Twenty-six people joined our King’s Gambit Thematic #1 last week and my casual observations saw most people accept the proffered pawn, leading to some honest, fighting chess which would have made Frisco proud, I think (Frisco’s lecture earlier that evening covered the King’s Gambit). After five rounds of G/6;d2 gambiteering, then, newcomer Sean Zhang stood alone atop the wall chart with 4.5 points, and that success without any avowed familiarity with or preference for the opening. David Flores, Hayden Brongersma and Austin Chen tied for second with 4.0 points while Yoyo He managed sole fifth at 3.5. Full results are in the attached image and thank you to everyone who who joined us for this foray into 19th-century chess.
One bit of feedback I received from many in attendance is that they would prefer a casual evening with lecture and blitz event rather than another thematic tournament this week, so I updated our Events page to reflect that change (we’ll hold another seven-round G/3+2 blitz tournament after the lecture this week). As always, please let me know if you have any suggestions or preferences for chess activities and I hope to see many of you at the club this week. Regards,
Mark Drury
