Author: markdrury

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February “Mud Month” Mini-Marathon Round Two Results

We enjoyed another tough-fought round in our February “Mud Month” Mini-Marathon last night and, while there were fewer upsets this time around, there were a number of games which came down to the final seconds of the G/45 d/5 time control. Below are the current standings and I’ll share the round 3 pairings next Wednesday, as usual. Please let me know asap if you need a bye next week—currently Aaron Cho, Jeff McGinnis and Andy Shih have made such a request.

We had several first-time visitors to the club last night, as well as some repeat visitors who are not playing in the tournament, which reinforces the need to keep out skittles room open for casual and blitz games during tournaments. I’m still trying to negotiate a larger room for the club but don’t know when/if that will happen. Thank you again to everyone for making the club the success that it is and please let me know if you have any questions about this or future tournaments (several people last night requested that we hold more rated events with longer time controls, like G/45, as one bit of recent feedback). Regards,

Mark Drury

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February “Mud Month” Mini-Marathon Round One Results

Our February “Mud-Month” Mini-Marathon kicked off this past Thursday with unprecedented interest—we have 42 players participating in this single-section rated event and, regrettably, I had to turn away another dozen or so people who wished to play for lack of room. This serves as an unsubtle reminder to register early for these tournaments until we can arrange for a larger/second room at our current location (I’m not yet willing to dedicate the skittles room to tournament play given all the other activities this space allows for during and after tournament games).

There were quite a few upsets in our first round, a not-unexpected result given our use of accelerated pairings for this and subsequent rounds, which make the initial matchups a little more even. I have the second round pairings in hand and like those matchups even better, so I’m hoping everyone is able to play next week (but I won’t release the pairings until Wednesday just in case there are late bye requests or withdrawals). Note that the “Group” column in the wall chart below is the player prize group, which was determined by rating before the start of play Thursday. As always, please let me know if you have questions or comments about this event and thank you again for playing with us! Regards,

Mark Drury

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Year’s First G/3+2 Blitz Tournament

We held our first blitz tournament of the year last night with 28 players participating in two sections. Section A, an 8-player round robin, was won by FM Shawnak Shivakumar with the statement score of 6.5 out of 7 points. Adithya Karavadi took second with 5 points and Alaric Stein rounded out the top three of this hard-fought group with 4.5 points.

Newcomer Samuel Agdamag won Section B, a 5-round Swiss event, with a score of 4.5 points, while Jörg Lamprecht, Kornél Csernaiand youthful Sahil Shivakumar tied for second with 4 points each. Congratulations to our winners—Shawnak and Samuel took home $25 Kepler’s Books gift certificates for their efforts—and thank you to everyone who joined us last night (including our five first-time visitors)!

I’ll send information later today or tomorrow about the USCF-rated tournament which begins next Thursday, a 4-round Swiss event in one section with a G/45 d/5 time control, and I hope many of you will be able to join us then. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Blitz Ouroboros G/3+2 Results

Last night we held another single-section Swiss-system blitz tournament, a G/3+2 affair with 24 players and, as with last week, Kunal Modi mowed through the field for another perfect 5 of 5 result. Adam Stevens and Aaron Cho tied for second with 4 points and all three received $25 Kepler’s Books gift certificates for their exertions. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone who participated in this event, our last of the year!

It’s hard to believe the club will observe its one year anniversary when we next meet January 5th and it has been far more successful than I would have imagined in January or February of this year. For my part, the greatest reward is meeting so many of you fine people, both at the club and online. Thank you for your participation and support over the course of the year, have a great Holiday season and a safe New Year and here’s hoping next year will be even better! Regards,

Mark Drury

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Casual G/3+2 Blitz Tourney Results

Twenty people joined us last night for a Swiss G/3+2 blitz tournament of five rounds, including several first-time visitors, among them first-place finisher Kunal Modi, who was a perfect 5 for 5 even though he faced stiff competition in Shahin Aghevli (2nd), Karim Seada (3rd) and a host of strong players tied for 4th at 3 points. Congratulations to Kunal, Shahin and Karim and thank you to everyone who played in this event!

