distancing with one game per table, which is a good problem to have.

Some exciting seesaw battles again in this round, with many nice positions squandered amidst the attendant time trouble, groans and gnashing of teeth, and when all the clocks were stopped Pranav found himself alone at the top with 3-0. Only Mikhail now stands between Pranav and an absurdly high USCF provisional rating, just one of the great games we’ll see next week, I’m certain.

Pranav – Alexander, 1-0
Shahin – Ziyu, 1-0
Daniel – John, 1-0
Aarav – Ritam, 0-1
Cesar – Benjamin, 1-0
Hamdanil – Mattan, 1-0
Jerome – Ragav, 0-1
Vaibav – Umit, 0-1
Jose – Aditya, 0-1 (unrated forfeit win for Aditya)

Mikhail, Caleb, Ashwin, Viyan, Kornel, Nicholas: Half-point byes

Extra Rated Games:
Arjun – Raghuram, 0.5-0.5
Umar – Ptolemy, 0-1
Kheshav – Clyde, 1-0: No game score provided

Following are the individual games from round 2 of our June Mini-Marathon (chapters 11-21 in the tournament study). These Lichess studies may not be the best way to share games given some minor UX issues with the feature but we’ll continue to use them for this event, at least. Lots of interesting games and the worthy up-and-down struggle between John and Ziyu ended with a demonstration of the power of three connected passed pawns. Well played, everyone!

Mikhail Molodyk – Hamdanil Rasyid, 1-0
Ritam Chakraborty – Pranav Jindal, 0-1
Ashwin Subramanian – Cesar Tamondong, 1-0
John Valentine – Ziyu Liu, 0.5-0.5
Ragav Ravi – Daniel Vilenchik, 0-1
Kornel Csernai – Shahin Aghevli, 0-1
Caleb Koch – Vaibov Ravishangar, 1-0
Jerome Oriel – Viyan Vijay, 1-0
Umit Bas – Jose Salinas, 0.5-0.5
Aditya Dhamdhere – Aarav Patel, 0-1
Nick Rogers – Mattan Vilenchik, 0-1

Below are the standings after round 2 of our June Mini-Marathon, as well as the tentative round 3 pairings. We have a number of byes in round 3, including two of the three people tied for first, so this will make for an interesting finish. Given the number of participants we probably should have played 5 rounds, to better guarantee a clear first, but if there is a tie for any of first, second or third places we’ll hold a blitz chess memefest the following week to see who takes home the gift certificates.

Be certain to check https://menloparkchess.club/tournaments/latest-tournament-pairings/ for the latest pairings as we get closer to Wednesday, and I’ll send another reminder Tuesday but recall that we agreed to start rounds 3 and 4 at 6:30pm over the coming two weeks. Hopefully this isn’t a hardship for anyone?

Lastly, there was a spate of interesting games in round 2 and I should have all of them added to our June Mini-Marathon Lichess study this weekend (https://lichess.org/study/UWaFebaG)–thanks to those of you who sent me the PGN files for your games as that certainly makes things easier on my end!

Chris Torres and his daughter stopped by the club June 8th to have a look around and Chris wrote a very nice post about what we’re doing. Thank you so much for visiting, Chris, and for the very nice write-up–please visit us again soon!

The image below gives the results for round 1 of our June Mini-Marathon as well as the tentative round 2 pairings. Note that these pairings could change if we receive additional late entries or bye requests so I’ll confirm the pairings Tuesday afternoon.

We had some exciting games in round 1, replete with several missed opportunities to hold a draw or secure a full point, and all ten are now available in this Lichess study. Note that most of the game annotations are provided by engine analysis, though I added a couple comments in parentheses to one or two games. I plan to do this for all of our longer time control events so people have access to a club game archive, of sorts, and I’ll make PGN files available on the club website, as well (just look for the specific tournament link once the event is complete).

I also wanted to point out that we had a good casual/blitz showing last week–those who wished to play non-tournament games–ideally we’ll see as many people this coming Wednesday for more of the same. Please let me know if you have any questions in the meantime and I hope to see you at the club soon.

— Mark Drury