Month: March 2025

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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
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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:

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

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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