We’ll hold another blitz event next week to close out the year (the club won’t meet December 21st or 28th), either another single-section Swiss tourney or 4- or 6-player round robins, depending upon turnout, with Kepler’s Books gift certificates serving as prizes. I’ll send an event invite for that tournament later today. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Club Championship Playoff Results

Our club championship blitz playoff for the 2nd-3rd overall, Under-1500 and Under-1000 prizes took place this past Wednesday in our skittles room and, after all the flags fell, Pranav Jindal took 2nd with 2.5/3 points, Andy Shih secured 3rd with 1.5 points and Cesar Tamondong and Aaron Cho tied for 4th-5th with 1 point apiece (Pranav and Andy are pictured together, below).

The U1500 group was all tied after the first round robin with each player securing the needed 1 point, but Peter Roumeliotis prevailed in the second go-round, winning the first two games against Roshan Mahanth and Anton Bobkov. Oisin Harrington wasn’t able to join us for the U1000 playoff so Banks Bennion and Benjamin Sergeant played a best-of-three blitz match, one wherein Banks’ savvy use of the clock and excellent play got the better of Benjamin over two games (Peter and Banks are also pictured below with their winnings).

Congratulations to all of our playoff contestants and winners and, again, thank you to everyone who played in this event–please let me know if you have any feedback, good or bad, which will help make future tournaments better. Regards,

Mark Drury

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Club Championship Final Standings

Wednesday’s final round of our club championship offered up yet more exciting chess and a number of time scrambles which impacted the standings, and when all was said and done unrated Adithya Karavadi (pictured below on the left) stood alone atop the wall chart with 4.5 out of 5 points. Adithya’s first provisional rating will likely be Expert level when this event is rated, which should occur no later than Monday or Tuesday. Five people tied for second place with 4 points: Pranav Jindal, Aaron Cho, Andy Shih, Daniel Francis and Cesar Tamondong. Well done, all of you!

Roshan Mahanth, Anton Bobkov and Peter Roumeliotis tied for the Under-1500 prize with 3 points apiece, while the Under-1000 prize also saw a 3-way tie between Oisin Harrington, Benjamin Sergeant and Banks Bennion, all at 2 points. The ties will be settled over the board next week with some friendly G/5+0 blitz to determine who takes home the remaining premium club set and board prizes, a spectacle which may alone merit attendance this coming Wednesday.

Congratulations to Adithya and a huge thank you to everyone who played in or stopped by to spectate our first club championship–hopefully we’ll hold the same event same time next year! Regards,

Mark Drury

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Club Championship Round 4 Results

We again had some very exciting games come down to the final seconds of the time control in round 4 of our club championship–improbable draws were salvaged and tough-fought seeming wins lost in the proceedings and it was a great deal of fun to be a spectator rather than a player in many cases.

Below are the round 5 pairings for tomorrow night (final round of the tournament) as well as the championship standings thus far. As a reminder, if we have ties for the 1st-3rd (2nd-3rd is really the only possibility), U1500 or U1000 prizes we’ll hold a blitz chess playoff the following week (G/5+0, number of games determined by number of players). Please let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to more exciting games during the final round on November 9th! Regards,

Mark Drury

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Club Championship Round 3 Results

We had an excellent round 3 with a number of very exciting games! As we get deeper into the tournament the pairings are evening out somewhat and many of Wednesday’s games again came down to the final few minutes of the time control. More than a few of the games merit review by everyone in the club and I’ll share those after I get everything added to our Lichess study.

I’ve included two attachments with this post: one showing the round 3 results and the tentative round 4 pairings and another showing ratings changes based on the USCF formula as calculated by the SwissSys software. I have not validated this ratings report but I’m guessing it’s reasonably or wholly correct, given US Chess endorses SwissSys. I decided to share the parings early (on Facebook) because they offer so many good matchups that I’m hoping we get no additional bye requests for the round. Given a few people asked last night, I’d also like to remind everyone that this is a 5-round event, so this Wednesday is not the final round.

Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you again to everyone who is playing in this tournament–it’s been a great deal of fun thus far! Regards,

Mark Drury