There will be no chess club meeting May 28th but we will meet June 4th

Month: May 2026

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Impromptu Blitz #63 Results & No Chess Meeting Thursday, May 28th

We were joined by three first-time visitors at the club last night, two of whom played in our free, unrated blitz tournament (welcome, John Ballard and Lawrence Chao!), as well as several returning members whom we haven’t seen in a while and the new blood always makes these informal events that much more interesting. After seven rounds of G/3+2 action there is a new sheriff in town, with 10-year-old Austin Chen not only claiming sole first place with 5.5 points out of 7—he now tops our club blitz rating list for the first time, leapfrogging Pranav Jindal, NM Dmitry Dzhanhirov, Hayden Brongersma, FM Rayan Taghizadeh and other strong players with his 90-point gain last night:

https://menloparkchess.club/ladders/club-unofficial-blitz-ratings/

Half a point behind Austin in sole second was David Flores and there followed four strong players in a tie for third at 4.5: Hayden Brongersma, Sam Bekker, Cameron Troy and Alexander Su. Full results are in the attached image, thank you to everyone who joined us last night and the updated impromptu blitz point standings may be viewed here:

https://menloparkchess.club/ladders/club-blitz-points-standings/

Note that the club will not meet next week, May 28th, given Frisco and I are both unavailable that Thursday but we will hold another casual evening with a lecture and free, unrated blitz tournament June 4th—I hope to see many of you then. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Casual Night Tonight, “Copa del Menlo” in July

Sharing a quick note to let people know we’ll hold another casual evening at the club tonight, with a 6:30pm lecture followed by a free, unrated blitz tournament beginning round 7pm, with book prizes awarded based upon standing in our ongoing blitz series. I have also updated the club Events page to include our next rated offering, the “Copa del Menlo” tentatively scheduled for July 2nd, 9th and 16th (a gratuitous nod to this summer’s World Cup):

https://menloparkchess.club/event/copa-del-menlo-round-one/

This event is quick-rated (G/20;d3) with two rounds per evening but I may switch it to a single nightly game of G/45;d5 over three weeks, given our club appears to prefer the longer time controls. Take a look at the details and let me know if you have a preference (and feel free to register if you plan to play).

There remains a small chance that we’ll hold another rated event before July, given a number of members wish to do so, but I will miss the evenings of May 28th, June 11th and June 25th so I don’t know if we’ll be able to make that happen. More to come on that front soon and, as always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments in the interim. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Impromptu Blitz #62 Results

We had a good turnout this past Thursday for an excellent lecture by Frisco Del Rosario on another classic Morphy game followed by seven rounds of G/3+2 blitz action, which has become standard fare during our casual evenings. Twenty one people participated in the free, unrated tournament, including no less than five first-time visitors to the club as well as two people who returned after an absence of many months.

After the final round wound down Pranav Jindal and Hayden Brongersma shared top honors with 5.5 points out of seven, followed by junior standout Caleb Leong and relative newcomer Sam Bekker at 5.0. NM Gabe Sanchez and yours truly shared fifth place after handing younger nemeses tough losses in round 7. Full results are in the attached image and our current club blitz ratings and points totals may be viewed at the following links:

https://menloparkchess.club/ladders/club-unofficial-blitz-ratings/

https://menloparkchess.club/ladders/club-blitz-points-standings/

We’ll hold another casual evening this coming Thursday with a lecture and blitz tournament and will offer book prizes based on blitz point standings after the tournament concludes. May 28th is still in flux as I won’t be able to attend that evening but I’m hoping to have others run the club in my absence, while our next rated tournament begins June 4th — more details about that event will be shared soon.

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A4c Variant Results & No Chess Meeting May 7th

First and foremost, the chess club will not meet tomorrow, May 7th, given I need to be out of town and had neither the time nor the wherewithal to secure approval from recreation center staff for my replacement (it’s more complicated at Arrillaga given one typically must have a contract in place with the city to serve as the instructor for a club or class, even as a temporary stand-in). Apologies for the short notice but we will definitely meet again next week, May 14th, at the usual time.

We’ve held two variant events since my last update and, regrettably, the SwissSys software did what it sometimes does after the final round of our Freestyle Chess with Draft event back on April 23rd, failing to save the final round results even though I did so at least three times before leaving the club that evening. I discovered the error several days after the fact and wasn’t able to reliably reconstruct what happened in the fifth and final round, though I may still try to do that if enough people are interested.

There was no such problem with our A4c Variant tournament last week, however, and after four rounds of this metagame within a game, best of three games in ten minutes format Hayden Brongersma stood alone with a perfect 4.0 points. Four strong players tied for second a full point behind: Pranav Jindal, Lauren Goodkind, Austin Chen and Cameron Troy, while Yoyo He secured sole sixth with 2.5 points. Full results are in the attached image, thank you to everyone who joined us and we’ll play this variant again soon, given most people expressed enthusiasm for it.

The other item of note is that I’ve updated the club Events page at to reflect the fact that we now plan to hold our next rated tournament in June. I cannot be at the club May 28th and that coupled with the closure this week made a rated event more difficult to schedule. I’ll update the June 4th event with more information as soon as I have it and please let me know in the meantime if you have any questions or preferences where that is concerned. Regards,

Mark Drury